ALANA

52

ARES

Alana comes out of the bathroom, her face looks shiny and her nose is red. She looks to be crying again.

"What's wrong?" I ask her, she looks up at me and shakes her head, looking back down.

I watch her small form shake and sniffle as she cries her heart out. I follow her line of sight to land on her wrist. It looks completely red with fingerprints imprinted around it and severely bruised. I growl at the sight making her jump.

"I am going to fucking kill him." I stand up again, walking as fast as I can to the door. My thoughts get distorted by anger and rage and all I can think of doing is watching that motherfucker bleed.

When I see him still downstairs in my fucking foyer icing his nose, I lose it even more. I go to attack him but Damon holds me back while Griffin pushes me away.

"Xander, chill man." Griffin grumbles. "We are at home, the familia-"

"You fucking dared to touch my wife you piece of filth." I seethe. I shrug the boys off and walk slowly, closer to him. "I don't want to see you in Rome again. Leave, never come back. If you so much as breath the same air as my wife again, I will hang you for your mother to see." I growl getting as close to him as possible. I then back up, looking at his pathetic scared face.

I land a final punch on his face making his sister and mom shriek.

"Throw the scum out." I tell the two men who nod.

When I get back upstairs, I see that Alana has fallen asleep, still sitting on the bed with her head against the headboard.

I walk towards her, trying to adjust her head so she doesn't get a sprain but she flinches away from touch, whimpering as she braces herself against the headboard.

"It's me gattina, you're fine." I tell her, willing my voice to be low to not scare her more. Her eyes fill with tears and her lip wobbles.

"Why am I always subject to everything bad." She cries. "Im so tired of being sad." her voice breaks. I clench my fists, feeling an immense amount of unfamiliar sensations in my chest.

I let her cry to let out all her frustrations and soon, she's too tired to keep going. I see her start to fall asleep.

All I can think is how fucking messy her life has been. I have never felt a stronger urge to protect. This woman is so fucking nice and life has just treated her poorly. And now, she has an asshole for a husband. Is this really what her life will be? I find myself questioning my treatment of her at all times. She is the one person I shouldn't be a hard ass with, in Damon's words.

But he's right.

I look back at her beautiful face, peacefully asleep. I feel my mind clear and my thoughts wash away as I feel at peace just looking at her.

I don't know how long I sit there like a creep. Watching Alana sleep. Feeling her squeeze my hand unconsciously, once in a while, a soft whimper like noise emitting randomly every time she breathes out hard.

Is it possible to feel these feelings without loving someone?

~

I wake up to a gentle squirming right under my arm. I groan at the disturbance, not wanting to wake from what feels like my best slumber in a while. The squirming intensifies and I soon feel my arm sink into something very soft than I hear a soft but unmistakable hiss.

"That hurts" I immediately recognize my wife's plea of pain so I quickly sit up in bed, apparently releasing her from my unconcious hold. She sits up, her eyes still closed and face scrunched in pain as she holds her-. Oh fuck.