Predator

Part Fourteen✔️

"No, I was in the forest." He sighed. "She carries no fear in her body for the darkness in these trees. It was inevitable."

His brother growled. "Is she coming down or not? I will not delay dinner because your pet is stubborn."

"Watch your tongue, brother. If she's not coming down, it's most likely due to your sweet greeting this afternoon."

"How am I supposed to react to a stranger in my home? This house holds history, it holds secrets that I promised to protect at all costs." His brother made himself a plate and sat down at the table. "Even if that means killing this girl."

The beast leaned forward and watched his brother like the predator he was. "You do know she can break the curse?"

"Do you think me ignorant? I was made aware of that when I saw she had breasts." The beast growled low. "I am just not ready for these games yet, not after what happened last time."

"We are running out of time dammit!" He slammed his fist on the table and his brother looked up from his meal. "Maksim. I have lived almost three decades with this curse, I refuse to die with it."

Maksim stared at his brother who'd always had a worse temper than him. "Can you manage to love her though? That's the real ques-"

His dark eyes darted up to the doorway where the girl stood, her body tense as she entered the hostile air. Maksim watched his brother lean back in his chair and rake his eyes up and down her long, lean body.

His brother spoke. "I was beginning to think you'd never come down." He wore that dark smirk as usual.

"I was hungry." Her answer was curt as she moved to where the food was and piled it high on her plate. She began to walk back out when his voice stopped her.

"Where do you think you're going?" Maksim could hear him growing angry but the girl just stared at him with a glare in her eyes.

"To my room."

"I asked you to dine with my brother and I as an apology." He spoke through gritted teeth.

Her gray eyes darted to Maksim, who was in the middle of stuffing a large part of his steak in his mouth. He looked back at her with those judgmental dark eyes and cocked up a brow.

"I'd prefer to eat in my room." She said, her eyes going back to the beast who was now standing and moving towards her like she was prey.

"That wasn't an option." He growled out. "Now sit."

There was a fire in her eyes as she now stared up at him, their faces inches apart. "I am not some dog who is going to obey your every command. Do not tell me what to do."

Maksim watched his brother's lips curl into a smirk and his eyes take on that familiar glow. He stood and prepared himself to step in at any moment.

"I believe you hit your head too hard on that tumble down the hill, darling." He said as his fingers trailed across her temple and her fingers tightened on the plate in her trembling hands. She was skilled at hiding her fear, Maksim would give her that. "No one tells me what to do."

"You're a fool if you think I'll sit idly by after you kidnapped me and treat you as if you are some long lost royalty!" Her eyes were full of fire. "You are nothing to me."

She rolled her eyes and Maksim watched almost in slow motion as his brother snapped and the plate in Grey's hands dropped to the floor where they once stood. But now she was pressed against a wall, with his brother's body covering hers, his teeth sunken into the mark on her neck.

Maksim let his brother's name slip past his lips, but he was too focused on the feeling of Grey's body against his and she was too focused on the pain that coursed through her veins like fire to catch the name clearly. He called out to his brother again as he ran closer and got no answer.

Maksim ripped his brother away from Grey making her yell out in pain as his teeth tore a trail into her unmarked skin. He caught the girl before she tumbled to the floor and she grabbed onto his arms like they were the only thing keeping her alive. He glanced down at her, making sure the shaking girl was okay before looking back up to find his brother gone, no trace of him left.

He growled low in his chest and looked back down at the girl.

"Can you walk?" He asked and she looked up at him with glossy eyes.

"Please don't hurt me." Gone was the feisty girl from earlier and left in her place was a girl with a voice no doubt as broken as her.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you if you don't act stupid. Come on, I need you to try to make it up to your room so you can lie down."

With a hesitant nod and a shaky breath, she straightened out and began to walk slowly beside Maksim. He took the time it took to reach the top of the stairs and the end of the long hallway to take in the girl, trying to find what it was that drew the beast of his brother to her. He could see the appeal in many of her features but seeing her like this - broken and covered in her own blood - there was nothing but pity for the girl. Pity that of both of them, she got claimed by the brother with the most darkness in his heart.

Leaving her sat on the side of her bed, he hurried into the bathroom and came out with a wet towel. She was still sitting where he left her, shaking and pressing her crimson hand against her neck. Without any words, Maksim moved her hand away and pressed the towel to the wound, as she sat there twiddling her thumbs trying to forget the pain.

"What's your name?" She spoke softly, her voice raspy.

"Maksim."

"I'm Grey."

Maksim pulled the towel away to inspect the wound and couldn't help the feeling of guilt that flooded him when he caught sight of the faint bruises on her neck. That was his doing.

She saw where his eyes were looking. "Don't worry. . . It seems as if life has thrown every near-death experience at me. Yours was nothing compared to what your brother has put me through in this short amount of time." Grey then spoke with a laugh yet there was no humor in her words. "So is the biting and the blood something I should expect from your kind?"

"Remarking is a common thing, it's meant to show affection and in cases like this, assert dominance." Maksim walked back to the bathroom and returned with a tiny first aid kit. He dug through it until he had some bandage and what looked to be tape. "The first time you're marked, of course there's blood, but after that there should only be a little. His teeth were still in your skin when I pulled him off you, it caused it to tear into your skin that wasn't marked."

"Is it going to scar?"

"It'll probably end up looking just like your mark." Maksim spoke while he closed the first aid kit and set it on her nightstand. "Get some rest, it'll help.

"Thank you."

His dark eyes met hers and he saw the sincerity in hers. "Don't thank me yet. I helped you now but this was hardly a glimpse of what my brother can do. Don't let him break you."

{and the nameless beast is still a mystery... any guesses to his name??}