Chapter 10

Danny's POV

"Undo it. Undo it right now!"

"Trust me, if could I would." He muttered in reply, running a hand through his hair as he walked past me and into my bedroom cursing beneath his breath, "Shit. I should've seen this coming."

"You knew?!" I exclaimed in disbelief, not even bothering to question why he'd gone into my bedroom as I entered to see him pacing back and forth across the floor.

"Not really... f*ck." He once again cursed, his hand now permanently in his hair as he paused and turned to me, "We need to talk."

"You think? I don't care what the Hell you do, you undo this right now! It's one thing for it to happen to me but my sister is another matter entirely. She's sixteen and f*cking pregnant for Christ's sake, what are you trying to pull here?" I exclaimed, full on yelling at this point as my panic and frustration was growing by the minute. This was too much of a coincidence, there was no way this was happening. What were the chances that he happened to send someone who happened to want to make Lilly their soul-mate? This was a trap, and I'd stupidly fell for it!

"Nothing! This is literally the last thing I need right now, why the Hell would I try to orchestrate something like this?" He replied, his voice also rising in volume a few levels above what was considered socially acceptable in a conversation.

"Then how do you explain this, eh? I thought this human x werewolf thing was rare, how is it that suddenly it seems like every God damn human I care about is picking one up?"

His pacing began again, his volume decreasing to acceptable talking level, "It is rare. But when it does happen it tends to...run in families."

I began seeing red.

"And you knew? You knew and you sent one your lot over to—to--!"

"Listen this is a one in a billion chance. You're the one who insisted on sending someone so I did. I didn't actually think this would happen. This is literally the equivalent of me losing my cell at Wal-Mart and the King of England picking it up to return it to me with a cash reward." He snapped, his response causing my hip to involuntarily cock to the side and my arms to cross across my chest in annoyance. My breathing was heavy and erratic, my anger once again peaking for the umpteenth time as I tried to process everything that was happening. Taking a moment, I counted to five in my head in an attempt to calm myself down slightly to think this through rationally. It worked to some degree as I felt myself nodding to myself in reassurance. We're going to figure this out.

"Alright, say that I believe you. What happens now? Because I'm sure as Hell not letting that kid stay with her."

He shook his head, the air tense as he eventually followed my lead and stopped his pacing only to head over to my armchair to sit down with a slump. He looked deflated as he leant his elbow against the arm rest and placed his head on his open palm, "He won't leave. He thinks he's just found his soul-mate, I can't ask him to do that."

My eyes narrowed scathingly, "Yes, you can. She's not his soul-mate she's f*cking sixteen, she can't even vote."

"She's old enough to have a baby." He pointed out flatly, his tone of judgment really not helping in the anger management department I'd tried so hard to improve at the gym only three hours previously.

"Watch your mouth, that's my sister." I warned, really not liking the tone he was taking towards my sibling who he didn't know jack shit about.

He removed his head from his hand and returned my glare with an accusing tone, "I don't give a shit. I just lost one of my men to your sister."

I threw my arms up and gestured towards him, "Have him back! We don't want him."

"It's not up to you. Or your sister."

"Then who the Hell is up to?" I demanded, fully intending to clobber the tall man who was still sat on my armchair looking up at me with a scowling expression.

"I don't know, the f*cking universe." He declared uncertainly.

I scoffed, "Well the universe can suck my dick. She's not his soul-mate, period."

"The universe doesn't lie."

"Yeah, well then; how do you explain us?" I snapped in return, my resort causing him to visibly blank as I made a solid point in my argument. If this 'mating' thing was so permanent, then how could you explain our situation? We weren't soul-mates, and I sure as Hell wasn't in the market to be becoming one anytime soon. I knew I found a hole in his argument and waited for an appropriate response within the tense silence.

"... We're the exception."

I threw my hands up once more in disbelief at his crappy explanation, "So what's stopping Lilly from being an exception?"

"It's not me she's mated to."

I couldn't help but let another scoff of disbelief escape my lips, "And what? You're special?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I told you not to ask questions you don't want to know the answer to, English." He replied, his tone taking on a hard edge as he looked me directly in the eye as he said it. A bed of tense silence fell across the room once more as we both waited to see who would speak first. His words were ominous and definitely had a tone of threat within them, but the way he said it just proved his point that maybe I didn't want to know. Although annoyingly a small part of me did actually really want to know why he thought he was an exception.

Deciding to drop it and get back to the issue at hand, I felt my voice drop to a threatening volume, "Get that kid, out of my house."

"... I can't do that."

Breathing in a shaky intake of air through my nose, I started to feel overwhelmed as I realised that there was very little I could to help Lilly that didn't involve trying to escape from a house in Ohio and get back to New York before they got to her first. I felt my eyes begin to well with traitorous moisture as I attempted to calm myself as to not allow any tears form in front of him, "You promised me she wouldn't get hurt."

"And now I can guarantee it. Listen, you may not believe in what we do but just trust me. Now that he knows what he does he'd take the bullet for the girl, she's safer now than she ever was." He replied with a significantly softer tone, standing from the armchair and taking a few steps towards me in the process as if it was going to reassure me. I couldn't help but once again eternally scoff at his words, the idea that I was meant to go on blind faith alone just not something that appealed to me.

"What like how you'd take a bullet for me?" I pointed out lowly, knowing full well that I'd once again punched another hole into his argument. The silence that followed was deafening as I saw an unknown emotion flash across his features before it once again fell flat. We both knew that he wouldn't be taking a bullet for me anytime soon, and that I'd essentially just shattered his point on blind-faith towards this supposed 'soul-mate' argument to pieces. Followed by the awkward realisation that he would have to openly admit that he'd let me die and you had the shit-show that was this moment.

The silence continued as I waited to see what his response was, his jaw clenching as a few more seconds went by before he eventually said, "... She's going to be okay."

"Please leave." I mumbled, dropping my posture as I lost the will to argue any more about it with him. My new priority was to call Lilly and make sure that she was okay, and even though it had been an unspoken truth, the downer of having someone essentially admit that they'd let you die if push came to shove wasn't exactly the happiest of conversation material, "I've got a phone call to make."

Turning my back to his tense tall figure, I went to where I knew I'd left my phone the night-previously on the vanity in the corner. Reaching the cabinet, I picked up the flip-phone and waited a moment with my back still turned; trying to make it obvious that I wasn't in the mood for talking about this any further until I had all the facts from Lilly's end. I was tired, upset and angry all wrapped up in a ball of anxiety. I just wanted to sleep the morning away and cursed the universe for making this happen.

The air was thick with tension, but eventually I heard the tell-tale sign of footsteps leave the room before the door was shut firmly behind him. Waiting a second to make sure it was safe, I turned to look back at the room and found it vacant; although the air still felt particularly heavy after the rather loud argument that just took place.

It took me a moment, but I only then realised that I was still holding the pair of socks he'd given me and clenching them with such ferocity that I'm surprised that my nails hadn't torn through the soft material. Unclenching my hand, I looked down at the pair of black socks and couldn't help the stiff ball of emotion that suddenly appeared in my throat as I felt my eyes begin to sting in frustration.

Feeling the ball grow and grow, I decided enough was enough and ended up just throwing the socks angrily across the room with a loud exclaim. They bounced off the wall anticlimactically and left me feeling no better. But I had to prioritize and decided that throwing the real Christopher against the wall was going to have to wait as I quickly called the memorized number off heart.

Please be okay, Lilly...