SALT
I open my eyes slowly, surfacing from a fog of unconsciousness. For a long moment, I have no idea what was happening or where I even am. Then I register that I am lying in someone’s arms.
It’s Eliano.
We are both sitting on the bed. He is leaning back against the headboard, holding me the way you would cradle a child, rocking him to sleep.
Eliano bends over me. Even though my eyes are not fully open yet, I feel his face drawing close, the soft brush of his lips against my temple, then my forehead. Warmth and tenderness pour out of him and wash over me, and somehow that tenderness sparks a sudden, violent anger inside me.
I force my eyes open, fighting the heaviness of my body, feeling like my muscles are not ready to cooperate yet.
"Where am I?" I manage to mumble. My mouth is numb, my lips barely forming words.
"In our unit. You’re safe."
He smiles at me gently. In his eyes, I see it clearly, the affection, the relief, the happiness that I am awake again, that he has me back.
I know exactly what he is feeling. Suspiciously well.
"Why… why?" I blurt out weakly. With great effort, I try to sit up and slide off the bed. My legs wobble beneath me. I look down at them and freeze in horror at the sight of something new.
On my left ankle, there is an ankle monitor.
Fuck!
No. No, no!
I try to straighten up, but I sway and nearly fall. Eliano reaches out to steady me, but I deliberately dodge his hand and brace myself against the edge of the bed instead.
"Why, Eliano? Why!"
"Why what?" he asks quietly, sitting down on the edge of the bed, watching me closely.
"Why the hell did you do this, you fucker?! How could you? You ruined everything, don’t you understand?!"
"There was no road forward anymore. A swamp. You had to turn back."
"I would have turned back. I would have gone the other way. You destroyed my plan!"
Eliano stays silent.
I straighten up, cursing and swaying, and tear at my hair with both hands. Now everything starts coming back to me. My mind clears second by second, and the reality of what just happened sinks in.
The fucking weight on my leg.
Now I have an ankle monitor! A massive, prison-grade one. Taking it off would be close to impossible.
Yes. This bastard! He ruined everything!
"Now there’s no chance I can escape!" I wail in pain. "This piece of shit is the worst thing that could have happened!" I kick out, slamming the monitor against the bed frame.
"Bram said he wouldn’t report your escape under one condition. You wear the ankle monitor. There was no other option."
I repeatedly hit my temples with my hands, like a madman.
"Do you even understand what you did, idiot? You might have completely taken away my only chance at revenge. Why? You know damn well that was my only goal!"
He stands up slowly as well. We are facing each other now. His face is pale, tight with tension.
"There was no chance of it working anyway. It would have ended in disaster."
"Bullshit," I snap, feeling everything inside me stretch and strain as anger and frustration surge even higher. I keep tangling my fingers in my hair, frantic and maddened.
"I already did it before, I shot them, remember?! And now I had another real chance. I could ambush him, the element of surprise!"
"What surprise, Salt?" Eliano says slowly, calmly. "Four hours had passed, and you still hadn’t made it out of that damn forest. I wonder why. How long were you there? At least three hours, sitting in that tree, doing what?"
Fuck. I squeeze my eyes shut. Yeah, no denying it. I was there, unable to move, as if something had me tethered, some invisible leash that would not let me get away from that bastard.
Oh, how I hated my own weakness. But he can’t know.
"You don’t understand anything," I growl. "I was just thinking it through." My voice cracks, and I wonder if he sees through my bullshit and knows exactly why I was stuck in that tree, and it makes my anger flare even more.
"And the more practical reason," I grumble, "was that I saw an alligator just a few dozen feet away from me."
Alligator aside, my body felt paralyzed. Something inside me refused to let go, even though I was sure I would eventually get myself out of that situation. Because I would. Right?
"You’re not thinking rationally, Salt. That plan was never good. Let me come up with something that actually has a chance. I have options and connections you don’t. I never said I didn’t want to help you. Does that get through to you at all?"
Nope, it does not.
My anger and humiliation have already gone too far. Emotions take over. My brain, my fucked-up prefrontal cortex, strips away what little self-control I have left.
"I don’t give a fuck about your damn plans," I raise my voice, stepping back two paces. I do not want to be within reach of his arms or his presence, because I am afraid he might still convince me, and I do not want to be convinced.
I just want to be angry!
So angry!
And I go all in!
"How could you, Eliano? I trusted you. I told you everything, the whole plan, and you…"
"This has nothing to do with whether you told me or not," he says firmly. "I would have known you escaped anyway, and I would have done exactly the same thing, because this is madness, Salt. You would have destroyed our future."
Another wave of fury crashes over me, this time cold, almost icy.
"Our future? Destroyed it? You just did that yourself! I can’t trust you anymore! You’re not on my side. I want nothing to do with you!"
A heavy silence falls between us. Eliano’s face drains of color, his lips pressing into a hard line.
"I fought for us to be together, Salt. I negotiated with those idiots not to tell anyone. I told them you panicked because of everything with Drax. They believed me, and that’s the only reason they agreed to help me bring you back here.
Under normal circumstances, you would have been placed under police supervision and then sent directly to state prison.
Do you get that? They don’t play around here.
Nobody escapes and just comes back. The only miracle is that there’s no warden right now.
But in a few hours, Gomez will be here. The ferry already went to get him. "
"Do you even hear what I’m saying?" My voice twists with something painful and sharp inside me.
"I don’t care. I had one goal coming to this island.
One! Find a window to escape and finish my revenge on Tanner.
One goal, Eliano." I raise my hand high and tap my ‘Justice for Senu’ tattoo on my forearm, like the final, decisive proof.
"Nothing else mattered. They could have shot me, killed me. I wanted revenge! Does that sink into that pretty, law-abiding head of yours?"
Eliano says nothing. He just stares at my face.
But something in me refuses to stop.
So I throw everything at him, all the rage, all the bitterness. I feel like I am breaking apart, like I am losing control completely. The anger takes over me.
My body shakes, knees weak, hands trembling, every nerve firing without restraint.
"You know what, asshole? I never wanted to be with you! That was never my plan. It could have been anyone else, any dick would do, anyone who walked up to my glass booth in Fate’s Choice. I came here only because it gave me a chance I would never have had in state prison!"
The next words tear at my throat, but they spill out anyway, with a cruel, sadistic momentum.
"I don’t care about you, and now you’ve made it so that all I feel is hate. I never want to see you again. Get out! Our contract marriage is over as of now!"
I have never seen him like this. Despite his Italian heritage and naturally warm, golden-toned skin, he looks like someone scrubbed all the color out of him with chalk.
"What are you saying, Salt? We can get through this. We will."
"You’re not my mate anymore! We’re done!"
Eliano raises his hand and presses it to his heart, as if something hit him, tore something open there, and I almost feel it, a physical pain spreading in his chest at my words.
"Salt! We’ll find a way! A legal one, or at least a safe one."
"No. Fuck you. Get out! I hate you, do you understand? Get the fuck out!" I slam my hands against his chest. "I never want to see you again. You took away my sacred right to avenge the person who sacrificed everything for me. I will never forgive you. Never!"
Eliano steps toward me abruptly, his face darkening, his anger flaring to match mine.
He grabs my waist and yanks me against him. My body ignites in an instant, like dry brush, my cock hardening in a reflex that has nothing to do with my beta nature.
Without thinking, I tilt my head to the side, practically offering him my neck. A low, drawn-out growl rips from his throat, demanding and feral.
But he doesn’t go for the neck this time. He lifts my hand, which he grabbed by the wrist, and, without waiting for my consent, sinks his mating fangs into the small gland there!
What the hell. This is sick. Insane.
And divine!
I cry out, and at the same time I feel heat explode between my legs. I come in the strangest orgasm of my life, sharp and tearing and perfect.
A long, broken moan leaves my throat, and I know well what that AO sound means.
"Full submission."
And I did it. Me. Un-fucking-believable. After all the words I hurled at him?
All I want is for him to throw me onto the bed and fuck me senseless, make me forget, make me feel good again.
But Eliano pulls his fangs out of my wrist, his hand sliding to the back of my neck.
That gesture. Again.
He leans close to my ear.
"If you think you can ever stop being mine, think again," he growls. "I could fuck you now and make you revoke all the bullshit you just said, but I want it to be you who will come to me!"
Feeling a powerful surge of arousal, I automatically dip my head, my hips pushing back, my body ready to give itself to him right here, right now, but then I hear his low growl vibrating in his chest.
Suddenly, Eliano steps back.
The fuck, why did he let me go?! Why?! I need, need his dick ramming into me, punishing me, making me explode in ecstasy…
But he takes another step back.
We lose contact, the charged energy between us fades slightly, the passion pulling away.
My mind takes advantage of it, snapping back into focus as I blink in disbelief at what just happened.
"I hate you," I throw at him, overwhelmed by emotions so intense I feel like I might collapse under their weight.
"Liar," he says dryly.
Then Eliano takes another step back. That step hurts almost as much as my own words.
"I don’t want you anymore! I won’t change my mind. No matter what you do. You could even beg!" I scream.
His lips press together, a dark grimace flashes across his face. Then he answers firmly.
"I never beg."
He turns away, goes over to the photo album with our pictures lying on the windowsill, and tears out a page, then grabs his phone and key card, walks to the door, opens it, and leaves without looking back.
What the fuck just happened?
I sink to my knees as my body starts to shake, darkness closing in on me again.
Something in my chest feels like it’s tearing, pulling, splitting apart. I’m losing everything, something slipping away, something that’s an integral part of me…
What did I do?
My anger filled my entire body, my entire life. It swallowed everything, devoured me, and in the process, it devoured Eliano too.