We had a good day and I realized after a day with him that I had started to like him. The Shane I spent the day with and the Shane that I saw now… wasn’t the same. The Shane I was looking at was the Shane from before, from when I lived here at Half Moon. I feared this Shane.
“Enough,” Shane breathed.
With one command, Liam’s hand dropped to his side. The metal clanged against the floor as it dropped. The silence in the room was eery as I held my breath and waited for what was to come. Liam took a few steps back as the prisoner as he came into view.
I forgot how to breathe as my gaze landed on the prisoner. He was familiar, all too familiar. His arms hung above his head, his hands were chained, and he slumped forward from the torso up.
My chest tightened as my gaze traveled over his body. Bruises littered his body and I choked down the sob. He couldn’t heal if Liam kept hitting him. Wolves healed quickly but wouldn’t if the blows were consistent. It wouldn’t give him the chance to recover.
A knife twisted in my chest as I stared at the blood that dripped from his mouth and dribbled down his chest. A scream died in my throat as I stared in absolute shock at my mate bloodied and beaten. He didn’t lift his head at the sound of Shane’s words and I started to panic.
His eyes were on the ground and I couldn’t see if they were opened or closed. There was a clump of dry blood that had matted in his hair and I wanted to fall on my knees and touch him, caress him, shush him. I wanted to kiss all of the cuts and bruises, I wanted to tell him it was going to be okay.
I was split between wanting to run to him and needing to stay by Shane’s side. There was a pain in my chest that I couldn’t scratch, I couldn’t break free, I couldn’t scream. I was stuck, trapped, useless to the situation and the choices I’d made that brought me to this point.
My lungs demanded air but no matter how hard I breathed in, I couldn’t get enough. It was as if there weren’t any oxygen left in the room. I was frozen where I stood as I stared at the body of my mate.
Question after question filtered through my mind. Why was he here? How did he get here? When did he get here and when did they find him? When did this all happen? Why didn’t he link me and why didn’t Shane tell me about it earlier?
I can’t tear my gaze from Ethan, I’m stuck between wanting to run to him and knowing that I need to keep my distance. Here I had been trying so hard not to think, not to feel anything other than what I was doing here with Shane, not think about Ethan, and yet here he was, in front of me.
I had hoped that everything I had done today, everything I had done yesterday would remain here in Half Moon. I’d hoped that no one would hear of what happened here, I’d hoped to keep the details secret but that isn’t going to happen. I can run but I can’t hide from him. He’s here and he’s about to find out, he’s about to see everything.
My fingers shake at my side and my mind is racing with what I need to do, what I want to do. My heart wants to run to him and see if he’s okay but my mind is screaming at him. When did he get here and why didn’t he listen to me? Yes, I know I lied to him and I came here instead of staying on Desert Moon lands but that’s beside the point.
He wasn’t supposed to be here, he wasn’t supposed to chase after me. He was supposed to be back at Desert Moon, safe on our lands. He wasn’t supposed to be in Shane’s dungeons, chained to the wall, and beaten to within an inch of his life. I was sick with worry but I also wanted to cry and scream at him.
I wanted to demand he tell me why he was here. I wanted to hit him and ask him why he was so stupid. Why hadn’t he linked me when he was close enough? Why didn’t he talk to me, reach out to me? Why didn’t he just listen to me? Why didn’t he keep his promise and wait for me? Why didn’t he give me the space I asked for? Did he not trust me to return? Did he not trust me to make the right decisions?
It wasn’t just him and the crap choices he’d made that brought him here. It was the fact that I had to find out he was here by Shane. I had to find him here WITH Shane. I was stuck between the two of them right now.
Ethan wasn’t supposed to be here but there was nothing I could do about it right now. As much as I wanted to help him, there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t even go near him, I couldn’t even check on him. I couldn’t touch him or give him medicine. I couldn’t bandage him up. Fuck, I couldn’t even say what I wanted to.
Shane would be watching my every move, my every reaction from this point on, and I needed to be careful. I had come here with a mission. I had been distracted today, I’d let my guard down, I couldn’t afford to have Shane suspicious of me.
I couldn’t let Ethan know. Right now, I had switched teams, right now, Shane knew that I was here for him. My heart broke for Ethan but I couldn’t ruin this opportunity. This situation, this surprise would be a test of my loyalty and I wouldn’t fail.