"His what?" I let out a small sound as my hand dropped from the doorknob. I turned.
"His brother," Ronan repeated, his lips set in a cheeky smile that I wanted nothing more than to slap off.
"Enzo doesn't have a brother," I stated.
"Is that what he told you?" Ronan deadpanned, his eyebrows raised in a question.
Enzo couldn't possibly have a brother. I have been here for almost two months now. If Enzo had a brother, I would have gotten to know that by now, wouldn't I? It seems to be a very significant detail, if you ask me.
"You're lying," I repeated, firmer this time but Ronan's gaze was steady and so was his stance. Either he was a pathological liar, he was telling the truth or my Assassin body language reading skills were failing me.
Ronan only held out the cigarette from across the room for me to take. "Have another smoke and we'll find out but I assure you, honey, Ronan is a man of many atrocities but he is not a man of lies,"
Reluctantly and with my fists clenched against my tunic, I strode over and took the cigarette. Ronan lit it for me and I took a puff.
"Speak!" I drawled as I suspended the item between my fingers. It reminded me of the first time that I smoked. I was seventeen and grieving.
Ronan grinned wickedly, very happy with himself.
"Well, Enzo's brother Rhys-"
The door slammed open and both Ronan and I jumped. The air shifted instantly as a powerful essence infiltrated the room. Ronan dropped the cigarette. I gulped when I saw Enzo standing there with golden eyes zoned in on the daring cigarette in my hands. His angry gaze seemed to burn my fingers and before long, I had dropped my own cigarette onto the ashtray unable to carry its weight any longer.
Ronan paled instantly, looking like he'd seen a ghost.
"B-brother, I thought that you had pack duties and would be gone for the day," was the only explanation Ronan wasted his useless undeserved oxygen to utter.
"What is this?" Enzo bellowed and took a step into the room, slamming the door so hard that I swore it rippled through not only the entire house but also the entire pack. I was surprised when the door didn't fly off of its hinges.
Ronan looked from Enzo to me to the cigarette and back to Enzo. I squeezed my shawl.
"I could smell this poison from half a mile away! So tell me, what's this doing in my pack?" Enzo strode towards Ronan and his eyes were glowing wildly, a vein on his forehead peeking through beneath his tamed curls. He was furious. I was trapped. "I told you that no form of substances was allowed here, Ronan. So tell me, what's this?!"
Enzo was directly in front of Ronan and Ronan shook like a leaf. For once, Mr chatterbox was as silent as a grave. Even I felt fear slither across my spine as I looked up at Enzo. He was no longer calm. He was livid and looked like he was about to rip Ronan to pieces.
Without warning, I moved between the pair but not once did Enzo's eyes flicker downwards to me. It remained steady against Ronan not even bothering to acknowledge me. If eyes could kill, Ronan would be ashes by now. Ronan felt like he was about to collapse against me as he placed his hand against my back.
"Aoife, move," an order, not a request. I didn't like to be ordered. Even by an Alpha.
"No Enzo. Calm down. He's just a kid," I gave the only excuse I knew best because that was the truth. The fact. Ronan was indeed just a kid. A spoilt, pampered kid but still a kid. He didn't understand the concept of consequences yet and I didn't think that Enzo ripping him to shreds was going to teach him anything either.
That got Enzo's attention because his eyes finally drifted downwards and oh by the moon did I wish that they hadn't.
I felt instant pain at the base of my spine. It shot straight to my brain and I fought the dizzy feeling that came out of nowhere. Whatever Enzo did to me before with his Alpha eyes was only testing the waters. This, now this was the real deal.
"He's a child but are you also a child, Aoife?" Those words were accusatory and bitter. They were all I needed to cause me to hunch over in pain as my head fell forward almost slamming against the angry Alpha's chest. I felt like I was having period cramps but on steroids. "What are you even doing here, Aoife? Alone?"
"Ah!" My words jumped out of my mouth and instantly, it seemed to dawn on Enzo that he was hurting me because out of nowhere, the pain, dizziness and pressure against my spine vanished like it was never even there to begin with. I even wondered if I imagined it all.
When I stood up straighter, Enzo's eyes were no longer gold. They were back to their sharp tinted black.
"He may be a child but you should know better than to let a child mislead you," He deadpanned. There seemed to be no emotion in his voice but his eyes blazed with red hot anger.
Before I could respond, he turned towards Ronan.
"Ronan, I want all of this gone! Cigarettes, alcohol, vapes, drugs. I don't care whatever you have with you but I want them all gone before tonight. Don't force me to leave my manners behind and search through your things. Despite your reputation, I trusted you to at least respect me enough to behave properly in my home, Ronan!"
Ronan opened his mouth to speak but Enzo raised his hand to stop him.
"Enough! I won't entertain your lies anymore. You have two choices; either you get rid of all this poison or I'll get rid of you. Choose wisely, Alpha-born," Enzo warned and before I could even blink, he turned away from both of us and walked right out of the room, slamming it hard behind him.
I went after him.
"I told you that you would get into trouble, Ronan! I warned you but you just didn't listen and now you also dragged me down with you!" I screamed at him in anger as I opened the door.
"Hey, Princess! Don't act all innocent! I never forced you to come into my room or to smoke with me! Carry your own damn weight!" He yelled back as he leaned down to pick up the cigarette that had fallen when Enzo came. "Besides, he'll be fine. He's probably just hyper and filled with Alpha energy cause he hasn't shifted in a while, don't-"
I slammed the door in Ronan's face harder than Enzo did. It was useless talking to that fellow. He was nothing but trouble. Fucking trouble. Now, how the fuck am I going to salvage this situation? I never saw Enzo that pissed before. Especially not at me.
What are you even doing here, Aoife? Alone?
I rushed to the door of his bedroom which he just shut only a moment ago. I didn't bother to knock. I just let myself in.
Enzo was drinking a glass of water when I shut the door.
"We need to talk, Alpha," I said as I pressed my back against the hardwood.
What was I going to say exactly? No, Alpha, I wasn't smoking? No, Alpha, I wasn't alone with Ronan? He was a kind man, I'll give him that but he most certainly wasn't a blind one.
"What are you doing here, Aoife?" Enzo asked as he turned towards me and set the glass down on the table a bit too forcefully as if he was struggling to contain himself. He pushed his curly hair backwards but they disobeyed his hands and returned back to their initial position rebelliously.
"Clearing up the mess you just witnessed,"
Enzo huffed and his upper lip curled in disgust. "I've never been so disappointed in you before, Aoife. This kind of behaviour is expected from Ronan but I never expected it from you,"
My jaw fell open and my limbs slacked instantly but as if resurrected, I was suddenly filled with anger, with rage.
"Excuse me?!" I frowned deeply as I walked deeper into the room until I was standing mere inches away from Enzo. "I became a huge disappointment to you just because I was smoking? That's such a deal-breaker to you, Alpha?"
I didn't let Enzo respond because I continued.
"What was the huge disappointment, really? The fact that I was smoking or the fact that I was alone with Ronan and the door was shut behind us?" Enzo's lips clamped together at that one.
I clenched my fists as the rage continued to poison me.
"You know the rules, Aoife!" He lifted a hand to his hip unable to even look at me as his eyes drifted off to the side.
"For the latter Enzo, I remind you that I'm in your room with you right now and the door is shut. We are alone but you haven't asked me to leave yet so you obviously have no problem with it when it comes to you. Yet, that's exactly against your fucking rules so don't pick and choose!" I poked my finger directly at his chest. The gesture seemed to send smoke out of his ears. He was burning with rage but so was I.
"Don't swear," is all he forced out through a low growl.
"Why? Because it's against your rules too?" I asked as I threw my hands up in the air. This was going nowhere. I was at my limit. At this point, screw it! Screw everything! Screw this ridiculousness. "Well, I am here to tell you Alpha that I am sick and tired of you and your pack's moon forsaken rules!"
I took a step back and threw my shawl as hard on the floor - a blatant statement.
My chest was bare, the distance between my neck and the top edge of the tunic that covered my breasts was left bare. In any other pack, this outfit would be considered decent. My boobs weren't showing so it was fine. Even the curve of my boobs wasn't visible. It was appropriate. But not in this pack. The fact I did not have my shawl hauled across my chest to cover that gap was sacrilege and I was fed up.
Enzo inhaled sharply, his eyes travelling between me and my shawl lying on the floor that seemed to stand like a wall between us.
"What are you doing? Wear your shawl, Aoife!" He chided but his voice lacked the sternness it needed to be commanding.
"No!" I screamed out as I placed my hand at the level of my neck. "I have had it up to here with your rules! I have to wear a shawl! I can't swear! I can't be in the same room alone with a male! No lunch, breakfast must be at 8am and dinner at 7pm! A bath is required before each meal! My clothes have to be a certain way! I can't do this, I can't do that! I can't smoke! What the fuck is all this? Am I a slave that every free want of mine has to be bent to your pack's whims?"
I once again breached the gap between us. My eyes saw red as I pushed the shawl aside with my feet. I looked up at Enzo and noticed that the anger in his eyes was gone. It was replaced with tension. It was a tension that seemed to stretch as his pupils dilated
" I feel like I can't breathe in your pack! Like everything I do is constantly being scrutinised! Like I can't just be! I can't just live! I can't be free and I hate it! I hate it so much!" I screamed everything at him and his arms fell at his side.
His gaze softened and those hands surprised me by reaching for my shoulders.
"Aoife, calm down," He breathed softly with a squeeze of my shoulders but I just won't have any of it as I pushed those hands off of me.
"There are things which I want to do that are just simply a crime here! There are things that I want to experience and I can't reach for those very liberating stars because of your rules, because of your pack and because of you!" Once again, I poked at his chest but instead of earning me an irritated sigh, this time he reached for my face.
He held me in place and I felt like the whole world started to spin. Like it spun until it came to a halt and stopped. My angry eyes that I hadn't even realised had shifted from green to black dulled in an instant and even Enzo's dark gaze stilled. It felt like the world had come to a synchronised dance spinning on our axis. Like it is only us left in the world. Everything about his face softened.
Enzo was so beautiful. His face looked like it was carved directly from the glow of the moon. The angle to his jaw, shape to his eyes, bones to his cheeks. That devilishly delicious crown of hair atop his head that curled over his forehead like an intricately woven sweater. The way the very hands of his that could crush me in an instant held me with so much delicacy that I started to wonder if I was a fragile yet precious glass stone. Everything about him was perfect.
He was perfect.
And everything about him was exactly what I wanted. It was what I craved for and it was a fill that I desired with so much intensity that I couldn't even breathe anymore. It felt like blood lust. The way I wanted this man was nothing less than an insatiable hunger.
I couldn't stop myself when I collapsed into him ever so slightly such that the only distance between us was the gap between our faces. I reached up to wrap my arms around Enzo's neck and his hands slowly slipped down to my waist with pressure and subtlety that drove every part of me crazy when he finally held me. Longing built within me. I never knew how much I wanted to be held until now.
I never knew how much I wanted him to hold me until now. Until this magical moment in his arms.
After I was sure that eternity had surely passed, I closed the gap between us.
Time really stopped at that moment. I could feel every painful second that I pulled his head down so his lips could do me the mercy of meeting mine. I felt every painful second that his hands squeezed my waist and my top crumpled in his grasp with no doubt the same intensity that welled up in my chest. The same intensity that burned from the very depths of the hellish core within me.
When his lips finally met mine, it happened quickly.
But then, it ended before it even began.
A slight brush of the lips, neither long nor deep enough to be termed a kiss but definitely not short enough to not have happened, to have been imagined.
Yet, when Enzo moved his head away from mine, I was left wondering if for a split second, we actually did kiss or if I just wanted us to do it so badly that I only imagined his lips meeting mine very briefly.
"I'm sorry, Aoife," his whispered breath was like poisoned silk against my ear. The way his hot breath fanned my skin set me ablaze once more. "I can't do this. I can't cross this line with you,"
In a single second, everything was over because Enzo unhanded my waist and pulled my hands off of his shoulder. He stepped away from me and I felt like all the planets in our solar system crashed into each other because, for some reason, my world felt like it just exploded in ashes at my feet. It shattered to oblivion.
"Why not, Enzo?" I forced words out of my mouth as I stared at the back of the man that didn't kiss me back, that didn't even let me kiss him. His hair dangled wildly over the back of his collar.
"I won't do this to you, Aoife. I-I can't!" He protested and when he turned towards me once more, there was a desperate plea in his unhinged gaze.
"Stop it, Enzo!" I'm the one who yelled out in a shell of a tone that I didn't even know I could summon. I walked over to Enzo and grabbed him by the arm, forcing him to look directly at me again.
"Stop pretending like there's nothing between us. Stop acting like you don't feel exactly what I feel. There is something between us, a pull, something and it's strong Enzo. I feel it and so do you. Stop lying to yourself! Please!" I took hold of his other arm and shook him. "Stop lying to me! Stop it!"
"I'm not lying to anyone!" was Enzo's response as he tried to get away from my grip, fighting me for the distance that I wasn't ready to give to him. I kept shaking him as a battle of wills ensued.
"Then why won't you admit what we have between us? Why won't you accept that there is something between us? Why won't you be honest with not only me but yourself too, Enzo? Why? I want to know why?!" I never stopped shaking him as every inch of me trembled, as his hair jumped and his shirt creased until his eyes glowed gold.
This time, he was the one who pulled me as within an instant, he unhanded himself from my grip and captured me in his. Those strong hands held me with an intensity I couldn't define and I was stilled to my bone. Suddenly, I couldn't move anymore. I was just stuck in place.
"You think that I don't feel the thing between us? Do you really think that I don't know that we share something? Do you think that I haven't acknowledged it to myself? That I only lie to myself? I feel it, Aoife! I feel it. I feel every single bit of it, every single moment of it, every single emotion of it. I feel everything!" He's the one that shook me this time as a wildness in his eyes took me as his prisoner.
"Then why are you holding yourself back from me? Why do you always take one step forward and a million steps back with me?" I screamed out at him, matching his tone and ferociousness.
"Because-" He started but stopped himself, something burning behind the rim of his irises as it dulled to its natural hue.
"Why?" I screamed out again as I demanded an answer, as I pounded a fist at his chest, as he, in turn, kept shaking me. Everything felt like an earthquake but I was prepared to die in it. I was prepared to be ripped apart by it.
"Because Aoife, I'm engaged to be married."
~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~
Didn't expect that, did you?
I've been waiting for this chapter to drop for a while now. It's my favourite one and I love it so much!
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