Chapter 36 - Thirty Six

Angeline Pov

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Scream!

Run!

Fight!

Do something!

My subconscious was shouting at me, but all that came out was a strained, “wuh-”

My heart and mind racing a million miles a minute, discombobulated.

This is it, this is the end.

After all my precautions, all my defenses, he still managed to catch me alone, defenseless and trapped. I may as well have served myself to him on a silver platter.

There’s no way I can escape him, his body blocked the entire entryway.

I can’t outrun him, he’s a werewolf.

I can’t fight him, he’d crush me in an instant, he’s a werewolf.

That made him all the more terrifying, knowing this wasn’t just a man but also someone half beast. How do you reason with a beast?

The pepper spray! My phone! They’re both in my bookbag, stored in Ms. Randall’s office. How could I be so stupid?

I truly am completely and utterly alone, no one but little Coco here to witness my murder.

Right now the only sound solution would be to somehow escape through the large window behind me.

But I know Keenan would have his hands wrapped around my throat before I even get to unlatch it.

He stared at me with his dark eyes for what felt like years, eventually closing them briefly and inhaling long gulps of air.

I was too terrified to move, wishing the universe would just swallow me whole, that’d be so much more painless than what I was about to go through.

Why were his hands covered in blood, it was blood wasn’t it?

Whose blood was it?

Oh no, oh god, Ms. Randall?

His demeanor was terrifyingly calm and collected, but I could detect a strong simmering emotion behind his eyes.

“So you’re with my cousin now?” His voice was as eerily calm as his demeanor.

He cocked his head, entering a step further into the room. I tried backing up as far into the table as I could, trying to become one with it.

“Did you fuck him?”

The question caught me off guard, what the hell?

Keenan’s whole body tensed and he closed his eyes again, seemingly trying to hold himself back. Subconsciously, my knees began to shake.

Opening his eyes, I could see that they only got darker, the low burning anger now ablaze.

“You don’t know… how hard it was.” He inhaled sharply, “how hard it was not to rip him to shreds the moment I saw you two together. How hard it was to stay in control, how hard it was to keep my distance, how hard it was to wait.”

Keenan lifts a finger tentatively to his lips and narrows his eyes, “I know you kissed him. I could feel it. You know what we are don’t you?”

It was hard to focus with the ringing in my ears and the cold sweat running down my back, every hair on my body stood alert.

“Answer me!” He growled, and I jumped. Coco behind me on the table whimpering, turning belly side up.

I shook my head faintly, gripping onto the table ledge.

“Don’t lie to me!” He was a mere foot from me now, staring up at him, my whole body shaking.

I shook my head more vigorously.

“You- you don’t have to do this,” I say with a shaky voice, no more than a whisper.

I swallow hard, Keenan stares down at me for a hard minute.

Keenan bends down to my level, planting a hand on either side of me, I sink down lower until I’m nearly lying on the table.

His hot breath on my face, I couldn’t face him, so I stared at the floor, petrified.

I’m so scared.

Do I bother fighting? Do I just give up? Should I at least try?

My poor dad, he’s gonna be all alone now.

I was imprisoned in this uncomfortable position and the anxiety and his closeness were making it impossible to breathe or think clearly.

“Whatever the fuck you think you have with Daniel, whatever this little… friendship you think you have with him, it ends today.”

Even through my terror and dread, I couldn’t help the surge of anger that overtook me for a split second.

“Who do you think you are?! I’m not ending my relationship with Daniel! Why do you even care? Why are you even here? Why can’t you just leave me alone? Leave us alone?”

I jump as Keenan slams his hand down on the table, “if you don’t end it by tomorrow, I will visit Daniel all the way in Virginia, and I will kill him.”

I gasped, horrified, the tears I was holding back spilling free.

My eyes immediately went to his bloody hands, where the blood had dried.

I drew in a sharp shaky breath and shook my head. “No, you can’t do that! He’s your cousin!”

“You think I give a fuck?”

“But you can’t-”

“You don’t believe me? Do I need to give you an example?”

I shook my head furiously, “please no-”

“Then you’ll do as I ask, I’m giving you 24 hours.”

“But why?! What am I doing so wrong?! I didn’t know he was your cousin! He doesn’t have anything to do with this!”

“He does now, because of you, and only you can take him out. If you break up with Daniel, I won’t ruin his life, I’ll leave him out if this. I’ll leave everyone out of this, their fate is your decision.”

Crying, I shook my head. It wasn’t fair, I thought that I had finally left this horrid part of my life behind. I thought I had finally found myself, but it only took a matter of seconds for Keenan to revert me back to my crying, weak, and pathetic self. I wouldn’t even get to die with honor.

All that trauma I had spent time unlearning was for nothing.

It just wasn’t fair, I can never win.

“Why do you even like him? What could you possibly see in him?”

“I don’t expect someone like you to understand.”

“Someone like me?”

“Yes! Like you! Someone cruel, heartless, and miserable! Whatever you want to d0 to him, just do it to me! You don’t have to involve him in this!”

“YOU involved him into this, and if you don’t break it off, he’ll pay. I’m not asking either, you will.”

“You can’t just do this anymore! This isn’t Chambers! You won’t get away with it this time! He’ll stop you!”

“Watch me. Now, are you gonna comply? Or are you gonna be difficult?”

I shook my head again, “no! I can’t! I’m sorry, I can’t!”

“WHY!!!” Keenan growled in my face, his arms trembling with uncontrolled anger. He finally took several steps back, throwing his head back and closing his eyes again.

I hugged myself protectively, feeling like any second now he’d strike, he was hanging on by a thread.

“Why?” He said it much lower, almost a whisper, “why?”

“Because… because...I love him! I’m in love with him! I’ll do anything else!”

And just like that, whatever was holding him back had snapped. Grabbing the large metal cabinet, he hauls it with inhuman strength across the room.

I scream as it smacks against the wall loudly, terribly dented with all of its contents falling to the floor.

“No!” Keenan snarls, punching the concrete wall, “no!”

Strange, behind the anger, he sounded so pained.

I make a run for it, but as I swing open the door, I smack right into another hard body.

The girl, the one with the gruesome scar on her face, stands in the doorway, looking rather indifferent given the situation.

She was spying on me for him, she had to be, she was always there. Why didn’t I take her more seriously?

She’s really good at hiding in the shadows.

She steps into the room, forcing me backward. Locking the door behind her, she stares at the broken cabinet, the cracked wall, then back at me, all without changing her expression once, she doesn’t even look surprised.

This is his accomplice, his intel, who’ll help him cover it up. She shouldn’t have been underestimated.

In a short-lived rush of bravery, I exclaim, “if anything happens to me, Daniel will kill you! He’ll come for all of you!”

Keenan laughed darkly, "nothing’s gonna happen to you. It’s Daniel I want now.”

The girl, Shane, walked over to Keenan and handed him something.

I freeze, my phone!

“Her password is 9397,” Shane spoke for the first time.

How did she know my password? It’s Daniel’s birthday so I guess I didn’t exactly make it hard.

“What are you doing? Give that back!”

“Only way to get things done is to do it yourself,” Keenan says typing away on my phone.

“Keep an eye on her, I’ve just mindlinked the others, we’re going to Virginia. My uncle’s aware we’re going.”

Oh my god, Daniel’s own father is in on this?! Daniel’s own father is going to let his son be murdered by Keenan?!

Daniel spoke of his father’s distaste for him but I didn’t think it was this bad.

A visual of Daniel surrounded by wolves, attacked, and lying dead on the ground made my heart churn violently.

“Wait! Wait!” I exclaim, taking a shaky step toward Keenan, cursing myself for what I was about to do because once again, Keenan won.

“I’ll do it! I’ll do it! Promise me that if I do this you’ll leave him alone!”

Keenan narrowed his eyes at me.

I can’t believe I was doing this, but if given the choice between Daniel’s safety and mine, I’ll choose him every time.

“Okay.”

“No, promise me!”

With a sinister smirk, he nodded, “I promise.”

“On your moon goddess?”

“Hmm, so he did tell you after all. I don’t know why he bothered, you were never going to be his Luna,” he vowed. “Never.”

Just then my phone began to ring.

Daniel was calling me.

“I already sent him a text telling him it was over, you’re going to make it official. Answer the phone.”

I couldn’t muster up the courage, couldn’t compose myself long enough to make it believable.

I answered on the last ring.

“Angeline? Angeline?! What the hell is going on?!”

I sniffed, fresh tears running down my cheeks. “I-I-I think we need a… break.”

“What are you talking about? Where is this coming from?”

“I just… I can’t do this anymore, I’ve been thinking about it, for a while now, and I just don’t think it’s ever gonna work, humans, and wolves aren’t meant to be together.”

“Are you okay? Did something happen? Why are you talking like this?”

“I... don’t… want… to… be with you… anymore,” I blubbered out miserably, hoping he’d accept my half-assed bullshit, but praying he didn’t believe it.

Daniel paused, seemingly contemplating my words, “where are you? I’m coming back now.”

“No! There’s no need! Please! Just… don’t contact me again.”

“He’s there now isn’t he?”

I froze, panicked, “what?! N-no?”

“I’m on my way, you can tell him that. Tell him I’m onto him, tell him I know his secret.”

Before I can lie horribly through my teeth again, Keenan snatches the phone from my hand.

“I’ll be waiting.”