Delicate

Chapter 22

Wrote this chapter to Smother by Daughter, listening is super optional but it just hit right for some scenes.

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Damon's P.O.V

I watch Will walking away, instincts blaring at me to follow him and make sure he made it home okay.

I shouldn't have let go of his hand.

I take a step forward but stop when Mekhi reappears in front of my path.

I look over his shoulder at Will's receding back, Theo whines loudly at the space growing between us with every step. 

Each one tearing at me until he's out of sight.

I fix my eyes to Mekhi, feeling them glow as I glare at him. My talons extend slowly with my canines, the anger rising as I pin him under my gaze.

"Someone better be dead or damn close to it," I growl lowly making him take two careful steps back.

"The pack was challenged to the arena and we couldn't turn it down, Alpha Julian had to represent because Alpha Aiden... he hasn't been himself since you left." Mekhi scrambles quickly, his words only slowing towards the end. "Alpha Julian had to face a new alpha, one much younger than him."

"But he won." I finish crisply, fists clenching with the need for it to be so.

"Barely." He admits with a pained expression. "He took one hit in particular, it was really bad Damon."

I blink at him, mind clearing as my heart stops just like everything around me, suddenly coming to an overbearing halt as I stare at him. I blink again, hoping the action would clear things, but it doesn't. I try to breathe and fail, not a single capsule of air willing to fill my lungs. I stare at Mekhi, his face showing that he saw the pain, the agony that rippled through me at the thought of my father hurt.

"Is he okay?" I ask, my voice cracking slightly as I try to kickstart my heart again. "He's okay isn't he?"

"He's healing."

That's not okay. He's not okay.

"The pack won this match but word is spreading, quickly." He explains, his features dipping with sadness. "People have heard that you have not taken your position as alpha, they know you're not there and aren't afraid to challenge anymore. More packs want to challenge us for the number one position, all with younger, stronger alphas."

"I w-"

I stop myself, tongue running dry at the reminder that I couldn't step in even though I wanted to. I let my talons sink into my palms, needing something to steady me against the sting of my mocking thoughts. Each one hitting me like fresh whiplashes as everything I'd pushed away for the last two months comes rushing back in all at once.

I am not alpha.

They lied to me.

They didn't believe in me.

They think I'm a demon.

"You need to come back." Mekhi finishes, his eyes searching mine desperately as the rage tries to take over. "You need to come home and take your place as alpha."

Zero regards for life.

"I can't," I reply through gritted teeth, speaking the words from my own lips felt like declining my responsibilities. "My parents won't let me."

"They will now." Mekhi pleads but I shake my head. "They have to Damon or they'll keep getting hurt."

"They won't!" I snap back making him quiet immediately.