The Last Fucking Straw (Part 1)
Sebastian’s POV
I couldn’t fucking get Iris’s words to Thea out of my head. That day, I’d come home early, hoping to spend some time alone with Thea. What I hadn’t expected was to overhear Iris telling Thea that she had been falling in love with Kane.
That pain was like nothing I’d felt before. I saw red, my wolf howling and nearly taking over. While I’d always hated Thea and Kane’s relationship, I’d convinced myself it was purely physical. Just sex. Nothing more.
The fact that she had been falling in love with him hurt worse than knowing she’d fucked him. Learning she had begun to imagine a future with that man nearly killed me.
I masked my pain with anger. How could I tell her that the mere possibility of her having a shred of love for Kane had shattered my soul into bloody pieces? That kind of pain was too hard to articulate.
The “what ifs” circled relentlessly in my brain, refusing to give me a moment’s peace. I couldn’t help wondering what would have happened if Kane hadn’t tried to kill Thea. Would she be with him now? Would her love for me have been completely replaced by her love for him? Would she have forgotten me entirely, just as she now couldn’t remember others?
“Sebastian!” The shout yanked me back to reality.
I stared at my brother Damien in confusion, not even aware he’d entered my office. I’d been so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t heard him come in.
“What is it?” I straightened the papers in front of me and pushed them aside.
He crossed the room and sat down in front of my desk. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for over five minutes.”
I said nothing. What was there to say? I’d been distracted for days, all because of Thea. She occupied my every waking thought. I was like a junkie craving my favorite drug, completely addicted to her.
She was so deeply embedded in my soul that even if I wanted to, I couldn’t remove her.
The Last Fucking Straw (Part 1)
And I wouldn’t–my wolf and I both absolutely claimed her as ours now, and we would never leave her.
“I can see something’s bothering you,” he said, giving me that scrutinizing look I hated.
“Want to share?”
This was hard as fuck. How could I tell him I was so insecure about Thea’s feelings for Kane? I had never been an insecure person, but with Thea, I was. I wasn’t ashamed to
admit that to myself.
I got up restlessly and walked to the floor–to–ceiling windows, staring out at the sun setting over the nearby lake.
“Sebastian.”
Sighing. I turned to face him. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“I’m guessing it’s about Thea?” he asked.
I ran my hand through my hair, messing it up completely.
“Yeah.
“You know you can tell me anything… so what’s wrong?”
I only hesitated for a second before telling him everything. I couldn’t keep this shit inside
anymore. Not when it was driving me fucking insane.
As always, he sat patiently and listened until I finished. He wouldn’t judge or input his
opinion until I was done.
When I finished, I sank back in my chair, watching him. His expression was thoughtful. I was desperate to hear what he had to say, what advice he could offer, because I was about
to lose my goddamn mind.
“From what I’m hearing, you’re still incredibly jealous of Kane,” he said after a moment.
I gave him my dirtiest look. “That’s already fucking obvious.”
“Then what’s the problem? I don’t understand… Kane is in prison, and you’re with Thea. Shouldn’t that be enough? Shouldn’t that give you some comfort?” he asked, genuinely
The Last Fucking Straw (Part 1)
confused.
I clenched my fists in frustration. Exhaled. Tried to explain without losing my shit.
“I know, but I also know Thea. She’s going to insist on seeing Kane no matter what, not only because she wants Phoenix to know her father, but because she wants to know the
man who got her pregnant.”
His eyes locked with mine when he finally understood the root of my problem.
“You’re afraid she’ll fall in love with Kane again, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” I stood up again and started pacing. “Everything’s starting over. There’s nothing hidden, Thea knows the truth about him. What’s stopping her from falling for him again? He might have betrayed her, but he never hurt her as deeply as I did.”
My wolf growled in my mind. Kill the threat, mark her, make her completely ours. The impulse was strong, but I knew that wasn’t the solution. I’d made too many mistakes already trying to solve problems with power and control.
I just really didn’t know what I would do if Thea actually fell for Kane again. The possibility terrified me because I loved her so much now, I was afraid of losing her again.
“Well, I think the fact that Kane is in prison should prevent that possibility. I don’t think she’d wait for him to get out. His sentence isn’t short,” Damien said.
“We’re talking about Thea… her love and loyalty know no bounds. I mean, come on, even when I treated her like shit, she continued to love me for years. Do you think if she falls in love with him, she’ll leave him just because he’s in prison?”
He shook his head and sighed. “You’re right,” he admitted.
I exhaled in disappointment.
“Though I do think you shouldn’t worry too much about it,” he continued. “Take it one day at a time, focus on showing her your heart. Love her until the thought of leaving you
would break her.”
With nothing else to do, he was right. Whether she stayed with me or not, that was her choice. All I could do now was love her the best I could.
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The Last Fucking Straw (Part 1)
I allowed myself to relax, easing the anxiety in my heart. It felt like a boulder had been lifted from my shoulders.
I was just starting to unwind when my phone rang.
“What is it?” I answered, not bothering to check the caller ID.
“Sebastian, something’s happened.”
The Last Fucking Straw (Part 2)
Sebastian’s POV
I immediately recognized Maximus’s voice and tensed up.
“What happened?”
“Can you meet us at the hospital?” he said, “Thea’s been rushed to the emergency room.”
Fuck. I was going to kill someone.
“What’s wrong?” Damien asked as I stood up.
I couldn’t think straight. They had taken Thea out and were supposed to keep her safe. So why the fuck was she in the hospital? This is exactly why I didn’t want her leaving the house. I didn’t know exactly what happened, but I knew she would have been safer at
home.
“Maximus just told me Thea’s been rushed to the hospital,” I gritted out.
I was both furious and worried. If something happened to her, I wouldn’t be able to take it. Not when I’d just gotten her back.
“Come on, I’ll drive,” he said.
I just nodded and walked out.
“Cancel everything else I had scheduled for today,” I mindlinked to Rayne as I headed toward the elevator.
Something in my expression must have communicated itself, because people in the hallway parted like the Red Sea.
My heart raced as Damien and I took the elevator down to the underground parking lot. Fear consumed me, and my mind chose to focus on everything that could go wrong. I needed to see her. Needed to know she was okay.
We got in the car, and Damien immediately drove out.
“Haven’t we done this before?” I asked, a sense of déjà vu washing over me.
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The Last Fucking Straw (Part 2)
I still remembered how the pain and fear had gripped my heart the day Thea was shot. I felt my soul being shattered into a million pieces. It was something I wanted to forget,
but it was etched into me like a fucking tattoo.
“She’ll be fine,” Damien said, seemingly sensing the turmoil inside me.
I said nothing. I wouldn’t relax until I knew she was safe.
Soon we were parked in front of the hospital. As soon as the engine was off, I got out and
rushed to the entrance.
I went in. A nurse saw me and gestured for me to follow her.
“The doctors are with her now, but her biological parents are in the waiting room.”
Seraphina and Maximus stood up the moment I walked in. Maximus’s face looked like it
was carved from granite, while Seraphina looked like she’d been crying.
Phoenix was in her arms, wailing. Almost without thinking, I took her from Seraphina’s arms, holding her to my chest.
I whispered soothing words to her, trying to calm her hysteria. She relaxed a bit but continued to whimper.
“May I take her, Alpha?” the nurse asked, gesturing to Phoenix. “She might be fussy because she’s hungry.”
I nodded and let her take Phoenix from my arms. She could be right.
She apologized and left, just as Damien walked into the room.
“What the hell happened?” I turned to them, growling under my breath while trying to keep my voice down. “I trusted you to take care of her.”
“We did take care of her,” Maximus replied. “I don’t know exactly what happened. She went to the bathroom. A few minutes later, we saw Aurora walking toward us looking frantic. She’s the one who told us Thea had collapsed in the bathroom.”
Seraphina picked up where her husband left off: “We didn’t have time to ask what happened or why she was in the bathroom with Thea. Our main concern was getting Thea to the hospital.”
“And Aurora?” Damien asked.
“We don’t know. We haven’t seen her since she told us about Thea.”
My anger rose. I really wanted to hit something or someone.
It was then that the chief physician walked out.
“When I discharged Thea, I expected you to take good care of her,” he glared at me, not intimidated by my status. “What I didn’t expect was to have her back under my care two weeks after she left the hospital.”
I glared at her biological parents before facing him again.
“How is she?”
“Stable for now, she’s still unconscious, but she should wake up in a few hours,” he answered.
My heart calmed, but not by much. Until she was fully awake, I wouldn’t relax.
“Did she hit her head when she collapsed?” he inquired.
“I don’t think so. Why?” Seraphina asked.
“Because of the wound on the back of her head. We were able to treat it and stop the bleeding, but for record purposes, we need to know how she got injured.”
“She was lying on her side when we found her. She couldn’t have hit the back of her head when she collapsed,” Maximus explained.
The implications made my anger flare into a fucking inferno.
That could only mean she was injured some other way, and considering how unstable Aurora was, I’d bet she was behind this.
“That’s strange,” the physician muttered.
“You said she’s still unconscious?” I asked the physician, who nodded. “Good, I’ll be back.”
I turned to my brother. “Give me the car keys.”
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The Last Fucking Straw (Part 2)
He hesitated but eventually gave them to me.
“Where are you going?” he asked, concerned, but I didn’t answer.
I left the waiting room without another glance at them, my anger hotter than hellfire.
It was time to pay Aurora a little visit. No one hurts Thea and gets away with it.
