Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Adeline
Cyrus is onto me. He knows something is up, and reciting the ABC and that stupid song from an ad I saw in my head is becoming irritating. Eli is cooking something that smells good, and Cyrus comes over, lying on the lounge and placing his head in my lap. I brush his hair with my fingers.
“So, are you going to tell me or make me figure it out?” he asks, and I look at Eli over the couch.
“He isn’t paying attention, Addie,” he says, gripping my chin and turning my face back to his in my lap.
I say nothing. I don’t want Emery to get in trouble and continue thinking of that incessant TV ad.
“I will figure it out, but you can keep your secret for now,” he says, turning his face toward the TV.
“How is the rebuild going?” I ask him.
“Annoyingly slow.”
“Any news on Sam?” I ask him, and he looks up at me.
“No, Addie, and you would be the first to know if there was any news.”
I nod before shifting, and Cyrus sits up, allowing me to lie on the couch before climbing behind me, his hand going beneath the shirt I am wearing.
We watch TV for a bit when I hear a text come through, just as a voice comes through the intercom on the wall next to the elevator, alerting us someone wants permission to come up.
I sit up, reaching for the phone while watching Eli walk down the hall.
“Yes?” he asks.
“Reception. A package has come for Adeline downstairs,” says the young girl I have seen in the lobby a few times.
Eli looks at me, and I shrug, not knowing what it is.
“Send it up then,” Eli says, waiting next to the elevator for the mystery package.
Cyrus, too, sits up, looking at Eli, when the doors open, and the girl hands him the box.
It is fairly big, and Eli takes it, placing it on the bench before grabbing a knife while I check the message that comes with it.
My heart almost stops when I see a picture message of me with Maverick in front of the boutique store and two words: “Miss me?”
“Addie?” Cyrus says, picking up on my shift in emotions. He takes the phone from me before looking at the screen.
A growl escapes his lips as he peers at the photo, then at me. Looking at Eli, he pulls out another box, which seems to be some sort of container and Cyrus’s head whips toward Eli.
“I can smell blood,” he says, getting up and walking over to Eli.
I follow. Eli opens it, and we find baby clothes along with a card. Eli holds the card up, looking at it.
“What’s it say?” I ask him, and he hands it to me while Cyrus hands the phone to Eli.
I try to take it from him, and Eli pulls his hand back, looking at me oddly. Shit, Emery and I are in so much trouble now for keeping it from him. He glances at it before growling so low it rises goosebumps on my arms, and I look away.
“Addie?” he says coldly.
I shake my head before looking at the card in my hands. “Love, Sam.” I drop it with a gasp.
Cyrus rummages through the box, pulling out the baby clothes before trying to close the box when he finds something, and I try to glance at it.
“What is it?” I ask him.
He shakes his head, trying to pull the box away, but I take it from him, open it and nearly lose my stomach at the mutilated pig fetus inside. He knows I am pregnant, knows where I live. Feeling rage through the bond, I look at Eli to see fur growing up his arms and his eyes pitch black.
“Addie, go to the room,” Cyrus says, grabbing his arm.
My heart skips a beat when I see his canines slip out, his face twisting in anger and morphing, yet I am struggling to know if he is angry at me or the fact that Sam has contacted us. Maybe both.
“Addie, now!” Cyrus snaps at me when Eli suddenly shifts.
I take off running for the room, my feet slapping on the tiles before I reach the door, slam it shut, and click the lock in place. I then hear a feral growl resonate throughout the apartment, echoing off the windows, before hearing things breaking and glass shattering.
The noises coming from outside the door are terrifying, and I can feel his burning anger and Cyrus’s fear of me being caught up in it as he tries to calm him.
From the sounds of it, the entire place is being destroyed and upturned, and after twenty minutes, the apartment finally falls silent.
The door opens, the handle falling off and landing on the carpet.
“Did you deliberately leave to meet him?” Eli snaps at me, walking through the door in his Lycan form, though I am more worried that Cyrus hasn’t entered the room with him.
“Where is Cyrus?” I ask, jumping off the bed.
Eli turns, walking around the other side of the bed toward me.
“Fucking answer me!” he snaps, grabbing my arms tightly and shaking me. My feet are dangling off the ground.
“Eli, stop. You’re hurting me,” I tell him, and he growls.
“Fucking answer me, Adeline!” he yells just as Cyrus rushes in, his head bleeding before he tackles Eli, and I fall to the floor.
“Fucking get a hold of yourself, Eli. We have bigger problems then your father,” Cyrus says.
“She fucking kept it from us,” Eli tells him, kicking him off before stalking toward me.
“I didn’t know he would be there!” I scream, rushing over the top of the bed, only for him to grab my ankle before crawling onto the bed. Tears spill onto my cheeks as he growls at me, his nose pressed to my neck below my chin.
“Eli, she said she didn’t know. She is fucking pregnant. Get off her!” Cyrus tells him from the floor where he landed, an outline of his body on the wall where he hit it.
“Did Emery know?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“No, she asked him to leave,” I tell him, and he growls softly, yet I can feel his anger defusing as quickly as it’s come on.
“You let him touch you?” Eli says, confusing me until I remember the photo is of me shaking his father’s hand when he introduced himself. Is that what set him off? Because his father touched my hand?
“No, he just introduced himself.”
“We are leaving. Sam knows we are here, so we will be leaving,” he says, sitting up and getting off me.
“He can’t get in here, Eli. We are safest here,” Cyrus tells him.
“How can you say that?” Eli snaps at him.
“She will be more at risk if we leave with her. He is probably watching, biding his time till he sees an opportunity. Leaving now will be putting her at risk.”
I have to agree with him, and I don’t particularly want to leave the place knowing Sam could be anywhere. Eli hops off the bed, walking off when he stops, turning back around and walking into the walk-in. He grabs some clothes, and when he comes out, he is shifted back into human form.
“Where are you going, Eli?” Cyrus asks him.
“To see my father,” he snaps, pulling some shorts on. He then turns to look at me.
“You don’t hide shit from us, nothing. I don’t care if you fear our reaction or don’t want to upset us. You don’t hide things, not when it comes to your safety,” Eli says, and I look away from him.
“Understood, Addie?” Eli growls.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Stay with her,” he says, looking at Cyrus, who nods. Eli turns on his heel, walking out, and Cyrus comes over, sitting on the bed before pulling me on his lap.
“You okay?”
I nod, resting my chin on his shoulder. I just want everything to end.
I can’t sleep. My mind is in overdrive from the day’s events.
Eli doesn’t come home till late, and I ring Emery, who says he has shown up there but left when she refused to tell him where their father was staying.
Though I have no doubt that this issue with his father will not be the last I hear of it.
Getting out of bed, I walk to the kitchen to get a drink, pouring myself a glass of orange juice.
I drink it before washing the cup and placing it on the sink upside down.
Yet as I go back to the room, I feel like I am being watched.
A shiver runs up my spine at the thought.
We are too high up for anyone to be looking in, yet the feeling remains, and I walk around the living room, closing all the curtains to the huge windows overlooking the city.
I flick the rangehood light on in case anyone gets up during the night, not that they would need it; they can see perfectly during the night, but I don’t feel like having to feel the furniture to find my way around.
Climbing back into bed, I lie staring at the ceiling for a while, trying to get myself to sleep. Eli rolls next to me, turning to face me, his eyes opening and glimmering in the darkness in that eerie way they always do.
“Can’t sleep?” he asks, tugging on my hip and pulling me closer to him.
His chest is ridiculously warm, but I snuggle back against him, hoping the warmth would lull me to sleep along with his scent. His hand rubbing my non-existent stomach seems to work, and I have just finally started dozing off when alarms start blaring loudly, startling me awake.
Eli and Cyrus jerk upright instantly while I sluggishly climb out of bed.
Walking into the living room, Cyrus is glaring at the fire alarm.
He jumps and hits it with his hand, smashing it from the roof; the noise stops instantly, but I can hear more alarms going off on the floor below.
Opening the curtains, I can just make out people running into the street below.
Turning around, I see Eli sniff the air before he suddenly walks over to the elevator. He presses the button, and the door opens, spewing smoke into the apartment.
“Shit!” Eli says before going to the fire exit.
He pushes on the steel door, but it doesn’t budge.
Cyrus walks over and kicks it, the door bending and creasing in the center, but it doesn’t open.
The entire place starts to fill with smoke.
I cough, choking on the thick smoke spewing in through the ducted air conditioning.
My eyes are burning from the smoke, and my lungs are searing in pain with each breath.
“The roof,” Cyrus says before running into the bedroom.