Ruthless Alpha, and his Curvy Saint-Chapter 79

Terrell’s POV

Merrick heard me half a second before I reached him. I saw him start to turn - just beginning to register the sound - and then I hit him.

We both went down hard.

He was not a small man and he was not untrained - we had fought each other enough times over the decades that we knew each other’s rhythms the way only brothers do. He got his arms up. He deflected the first strike and nearly landed the second.

Nearly.

But he was not the Alpha.

I drove him into the ground and put a knee in his chest and looked down at his face and for a moment neither of us moved. Merrick looked up at me with an expression that was - even now, even here, in the mud with the breath knocked out of him - more annoyed than afraid.

"Terrell, what are you..."

"You had your hands on her," I said. Very quietly.

"I was helping her..."

"You had your hands on her," I repeated, and the quiet in my voice had nothing to do with calm, and Merrick heard it, and for a moment - just a moment - the annoyance in his face gave way to something more serious. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Fen had reached us by now, circling the edges of the confrontation with his hackles raised and his deep voice rolling out in continuous barking.

Behind me, I heard Lyra - the third figure - move toward Angel. Heard her say something about using this distraction to run.

I turned my head just enough. "Not so fast."

One hand came off Merrick. I put it out flat and sideways, and the push I gave Lyra was direct, enough to separate and kick her away from Angel. She went back two steps and caught herself.

Fen was on her before she could close the distance again, tackling her to the ground.

I turned back to Merrick.

He had used the moment to try to shift his weight - his hands were at my forearms, looking for leverage, and under other circumstances I might have found it impressive. I pressed down harder and watched him accept the result.

"You knew," I said. "You knew she was going to run and you helped her."

"I helped her because you frightened her out of a locked room," he said, and even pinned to the ground my brother could not manage to sound anything other than completely composed. "That’s a cause-and-effect situation, Terrell. You might want to spend some time with it."

My anger flared, and I drew back my fist...

"Terrell... stop!"

Angel’s voice.

I stilled.

Not because the words commanded it. Because the sound of her voice did something to me that I had never been able to explain and probably never would. I turned and found her standing two feet away, tears streaming down her face - I hadn’t heard her move, hadn’t registered her closing the distance - her hands pressed together in front of her chest like she was holding herself together by force of will.

"Stop," she said again, and her voice cracked down the middle. "Please... don’t... just..."

She was looking at Merrick beneath me.

Then she looked at me.

And what was on her face broke something open in my chest that I had no business having broken open right now.

"He’s your brother," she said. Barely above a whisper. "Please don’t hurt him because of me."

The silence after that was very loud.

I held her gaze for a long moment.

Then I stood. Slowly. Stepped back.

Merrick sat up with dignity, brushing mud from his sleeve with the expression of a man having a cool evening walk.

Angel’s POV

I couldn’t stop shaking.

My legs were doing it first and then the rest of me joined in, some delayed response to the last hour catching up all at once. I stood in the dark at the edge of the trees with my arms wrapped around myself and I watched the chaos settle and I felt the tears running down my face and couldn’t do anything about either.

I had been so close.

So close to being somewhere else. Somewhere I could breathe without the weight of all of it pressing down on me from every side. Somewhere far away from him.

Lyra was fiercely fighting with the dog, finally throwing it off her. Merrick was on his feet, alive, which I was desperately grateful for. He was also covered in mud and adjusting his collar with the focused composure of a man who refuses to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him ruffled, which under any other circumstances might have been funny.

And Terrell.

I looked at him and immediately wished I hadn’t.

He was standing with his back half-turned and his jaw set and his chest rising and falling. He was looking at Merrick with an expression I couldn’t fully read.

And then he turned and looked at me.

I looked back.

The distance between us was maybe ten feet and it felt like nothing and it felt like everything and I was still shaking and my feet were destroyed and I had hay in my hair and dried tears on my face and I was not - I was absolutely not - going to let the way he was looking at me mean anything at all.

The sound of boots announced the guards before they appeared - six of them, breaking through the treeline at intervals, breathing hard, torchlight swinging. They took in the scene, surprised to find their Alpha there.

Terrell didn’t look at them.

He kept his eyes on me.

"My lord." The nearest guard stepped forward.

"Take them." He said it quietly. Still looking at me. "Lord Merrick and the woman. They go to the lower cells."

Merrick’s composure finally cracked - just at the corners. "Terrell..."

"The lower cells, Merrick." Something in his voice sounded hurt. "You can spend the time considering the difference between protecting someone and interfering with something that isn’t yours."

His eyes never left mine.