Mine to Protect Chapter 61: ARGUMENT

*Hazel*

Emma is on her knees, her arms braced around her trying to shield herself, the skin on her arms and bare legs is completely burnt, as is some of her hair, luckily her face hasn’t suffered much damage.

Derek runs to Emma’s side, fussing over her, and ordering the others to get the pack doctor there immediately.

I don’t stay there to look at the scene, I know Derek is worried about his friend, aggravated at what I have done, but I don’t care, I hate that he is showing her more attention than me, I have been badly hurt too, although my wolf has already healed me. She would have ended me if I hadn’t done something.

I am nearly to the packhouse when Derek catches up to me; I can feel his black aura getting near, but I am not afraid, he’s not the only one angry. I turn around to confront him, getting even more upset at the look of pure rage he’s unleashing on me.

“What the fuck did you do?” His accusatory voice booms through the packhouse’s gardens, making birds and small animals leave quickly in search of a safe shelter.

“Why did you attack Emma? She was just training you!”

“Yes, if for training you mean beating me to death!” I reply sarcastically.

“Don’t give me that attitude, Hazel, or Goddess forbids, I will not be held responsible for what I’ll do.”

What? Is he going to beat me too? Let’s welcome Hazel’s new role, from cherished Luna to miserable punchbag.

“Are you serious? She was using me as a punching bag, she even broke one of my ribs, no one was doing anything to stop her. SORRY, if I had to something to protect myself.”

“You look fine to me, you don’t have even a scratch, while Emma is covered in severe burns; it will take her wolf days to heal her completely.”

“Isn’t she a strong Alpha? She’ll survive,” I reply, showing him that I don’t care in the least about her injuries. In reality, I do care a little, the guilt is still there churning at me, but I won’t let him know this.

I turn to leave, but he quickly closes the gap between us, grabbing me by my forearm. It would feel like dejavu of the first time we met, if it wasn’t for his deadly expression and his grip on my arm too tight, bone crushing tight.

“Don’t you dare leave while I am talking to you! Don’t disrespect me!” he all but roars at me, making me for the second time since I met him, scared of him.

I whimper in pain, his grip getting even tighter, tears roll down my cheeks, but not for the pain, for the betrayal I am feeling at his behavior; he is my mate, he is supposed to love and protect me, not to hurt me to avenge others. Sadness and hurt fill me, and I look away from his face, unable to look at him anymore, all I want now is to get away from him, as far away as I can.

He seems to pick up on my emotions from the bond, and it’s like he comes back from a trance, he immediately releases my arm, looking aghast at the purple print he has left.

“Hazel, I am sorry, I was so angry I lost it, I…”

He starts apologizing, but I don’t let him finish, I don’t want to hear a word of his useless apologies.

“Save it, Derek,” I tell him turning away from him, and starting walking again towards the packhouse, clutching my arm with my other hand.

“Wait, Hazel, we can’t leave things like this, we need to talk,” he tries again, but I am seriously done with talking. I turn to face him, and yell at him with all the force I can master,

“LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!”

White light appears around me and spreads in all directions like a bomb, blinding Derek for a second. It’s enough for me to safely get into the packhouse and away from him.

I don’t want to go back to his room, so I go to the only place that feels like home to me, and that thankfully is not locked, Cindy’s room. How I wish she was here, she would have ripped that bitch a new one and would have given Derek a colorful piece of her mind. The anguish for my missing friend adds up to all the catastrophic events of today, and my emotions get loose into a stream of tears that seems endless.

I don’t know how much time I spend there, sunlight turns to dusk and then to night. Derek tried to mind link me, but I blocked him out, then he has come to my door, and pleaded me to talk to him, but I ignored him. I don’t know how he found me here, I thought it was a good enough hide out, apparently, I was too obvious.

He has come and gone multiple times, each time pleading with me to open up, to give him a chance to talk things out, but I don’t want to see him, I don’t want to talk to him, I just wished he would leave me alone.

When I think he has finally given up, I hear a key being inserted in the lock, see the lock turn to open, the handle goes down, the door opens, and Derek appears at the entrance, his hair all messy from running his hands through it over and over.

I let out a menacing growl, warning him that I am not ok with him invading my space; I told him I want to be alone, for God’s sake, is it so difficult to understand?

He doesn’t seem phased in the least by my growl and comes to sit on the bed facing me.

“Kitten, …” he tries.

“Leave!” I tell him, with the coldest tone I can master.

“Come back to our room, you can ignore me, yell at me or insult me as much as you want there, but please, let’s go to our room.”

“It’s your room, not our room.”

“It’s ours, the room where we shared our first night together, the room where we marked each other. You haven’t even seen my mark yet, aren’t you curious?”

I am honestly not a tiny bit curious, at the moment I am hating our marks, hating our bond, which is only bringing me more heartache and sorrow, as I haven’t enough of those already.

“No.” It’s my only answer.

My answer makes him more frustrated and a little pissed too, so he does the thing that cavemen do when they can’t win with words, they use their brute force. He picks me up from the bed bridal style, but I am not going easily, so I start kicking and pushing him on the chest, making him lose his balance, at which he flips me over his shoulder and carries me like that to our room, still kicking and punching, but unable to break free of his grip.

As soon as we get inside the room, and he locks the door and puts me down, anger bubbles hotter inside me, and I punch him on his chest, once, twice, I lose count of how many times I punch him, yelling at him, “Why you couldn’t just leave me alone?”.

He doesn’t move and doesn’t say anything, he lets me punch and yell until I am too tired to go on. But I don’t feel better, I just feel sad and hurt, so, I crouch down into a ball, my arms hugging my knees, and start crying again.

Derek picks me up from the floor, still hugged in that weird position, sits on the bed, and places me in his lap, running circles with his palms on my back, and hugging me with his other arm.

His scent immediately calms me a little, and I want to inhale more of it, so I unravel myself from my ball stance, lace my arms around his neck and change into a straddling position, from here I have a better access, and bury my face in the crook of his neck, inhaling deeply his magical scent.

He hugs me tightly, kissing my head, my temple, my cheek.

“I am sorry I hurt you, there are no excuses. I will do anything to make you forgive me. I don’t ask you to forgive me right away, I just want you to give me a chance. Please, kitten, I love you, I can’t stand you being away from me, being afraid of me.”

He says the last words in a whisper, like he’s scared to say them out loud.

I ponder for a few moments if I should reply to him or not, then decide that it’s better to let things out than let them simmer inside.