CHAPTER 62
FRANKIE
∞
“Please, Wren.”
I can’t keep the tremble from my voice. I’m fucking terrified right now. It’s stupid, I know. I’m more afraid of his driving, than I was when he tried to kill me. I had control over that situation and was able to fight. Here? I can’t fight. I can’t do anything but sit here at his mercy as he winds through the roads at breakneck speed.
I’m getting more and more pissed off at him calling me Frankie. It seems so impersonal now after he fought tooth and nail to call me Chess. He’s the only one I let call me Chess. He’s earned it.
He veers off the road and I scream as the car heads towards a cliff edge. The speed we’re going…I don’t think we can stop before he crashes through the barrier.
I slam my eyes closed and hold my breath, waiting for the moment to come. I choke out a breath when the seatbelt bites in across my chest as Wren slams on the brakes, bringing the car to a screeching halt.
My breaths are sharp pants, and my entire body is shaking. I can feel him glare at the side of my face, but I can’t look at him, I’m fucking terrified of him.
“Here’s your chance to get out.”
His voice is sharp, but I can hear a small tremble in it as well. “If I scare you so much, get the fuck out. No one made you tag along.”
“Please stop,”
I sob. I can’t do this. I can’t hold in the hurt anymore. I can’t handle him treating me like this, even though I know I deserve it. I hurt him. I hurt him so fucking much, and I regret those words spoken in anger and frustration. I hurt him and then Alex died right before his eyes. He’s turned that pain into anger, and that anger…is pointed at me.
I feel his hand brush lightly against mine and I snatch it away, gripping into his shirt, still wrapped around my body. I can’t look at him…but I need to look at him. I turn my face slightly and I see him watching me with a frown on his face. The deep etch between his brows seems more prominent…angrier. His gaze and the frown line, make his features harsher…more jagged and rough. I can still see the pain behind those eyes. He may have buried them deep to try and deal, but I see him for what he is. A hurt man.
“I know what you’re trying to do, Wren. You’re trying to scare me and push me away, and I know I deserve it. I deserve your anger, but I won’t fucking leave you. I’m terrified right now of what you might do, but I won’t fucking leave you alone.”
He shuts the ignition off and rips his gaze away from mine, staring out towards the darkness looming in front of us from the cliffs below. We’re far enough out of the city that not a single light taints the deep ebony sky. Stars litter it and the moon is nonexistent tonight. It’s fitting really, no light is here to help the encroaching darkness inside of him.
He’s silent, and at this point, I don’t know what else to say. I can see his chest moving rapidly as he tries to steady his own breathing. Sitting in silence is worse. It allows your deepest, darkest thoughts to claw their way to the surface. He wipes at his eyes angrily and opens the car door, stepping out into the cool night.
I quietly undo my seatbelt and open my own door. I move around to stand in front of him as he leans up against the hood of the car. His green eyes are distant, still lost within his thoughts.
“Please, talk to me, Wren. Keeping this bottled up…it’s not healthy.”
He snorts, as though the notion of being unhealthy is amusing, and then he sighs. He drops his eyes to the ground and his fingers curl against the sleek vehicle behind him.
“Whoever did this,”
he says quietly. “They wanted him to suffer.”
His voice breaks at the end and I feel a pang in my chest at the thought that someone, not only killed Alex, but wanted to make him hurt. I don’t want to interrupt him. The fact he’s actually trying to talk through his thoughts is actually more than I expected.
“What do you mean?”
I finally say when the silence stretches on once again.
He looks up at me through guarded brows and shakes his head. “This was another vampire. It had to be someone he knew, or Alex would have fought back…unless he was cornered. They pumped him full of venom. We can’t handle that level. It overloads the system and starts to shut it down. It slowly starts to eat away at you from the inside out, and the pain,”
he lets out a rattling breath. “I know what it does…it burns at your insides and nerves, and your brain feels like it's melting. The fact Alex made it back to the tower at all is surprising, but I think he was used as a message. I wish he would have just told me who the fuck did that to him.”
“Telling you he loved you was more important to him, Wren. You are loved.”
I know it’s true. I know that Alex in those final moments just wanted Wren to realize that people actually give a shit about him and love him. My chest feels tight as I watch him roll a rock around under his shoe. He’s vulnerable. I take a hesitant step towards him, and he glances up through his lashes. They’re damp with the new tears he’s trying to quell. “I love you too.”
His body stills at the quiet words that slip from my lips, and he lifts his head slowly to look at me. He’s frowning and gives his head a small shake before pushing himself away from the car. He moves around me to open the door again and I reach out to grip his arm. My arm shakes with fear. This time, it’s not from fear of him, but the fear of rejection.
He pulls away and my heart sinks to my stomach. He slides himself back into the car and I can do nothing but stare at him as my heart threatens to beat out of my chest.
“No you don’t. You hate me, remember?”
He finally says. He lets out a harsh sigh and looks up at me through the still open door. “I couldn’t let you die. I couldn’t bear the thought of your light just being…crushed so easily when you had so much life left in you. I…I was selfish, but you didn’t deserve to die, Chess,”
his voice breaks. “You didn’t deserve to die because of me.”
How is this his fault?
“I’m the one who killed Jullian and his pack.”
The air is gone from my lungs, and I grip the open door to stop my body from collapsing. “I couldn’t let him live after what he did to you, and after what he planned to still do to you. He was going to go after you again, Chess. He was going to make you suffer all over again and I just…”
A sob slips through. “I couldn’t let that fucking happen.”
“So, when I saw you later that night…”
“I was trying to recover from the fight. The insanity took a hold of me when Jullian tried to kill me. I lost a lot of blood and used up a lot of my power.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I ask.
“I didn’t want you knowing and risk you getting hurt for being involved. I never thought that I missed one. One of the pack members is an enforcer that was out on assignment that day and he found them later on and went to Adrian.”
He looks up at me and the sadness on his face tears at me. “Can you still love me now, Chess? After knowing that I’m the reason you suffered. The reason you were tortured to the point of death, and the reason you’re now like me. I don’t think you fucking can because I’m everything that’s wrong in this fucking world. I take and take until there’s nothing left to fucking take, and I’m so fucking sorry for ever letting you into my life. I should have told you to go home the first fucking day I met you.”
“You’re going to tell me you regret meeting me?”
I say harshly.
“Your life would have been better, I can assure you.”
“You’re so fucking stupid, Wren.”
I shift myself to crouch down next to him in the open door and he looks at me with furrowed brows. “You may regret it, but I don’t. Meeting you and being with you, may have been difficult, but I don’t regret it, not for a second. You…made me feel alive. You showed me pleasure, and happiness, and I think you showed me love.”
I settle my hand on his thigh and give it a small squeeze. “You love me, don’t you?”
“I can’t,”
he says sharply.
“Why?”
“Anyone I care about gets hurt.”
“I’m right here, Wren. I’m not leaving you without a fight, so do you love me?”
“I don’t want you to die,”
he whispers.
“Wren, I won’t die willingly because I don’t want to see you breaking anymore. I will be the one to stay by you. I will be the one to keep you strong. Do you love me?”
“Yes,”
he chokes out. “Yes, I love you, Chess.”
I lean forward and press my lips to his. His hand curls in behind my ear, holding me to him as he desperately tries to feel something other than hatred and sadness. I love him and he loves me…
Alex was right…
We both pull away with a hissing breath. I look down to my left wrist, where I just felt a strange burning pain, and my eyes widen. Wren’s wrist is the same, and I look up at him, confused. We both have a faint red marking appearing on the delicate flesh of the inside of our wrists. It looks like an infinity symbol, and when I run my fingers over it, it flickers at the contact.
“What…is this?”
I ask, confused.
“Fuck,”
he chuckles. “Alex was fucking right.”
I tip my head up to look at him and he gives me a sad smile. “You’re officially stuck with me. We’ve been marked by the Fates, Chess.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Have you felt a weird draw to me at all?”
“I mean, sure…look at you, you’re hot.”
He snorts out a laugh and I smile at the sound. I missed that. I missed hearing his fucking laugh. Jesus, what is wrong with me?
“I’ve felt the same way about you, Chess. It’s like…every moment I spend with you, pulls me closer to you, and I just can’t let you go. This is a mate mark. It’s rare, especially amongst the vampires, but it does happen. I guess us professing our love for each other triggered it.”
“What’s it mean, Wren?”
I’m still so fucking confused.
He leans over and cups my cheek. “It means you are mine and I am yours. We’re stronger together, and as long as we’re together, nothing else matters. I…am yours, Chess. You’ve claimed me…heart, body and soul.”
My heart flutters with joy at the words. He’s mine. He’s mine. I no longer belong to Adrian. I’m officially and irrevocably Wren Valkyrie’s, and he is all mine.