SKIN (WATTYS UNDISCOVERED GEM)

Chapter Fifteen: Nowhere Oklahoma

AN

WARNING: I listened to femme fatale playlists the entire time I wrote this, so I'm sorry if you're like: June, this chapter is weird. But seriously, you listen to Bad Girls by M.I.A and tell me you don't feel like you're about to go kick ass with your #squad.

Song on the side because this is the vibe I got from writing this chapter.

He feels it in his bones, it's as if a shock of lightning has rooted inside his skeleton; his eyes go wide. The keys he had in his hand, to the Volvo, are dropped on the soaking wet concrete, vanishing between the mud puddle Lennox stepped in and the cement of the cracking road.

It's like something is clutching his heart, as if a hand has reached into his chest wrenching his heart-strings, just to pump fear in his blood at the simultaneous time that he knows his mate is in danger.

Lennox turns to the house, the one that he had been in less than two minutes ago, and runs to the door- it's lights out, everything is black, as if the storm had knocked down a power line.

His hands slip over the knob of the front door, only to hiss at the lock, stupid- stupid, when the energy goes down the security system automatically locks everything in and out of the home.

"Son of a bitch," he whispers beneath his breath; his shoulder moves to ram into the metal front door.

*

Blood cracks through her mouth, from where it had long desiccated, she finally screams.

Her mouth is agape- only a stripe of pretty pink lips can be seen hidden underneath the thick crimson surface. Her mouth rips out into a bloodcurdling scream, like static to her ears, but it still makes the tips of her fingers shake from the ferocity of it.

Hiccupping, she's dragging herself to her hands and knees as her chest begins to fill up with the breathy gasps that make Schuyler think she's choking on her own blood. She isn't- it's just the rib poking into her lung.

"L-Lenn-" she doesn't get out the words, being interrupted by bile splitting up her throat and in-between where her hands are splayed out in front of her for balance.

Where was Seely? Why hadn't she fought?

Maybe because the throbbing pain and fear was so mind-numbingly real to her.

She grits her teeth, moving her hand up to her mouth to wipe the blood and bile away from her lips, desperate to get the metallic taste of death off of her tongue and away from her taste buds.

Schuyler's eyes are heavy; her chest feels as if it's going to implode within the minute- she can't even open her left eye, being blinded by the blood from the gaping wound of her brow. Every time she inhales, it feels like a blade is being stuck through her rib-cage. It's a miserable existence.

"Schuyler?" She doesn't even see the Alpha come into the restroom, can't even hear the locked bathroom door be kicked open with long legs. She just remembers what it felt like to have his hands on her body once more, how she didn't think she was going to touch him again in this plane of existence, but there he was. In flesh and bone, her soulmate was grasping her tightly, hands gingerly lifting up her shirt to see the bruises that are already developing.

"No, no don't," Schuyler finds herself whispering to him. "Don't touch it."

"Schuy, baby," the way he says it, it sounds almost painful, like he's trying to keep down tears. "Wasn't planning on it."

His hands are bound around her bicep like a vise, as if his fingers are ivy that has grown around her limbs; he lifts her closer in his arms. Her warm breath touches the curve of his shoulder, her eyes flickered up to him before she closes them- too fatigued to even stay awake.