“You won’t win in this situation. You’re crippled by that fat stomach of yours. You either come with me now, or you won’t be leaving this building.”
“Then I guess I’m not leaving this building because the last thing I’m going to do is willingly leave with a pedophile.” I spat at him, dribbles of saliva spewing onto his ‘I’m-better-than-you’ face while I struggled against the hands that held me to the wall.
His hand swished through the air and made contact with the side of my head, leaving a ringing in my ears. It was at that moment that I was transported back to the child I was when he’d held me down, the very same person I’d been while being beaten and chained in a room, getting my blood drawn as if I was nothing more than a lab rat. He evoked a fear that crippled me every time.
Miles yanked me hard down into the desk chair by my hair. I winced in pain but ignored it, focusing on the rope he’d pulled out from God knows where. He began binding my hands to the nearest furniture. The rope was tied so tight that it dug into my skin, but I didn’t let on how much it hurt.
He left the room for a moment and came back with a couple gasoline containers, sprinkling the contents throughout the room and over the top of my clothes. The smell burned my nose and I did my best to keep from gagging when all I wanted to do was throw up.
Miles sprinkled a second container of the gasoline into the rest of the room, smiling. With a quick swish of a match, the room was quickly spreading in flames. The heat surrounded me and the smoke began to fill my every senses. My eyes watered and burned but I refused to give him any satisfaction over winning. I wouldn’t scream. I wouldn’t beg. And I most certainly wouldn’t cry.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save us, Beau. I will always love you, more than anything,” I whispered into the cackling room, resolve overcoming me and realization hitting.
I knew I was going to die.
The man stood across the room from me, watching in sick satisfaction over his handiwork. When he couldn’t take the smoke in his face any longer and began to cough, he stormed from the room, leaving me to go up in a blaze.
The flames began to crawl up my pant leg, and I could feel my flesh singing under the heat. When I was certain he was gone, I allowed the tears to stream from my face as I wept. For my child who wouldn’t even get to see one day in the world. For the heartbroken man whom I knew would find my burnt up body in all the ashes and rubble. I wept for any and every person that ever came in contact with Miles or would ever come into contact with him in the future.
The beauty of the life I’d lived flashed before my eyes. I’d always assumed my life was meaningless and miserable, but as the smoke seeped into my lungs and burned my eyes, I saw clarity.
My life hadn’t been a disaster, it’d been a beautiful mess and it was all mine.
I thought of all the wonderful times that I never really spent the time to actually appreciate. The times where I’d danced and laughed—sometimes even cried—with my beautiful and crazy best friend. Every single moment I’d had since I discovered I was pregnant with my daughter— the joy I’d felt when she’d kicked the first time, hearing her heartbeat, and seeing her for the first time on the ultrasound. Then there was Beau—a man who took me by surprise in every way but still managed to sweep me off my feet and show me what unconditional love felt like through every action, touch, and embrace. A man who held the other half of my heart and soul—Beau truly was my soul mate.
I was no longer broken and ungrateful; instead I was thankful for everything. For the wonderful life I’d lived despite the heartache. A life that my mother and father had wanted to be a part of but hadn’t had the chance.
I’d soon see them again, and while I knew it was sooner than expected, I was ready to leave this life as a blessed person.
Darkness overcame me as I collapsed in the chair from the smoke clouding me. All pain from the burns no longer overwhelmed my body. Peace—for the very first time in my life—taking it’s place.
BEAU
I sat beside Jules’ burnt up body, my heart breaking seeing her in that condition. Her unconscious body was strapped to various machines and an oxygen mask sat atop her face, breathing clean air into her smoke infused lungs.
My hand stayed resting firmly on her belly and my soul swelled with pride when I felt a slight movement from within. The apparent strength of my unborn daughter amazed me. Her heart was strong and it seemed that the fire had managed to cause very little harm. Juliette had gotten the majority of the injuries, her body protecting our daughter greatly.
I buried my face in her neck, inhaling her scent and hoping with everything in me that I didn’t lose her. I just got her back. I whispered into her ear, willing her to wake up and show me her pretty blues.
“Come to me, love. Please, I can’t lose you. Not yet. Our daughter needs you. I need you.” I repeated back the words she’d spoken to me the night she had told me she loved me. I didn’t know how long I sat there speaking to her, but I never faltered.
My heart leapt when her eyelids began to flutter. “I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered into the mask on her face, her voice coming out in raspy wisps.
For a rare moment in my life, I cried silently. Tears of joy for my beautiful soul mate and daughter being spared, when they could have easily lost their lives in that wretched fire.
Her arms came up around my neck and she winced, her breathing becoming shallow and labored, but she never let go, only clinging onto me that much tighter.
“Careful, love. You’re hurt.”
“I thought I was dying, Beau.” Tears sprang to her face and she reached up—pulling the mask away briefly. “I thought I’d never be able to tell you how much I love you. I was afraid that we’d never get to hold our baby girl in our arms.” Her voice was hoarse and she could barely manage to get a few sentences out before busting out in long coughing spells.
I held her chin in my hands, looking into her eyes so she’d understand the depth of the words flowing from my heart. “Don’t speak, love. Relax. When I pulled in and saw Griffin holding your life-less body, a fear that I had never known before overcame me. Juliette, you hold my heart. Had you and our daughter died today, I would have followed behind you both in a heartbeat.” She gasped at my admission. “I cannot live in a world where neither of you exist.”
“Would you really—” cough, cough “—end your life if I died?”
“After I’d gotten my Alpha affairs in order... Without a doubt.”
“But… Why?”
“We’re soul mates, my love. If you weren’t here, there’s nothing on this earth that would ever bring me happiness. You’re like the breath of fresh air that my lungs desperately crave. Without you, it would feel as if I was gasping for air with everything in me, but all I would inhale is smoke and toxic fumes.”
“Oh. I know what that’s like.” She thought quietly. “So I’m like your life force?”
“It’s about time you understand that.” I winked at her and her raspy giggle rang in my ears, calming all the fears I’d had to face.
JULIETTE
Looking around and noticing what I was attached to and where I was, I tried not to panic. The last time I’d been in a hospital, the odds clearly hadn’t been in my favor and if I could have gotten up and walked right out, I would’ve. Unfortunately, the burns limited my mobility.
I shook my head furiously. Beau just squeezed my bandaged hand gently but tightly at the same time. “No,” I mumbled pulling the mask directly from my face. “Get me out of here, B. I can’t be here.”
“It’s okay. I’ll always protect you and Harlow was able to pull some strings and get your blood results changed in your medical files. We won’t be here long and then we’ll get you back home, where you belong.”
“I hate to interrupt, Alpha, but I need to know your decision.” Griffin stepped into the room.
His shoulders stiffened briefly and it only managed to alarm me. I felt like someone had literally put my lungs on a stick and roa
sted them over a campfire. I didn’t want to deal with anything else.
“What?” I asked them both, glaring and threatening either of them to lie to me. After all, I was lying in a hospital bed with burns up and down my entire body. I’d use the ‘I’m burnt to a crisp’ card if I had to.
“We have Miles,” Beau said.
“Wh-what? He didn’t get away?” I moved a little too quickly and a little too rough, causing a tear to slip from the corner of my eye. So much pain everywhere.
“Well he would have, had I not punched him in the nose the minute he opened the office door,” Griffin interjected, slight amusement intermingling with his words. “The guy’s pathetic. Didn’t take much time at all to even take him down to the ground.”
“I guess Eve and a few guys have him tied up in one of the pack chambers, while I talk to you about what our next move is,” Beau spoke calmly, and I knew the quiet side of him was the one to fear.
“Okay. So what are the options?” I half spoke and coughed out at the same time.
“Alpha, are you sure you want her to be the one to make the decision. With all due respect, she is more forgiving than most and may not make the best choice,” Griffin spoke politely as to not offend his boss and mate.
“Griff. This man has hurt Juliette over and over and over in her twenty-two years of life. As much as I want to make the decision for her, it wouldn’t be fair. The damage was done to her. She decides the punishment.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I repeat, What are my options?” I asked, getting agitated between the back and forth commentary from the men who still hadn’t answered my question. Getting worked up wasn’t the smartest choice either, because I felt like punching someone but could barely move, let alone breathe.
Beau ticked off the options with his fingers. “One, he goes to prison. Where his future is unknown, always a possible chance he may someday be free. Two, we let him go now and he gets away with what he has done to you. Or three, he dies at the hands of the pack.”
“Wow. You guys are really black and white aren’t you?” I asked rhetorically, thinking over the options I’d been given. I shifted gently in the hospital bed, wincing over the pain as I slid the white sheet from my lap. As light as it was, it still rubbed me the wrong way. “Hold on.” I smiled apologetically at my random interruption.
“No worries, Jules,” Griffin said.
“Option two, is out. He can’t get away with everything.” I slid the oxygen mask back onto my face and felt so much lighter. I didn’t have to gasp for breath or physically struggle to speak. Though my words were muffled, they were werewolves—I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to understand me. “He destroyed my childhood, the innocence that I so desperately deserved. Then he took away the joy of the early stages of my pregnancy. And best of all, he basically burnt me and our baby to a crisp, so him walking out of there, not an option.”
“Agreed,” both men spoke at the same time.
“If we went with option one, he’d come after me again if he ever managed to get released, wouldn’t he?”
“I want to say no, love. But there’s no doubt in my mind that he would see it as a challenge and try to resume where he left off.”
“He’ll never stop.” My words hung in the air with finality, my body drooping into the fluffy pillows behind me. “If I chose option three, for our daughter, would I be a killer?” I asked quietly, looking down at Beau’s fingers intertwined with mine. “I don’t want to be like him. I don’t want to be a bad person, Beau.”
“Juliette. I’ve known you for a short time, but you could never be like him,” Griffin intervened, speaking up genuinely. “You care and love everyone so deeply that you put your life at risk to keep others safe. You have such a full heart and I can see the hope that you have for the world around you, despite all that you’ve been through. I couldn’t have hand selected a more perfect mate for my Alpha and friend. You bring a softness and love that compliments his possessiveness and pride.”
“He’s right, love. Choosing to have him eradicated wouldn’t make you a bad person. It’d protect you and our baby girl. It would also protect any person that he would have dared to take advantage of or harm in the future. It would be doing the world an incredible justice by ridding it of his evil.”
I nodded slightly though I never brought my eyes to his. I needed a moment to think things through without the momentary distraction of his beautiful face.
“We were content to leave things be. But he came to our home and tried to harm our family. That is not okay,” Griffin spoke.
“If I allow you guys to end his life, how would it happen?”
“We give the human the fate they would have inflicted upon others. In your case, it would have been death by fire. That would be the one that Miles would have to suffer,” Beau spoke, placing his hand on my cheek, his thumb rubbing light and gentle small circles.
“I don’t know. That just seems kind of harsh and I don’t want his death to be on my hands.” I breathed deeply, feeling the oxygen course through me.
“It won’t be, love. It’ll be on the pack’s—on mine. Although initially the choice is yours, I am leader. I can just as easily decide to stop it. If it helps you, you can pin his death on me.”
“Okay, Beau. I trust you. But most of all though, I don’t want to be afraid and fearful that one day he’ll come after me or our little girl. I want to feel safe and I don’t want to have to keep looking over my shoulder.”
“You are safe. I will protect you both with my life. It’s done.” Beau nodded to me, placing the sweetest and most gentle kiss on my forehead.
He turned away momentarily and ushered Griffin from the room. When we were finally alone, I made space on the bed for him, then laid my head on his shoulder.
“I know what I want to name our daughter.” I looked up at him, my eyes glimmering with excitement. “It came to me as I was sitting in the building and thinking over my life. It couldn’t be more perfect!”
“What is it?” He chuckled, running his fingers through my extremely faded ‘blue-but-now-basically-mint green’ streaked blond hair. I pulled his face towards mine and whispered the name quietly in his ear.
“Perfect.” Beau’s big goofy boyish grin spread across his face, only causing me to smile even bigger.
BEAU
My mom looked at me with unshed tears in her eyes. All she could do was bounce around on the balls of her feet with excitement and talk about how surreal it was for her to watch her little boy prepare for his own little one to come into the world.
“You know, Mom, I’m definitely not an interior designer. You could be helping,” I said.
“How about you place the letters right there, on the wall above?”
“Like this?” I held the wooden letters that spelled out my daughters name above the crib that Saylor had purchased as a surprise gift.
“Yes. That’s perfect, hun.”
My mother and I had spent a good week working on a beautiful baby nursery for my soon-to-be daughter. We’d spent three of those days shopping in all the best baby stores in the greater Hollywood area, to find only the best stuff. It wasn’t everyday that you became a father, and I was determined to get it right, no ifs ands or buts. While my mom insisted on helping pay for things, I was pretty sure she didn’t realize the quantity of money that the pack had at beck and call, a large quantity that has been passed down over the generations. As Alpha, I tended to have more than most—more than I possibly knew what to do with. I was also pretty sure that I could live a thousand lifetimes and still have too much leftover.
“Beau, honey, I think we’re done.”
“I think so too. Do you think Juliette will love it?”
“Oh. There is no doubt in my mind!” Mom said.
I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. “Thanks, Mom. I couldn’t do this without you.”
Tears filled her eyes once more, and this time they fell silently down her cheeks. “Anythin
g for the love of my son’s life and my new grand-baby.” As she pulled back, she looked up into my face with what I could only assume was pride and joy. “Well I best be off. I can’t be here when Juliette gets back. I don’t want her catching on to this. After all, it isn’t time.”
“Okay. See you in four days?”
“You bet.”
***
“But Beau, please?” Juliette whined, trying to make me cave. She used every weapon in her arsenal but I wasn’t budging, I couldn’t.
“Not happening, love. You’re too fragile. Let it go.”
“The hell I am. B, I love you, but you can’t just cage me up and make every decision for me. I’m still an adult, no matter how much you try to run my life.” She glared at me while stretching her legs out on the couch, blocking me from being able to sit beside her.
“Juliette, I’m protecting you. Seeing him will only bring about all those memories that you deserve to bury, once and for all.”
“Then let me get the closure that I need, so that I can move on. You can be there in the room but I need to do this.”
“You won’t give this up, will you?” I asked skeptically.
“Not a chance, my handsome guy,” she spoke, and I knew she could see me clearly—the wavering indecision in my eyes giving me away.
“Fine, but I’m not leaving your side.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She rolled her eyes.
JULIETTE
“You ready, Sir?”
“I think it’s best you don’t ask him, Griffin. He looks like he’s going to grab me and take me away from here.” I half giggled at the angry expression that was making its way to Beau’s face.
“Don’t tempt me, love,” he spoke, his eyes never leaving me.
Griffin opened the door to the dark chamber that held Miles. I hadn’t known that the pack had chambers like this on the reservation. It was just one other surprise to wrap my head around.
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