Page 5 of Drown My Sorrow

I trot up to my bedroom and enter the bathroom. I’m careful when I draw up my shirt. My entire left side is black. There are fingerprints on my throat and biceps. It’s inconvenient to have to try to hide them, but at least he’s not asking about Eben.

My dad spent hours raging at me, kicking me around like I was his damn boxing bag. Then he did what he always does when he fucks up. He ran away. No apologies, no taking me to hospital or getting me help. Nope, my father is a coward, and he just checked out until, one day, he will come back and see I have survived his punishment.

I miss my brother so badly, but it’s easier on us both if he hates me. At least he won’t be caught in Dad’s self-destructive spiral. Mum has been taking him for longer and longer time periods, leaving me here to deal with my furious and sadistic father.

As time passes, I’ve developed my own brand of dealing with the world. My fists can hit as hard as my fathers. My piercings, tattoos, blue hair, and attitude piss everyone off, but they make me feel like me. Like I can be me, and they won’t be able to destroy my soul. People fear me now and get out of my way when I walk by.

And with Eben gone, I found my pack mates. Beau’s tattoos are spreading wider and further across his body, while Keagan’s almost silent aggression is a thing of beauty. Even my dad is afraid of him.

We’re the same. Keagan, Beau, and I.

Three forgotten sons. Angry, bored, and locked on an island that is driving us all out of our minds.

I stare at my blue and black ribs and the cold look in my hazel eyes, and I wonder if I’m truly my father’s son. I have all the aggression, all the rage, but no fear.

No, I am my father remade.

All I care about is Keagan and Beau. The rest of the world can burn.

ShalePresentday

I hate the sound of people talking. It grates on me. Children’s laughter does a similar thing. I’m just not one of those people who needs to be around or have kids. I’m far too fucked up. People? Well, I might want to be around them more if they didn’t piss me off so much. Right now, everyone is on my shit list and digging deeper.

We live in paradise, and if it isn’t loved-up couples making out on the beach and on every square inch of my island home, it’s kids running a muck. Love, happy endings, the future, it’s so tedious. Especially when this place is one of the most toxic hellholes I’ve lived in.

I scowl as a couple taking a video walk straight into me. They glance back at me with a frown and, with a cry, quickly get out of my way. I walk faster, trying to find where I lost her. Aspyn Montauk is my sun. I literally revolve around her. Nothing else matters but her. Full stop.

It’s been that way since we found her. My scent match who was almost dead, forgotten, and discarded. Never again! The golden light of her was almost extinguished.

Aspyn is beautiful, so very pure, wise, kind, and the strongest person I know. We are her opposites. Her devils. The hounds that will unleash hell upon anyone who makes her sad. We are her vengeance.

The irony of spending my life trying to be worse than my father only to be brought to my knees by an omega who looks at me and doesn’t see a monster. She sees me as safe. She loves me even if she’s not ready to accept it yet.

Now, I wear a chain. Her chain. I’m not the boy I used to be, and I don’t even care. I’ll be whatever she needs me to be.

Keagan jogs to catch up with me, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes. He scans the stalls and tourists, searching for our wayward omega. As he jogs, half the street turns to watch him go by. He’s a gorgeous alpha, but he only has eyes for us and her. He hates people more than I do. I at least need a reason to hit someone. Keagan will do it just for fun.

We’ve been together since we were kids. Keagan, Beau, and I. Lost teenagers who were forced to live on this shithole of an island. We found each other by chance on the beach here. Three kids, lost, who found a connection that built into a lifelong bond. We made promises I will die before I break.

They are mine, and I am theirs. But we belong to her.

Beau bounces along the street, weaving in between people as he searches. His intensity and the tattoos scare people. They look at Beau like he’s terrifying, but while they are looking at him, they miss us passing like hungry sharks under the swimmers struggling to stay on the surface of the big blue.

Morons.

Where did she go? I grind my teeth in frustration.

It baffles me how a woman with an injury that affects her left leg so badly can vanish so quickly. But she’s damn good at it. I’ve had enough. I’m sick of this. We’ve waited long enough, and the only person she is hurting anymore is herself. And why? Because she thinks she’s not good enough.

It’s crap! I grind my teeth as I glance at the hotel, quickly establishing that she’s not in their café.

The damn birds are shrieking so loudly this morning, and it’s just driving a pickaxe of pain into my skull. Why does she have to get up so damn early?

A woman gets in my way. I snarl, and her expression turns to fear. She promptly gets out of my way with a bounce and a squeal.

I snarl at the idiot who goes to defend her. His jaw snaps shut, and he backs off, his arms in the air as he stumbles, almost falling in his efforts to get away from me.

I keep going, my anger and frustration growing, but when we get to where her market stall is, it’s empty. None of her stuff is here, and she’s not here either.

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