Alpha Damon (Sienna) novel Chapter 257

Ethan:

She was fast.

But I was faster.

I followed her through the corridor, past the main hall, down toward the east wing where she always went when she wanted to be left alone. Her pace was sharp, her shoulders stiff. Like she was trying to outrun everything that had just been said. Like she was trying to forget what she had heard. Like she was trying to ignore the pain that she was feeling. A pain that she was not supposed to feel.

“Delilah, wait.” I said, wanting her to listen to me. Wanting to explain this to her. This was not how she was supposed to hear this, and Carter had no right to be interfering in something that did not even concern him.

She didn’t stop.

“Just listen to me for a second…”

She spun around so quickly I nearly collided with her. I stopped raising my hands in surrender, silently letting her know that I was not going to force her into anything. I just wanted to talk.

Her eyes blazed, her voice venomous. Her heart raced against her chest and I could tell that she was doing everything in her power to ignore the pain that she was feeling, to not show me the weakness that she was feeling.

“No. You don’t get to speak. You don’t get to explain.” She said, taking a step towards me. “For a moment I thought that you were honorable, that you were different, that you were not the type to play me like others did. I would have rather I stepped back. I wouldn’t have mind if you chose to play this game of pleasure before stepping back, before trying to tell me that there was nothing, that I should forget it, that this was all for fun. But for you to play my feelings and pretend that you cared? No, that is a game that is low, even for a man like you.”

I stood frozen. She was trembling, anger rolling off her in waves.

“I told you things I’ve never told anyone,” she hissed. “I let you see parts of me I buried years ago. I let you see pain that I did not even want to think existed. I allowed you to see me being vulnerable. I thought…” her voice cracked, and she caught herself, biting the inside of her cheek. “You played your part beautifully, Ethan. You really did. You made it so damn believable I almost let myself believe it. I almost allowed myself to give in to every single sweet word that you said. Every single eye contact, touch, graze of your finger and brush of your lips. I almost allowed myself to believe that they were real.”

“Delilah,” I said, stepping closer. “It was real. All of it. It was all real.”

“No,” she snapped, backing away from me. “Don’t do that. Don’t stand there and throw another line at me like I haven’t heard it all before. It’s not like I did not hear you with my damn ears. Had anyone told me, I would have doubted them. But I heard you speaking. You were gloating about how you managed to break the bad girl, how you managed to get through her. The mystery that you’re trying to uncover.”

“I didn’t pity you,” I said, louder now. “That wasn’t what I meant…”

“Spare it!” she shouted. “You think I care what you meant? I heard what you said. You’re just enjoying it. You’re just sorry for me. You should see a game that you wanted to play, a game that you wanted to crack, and now that you have cracked it, you’re proud of it. Well, guess what, that game is dead. That game that you think you managed to play, it is the same game that can kill everything that’s around and she would not even bother.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…”

She laughed, cold and broken. “Of course you didn’t. None of you ever mean it. You all just think that it is OK to say where you are, to gloat about how everything goes your way, right?”

I reached for her hand, desperate to make her hear me, to feel what I felt. “Delilah, just…”

Tears slid from her eyes, fast and furious, and she wiped them away like they betrayed her.

“Don’t ever touch me again,” she whispered. “Don’t even look in my direction. Don’t you ever think about stepping in my parameter? I don’t want to see your face even if it is the last face that I have to look at.”

I opened my mouth, but no sound came.

Her voice dropped even lower, cutting through me like a blade.

“Go to hell, Ethan.”

She took a step back, eyes never leaving mine. Her tears falling despite her not wanting them to.

“And rot there.” She turned, her heart racing against her chest. “Because maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to understand what it is to think that others are easily broken. Because you can break them.”