The Alpha and The Enforcer [TATE]

Chapter 28

Ellie's P.O.V.

Jacob sat quietly on the edge of the couch, watching me move around the kitchen with slow, deliberate steps. I didn't have much of an appetite, but I knew I needed to eat something. Like the gentleman he is, he'd gone out and brought food back because, obviously there was no food in my fridge. I'm currently in the process of washing my utensils after declining his offer to do it for me.

Finally, I sat down across from him, the weight of what I needed to say pressing heavier than the ache in my ribs.

"I need to tell you what happened," I said, my voice low but steady.

Jacob nodded. "I'm listening."

I met his eyes, making sure he wasn't just hearing me, he was really listening.

"There were three of them. Three rogues on our land."

His expression tightened slightly, but he didn't speak.

"I don't know how they got that far in. I asked what they wanted. Why they were there. Then one of them... a woman... stepped forward and said she was my sister."

Jacob raised an eyebrow at him in questioning. "Your...?"

"Sister. At first, I thought she was just trying to get in my head. But then she started saying things, things no stranger could've known. Things about my childhood I've never told anyone."

His gaze sharpened, wary now.

"She told me she hated me. Hated the life I had. Said I got everything she was denied. A home. A pack. A family. And the only way to fix that imbalance... was to kill me. To take back what she believed was hers."

Jacob's jaw clenched, but he stayed silent.

"And then," I whispered, "she said she'd start with the people I love."

The words fell like thunder between us.

"I-I lost it," I admitted. "Something inside me snapped. The fire just... came. I didn't control it. It controlled me."

"She had powers too. Like mine but ice. I wasn't myself, Jacob. I didn't even feel like I was in my body."

He stood slowly, like approaching something wild and wounded. "But you came back."

"Barely." My voice cracked. "I could've killed her. I almost did. And I don't know if I would've stopped if she hadn't used my hesitation to wound me."

"You did stop," he said gently.

I got up, pacing. My breaths came shallow, shaky. "You don't get it. This wasn't a burst of anger or adrenaline. That power, it consumed me. I didn't recognize myself. And that terrifies me, Jacob."

He took a step closer. "Then we'll figure it out."

I raised a hand, silently telling him to stop, and he did.

"I will figure it out," I said, the words sharp with conviction, the I cutting through the tension between us. "But while I do that, I need you as far from me as possible."

He blinked, stunned by the sudden edge in my voice. I could see it in the way his posture stiffened, the flicker of something unreadable behind his eyes. But I didn't let myself soften, not this time.

He needs to be safe from me. That's all that matters. He can't keep showing up like this, can't keep orbiting my chaos like it won't eventually pull him under.

"For the first time since my mate rejected me," I said, more to myself than him, "I feel... afraid. Not of dying. Not of pain. But of me." My voice faltered. "Of what I'm becoming. Of what I can't control."