Skinned

Valerie

“Valerie.”

A soft knock on the door of my office put disturbance to my work. Prior to my consent for the entrance of the person, the door was quickly swung open, revealing a seething Beta Reed with a wolf pushing itself closer to the surface of him.

Beta Reed stood in front of me with his cerulean eyes pointing judgement against my skin and his taut arms crossed above his chest, while I merely dropped my papers back on the desk and glided my tongue across my lips, preparing myself for the impending sermon thrown by the Beta himself.

“Beta Reed,” I addressed him nonchalantly with a nod of my head.

“Last night can’t happen again,” Beta Reed bit out.

“Heath could have gotten in a lot of trouble, Val,” he snarled. “That man’s hunger should never be your concern. Your job was to simply patch him up and make sure he’ll live long enough to give us the information we need. You are completely overstepping your role in this pack.”

That ticked me off.

Killian was worth more than the knowledge that he could give about himself, and he was everything that anyone in the pack could never be.

Although he was oozing with strength and power, they chose to pay no regard to his capacity, all because they were too afraid of a beast worth more than an Alpha. They refused to accept a new addition to their old hierarchy.

“Don’t you see it, Reed?” I questioned him. “Killian is something more, I can feel it just as much as you can. Alpha Azeil will do anything in his power to keep him down because he knows he can lose a challenge against him.”

Beta Reed clenched his jaw, “It’s almost ironic how you put a lot of faith on that beast more than your own wolf, don’t you think?”

From a statement made in defense for his Alpha, it struck me hard in the chest, and I let my eyes regard him coldly.

“You have no idea about strength, nor authority, when all you’ve ever done is run from what you really are,” Beta Reed spat. “And the only thing you’ve ever done throughout the extent of your life... is hide.”

I didn’t miss how his eyes trailed down to my bandaged arm intentionally, and I pulled it back away from his attention by moving it to my lap.

The punctures had gotten worse.

Everything he said was meant to hurt my core, to claw deep into my scars, opening it and letting me bleed once again.

And it just made me realize that he was just as blind as everybody else; so easy to be decieved and too oblivious to understand.

“Don’t involve my brother with you again, Valerie, I mean it.” Beta Reed flashed his teeth to me, and I was swift to become influenced by his threat and look away to yield myself to him instinctively.

“B-Beta Reed,” Emma greeted from behind him with a slight tremor to her voice, but was ignored nonetheless.

“If you continue to defy Alpha Azeil, there’s no doubt you’ll be thrown into punishment, and dragging Heath into your fucking plans makes it even worse. You have to remember that you’re not the one to make the choices, but you’re made to follow the Alpha’s. Don’t push your luck, Val.”

With a final growl that emphasized his point, he turned around and stormed out of the room with Emma gaping at him.

“What did you do, Valerie?” She asked me, entering my office with her hands clasped in front of her. I eyed her for a moment before turning my head over to the window beside me.

I shook my head, “Nothing major.”

“Don’t stall,” Beta Reed told me firmly as we neared Killian’s place of confinement.

This time, two different men were standing om guard. One was short and stocky with ginger hair, while the other was of the average height and build with a dark brown hair.

I was slightly thankful that Amell wasn’t there anymore. I would’ve been greeted with a sneer from him, knowing the trouble I had caused for myself and Heath last night.

Beta Reed didn’t have to speak when the guards opened the metal doors.

Although it was bright outside, the penitentiary was dark, allowing only little amount of sunlight and air from the tiny windows and ventilation.

On the very end of the area seated Killian, his right eye shining brightly through the darkened space, and I could just feel Beta Reed stopping on his tracks to look at what was staring back at him.

I gripped my bag tighter against my side and began to approach Killian, stopping completely to stand in between his stretched out legs on the concrete floor and kneeled down in front of him.

“I’m going to replace the bandages,” I told him monotonously, placing the bag on my side to take out a new set of bandage with several materials used to clean his wounds. I looked up at his wrist and sighed, “I can lessen the pain of those as well.”

I could feel the pressure of his gaze, scorching the particular spot on the side of my neck as I busied myself by preparing him for sanitation.

Somehow, breathing required immense effort for me.

With cold hands, I gently reached out to his side and undid the bandage, letting it pool around his waist before tugging it off of him completely and chucking it into the plastic bag.

I was greeted with the sight of his healing wounds. In complete awe with his body’s ability for quick recovery, my fingers came down to brush an outline of a specific injury on his stomach, only to have it contract and set the ridges of taut muscles on his abdomen to become deeper and more prominent while he released a soft sigh.

“Does it still hurt a lot?” I pulled back my hand and looked up at him worriedly.

Killian ran a tongue across his lips, his eyes avoiding me as he looked down on his lap, “No, your hands were just... cold.”

I sent him an apologetic smile and picked up the fresh set of bandages; he needed two in order to cover his large build.

“I’m sorry, I’ll make sure to not touch you again.”

Killian remained silent as I began to patch him up once again, and every time I had to reach behind his back, I could just sense every shallow breath he took, making no effort to adjust whenever I had to move closer to him.

“Are you one of them?” Killian questioned me as I began clearing up my belongings and putting them neatly back into my bag.

My movements came to a halt and I regarded him with a grin, his eyes were not focused on me, but he was instead looking back at the person standing quietly behind me, his own gaze holding no tremor nor unease as he unknowingly challenged the Beta of my pack.

“Yes, I’m one of them,” I answered Killian nonchalantly, drawing his attention to me.

A confused look pulled at Killian’s face, his eyebrows furrowing as he observed the skin of me.

“You don’t feel like them,” he stated without delay; his words completely said out of honesty, and I didn’t do anything to deny it.

“Well, you don’t feel like them as well,” I retorted with a smile.

“Because I’m not. This thing inside me... has ambitions I can’t support,” Killian pressed his lips together, his own eyes glazed over as he processed his own thoughts carefully. ”I’m not right."

Those three words struck me, and I let my eyes waver on the lost man in front of me before standing up in my full height.

“Are you fighting it?” I questioned him after a moment, holding a slight quiver to my voice as I looked down at him.

“It doesn’t fight me, it just waits for its turn,” Killian said, and I could just see the fear etched on his sharp features.

Ever since his arrival, the moment he opened his eyes, he didn’t show any sign that he was afraid of my pack nor our Alpha, and I didn’t have to question him because I knew that he was more afraid of himself.

“It holds its promise for the moment it gets its chance; it just keeps telling me over and over again.” Killian’s right eye shone even brighter, and I could feel my heart beating loudly against my chest, swaying me as I listened to him unravel his internal havoc.

“Once I concede to him, I’ll never be able to resurface. The moment I change... is the exact moment I disappear,” he said, and it was almost hard not to take in the grim look on his face.

A strong grip landed on my bandaged arm, making me wince as I turned my head over my shoulder to eye Beta Reed. He meant to put pressure on my injury, and as every second passed by, he let his grip tighten around my arm to add more to my agony.

“It’s time to go, Val.”

I tired my best to ignore the surging pain, gritting my teeth as I looked down at Killian once again.

“I’ll come back, Killian.”

Killian’s eyes remained on my face, his eyes glinting from my promise before dilating, the sight alone knocking the breath out of me.

But Beta Reed didn’t prolong our stay, and hauled me out of the penitentiary, leaving Killian to be feasted freely upon his own afflictions.