-Theo POV-
"I can't believe he's still out. You punched the hell out of him." I told Isaac, watching as they pushed Damian's body into a wolfsbane cage over an hour later.
"Well yeah, after the pain wore off, the anger came. Let's see him try and escape this. Betcha he never had to fight against his own kind before." I nodded, rolling my shoulder.
"How are you holding up?" He asked me. The question surprised me. No one ever asked me how I was doing, because no one cared, save Cassia. I shook the shock from my body and answered, "I'm okay. Just miss her."
"I understand." He stated quietly. "You got a girl?" I asked. "I did at one point. I haven't shopped around much since." "She leave?" I asked, surprised that I actually cared to know.
"No," he smiled bitterly, "she was killed."
I felt the bottom of my stomach drop, and I felt sick at the thought of losing mine. "That's...tough, man. I'm sorry."
"Did Theo Raeken actually just put those two words together?" Cora interrupted, whisking into the room and glaring at Damian's unconscious body.
"Write it on a calendar, it'll be the only time you hear it." I told her. She gave a small, humored smile before gluing her eyes back on Damian. "If the cops weren't here, I'd kill his ass." She said under her breath.
"I'm going to kill him regardless of who's around," I griped, "but I don't want to delay the trip back any longer, and they'd hold me forever if I did it now."
Cora nodded. "All that matters is she stays safe." She said, and I agreed quickly.
She started and Isaac growled in unison with me when Damian shifted in his sleep, then his eyes opened slowly. "That was a lucky hit." He ground out groggily. "One that will be repeated with or without necessity." Isaac said.
"You can't stop what is meant to be." He grumbled. "I beg to differ." I told him, trying not to make it obvious just how close I was to Cassia. It was a struggle not to rush to her defense immediately, but I didn't want this nightmare to know just how much of a liability I could be to her.
He stood suddenly, making Cora, Isaac and me bend into a defensive stance. "So mechanical." He noted, shaking his head like it was a shame, "It's amazing how innocently stupid my baby sister can be. She's surrounded herself with dogs and robots. Poor Cassie..."
I bit my lip so hard that blood filled my mouth. She had almost lost it when Joel had called her 'Cassie', and now I could see why. Disgust filled me with the nickname. It was insulting to her.
"She's more protected than you'd know." Cora said. Angrily, Damian slammed his fist again one of the bars. "You think your little cage can contain me!" He screamed, "Nothing will stop me!"
"I'll kill you first!" I roared back, unable to keep the seething rage under wraps any longer. The more I looked at him, the more I wanted to kill him.
"Awfully protective." He speculated, suddenly unnervingly calm once more, "Is there something deeper than friendship there? Has the little wolfy got a crush?"
I tightened my fist, purposefully hiding the gold band on my left hand against my hip.
"Ah, young love. It's so poetic to destroy it." He said, smiling wickedly.
Damian bent the bars to his cage and stepped out between them. He hadn't yet hit the wolfsbane barrier, but I hoped that when he did, it bounced his head off of it.
"Eventually, one of you will bring her to me..." He said, taking another step forward menacingly, "And when you do, I shall enjoy killing her, and making you watch."
Finally, he took one step too far and much to my satisfaction, his head whiplashed backwards and his body flew back against the mutilated bars.
"You're not doing shit." Isaac said, "You can't get past the wolfsbane."
With a roar of pure rage, Damian smashed against the barrier again, gashing his forehead and spilling blood over his right eye. The long strands of way too familiar toffee hair fell across his shadowed face, and it disgusted me how much he looked like Cassia.
This guy had potential to show up in the face of our child. I almost hated it more than the thought of Tara showing up in the brat's features.
"You." Damian hissed, pointing directly at me.
"What." I growled.
"You're the most important one. I don't know the connection, but you're the closest to her, whether its your crush or you're her best friend. I will not stop until I find her, and this cell will only hold me for so long. It will be because of you."
I didn't let the terror in my chest take root, but pushed it away by dumping adrenaline and anger into my system.
I walked forward fearlessly until only the barrier kept us from being nose to nose. "You may be smart, and you may believe you're ahead in this race. And yes, you've won all the battles, but you will lose this war."
-Cassia POV-
"I need to talk to Joel today, now if possible. Theo is planning to come home a day early. He told me last night." I told Liam.
"Ugh," Liam whined, flopping his head back against the couch cushion. "What?" I chuckled, putting my hands on my hips. "I don't want to have to see him any sooner than necessary." He complained, and I laughed.
"What are you going to do once this kid gets here, hmm? Uncle Liam, how does that sound?" "Never in a million, bajillion years would I be uncle to Theo's kids." "Ki-duh." I forcefully stressed the 'd', "Singular, alone, uno and one. Kid. And what about me, huh? Don't I count for something? You're like a younger brother." I laughed.
"Ugh, why did you have to be with him?" He playfully groaned, "I like you too much to hurt you and I dislike him enough to cause him pain without worry. Why did you do this to me?" "Well, in the next life, I promise not to stress you so." I laughed again, "Anyway, I'm not allowed to be alone with him, so come on, let's go for a walk."
"Oh goodie, do I need to retrieve my leash?" He asked sarcastically. "I think the collar of your shirt should do." I replied playfully.
He rolled his eyes with a slight smile, but stood and offered me his arm. I smiled back and took it, placing the other hand on my belly. "I hope that soon I will feel it move. I'm so nervous about it."
"Aren't you scared of giving birth?" "Of course I am. But I am more scared of having to raise it."
Joel was leaning against his car, smoking. His face went blank when he saw us approaching. "Joel." I greeted and he nodded. "We need to talk. We can't just let all this brew."
"So talk." He replied, taking another draw off of the cigarette. "Let's walk." I offered. He dropped the stick and twisted his toe on it to put it out, then placed his hands in his pocket. "Welp, this is my cue to fall back to the fresh air of not awkward. You two have fun." Liam said, falling far behind, but keeping to Theo's wishes of watching.
"We need to do this, no matter how weird or embarrassing." I told him. "Were you aware that he was a monster when you married him?" He asked coldly. "What do you mean?" I asked him, trying to keep my cool. "He showed me what he is. Did you know?" "Of course." I answered honestly, "I've known since...well, before we even started dating." "And you still married him? What if he lost his temper with you?"
"He has lost his temper with me. He's never laid a finger on me that I didn't want." I told him, "And if this has anything to do with the outcome of the baby, it will be human."
"You sound awfully confident." He said, narrowing his eyes. "Let's just say that Theo isn't what he is by birth." I explained. "A science experiment." He said in disgust. Though he wasn't far from the truth, rage gripped me.
"I want to try to stay as calm and understanding as I can. In order to do that, you're going to have to not piss me off." I told him, "Now, I want you to tell me exactly how you feel, then I'll kindly talk it out with you."
"You sure Theo is okay with this little chat?" "The whole point of doing this now is so he won't be here to kill you."
"Cassia..." He started, "I think since I first saw you when they brought you in as a scared little girl, I knew I could make you happy. You just never gave me the chance."
"Joel, you only saw pictures of what happened to me that terrible night. You didn't experience it head on. It was terrible. I was young and terrified, and permanently on the run from that day forward. True, you really aren't my type, and I am sorry that you feel I didn't give you a chance to try, but things just happened with Theo. As far as I knew, I would never see you again."
He stared at me long and hard before speaking again. "I could have provided you with safety, a good life. I could just as easily have made you happy...given you a baby. I tracked you for two years after you ran away from your foster home, but you always got away." "I got away because Damian found out where I was and I left without a trace. I would not have stopped if I had known you were looking for me, in fact, I probably would have left quicker. Until now, I avoided cops like the plague."
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "You'll find someone, Joel. All you have to do is keep looking, and look for someone who isn't me. Just because you're hurt right now doesn't mean there isn't anyone else out there for you. I was lonely too."
"If you had considered stopping someplace before I gave up tracking you to save my job, you'd have stopped being lonely years ago." He lightly argued.
"Joel, I would never have said yes. Do you know how long it took Theo to work around to getting with me, and how long I fought liking him? He didn't like the idea of marriage, and he has a bad past. I was scared of him, but in the course of it all, we both fell in love with each other. You seem to think we just simply met and planned to spend our lives together."
"Isn't that practically what happened?" "Absolutely not." I nearly growled, "I hated Theo at first, avoided him at all cost-" "Which you should have kept doing."
I threw up my hands. "It's clear that you don't want to talk this out. All you want to do is talk about how wrong my choice was when in reality, it was the best thing I ever did. But you do you."
I began to walk off when he reached out and caught my arm gently, and I stopped, restraining from yanking away. "If I am never going to be able to have a chance with you...can I request something?" He asked.
"It depends." I answered, facing him again. "Just for a second...could I kiss you?"
Shock went through me, and I was already backing up. "No, unless its on the hand or something. I am married." "I'm well aware of that." He grumbled, "He gets to hold you for the rest of his life. You've got his last name, his ring, you'll have his kids, forever. I'm asking for two seconds to do what I dreamed of for years."
"Well, you'll have to keep dreaming." I said softly, "I don't care if it's one second or 60, I'm not kissing anyone else. When I stood up and took my vows, I promised Theo I would only ever be with him. I promised unity, loyalty and faithfulness to him at that altar. I am very sorry that I can't help you feel better, but I won't do that to him, this kid, or myself. Or you. Wouldn't you feel guilty about kissing another man's wife? That would be something terrible to have to tell your future wife."
"Quite frankly, no it wouldn't. Tons of people cheat all the time, and technically it wouldn't even be cheating-" "I'm done with this conversation." I interrupted, "The answer is no. We can be friends if you'll get past this...phase, but until then, don't approach me unless it's strictly friendly."
I turned my back to him, meeting Liam's eyes to make sure he understood I wanted him to cover me.
"That's a real douche move..." He muttered to me when I came to his side again to walk to the house. "You heard?" I asked, relieved he had.
"Yeah...I mean...that's really messed up." He breathed, "I mean, I hate Theo and all, but I would never ask you to cheat on him."
"I'm surprised you have a limit to trying to hurt him." I teased, opening the door and walking into the air conditioned room.
"I love being an asshole to him, but I wouldn't be a bastard like that, make sense?" He asked, sitting beside me as I flipped through the channels on TV. "Yes," I chuckled, then sighed, "Truly, I hate that I'm the reason he feels bad, but that can't justify what he's thinking and doing. I belong to another man, I mean, for goodness sake, I'm pregnant."
"Yeah, but don't worry. Theo will be back tomorrow, around noon-ish, and he'll be here in case the cop wants to act up." Liam said, changing the channel again. I laid my head on his shoulder, tiredness flowing through me.
"Did you sleep at all last night?" He asked, shifting to put his arm around me so I would be more comfortable. "Yeah, I think it's just the fact that I'm creating a whole new person." I giggled. "Probably." He said, "In any case, go ahead and sleep if you can. I'll watch over you."
"Thanks Liam...I wish you had been my real brother." I told him. I saw him smile from the corner of my eye before I closed them and slept soundly.
**Thanks for reading! I hope you're enjoying! Hope you all have a great day!**
