Chapter 16 #2
“Hey.” She lifts her hand, cupping my cheek.
My eyes flutter shut as I lean into her hand, taking any strength she’s willing to give me.
“Talk to me, Will. What's going on?” I don’t want to talk, just stay here as she lightly scrapes her fingernails along my jawline.
Her touch makes me shiver and now is really not the fucking time to get hard.
She just does something to me, something I can’t seem to control.
“Our life wasn’t easy,” I start, opening my eyes.
“Our dad was a piece of shit and liked to remind us often that he owned us. We were his property. But it wasn’t all bad.
For the most part, no one fucked with us, we were the prez’s kids.
While Nick started to embrace the MC life and Ian adapted his personality to be able to fit in and survive.
.. I didn’t. I wasn’t like that. I was always the quiet one.
The one who watched and observed.” I shake my head, my hands going to her thighs.
“I didn’t think there was anything wrong with not wanting to be an aggressive person.
I respected my elders, the women and the children of the compound.
I even showed respect to my father’s men.
Nick and Ian would talk back. They would get punished for it, a slap across the face, a punch in the stomach.
But me? I’d take the blame for things I didn’t do, and apologise as if I was in the wrong.
My father’s men loved to make jokes about how I was a pussy, that I was weak and had no spine because I wasn’t loud, or that I wasn’t ruthless.
Most of all I wasn’t a fucking asshole.”
“So you were tormented because you were respectful and did what was asked of you?” Her brows furrow together, her face scrunching in anger. “That’s fucked up. Wouldn’t that be what your father wanted? Someone who did whatever he demanded, no questions asked?”
“You’d think,” I huff out a laugh. “ But he liked having a reason to beat us. Anyway, just because I was quiet and I tried to stay out of trouble didn’t mean I wouldn’t speak up when it was truly needed.
I never stood by and watched the men abuse their women or children.
Old ladies, sweet butts, didn’t matter. That included Julia. "
“Did your father hit her a lot?”
I shake my head. “No. For the most part, my father acted like she wasn’t there.
He fucked whoever he wanted and acted like he wasn’t married.
Julia had old lady status so the men left her alone.
My father would sleep with people, but she was only allowed to be with him.
He hardly ever spent time with her. I never understood why they were together, why he didn’t just divorce her and be single.
Maybe a single prez was a weak one? I don’t know, but they stayed together.
She walked around and acted like she was the queen of the club, like my father thought the world of her when we all knew he didn’t. ”
Nova shakes her head. “No one deserves to be treated like trash, but it doesn’t give her the right to be a shitty person. You said you and your brothers hated her. So why would you sleep with her?”
My gut turns and I want to look away, shame flooding me.
“She was horrible to Nick and Ian, always calling them out for being disrespectful, for talking back. She told them they should have been proud of the life they had, not take advantage of it.” I shake my head.
“That wasn’t a life. It was surviving until we could leave, even though we knew deep down we would never escape him. ”
“Wait, so she never treated you badly?”
My body stiffens and my eyes grow dark. “She did.”
Nova’s eyes flick between mine. “What did she do to you, Will?” she asks, but I can tell that part of her might not want to know the answer.
“Remember how I said I was too kind? My compassion became my downfall. Somehow, in her warped, fucked up mind, she thought because I defended her, stood up to my father when he abused her, that it meant that I cared about her. I didn’t.
I couldn’t stand the woman. I hated how she treated my brothers.
But she didn’t see that, she saw only what she wanted to see. ”
Stepping back, I try to keep myself from shaking because this is it, this is the part of my fucked up story where I tell her everything.
“Alpha...” Nova’s voice is soft and I nearly sob at the sound. “Come here.”
Turning around, my wild eyes lock on hers. She holds her arms out this time, and I go right into her hold.
I have no idea how she can sense that I need it, but she takes my face into her hands and pulls me forward, kissing me softly. I groan into the kiss, my cock thickening in my jeans.
The need to touch her, kiss her, consume her is overwhelming.
“I’ve got you,” she murmurs against my lips and I nearly break. Resting my head against her shoulder, I let her hold me as I take steadying breaths before pulling back to look at her while I speak.
“I didn’t sleep with her, Nova. At least... not willingly.”
Nova gasps, eyes going wide with understanding as her blue eyes swim with tears.
“Will...” I hate how fucking broken my name sounds on her lips.
I shake my head. “She took my kindness for granted. She saw me as her savior and I wasn’t.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” she says. “It’s okay.”
“I want to. But I just... I don’t want you to think of me any differently,” I rasp.
Her face goes hard. “I will never let what she did to you change how I feel about you, Will. You are strong, kind, loving and an amazing brother. You’re an amazing Alpha and I’m fucking proud to call you mine. Do you understand me?”
Fuck. Fuck! I can’t break down. Not now. Not here.
“I love you.” Nova grabs the waistband of my jeans and pulls me closer before gripping my chin. “And nothing will fucking change that. My Alpha. Mine.”
“Mine,” I whisper, eyes flicking back and forth between hers.
I’m so gone for this girl. She’s so fucking strong, caring, and loyal.
She gave us a chance when we didn’t deserve one.
She could have called the cops and been free of us.
Despite how we met, how things happened, she stayed and chose us.
It’s only fair that I spend the rest of my life choosing her.
“Yours.”