Bitter Kisses

Chapter Four

When dinner was ready, I meekly carried the plates of food to the dining room. Everyone was seated and staring at me with accusing, glaring eyes. I tried not to look at anybody’s faces. It was when I had gone and returned from the kitchen with a glass jug full of water that something actually did happen. I actually let my guard down, as foolish as I was, and didn’t notice the foot that was out for me to stumble over. The jug fell first, shattering into pieces and I followed after, landing right on top of the debris. The glasses pierced into me, cutting into my flesh and blood seeped through the wounds. I gave a yelp in pain and then watched in horror as my skin healed around the glasses embedded into my flesh. Those wound take horrible pain to pull out.

Tears brimmed my lids and I pushed myself up into a sitting position, sobbing quietly. Parker had come up and glared at me.

“Great going, you little brat,” he snapped, kicking a large piece of glass that was by his foot and making it fly into me. I winced. “Clean it up and fast,” he ordered. I nodded weakly and with the glasses still sticking into my skin, cleaned the mess I had unintentionally made and quickly filled their glasses with water before escaping to the bathroom.

I sat on the toilet seat, yanking out pieces and pieces of glass, letting the pain shoot through me as I did, tears dropping onto my arm and mixing with my blood. Why couldn’t they at least just leave me alone for one day? Was that too hard? And why did they have to hate me in the first place? I was just sixteen, what did I do that was so cruel in my young life to deserve this kind of cruel punishment?

Each time I would rip the glass out of my skin, it would just bleed out before healing again. Despite the fact it healed in a matter of seconds, it still hurt and the skin would still remain tender after I pulled it out. I stayed in the bathroom for thirty whole minutes, sobbing my heart out, imagining what it would be like to have a pack and family that loved you and respected you.

When I ran out of tears, I washed off my face and exited the bathroom quickly. Everyone was just finishing dinner, laughing, talking, and just enjoying each other’s company. I noted that Xavier’s seat was empty. I would have to bring his dinner up to him later.

I cleaned up the dishes and waited to eat until everyone was gone. Even though I knew I was in good shape when it came to my body, I still didn’t like the mean fat comments. No matter how untrue it was, it hurt to think that, that’s how they saw me in their eyes.

As soon as I finished eating, I filled a plate filled with food and carried it upstairs to Xavier’s room. I took care to not drop the plate; if he saw the mess, he’d just hit me again. I cringed a little at the thought. It was unheard of wolves to abuse their other half. There was supposed to be unconditional love between mates.

I raised my knuckles to knock on Xavier’s wooden paneled door when I heard an angry voice inside. I thought he was maybe arguing with one of the pack members until I realized there was only Xavier’s voice present. It was wrong and I knew I could possibly get beaten, but I was so curious, I put my ear to the door, listening it.

“You were supposed to be make sure nothing happened to my father and his beta!” Xavier yelled.

My wolf perked up. What is wrong with Alpha Archer? I shook my head; I was as lost as she was.

“You couldn’t have sent some of your men to escort them?” my mate’s angry voice growled.

What’s going on? What happened with Archer? Is he okay? I wanted to ask to Xavier, but I kept my mouth shut.

Xavier seemed to have controlled his temper. “What about their bodies?” he asked in a quieter tone. I shut my eyes tightly; I didn’t like the sound of that. It sounded like they had…

“Thank you Alpha Bane,” Xavier said calmly. “Please just make sure their bodies arrive here without problems. I’d like to say goodbye to father even if he wouldn’t be able to hear me.” Then I heard a bang as I assumed Xavier threw the phone at the wall.

Before I could back away from the room, the door swung open. For a minute, Xavier just stared at me with his eyes rimmed red, laced with pain and for a second, I was sure he would take me in his arms. I could comfort him, that’s what mates did. I saw in his eyes how he longed to actually feel love and comfort now that his father was dead, but then that quickly faded, replaced by fury.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he roared, storming over to me and shoving me back against the wall, the plate full of food shattering as it hit the ground.

I stammered, “I-I-I was bringing up dinner for y-you.” My back hurt from being slammed against the wall.

“If I had wanted dinner, I would’ve come down, you bitch! You sneaky, little slut,” he growled, lifting me off my feet.

“X-Xavier, please! You’re hurting me,” I cried out, panicked. Was he going to kill me? I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on his conversation to the Alpha Bane who lived the closest to us.

Xavier’s eyes were uncontrolled and he had a malicious smile on his face. “Never stopped me before,” he said in a low voice, punching me in the stomach. I wanted to double over but he had pinned me against the wall.

“Please, stop,” I moaned in pain. “It hurts,” I whined as dropped on the floor and kicked my side. I could hear footsteps approaching and looked up to see a crowd gathered around her, Parker and Holly at the front, watching with expressionless face on. “Help,” I gasped just in time for Xavier to let loose another row of kicks.

“I wish you weren’t my mate,” Xavier spat at me. “You don’t deserve me, you ugly piece of shit.” He grabbed me by the shirt and punched me again. I was badly beaten and bruised all over by now, but his prior statement had cut in deeper than the physical wounds.

“You can’t mean that,” I whispered, looking at him through bloody eyes.

“I do,” he threw me against the wall, ready to come for the kill when Hayden burst through the crowd. He was only wearing shorts and was sweaty, so obviously he had just come back from a run.

“Xavier!” he shouted, grabbed him by the shoulders and yanking him away.

“Get the hell of me, Hayden, this is none of your business!” he roared, trying to push him away to get to me.

Hayden spun around in front of Xavier, blocking me from view. I lowered my eyes, sobbing uncontrollably. There were few pieces of glasses woven into my skin which was already healing. Not again, I thought, crying out salty tears from bruised eyes.

“Xavier, you’re going to kill her,” Hayden said to his best friend softly. I looked up through my tears to see that Hayden’s shoulders were tense as he held a strong grip on Xavier who was probably glaring darkly at him.

“She should have been dead when those hunters came and attacked her, but ended up only killing her parents,” he spat.

Hayden shook his head. “She’s your mate, Xavier. You shouldn’t be so cruel to your mate,” he said gently. A few people in the crowd gasped. I was beyond shocked; he was defending me again. Hayden Gallagher, the new Beta was defending me.

“She’s not my mate,” Xavier growled. More tears slid down my cheeks. “I’ll never accept her,” he hissed.

Sighing, Hayden turned him away. “Tell me what happened, Xav, you’re usually not so violent,” he commanded in a low voice before looking at me over his shoulder. I couldn’t read his expression when I met his eyes, but then he broke it to glance at the crowd. “Everyone, back to their rooms,” he ordered and they all dispersed.

It took a lot of energy to get up and get myself cleaned, but I did it. I lay awake the rest of the night on my bed wondering what my fate was going to be tomorrow.