Chapter 6
Chapter six
Liam
Thud. My heart beat returns with a boom as I take in the green-eyed beauty and all her magnificence.
She’s here. My girl, my heart.
All of the commotion must have my mind playing tricks on me because there is no way that my beautiful girl is standing up ahead, right next to my two best friends.
‘Princess?’ I breathe out, feeling like I am having an out-of-body experience as I get a closer look at the woman who has stolen my soul.
Angry purple bruises frame her emerald green eyes and the swelling of them makes my knees want to buckle. Her sweet nose is as swollen as the rest of her features and a smear of blood stains her upper lip red.
If I hadn’t already watch all of those fuckers that attacked her die screaming I’d go back and do it myself.
‘Please tell me I’m not dreaming,’ my legs moving me forward as shock continues to flood my system.
But she does not respond, stumbling over her words as her eyes roam my body, glued to the features of my face.
‘It’s me. You remember, right?’
I’m an idiot, how would she recognise me without my mask? For what little time we had together she had suggested we keep things impersonal and because I was mesmerised by her the second I laid eyes on her I had stupidly agreed.
I had never taken my mask off and she’d never told me her name, only allowing me to settle on calling her princess. It had started off ironically but since? The way I’ve worshipped her memory… there’s a lot more to that title now.
The black lycra of my mask stretches as I pull it over my face, adjusting the white plastic of the full skull on the front and the crown that sits half-heartedly on top.
Her beautiful green eyes widen despite the swelling surrounding them as recognition takes over her. I see it in the way she is now looking at me.
‘Remember me now, princess?’
Angry voices threaten to speak over her but I only have attention for her, the woman of my dreams. It’s like we can silently communicate with each other, like that is what we have been doing all of these months.
All of the time we have had apart we have just been waiting out the winter months to come back to one another.
This time in my city, a place I know that I can keep her safe.
A place where I can give her a home.
The leader of my group, Ruaridh, waves his hand in my face, bringing me out of my thoughts.
‘It’s her, Ru. The woman I told you about.’
With my mask back in my hand I quickly explain who she is, that she is the woman I told him about meeting all those months ago, the one I have not been able to rest until I have found.
Only Ru does not break into smiles and congratulations like I would for him. He looks like he wants to murder me instead, and just as everyone begins to talk over one another, like when we first entered this hallway, my best friends' roars sound over the lot of them.
His fist connects with my cheek. ‘You got my little sister pregnant!’
Blindsided by one of my own turning on me, I struggle to keep up with what is being said.
Pregnant…
Sister…
What the… what the fuck is going on?
Ru, clearly not finished, drags me towards him by the collar of my t-shirt. But my mind is too focused on what he said to care what he might do next.
Pregnant.
‘Put him down, idiot.’ Her familiar voice sounds amongst the chaos, and my leader relinquishes his grip on me despite the harsh set of his features suggesting it's probably the last thing that he wants to do.
Fauna tugs him away and I don’t bother to watch where they go or where everyone else grumbles off to as their leader instructs them to leave.
I just stare at her, still unable to believe my eyes.
‘I can’t believe I’ve found you again,’ I admit, hand to heart. She doesn’t say anything and she doesn’t have to. ‘It’s a surprise, princess, I know, but we’re so lucky we’ve found each other.’
Vish and another woman I don’t recognise stand by her side both with unreadable expressions. And as I look back at the woman my heart beats for, a sinking feeling begins in my stomach because the way she is looking back at me feels worlds apart from the way I know I am looking back at her.
All this time I’d never considered that she did not feel the same way as me. That for her, I could have been insignificant.
Ru’s mention of a sister settles in now as I see the resemblance between the two. Her dark, glossy hair and sharp cheekbones. The stormy look she has as she watches me take her in, my gaze roaming her body. Her perfect body, the feel of which I can remember as if it were yesterday.
Then, as my eyes travel lower, it all hits me at once. Ru’s anger ringing in my ears as I see exactly why he was so pissed with me.
‘You’re preg—’ I begin but she doesn’t stay to hear me finish those words, she does not confirm what I am seeing. She closes her eyes and disappears into the room behind her, leaving my heart to shatter with every step she takes away from me.