In love with my StepSon

Chapter Nine

Briston

I watched Melissa walk out of the training room and I couldn't stop staring at her like I was trying to read something written in a language I didn't understand.

Her eyes looked like someone who had been going through hell, someone desperate for help but too proud or too scared to ask for it. The exhaustion was written in every line of her face and the way she moved with careful deliberation like her body was one wrong step away from breaking.

Where did my father even buy her from? I thought to myself as I stood there frozen in place. Were her parents aware this was how she was being treated?

I looked at her hair pulled back in a tight bun as she gathered her things from the bench and suddenly I remembered the previous night at dinner when my father had dragged her by that same hair.

The memory made my jaw clench and my fists tighten at my sides. The sound of her screaming echoed in my head and I felt anger rise in my chest all over again.

She had tried to defend herself and he had humiliated her in front of everyone. She had asked for something as simple as rest and he had turned it into a lesson about obedience and ownership. I hated that I had witnessed it and I hated even more that I had intervened because it had only made things worse for her.

She walked past me without even saying thank you and headed toward the door where the guards were waiting to escort her back to her room.

“Too much for helping her”, Gorne sighed inside my mind with disappointment coating every word.

I shook the thought off immediately and forced myself to turn away. What did I expect? A medal for doing the bare minimum? She didn't ask for my help and she probably assumed I was only here because my father ordered me to be. She had no reason to trust me or thank me for anything when I was just another person in this fortress who stood by and watched her suffer.

I couldn't expect gratitude from someone who was fighting just to survive each day.

I pushed the entire interaction to the back of my mind and headed to my chambers hoping to get a bath before breakfast. My muscles ached from the training session and my head was pounding with thoughts I didn't want to entertain. The hot water felt good against my sore body and I stood under the stream with my eyes closed while I tried to clear my head and focus on anything other than her.

But all I could think about was Melissa.

Her scent filled my nose even though she wasn't anywhere near me and I could still feel the phantom touch of her skin against my hands when I had caught her. The mark of her wolf connecting with mine had left something behind that I couldn't name and didn't want to examine. It was like a thread had been tied between us and every time I tried to cut it the knot just got tighter.

I closed my eyes tighter and tried to think about something else but instead I saw her curves in those training clothes and the way the light had caught her face when she looked at me. Her eyes had been so clear and so full of something I couldn't identify and the image was burned into my brain like a brand. The way she had moved during the drills with that careful precision and the determination in her expression even when she was clearly exhausted.

She was beautiful and broken and dangerous to my sanity.

Damn it.

I grabbed the soap and scrubbed my face roughly with water until my skin felt raw and the sting brought me back to reality. What was wrong with me? Why was I standing here in the shower thinking about a woman I barely knew and had no business thinking about in the first place? She belonged to my father and that made her completely off limits in every possible way.

I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist. Water dripped onto the tile floor as I walked to my dresser and pulled out clean clothes while I tried to convince myself that this was nothing more than a physical reaction to an attractive woman. It didn't mean anything. It couldn't mean anything.

She's my father's Luna, I reminded myself firmly as I pulled on my pants. She's my stepmother.

The word felt wrong in my mouth and I rejected it immediately because there was nothing maternal about the way I had been looking at her or the way my wolf had responded to hers. Gorne had called her mate and that was a problem I couldn't afford to have.

I was pulling on my shirt when a knock sounded at my door and interrupted my spiral of thoughts.

"Enter," I called out as I fastened the buttons.

A guard stepped inside and bowed his head respectfully.

"Sire, your father requires your presence for breakfast," he announced.

I froze with my hands still on the buttons of my shirt and felt my stomach drop. Breakfast meant sitting across from Melissa and my father and pretending that everything was normal. It meant watching him treat her like property while I sat there and did nothing because that was what was expected of me. It meant seeing her face again and trying not to notice the bruises or the fear or the way her hands shook when she reached for her glass.

"Tell him I'll be there shortly," I replied in a voice that sounded calmer than I felt.