Alpha Damon (Sienna) novel Chapter 292

Ethan:

The cell reeked of sweat and stale blood.

I glared at the man that I once knew as my friend, that who unscrew her foot that I once looked up to. The two of us were friends and we stood by one another side through it all. And yet here I was, looking at him as a stranger, looking at him as an enemy. If anyone would have told me that I would be looking at him as something like this, I would have said that they were insane. I would have punched them in the face.

The walls sweated with the cold, and Carter sat slumped in the shadows, wrists limp over his knees, head down like he’d already accepted the grave they were preparing for him. “If you’re here to end me, Carter, then just do it already. You coming inside and just leaving is not going to change anything. What you’re doing is only delaying whatever is inevitable it seems. And it’s not like you want to change your mind.”

I didn’t wait for a guard to announce me. I walked in, door slamming behind me.

“Start talking,” I snapped. “Rather than giving in to something like this, why don’t you just speak, tell me what it is that you did, and maybe then we’re going to be able to actually have a conversation that is different than this.”

He looked up slowly, lids heavy, like he’d been fighting sleep, or something worse.

“I don’t remember everything,” he said hoarsely. “It is just pieces and no matter how hard I try to collect things together, I cannot. If I had any control over my actions, trust me, things would have gone differently.

My fist connected with the bars before I even knew I’d moved. “Don’t give me poetry. Give me the truth. You of all people have never been a man of poetry and you’ve never been amount of games or surprises. Start telling the truth. Those people that died, why did they die? What did she pay you?”

“I am. She did not pay me anything. She does not have to do something for me. I’m never going to betray my family. You need to understand that that word holds momentum to me, holds a meaning to me.” Carter said, raising his voice now. “She got inside my head, Ethan. I didn’t invite her in. I tried to fight her. It’s not easy to fight amidst that strong and with the number of things that she’s done, she just kept growing stronger. I was a victim to that just as much as anyone else was.”

“You were one of us, I refuse to believe that something like this could have happened, especially to someone like you. You never allowed anyone inside your head and suddenly a woman can get in very easily. Who the hell do you think you’re fooling?” I hissed. “You were my friend. And you let her walk right through our borders. You just allowed her. You stood back and allowed her.”

“She used me!” He snapped.

I stepped closer, fury boiling just under my skin. “You could’ve fought it. You should’ve. You should have called for help. I think that you know for a fact that you could have done so.”

“I tried!” he shouted back, standing now. “Do you think I wanted to betray my pack? You don’t know what it was like. You don’t know what she showed me, what she took from me…”

“You don’t realize the consequence that you put everyone through. Sienna was in danger, Isla too. The whole pack was thrown in the depths of hell. Many died.” I grabbed him through the bars, yanked him forward until his face was inches from mine.” Delilah nearly died. Lysandra was in danger. You let that thing in. And now you want me to feel sorry for you? Do you want me to actually believe a word that you’re saying?”

Carter didn’t flinch. “Then kill me. If you believe that I’m a traitor, then go on ahead and just kill me.”

The door opened with a bang. Damon’s voice cut through the heat like a blade.

“Enough.” I frowned as I glared at him, but I knew not to defy the Alpha. I knew my limits still… and I knew better than to cross them. Not even for him. He was not worth it.

I didn’t let go right away. My knuckles were white. My chest heaving.

“Ethan.”

Damon stepped closer.

“Let. Him. Go.” Damon said, his voice stern. “This is not how you’re supposed to be.”

I released Carter, shoving him back against the wall, breathing hard. Damon grabbed my arm and dragged me a few feet away. “You think this is helping?” he asked, low and sharp. “You think you’re going to get answers by trying to beat them out of him? You’re just going to end up killing him and there is not going to be good for us to it.”

The door slammed shut behind him.

I stared at Carter a beat longer, fists still trembling.

He sank back to the bench in silence, shadows curling beneath his eyes again.

I didn’t offer a word.

I just walked out.

Because something told me…

She was coming.

And none of us were ready.

Especially as Delilah’s words played in my mind, words that neither one of us understood what they meant. Words that I still

kept in my memory until she was able to tell me what it was about that she spoke the way she did.