Chapter 8: Bullseye
Elias’s POV
I can break him now and toss him to the dogs. I can waste less time on him and just let him rest.
His father gave him to us anyways, we never promised the greedy man that we’ll keep Noah alive...did we?
My fingers twitch to snuff the life out of something, but I stuff them in my pocket and wrap them around the cool metallic body of my pocket watch.
I’m giving the golden prince of that rotten city too many chances to kiss the face of death.
No one has escaped my hands before, but he...I let him run for the gates like a coin rolling off the table. I watched how his blonde hair flew with the wind, I watched the way he panted when he thought he would make it.
Then I watched the way the hope dimmed on his face at his best friend’s scream...I don’t know what Damien sees in that one, but he has been visiting the basement for him.
Zane Smith, loud and proud omega, he’s not the type that piques my interest.
And Noah? I’m permitting him to express his desire to run only because he’s shiny and new.
When death takes, death doesn’t return. It keeps...forever.
My other hand is still holding the document of our marriage. I have legally taken him from under Damien, he would be bound to me and I’ll do whatever I want with him.
Make him a doll to dress and style. Make him a rock to keep on display. Make him a paper to mark...
"Turn around" the maid inside the room says and I focus on the paper again.
Noah’s handwriting is pretty. His signature is exactly like the signature of an omega that has been groomed to submit. He has really submitted to me, he hates it.
He doesn’t fight me off physically, but I see the look in his eyes. A tiny spark of light and hope that I want to completely kill. Wouldn’t it be beautiful?
Wouldn’t it be beautiful to be caressed by the hands of death and not know when it will take you?
I want him. I have him. He’s mine.
My alpha’s head snaps up as I hear a sharp intake of breath. The sound is followed by a small ’ouch’ and that’s when I burst into the room.
"I’m sorry! I’m sorry! The pin pricked—" the maid dressing Noah starts to explain in panic, she keeps talking but my eyes are fixed on Noah.
His chest is bare and he’s trying to hold a white fabric up. He looks at me with pure horror for barging in, but he dares not complain.
He’s my property and he’s in my fucking room. He should drop to his knees and thank me for standing outside for the past ten minutes when I should be here watching him.
"I’m so sorry...please sir, it was an accident" the shaking woman says and my eyes leave Noah’s blue one, dropping to his waist.
There is red dripping down his side.
The bead of blood slides down slowly, tainting his skin as it leaves a trail of faint red.
I don’t like it.
’A mess’ my alpha growls inside of me and I turn around.
I walk to my shelf of rocks, I stand in front of it and hold my hands behind my back, scanning the rocks one by one.
My body is rigid, the people behind me are frozen, and the room dares not breathe.
The rocks on my shelf are clean, well preserved, and worth looking at.
Diamonds. Topaz. Ruby. A meteorite piece. They have one thing in common. They are clean, there are no marks or scratches that I didn’t make, and there isn’t a single thing wrong.
"Who cleans my shelves?" I ask, letting my eyes drift to the shelf of seashells.
I have the biggest room in the mansion because of my ’museum’ as mom calls it fondly.
"I do, sir" the maid behind the one with the needle responds, and I still don’t turn around.
My hand slowly caresses one of the rocks I’m getting bored with. It’s a crystal quartz that was shaped for my enjoyment.
"Why is my new property bleeding?" I ask quietly, picking the rock off the shelf and weighing it in my hand. I’m making sure it still has the same familiar weight...
There was a time someone scratched my rock. The person thought he could solve the mess by shaving the part off, but he was wrong.
Even without taking pictures, I know exactly how much my rocks weigh. I know exactly what impressions they have and what bulges they have.
"I was trying to...I got his size wrong and wanted to solve it by— ahhh!!!" she screams and drops to the floor as the quartz leave my hand.
The rock hits bullseye, landing right between her brow and digging deep into her skull. She cries some more before dying out with her eyes and mouth wide open.
The other maid, familiar but unsettled by the scene slaps her hands over her mouth to kill her scream. She’s trembling but she knows I hate the noise.
And Noah, my beautiful new Noah, is staring at me—not at the woman—me. He’s staring at me like something would make him explode and die in front of me.
But it’s impossible, his death is my canvas, and I’m not ready to draw on it yet.
"No one...no one damages my property and gets away with it" I warn and just in time, the door opens. I turn my head to snarl at whoever it is, but I stop as the person shows their face.
It’s the love of my life.
The only person this cold heart of mine is capable of loving without being...odd or feared.