“That’s it, baby girl, breathe, slowly. Calm down, it’s okay. It’s okay.”
“Nora, Nora...”
I hear Damian repeating my name, and I feel his arms around me. I’m in his arms again, but I still feel colder than ever. I close my eyes a bit to rest against his chest while trying to slow my breathing and stop crying.
“She has a bit of a fever, boss, probably from last night... “
“Let’s take her back.”
“No.”
I don’t know where I found the strength to protest, but I open my eyes and clumsily try to stand up again. Damian helps me, and I can rest on him while regaining my composure as I can. I turn to Alec.
“What about my mother, then? My... birth-mother.”
He shrugs. “How would I know? I figure the bitch is dead... How about you join her?”
Bobo and Neal both angrily growl as a warning. Damian turns to his Beta. “We’re done with him.”
“No, stop!” I yell.
After all this, Alec is a victim, too. What happened to our family was not his fault. He was just a kid, also, only ten! He loved our mother so much, and... after what happened, I can’t blame him for hating dad and me. I know how awful he was to me, I didn’t forget any of it, but... but I don’t know what I’m feeling right now, I’m baffled. Too confused to make any right decision. I can’t let Damian have him killed. I don’t want to regret it later.
Alec laughs at me again with a smirk.
“What, you want to save me, Nora? Play the nice sister? The pitiful one? When are you going to get it? I hate you! And I don’t regret a thing I did to you! Every single time I hit you was fucking worth it! I wish I had killed you that night!”
All of a sudden, I lose balance and see Damian rush towards Alec. He’s way too fast. Bobo jumps to stop him, but Damian punches him away like a sandbag. Neal steps in a second later, but Damian runs into him with full force. The Beta is projected against the wall.
Damian shapeshifts into a black wolf, his fangs ready to take my brother’s throat. I scream.
He’s about to kill Alec. For a split second, I see my brother dead. The black wolf rushes towards my brother, and it takes me a couple of seconds to realize there are no two black wolves. I didn’t even see Nathaniel jump in. Everything happens so fast.
As soon as he realizes it’s his brother, Damian steps back, growling furiously. Yet Nathaniel keeps standing in front of Alec, his pale blue eyes fixated on Damian. The two wolves growl and glare at each other, and for a while, I’m terrified they’ll fight.
“Don’t worry,” says Tonia. “the Boss would never attack one of his brothers. Nathaniel is convincing him to let your brother live.”
I nod, fighting the dizziness while Bobo and Neal both get back up. Bobo comes to my side to support me, while Neal walks to his Alpha, probably arguing with him, too. I wish I could hear it. Damian won’t stop growling.
After what seems like an eternity to me, Damian turns back to me and shapeshifts swiftly. He only puts his pants back on while I’m shyly looking away. Nathaniel probably shifted back, too, because I can hear his voice.
“Let me handle him, Nora,” he says. “Don’t worry, I promise we won’t hurt him anymore.”
When I look, he is putting tape on Alec’s mouth to shut him up. I don’t know how I feel about this. I want to make sure Nathaniel’s not tricking me again, but he speaks before I get to it, guessing my thoughts.
“Don’t worry, I’m serious. I will have him put up for a psychological evaluation and rehab, okay? We will keep him under surveillance at the hospital.”
I don’t really get how they are going to take him to the hospital after they did this to him themselves, but I don’t care anymore at this point. I’m still way too shocked by his earlier revelations. I’m still teary and tired. Just when I was about to try and get up again, Damian walks up to me and takes me outside, carrying me away from the scene. Behind us, Tonia and Bobo are ready to follow, but Damian growls.
“Leave us alone.”
Tonia frowns, but we are already at the elevator. Damian steps in and turns around. I hear him pushing one of the buttons, and the door closes. He’s still carrying me, my head against his shoulder when he softly whispers. “It’s okay, Nora.”
Just as he says these words, something I was holding up until now suddenly breaks loose. I start sobbing loudly against his neck. I can’t stop it. My arms around Damian’s neck, I cry like a little girl while he holds me tightly against him. It’s unstoppable. I feel so weak, so overtaken by everything I just heard. I can’t deal with all those emotions at once. I feel so stupid! All these years, I had no idea what had happened between our parents. How could I be so clueless and naive!
I keep crying, unable to bear it any other way. Damian is walking again, but I have no idea where he is taking me. I just want to exult my pain somehow and keep crying.
At some point, he sits down. His hands move, one to caress my hair, holding my neck against him, the other around my waist. I feel his lips pressed against my temple as he tries to help me calm down.
