The Huntress

Chapter 45

-Jared-

I'm a monster.

Her words echoed in my head. I remembered thinking those same words before. I remembered saying them to her; accused her of being worse than a monster that night our secrets were let out.

If I'm a monster then what does that make you?

I'd waited so long for Electra to finally see just what she'd done, all the pain she'd subjected so many people to. Now all I wanted was to take the pain away, to take her back before it had consumed her like this. This was not what I'd wanted for her.

She couldn't understand why I'd stayed, and at the time when I'd made the decision, I couldn't understand either. I understood now though. Electra was my mate and I couldn't leave her. I would always want to be by her side for the good and the bad. I would want to protect her even if that meant from herself.

When I'd heard her strangled sob in the bathroom my heart had constricted. When I saw her kneeling there, her body shaking violently with the pain she was in, my heart broke for her. There was nothing I wouldn't do to help her with the pain, but there was nothing I could do to help her with the pain.

"You deserve better. So much better than me," she whispered to me, her eyes opening slowly.

My breath caught and my throat swelled with her words.

"There's no one but you, Electra." My voice was low, close to a growl.

I sat back onto the bed, dragging her back into my lap. I felt her shiver as her skin touched mine. She was cold, so cold. I tightened the towel around her and pulled a blanket over the both of us. I wrapped myself around her as best I could, letting her body leech some of my heat.

I leaned over her, my lips pressing to the top of her head. "What happened?" I asked.

I felt her tremble slightly. I wanted to know what started this, what had been the trigger that had set everything off inside her.

Her head shook slightly and I thought she was going mute again.

"I don't know," she whispered. "But I saw them all. All their faces and the look in their eyes. Jared, I remember how I didn't care at all, how I loved doing it. How many of them had mates? How many of them did I tear apart? I deserve all of this."

"Shh." I rocked her back and forth and I felt her body shake with sobs again. I felt the tears slide down and onto my arm.

"Is everything okay in there?" Sarah asked from the door.

My head snapped up to meet her and I glared slightly. I wished she'd just back off. I understood she worried about her sister, but I couldn't imagine Electra wanting her brother or sister seeing her like this. She'd completely fallen apart

"It's fine. Can you please leave us alone?" The warning in my voice was enough for Sarah to concede and shut the door, leaving Electra and me alone again.

I worked on sitting Electra up in my lap, taking care not to bump or move her bad shoulder in any way that would cause too much pain.

"Hey, look at me."

Electra's pain filled and bewildered eyes found mine.

"You can't change what you did in the past. It happened and it's done. You can wallow in the shadows of what happened, or learn from it and move forward. You didn't know any better. I'm not saying that it excuses you completely, but you can't shut down because of what happened."

"But why would you even try with a person like me?"

I could see the truly broken look in her eyes. I fought back tears of my own.