Cinders [Completed]

Chapter 13: Defeated

//trigger warning//

The morning sun shines in dappled kisses through the window. For some reason, it is so much softer than the sun normally is, cozy and welcoming. This sensation is the first thing to alert me that something is terribly wrong.

The last time the sun was up before me, I was ten years old. I never sleep in.

I shoot up, staring straight ahead at the dull grey of my bedroom. Except for it's not dull grey, and it's definitely not my bedroom.

What.

My heart jumps in my chest. Anxiety twists my throat into silence, but I want to scream. My hand shifts on the ridiculously expensive bedcover and brushes against something warm and calloused.

I twist my head to the side and release a muffled exclamation of horror. The sleeping figure starts suddenly, his head lifting from its place next to my pillow.

It's the Prince. I'm in the Prince's room. In the Prince's bed.

"Oooohhhh, noooooooooooo." It's morning. It's morning. I've been out all night.

My dad is going to kill me. Staying out all night. A cold sweat erupts across my skin at the thought of it. I haven't seen Dad angry in years. But more immediately concerning is the figure of the Prince, his dark skin glowing in the sunlight and his dark hair mussed and beautiful and his black eyes staring directly at me and my panic attack. This is bad. This is bad. This is catastrophic.

"Dad is going to kill me, Dad is going to kill - " I realize that I am repeating this out loud like a mantra and I clap my hands over my mouth. I imagine my father's face, distorted with anger, my mother already crying in the background. I look around the room fervently and find a clock. It's 6 AM. My stomach drops even further into my spine. There's no way he's still asleep. A jump of terror starts across my arm and I realize that the Prince is reaching out for my hand in obvious concern. My legs get caught in the heavy covers but I scramble away from them and onto the thickly carpeted floor.

The duvet thuds as it hits the ground. My heart races in my chest.

Prince Orion sits up and blinks at me in wakening awareness. My feet wrench me backwards, my balance dissolving in his dark eyes, until I hit against his bedroom wall. He sees me, he sees me! I'm going to throw up. My brain cycles through several conclusions.

I won't be able to hide the scent of another wolf after spending the night. My dad will know that I was in bed with a male wolf. Then he might make me quit this job if I didn't tell him who, definitely if I did tell him who. But I couldn't tell him, I couldn't tell him that my mate is the Prince - and I can't leave Lucy and Mom and Jonah alone with him, I can't, I can't, I can't -

"I'm never going to see you again!" I explode through the knot in my throat, before running out the door as quickly as possible.

"Wha - "

If I was a normal wolf, my back would already be long healed. My stupid, stupid body, defective, defunctive, the wounds are ripping open as I run, causing blistering dots of blood to seep through my shirt. As I race into the woods, I think about the Prince. I wonder if he can feel it, too.

This image is quickly ripped away from me as I visualize my father waiting in the living room for me to arrive. But instead of the calm and almost sorrowful expression he had earlier when I was late for curfew, his expression would be wrenched in anger, just like when he ruined Lucy's body forever. My life is over. I don't even notice the chilling bite of cold in the air, or the way my breath turns white. The cold burns my lungs.