by C. M. Owens
“Why didn’t you use your invincibility or other gifts to escape?”
“They knew my weakness. My gifts are useless when I’ve got electricity coursing through me. I can barely function.”
“Damn. What did they want?”
“My savage. Our blood changes when we’re in our savage form, and they wanted to see mine. It wasn’t just me, they did it to every hybrid there. I just endured the pain longer than the others. I suppose I have my years at Cheyenne to thank for that,” I mumble. “Now go to sleep. I think that’s enough of my gruesome history for one night.”
“Araya?” he murmurs before I shut the door.
“Yeah?”
“If you lived through so much hell, how did you turn out so great? I swear you’re the most compassionate person I’ve ever met.”
I smile lightly, and I hear the bed next door squeak as Hale sighs out.
“I’m not exactly great. I’ve got my own demons to battle daily, but I’ve learned hybrids are resilient. We’re the forgotten, not the forsaken. We always have each other, and sometimes we make friends in unusual places. Hope is what keeps me alive. It’s what keeps me sane. Everyday I have something to hope for. So many of those things have come true, and it gives me hope for more hope.”
“Thank you for giving me hope. There hasn’t ever been anyone to take a bigger chance on me than you have.”
I smirk as I look at the blond girl still unconscious to the world.
“There will be. She’ll believe in you no matter how badly you fuck up. Just don’t hurt her, and she’ll be yours forever,” I murmur softly, and I hear another sigh from the other side of the wall.
I finally walk out, and I collapse to the other bed with my robe still being the only thing I’m wearing.
Why sit and listen when you know what I’m going to say? I love you Hale Banner, and I fucking wish I didn’t.
Chapter 3
Fucked and Fucked Over
“Stop!” I blare, and Grayson yields his wild, rapid shooting.
“What now?” he gripes.
“You need to strive for quality more than quantity. This isn’t the wild west. You barely passed the first test, and you have to ace this one in order to be anything more than security. I thought you said you could shoot,” I groan.
“I can. You didn’t ask me if I could aim. I was ten when I ran away, so I’m a little rusty.”
Fuck.
“Let me take over for a little while,” Hale interjects, and I grip my head before plopping down.
“They’ll test him tonight. Unless your gift is suddenly granting someone perfect aim, he’s fucked,” I grouse.
“I happen to have insider trading on what the course will look like tonight. He just has to rehearse it. You can make him good later.”
“By all means,” I snark while motioning for him to take over.
Four fucking days, and he still can’t hit a target fifteen feet away. Rehearsing isn’t going to help a bit.
I walk over to the dark-eyed Angelica sitting by herself while staring at the ground. Her lips pucker as she stares into the mirror across from her, and I sit down while trying to think of something to say.
“The blue will come back. This is just temporary. Are you ready to try to summon your gift? It’s important to find out what you can do as soon as possible, and it’s fairly easy to let it fly during your first few days of transformation.”
“I’ve been trying, but I can’t pull anything out. Maybe you were wrong about me being gifted,” she grumbles.
“I’m not wrong. We don’t have to do anything right away. You’ve still got a few weeks before you’re required to go through what Grayson is.”
“Yeah. That sounds great,” she murmurs distractedly. “Is my dad still here?”
“I think he’s about to leave. Were you wanting to speak to him?” I muse.
“No. I already spoke to him. I was just wondering if he had left yet. I’m going to grab something to drink. You want?”
“I’m fine, but thanks.”
I stare at her back while she walks away, and my lips purse as I try to assess why she seems so off. Clay comes to sit down beside me, and he takes my hand in his.
“Are you sure you can handle him? He’s too strong for his own damn good, and he’s too arrogant to listen to anyone,” he mumbles.
“He listens to me. I just hope he doesn’t end up opening car doors instead of getting utilized.”
Clay chuckles lightly as Hale grips his aching head in frustration for Grayson’s lack of focus.
“I happen to have a little pull with the commander, so I might be able to sway the scores a bit if you promise to work with him intensely.”
I let a smirk escape upon hearing his sardonic joke.
“I promise, Commander Jude.”
He laughs a little, and then he releases my hand before standing up. I take advantage of my moment alone with him.
“What’s Hale hiding from me? Why is it he loved me completely one minute, and now he acts as though he’s struggling to be in the same room with me? I can’t tell if he misses me or hates me. I just want to know what happened.”
Clay’s eyes cut away as he very deliberately avoids my interrogative hybrid blues.
“He has a lot he’s working on,” he murmurs awkwardly.
“I’m a United official. I should be clued in on all investigations requiring our services. It’s protocol in case I run across something in my interrogations that could help. Why are you leaving me out?”
He sighs out, and then he sips on his glass of wine as though it’s his stalling ale.
“It’s not professional, it’s personal.”
“Then he lied. He told me it was an old investigation,” I murmur suspiciously, and my right eyebrow cocks up to emphasize my aroused suspicion.
“It’s his business, not mine, and not yours. If he wants to tell you he can. If he doesn’t, then it’s his own cross to bear,” Clay snaps.
“If you’re getting this worked up, then I think it’s something I should hear about. You don’t lose your cool very often.”
He takes a deep breath, and then he cracks his neck from side to side.
“I think you should talk to him. Don’t fight with him… talk to him.”
He walks away before I can use my interrogation skills anymore, and then Angelica returns with a glass of a fizzy, non-alcoholic beverage that smells like straight syrup. My nose wrinkles up as she turns the drink up, and then Grayson returns to us.
“Hale said he’s done,” he growls.
I laugh under my breath, and Angelica lets a small smile escape. She seems so worried about something, but I have no idea what. Perhaps they had a fight and Grayson is too stupid to realize it.
Grayson tosses the guns in a bucket with little concern for proper treatment of the weapons, and he just walks off with Angelica at his side. Hale walks over huffing and puffing, and I stifle my laughter.
“He’s going to be more than you can handle,” he gripes, and I can’t hold back my laughter anymore.
“He’s young. He’ll mature in time,” I say with a playful defensiveness.
“I sure as fuck hope so,” he mumbles, and then he sits down beside me while burying his head in his hands.
“Can we talk?” I ask curiously.
“Not if you’re going to interrogate me about something,” he mumbles through his hands.
“I just want to know where we stand. I’m confused as fuck right now, and I want you to tell me how you feel.”
His shoulders drop, and he finally removes his hands from his face to look at me. His exhaled breath carries the scent of deceit, and I anxiously await his response.
“You said we were done, and I took that as we were done. Just leave it at that for now. Maybe this isn’t our time,” he murmurs vaguely.
“That’s not enough, Hale. You don’t kiss someone and then punch a wall. You don’t tell someone you love them while begging them to marry you,
and then go ice cold. You’ve always been capricious, but never this extreme. I’ve always felt like you still wanted me, but you didn’t know how to just trust me. Now, I don’t feel like you even like being in the same room with me,” I whimper out, and I quickly wipe the tears away.
“I can’t do this,” he says in a strained tone, and it sounds as if he’s holding back his own emotion.
“You have to sometime, Hale. I can’t just leave things unfinished.”
“Then consider them finished,” he mumbles, and my tears gush free as I hold back the howling noise I know will escape if I open my mouth.
I look away, and then I watch the tinted sky fog over as the night rushes in to fill the air. I’ve slept a total of six hours in four days, and I’m exhausted. I’m just ready to curl up and sleep, but I have to find out if Grayson passes or fails. I hope Clay pulls through because Grayson sure as hell can’t do it on his own.
Hale isn’t going to tell me anything. He’s never stopped chasing me until now, and I don’t know why I’m fucking chasing him when Brazen is waiting. I just want this all to be over. I just wish I knew why he stopped loving me. Is that so much to ask?
The dripping sound of a leaky pipe echoes through the empty room which holds me to a wall. My strength is depleted, my faith has deserted me, and hope barely hangs onto a thread in front of me - careful to evade my grasp.
Hollow footsteps splash into the puddles that have formed, and the foggy haze of my vision only allows me to see a blurred, hooded face as the whip strikes me across the stomach. I want to scream out when I feel the first lash, but my lips crack instead of moving. My trembling body refuses to go invincible, and I’m too weak to even try to flinch.
“Just give in, bitch,” his hissing tone taunts, and tears try to drip out only to be stung by the convulsing waves of electricity.
I can’t tell him to go fuck himself like I want to because I don’t have the fight left in me. Then I hear something renewing my hope, my faith, and my will to live. I hear my name being screamed through the layers of earth covering us.
Then it happens. It’s not the savage they want. It’s just me. The walls crumble beneath my power as the cables strip from the rods protruding from my body. The puddles of water slosh as the ground begins shaking violently from a force I’ve never possessed while sober. The screams of the man in front of me cry out for help before I launch him into the wall so hard it forces his body to explode.
Snapping promises of freedom erupt as the underground facility staggers like a drunken fool. The walls of my prison quickly shake into rubble under my ungodly force, and more screams erupt just as the explosive wave bursts free from my body to decimate all left standing. The few survivors feel my hand as it rips their throat away, and the blood stains my hand with pride as I claw my way to the top.
The fireworks of freedom sound out as bullets whiz through my few standing attackers. He’s here. He found me. Hale.
“Hale!” I scream, and my face is drenched in tears upon wakening to the dark room.
“I’m here,” he coos.
The warm arms already holding me to a chest surprise me, and I look up just as Hale’s lips find my forehead. I sob hard into his chest, and he pulls me tighter to him.
“I’ve been trying to wake you up for over ten minutes. Please tell me you’re okay,” he worries, and my lips attack his in search of the comfort I need.
He doesn’t fight me. He pulls me into him, and his lips devour mine like he needs me as much as I need him right now. I pull him to be on top of me, and my hands scour his shirtless body as he slides my shorts down. I feel his erection begging to push inside me, and I ache to feel his incredible force.
Just when I think I’m about to have him, he leaps free from the bed. He slumps down in a corner, and I sit up rattled and dazed.
“Why won’t you just be with me?” I cry, and he shakes his head while keeping his eyes low.
“Stop trying to be with me, Araya. Right now isn’t a good time.”
“Just tell me why. Please,” I beg. “I’m going crazy trying to figure it out on my own. Is there someone else?”
Please say no. Please say no.
“Just stop chasing me. Go be with Brazen,” he murmurs, and my heart breaks into pieces when those words escape his lips.
“Where did you go? Just fucking tell me,” I blare, and I jerk my shorts back on to provide me with some dignity.
He is with someone else.
“You really want to know?” he snarks.
“Yes. I’m desperate to know.”
“I went with Alex. Are you happy? She called, and I went to her the night of your birthday party. She seduced me then just like she did three years ago, and I let her because I’m not like you, Araya. I’m a real fucked up hybrid incapable of being in love. Now fucking forget about me,” he growls, and I react before I realize what I’m doing.
He’s suddenly flying through the wall to his own home, and everything on the walls rattles off in both apartments.
“You want to hurt me, then do it. Do whatever makes you feel better,” he chokes out. “Do whatever will make you get over me.”
My eyes have poured all the more tears, and I just stop everything. I grab a vial of olophine, and I quickly inject myself while Angelica and Grayson peek in to see what’s going on.
“Araya? Are you okay?” Angelica trembles out.
“Holy… fuck,” Grayson drags out while staring at the mess I’ve made in merging the two apartments.
“Go back to bed. I’m sorry. I need to go for a drive,” I mumble, and Hale rushes to me to stop me before I make it to the door.
“You can’t go outside the compound this late,” he says too softly. “It’s dangerous.”
“The only ones in danger are the ones who cross me right now. I’ll hurt someone if I stay here. Let me go,” I cry, and I see the heaps of pain in his eyes for having crushed me.
“Araya, please don’t-”
I slam the door before he finishes, and I throw myself over the wall instead of taking the stairs. I land on my feet, and I just pray the keys are in the SUV. There’s only one person in the world I trust right now, and he’s an hour away - thirty minutes if I drive like Hale. I need those comforting arms around me right now. I wanted closure - I’ve sure as fuck got it now.
Berimond comes into view, and I ease off the accelerator to give the exhausted engine a rest as I roll up to the gate.
“Name?” a man asks while holding a digital pad, and I pop open the console where I thankfully stashed all of my United credentials I didn’t think I would need.
“Araya Crush. I’m an officer of the United, and-”
“I just needed a name, Lady. You can go on in,” he grumbles, and I slump down slightly from the embarrassing misconception.
The hotel is grand. It’s so much bigger than I was expecting. I’ll never fucking find him with his phone off, and these assholes aren’t going to tell a barefoot girl in short pajamas where a captain is staying. I look like a late-night booty call gone terribly wrong. My tearstained cheeks and my skimpy pajamas don’t go well together.
I shrug off the judgmental eyes staring me down as the drunken goons lounge in the chairs because they’re too wasted to find their rooms. The full blood behind the counter rolls her eyes at the half-dressed hybrid walking up.
I hold up my badge and identification while trying to sound very in control.
“I need Captain Brazen Mordel’s room number please. I’m Araya Crush with-”
“Araya Crush?” she chirps in interruption as if she’s surprised.
“Yes,” I murmur curiously.
“Captain Mordel said if you stopped by this week to send you directly to his room without any questions. He’s in fifteen twenty-four.”
Why did I even bother finding my damn credentials?
“Thanks,” I murmur shyly, and she looks me up and down as I walk away.
I’m sure she’s spent the past four days dro
oling over Brazen, and right now she’s wondering what in the hell he’s thinking waiting around on me. I’m wondering why I ever needed closure in the first place. Brazen was always better for me, and I knew it. I just couldn’t let Hale go. I sure as fuck can now though.
The door laughs at me for how ridiculously pitiful I look, and I glance at the oversized clock on the wall stating the absurd hour I’ve shown up. Sunrise is barely four hours away.
I finally summon up the courage to knock, and I hear the bed inside rustling as he sleepily shuffles across the floor. Butterflies rattle around my queasy stomach. I’m not sure if I’m nervous or excited.
“Someone had better not be fucking with me,” he growls before the door opens, and his perfect pale eyes widen into an awakened state when he sees me.
“Araya,” he murmurs in startled surprise, and I don’t waste a second diving into his arms and pulling his lips down to mine.
He wraps an arm around my waist to lift me just enough to move me inside while shutting the door with his free one. He never moves his lips from mine, and he wraps me up with both arms once the door is securely shut.
“What’s wrong, baby? Bad dream?” he coos, and he pulls back while inspecting my tragically streaked face.
I shake my head, and then I pull him back to my lips while reveling in the cool warmth of his comforting embrace. His lips caress mine too gently, and I push for more passion.
“Talk to me, baby. Tell me what happened,” he soothes while brushing my hair from my face.
“I’m tired of talking,” I murmur, and I pull myself up to wrap my legs around his waist when I finally feel the passion I’ve been seeking.
His breath pours promise into my mouth, and I know he’ll never hurt me the way Hale has. My fingers tangle in his hair, and his cool body mingles with my fiery one as he rips my shirt over my head.
He lays me down on the table in the dining room of his suite, and suddenly my shorts are missing. I don’t want this sweet, soft, love making he thinks I need right now. I don’t want that long, drawn out foreplay that will delay the true release I crave. I want to be ravaged and fucked hard.
