Born of Blood

Chapter 23

It was quiet for a moment, her body heaving with the force of her breaths.

Her teeth gritted together and all she could feel was the volcano brewing beneath her skin and the sick feeling of a rock settling in her lower stomach. The man before her was terrifying. Large, dominating, mountain covered in tattoos with symbols she did not recognize, with an accent that stilled the flow of blood in her veins. The way he spoke slowed her brain, pumping fear through her body forcing her to chose: fight or flight? Though her anger, her boiling rage growing and spreading through her skin, heaving her chest with enraged breaths forced her to stay: fight.

Her hands braced on the side of the tub, she could feel her fingers trembling as she held such a tight grip her scarred knuckles turned white. The bathroom was bathed in artificial light, the window in the corner showing the darkening conditions outside casting a grey coat to the room. Her face felt hot, she knew she had to be very red her rage burning to the tops of her ears. Her lips trembled as she fought to open her mouth, to scream at this stranger who held so many expectations of her.

Scarlet had felt hurt before, she had felt the sinking weight of depression and sadness and betrayal. She had felt embarrassment at being 'less-than' every other person in the Malkún pack. Though, she had never felt anger. She had never felt a blinding rage the likes of which she was currently in the midst of.

He had called her a rogue, he had told her he wanted that child, and he had concluded she had a tough life. He didn't know shit! This man, this beast of a werewolf double her height and large enough to kill her with a single swing couldn't understand the betrayal she felt from her body in carrying this disease. In carrying the repercussions of Apollo's actions against her, while she was healing from a torture that stemmed from her being his mate, her only wrongdoing to deserve the mutilation of her body.

"You..." her words trembled with tears. "You know nothing, so shut up!" Her sobs exploded as harsh breathing from her mouth and the water sloshed around her body.

He stared at her with those wild eyes, light and electric blue battling for dominance in his gaze showing his wild. He sat on his heels, staring at his mate heaving with disgust at him. Her mouth moved every few moments like she had so much to say, but had no voice to say it.

She yearned to scream, to shout every betrayal that had crossed her mind and body. To shout at him and force him to understand her disgust with the thing growing in her womb. She wished he understood so he could hate it as much as she did, so he could wish for its removal as violently as she did. She didn't want the fetus out in that moment, she wanted it out all those days ago when her wolf  lended her it's claws and allowed her it's strength to remove it herself. She wanted it gone while her arms were bound to a bed while she sobbed and begged for freedom, or for help. She wished it was dead while she fell quiet, too hurt and scared and disgusted to even say another word.

"Have you ever been hung from a ceiling? Have you ever felt silver shackles eating away at your skin because you don't have the strength to stand?" Her nose burned and her voice was thick with tears as the word vomit practically forced its way out of her body.

"Have you felt a leather whip, soaked in wolfsbane, snapping your skin open so many times it just hangs off your body like a butchered deer?" She hissed.

"Have you felt the silver tip of a whip slice your face open because you're too scared to not listen to your torturer when they call your name, even when you're almost dead?" He stared at her red face with a pit in his stomach, seeing the thick split scar running down the side of her face.

He would never say she wasn't beautiful, he thought she was the most amazing woman he had ever met, but he felt guilt staring at it.

"I was no rogue, I was every bit apart of the Malkún pack as each person staring at me when he tried to exile me. I committed no crime deserving of my punishment, other than being someone's fucking mate. Other than being Apollo's mate! He raped me! He molested me after he tortured me and left me there for days to die! He beat me until I was almost dead so they would smell my blood and not his attack! They spread my legs and covered me in wolfsbane so nobody would recognize his scent on me! So no, I don't want this fucking baby! I don't want this thing that was bred from the man that turned me into scar tissue! That has left my body numb from touch, that took and took until all that was left of me was my virginity! And then he took that too!" She screamed.