Bronze

Chapter 26

Leah

A few hours went by before I saw any inclination of Markus's arrival. After the first hour, I was starting to think it was a trap but thought better of it when I realized I was only being paranoid. 

It must be the musty air. The fumes were messing with my brain.

Luckily, my mother didn't say a word to me in that time frame. She was too busy inspecting her nails or complaining about the plumbing to talk to me. After replaying our conversation in my head- and many we've had over the years- I finally came to the conclusion that her selfishness and constant need to push people away was only a defense mechanism. 

And who knew, maybe forcing me onto Markus was really her way of taking care of me. She might have really thought she was doing the right thing. After all, she was only eighteen when she had me, barely old enough to take care of herself. 

That was when my father came into the picture. 

No! my wolf growled. Don't think of him.

It was ironic, really. My wolf bonded more with him than I did, though I loved him more than anything. He was my hero, my protector. When he passed, it hurt me more than I realized; more than I let myself feel. 

I found a dry spot near the back corner, far from the ever-expanding puddle of what I assumed to be water.

Four people were outside the prison doorway, chatting like the fourth of July. Were they here for me? I wondered. I couldn't tell if they were all talking, so I couldn't distinguish names or individual voices, but I could make out at least two distinct tones that weren't within the main group. 

"See him there?" A male voice, one of higher pitch, asked. I could imagine him pointing not so discreetly over to another guy. 

"Yeah, he looks normal," a female responded indifferently. 

"No, no, not him. The one standing next to him. The large guy with the tattoo."

The whispering stopped for a second as the female probably studied the man. I realized shortly that he must have been Derrive. 

So they were here for me. 

The doorway rattled as someone came inside. Other's followed, but it was the two in the back that caught my eye. Markus, who, for some reason, had a gigantic grin plastered on his thin, cracked lips. And Derrive. He was the tallest out of all of them and very hard to miss when searching for him.

Behind everyone's backs, he shrugged at me, a silent answer to my silent question. 

What took so fucking long!?

My mother hopped to her feet, skipping over to the cell door. She looked all too happy to see the man who imprisoned her, which made me scowl.

"I thought we had a deal, my little dove," Markus cooed as he brought that damn stool over to sit in front of me. 

I focused more on the ceiling than the man's face. 

"We both know you'd never go through with it. Once you had me, you would attack Kane anyway," I spoke honestly, my voice laced with anger and venom. 

His stormy black eyes traveled the length of my neck down to my shoulder, stopping just at the crook where they met. His grin turned Cheshire in seconds. 

"I see you were already marked," he commented, bottom lip going between his teeth. "No problem, I'll just have to replace it with my own."

His statement brought another round of bile up from my stomach. I didn't know how much more I could take. Sooner or later, I would start puking up my organs because there would be nothing left.