To Forgive, or to Forget

chapter 12

Venice's POV

I knew this wasn't right. I didn't want to do this, but I had to.

After Callie made Xavier leave, everyone went to sleep. Except me. I snuck out of the house and was currently standing by my car. I had to get out of here before it was to late.

As I grabbed the door handle, a dull pain went thew my chest. I stopped and put a hand over my chest.

What about Xavier?

The pain worsened as I thought about leaving him. I tried to shake it off, but it wasn't working. I was so distracted, I didn't hear the growl until it was to late.

I spun around and was instantly brought down by a dark figure. Rouge!

He was on top of me, pining me down. I thrashed wildely as I tried to reach for my knife.

"Remember me hunter? You shoved a knife threw my mate's mouth!" The rouge spoke in a ragged voice. It sent chills up my spine as I realized who he was.

I thought I killed him! His mate was the one who tried to carve my neck!

"Get off of me!" I tried to choke out as the rouge squeezed my neck.

"Oh, I'm gonna kill you. Then I'm gonna kill your mate!" He said as he began to squeeze harder. I began to fill light headed as I quickly ran out of breath. I didn't expect what happened next.

He took his other hand and balled it into a fist. He began to slam his fist into the side of my stomach.

I huffed and tried to breath as I struggled to hang on to consciousness. I clawed at his hands, but my strength was slipping away...

CRACK!

Tears killed my eyes as I felt the familiar pain of my ribs cracking. He smiled as he began to run his claws down my sides. I blinked my tears away as I felt the blood rush from my open wounds.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I heard the familiar voice of Xavier, but I didn't stick around long enough to see what happened next. I felt myself give off one last breath as I closed my eyes and let darkness take over.

Xavier, my hero...

...

Xavier's POV

She's a hunter?! Why the hell was I not informed of this sooner? She's my mate!

After I was forced to leave Venice's house, to give her space, I went up to my office with Holdan. He was looking through the files on my desk while I paced around.

"How could I not see the signs? It was so obvious! The tattoos, the scars, when she killed that rouge that attacked Callie!!!" I yelled as I threw a chair across the room. Holdan didn't budge as he looked up at me.

"Why don't you try to see things from her point of view?" Holdan asked. I looked up at him, breathing heavily.

"She was treated awful when she was younger. She kept her feelings bottled up inside until she found Callie for some release. The last day she was here, it was too much for her. She was offered a deal and took her chance. Now she's learned and she's trying to push you away, because you're breaking her walls down faster than she can build them up." He said calmly. I had calmed down and was beginning to understand where Holdan was coming from. A lot of the times he was like the pack houses own personal Dr. Phil.

"Maybe you should go for a run to think things over." Holdan said. I nodded as I made my way out the office doors.

Maybe I should try to see it from Venice's side. She did have it amazingly hard... I'm being so selfish right now! She had it awful! I walked out of the pack house and the smell hit me faster than a truck on a highway.

Rouge and blood. Venice's blood.

I took off in a mad dash towards the smell. My mind was going haywire as I followed the scent to were it was the strongest. When I saw the rouge on top of Venice, my mind went blank. I couldn't hold back from what happened next.

"WHAT THE HELL?" I belowed out. I caught the rogues attention. His eyes widened in fear as I dashed towards him at inhuman speed. I grabbed him by the throat and pulled off of Venice.

He was gagging as I dangled him in the air. Without another thought, I snapped his neck. I set him on the ground and grabbed his head. I pulled as hard as I could until his head popped off and blood was gushing every where. I threw his head down and looked over at Venice. I nearly lost it when I saw the condition she was in. She was covered in blood. Her body looked so fragile as I bent down to pick her up.

What stopped me and made my heart drop was that I realized her chest wasn't rising.

and she wasn't breathing.