Centuries of Sin (Mature)

Outcast

“No. No no no. This is insane. You are insane.” She was shaking her head as she spoke. “I cannot deal with this right now. Was this Matt? Did he put you up to this, to f**k with me?”

“No one put me up to this. I gave you the damn scar, and I’m not proud of it. I saw you and I felt something. Something I hadn’t ever felt before. And I couldn’t control myself. I needed you to be mine.”

“You nearly f*****g killed me.” She realised what she had said. “I mean the f*****g wolf. Not you. This is crazy, why am I even talking to you about this?”

“Because on some level, you know that I am telling you the truth. I am so sorry about what happened. I didn’t mean to hurt you, it was the last thing I wanted. I have regretted it every day since. For seven f*****g years I have been ashamed and wanted to tell you how sorry I am. Because I am.”

“Tell me everything about that night. I need to know. There are things that weren’t in the damn newspaper stories, and I want you to tell me everything. Get a single f*****g detail wrong and I will know you’re just some nutjob who read about it and fixated on me and I will get a f*****g restraining order and never deal with you again.”

“OK. If that’s what you want. But please let me put my clothes on, I don’t want to be having this conversation in the nude.”

“Fine.”

He went downstairs, and Elizabeth slipped into the bathroom, washing herself to get rid of the smell of s*x from herself, and to try and calm down a little. When she came back he was sat on the edge of the bed, with a cup of tea in his hand. He reached out with it towards her, and she gingerly took it from him, staring into the cup to avoid making eye contact with him.

“I thought you’d appreciate it. Please, sit down.”

She obeyed, inwardly cursing that she did so.

“Elizabeth, please believe me when I say that night was one of the worst nights of my life. I wish there was some way I could change what happened, but I can’t. All I can do is apologise now and explain things from my side. And if you need any further proof, I promise I will give it to you.”

She looked up from the cup and into his intense amber eyes.

“You have ten minutes.”

“It was a Tuesday. It was overast. You were walking the shortcut through the woods. You were with your boyfriend, Ethan.”

“Those things were all in the paper.”

“Let me finish. Please. You were walking the shortcut through the woods. You were with your boyfriend, Ethan. And I was there. The wind shifted and your scent was carried to me and I had this indescribably primal urge. I needed you to be mine. I smelled him too, of course, but I had to find you. I didn’t know how I would react. When I got to you you were with him, up against that damn tree.”

“We were a pair of horny teenagers. But neither of us deserved to be attacked.”

“I know. But when I saw him I lost it. You were supposed to be mine, and he was f*****g you up against a tree in my damn territory. You cannot possibly understand how that felt. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was a blur. I attacked him. Like the beast I truly am. I went for the throat, I meant to kill and it was almost instant. I don’t think he even knew what happened. And I hurt you when you tried to pull me off him. I lashed out. When I saw what I had done, I ran away because I was so ashamed. The fact I attacked you when you were having s*x in the woods, and that your boyfriend died with his d**k out, are things that the newspaper was merciful enough not to share. Do you believe me now?”

“How can I possibly believe this? You’re telling me that you were the wild animal that killed my boyfriend and left me with this hideous scar.”

“Elizabeth, it isn’t hideous. To me, it makes you even more beautiful because it makes you mine on a whole other level. It has been nearly impossible for me to stay away from you, but I was horrified by what I had done. And then you were with Matt. I couldn’t go near you then, not after what happened before. I couldn’t trust myself not to hurt him. When I learned that you were single again, I took the job at the coffee shop to be closer to you. It was a major lapse of judgement, and I feel like a psychopath now I am explaining it to you but I needed to at least speak to you. When I saw that you were interested in me I couldn’t hold back any longer.”

She thought back to the previous night. That hunger in his eyes when he first kissed her was almost enough to make her believe what he was telling her.

“I know that it doesn’t make anything better, but a great number of my scars were a result of what I did. I was part of a pack then. I don’t know how much you know about wolves, Elizabeth, but I was weeks away from taking over as the Alpha. I had been in training my entire life. And I f****d it all up that night. I was spared because of my position, but they punished me and I was cast down to being Omega – that’s the lowest I could possibly be within the pack. They made my life hell. I tried my hardest to get back some respect and earn a higher position in the pack again but they have a very strict moral code and I broke it. I ended up being sent away, and I don’t have a pack anymore. It’s dangerous to be like me and not have any other wolves around to help you. People like me don’t survive long on our own. I guess trying to be with you was my last attempt at finding something to fight for. I would do anything to protect you. Please believe me.”