(Author note: This is the real Chase in the scene)
Tilly Ann)
There was something about the way he said stay crazy that didn't sit right with me.
Something that made me think he was actually saying goodbye.
Something that told me he was going to keep his promise to me and find a way to call off our engagement.
And if that was true, I needed to tell him something before it was too late.
My feet carried me to his door. I didn't think. I just knocked hard.
It opened. There he was, sitting in that damned wheelchair, looking up at me.
"You are right. I am not storybooked. Pretty dresses and dolls aren't my cup of tea. I liked being finger fucked in the damn storeroom and sucked on the reading table. I am the take-me-behind-the-secret-door type of girl, after all" My voice was calmer than steel.
It was a surprise to me. He didn't say a word. I preferred it that way. I would loss my nerve if he did.
"Matilda—"
"I'm saying, Chase Dubois, I am your type of girl, after all. And you are my type of man"
"Matilda—"
"Just shut up and listen" I snapped at him. "I think I'm in love with you."
I took a deep breath. "Actually, I don't think. I know I am. I knew immediately you kissed me in the arena today in front of everyone that I was irrevocable and equivocally in love with you, the whore of Troita. The rake. I love you"
I waited for him to say something. I don't know. Maybe I wanted Chase Dubois to offer me the sun and the moon and everything in between but he offered none.
He only blinked.
"I kissed you today?" He asked me.
I opened my mouth in confusion. "Yes"
"Was my father there?" He asked me.
"Yes. Yours and mine. Chase what is going on—"
"Fuck!" He cussed. Wheeling himself out of the room. "I have to go"
I watched him race down the hallway. Almost made it to a corner before he said.
"It's not me you love, Matilda. It's not...me. But you will learn me. And I will learn you. We will make due, Sweet girl"
And just like that he was gone.
I heard the quick whir of his wheelchair and he disappeared into a corner.
Oh my God. It was like when we were ten years old all over again. And he was rejecting me again.
I didn't mean to but I just burst into tears.
***
(Chase Dubois)
The sound of Tilly crying was going to haunt me forever.
I replayed her words on a loop all the way to Greyson.
I'm in love with you.
Fucking Greyson. Always finding ways to wreck my life.
She could have been content with what I could give. Romance and flowers and poem notes slipped under the door.
We could have had something. It wouldn't have been everything but it would have been something.
I would have be kind to her in our marriage and she would find other things to occupy her time, something to distract her from the fact that she married a crippled, an invalid who couldn't perform in the bedroom.
My idiot of a brother ruined it all with his tongue and his skillful hands... Fucking Greyson.
And now, I could hear him scream my name in my head.
I needed some quiet and some damn alcohol, maybe a cliff to jump out of. I would have preferred a nice rope for my neck, except my stupid damn legs wouldn't even stand on a chair.
"Invalid! Invalid! Invalid!" I screamed out loud in frustration. " Stupid invalid!"
I turned my chair down my brother's hallway. I could already hear the commotion inside. Our mother's voice. Didn't hear Greyson though.
I pushed his door open without knocking.
The scene inside stopped me.
My father was in the center of the room placing more spiders on him,
Mother was at the corner with a bruised eye socket, recovering from a fall.
And Greyson. He was lying in the pool of his own piss, shaking like a leaf.
"C-chase" he choked out when he saw me. "Help"
I froze.
Years ago, father would have handled this... this situation, differently.
He would have handled Grey differently but then again, years ago, I had working legs and a future as Alpha king of the pack, and my name whispered sent fear into the heart of our enemies both home and across the sea.
Now, I'm...this imposter. In need of my brother's cock to father children, in need a dragon wife to stand on top.
And Greyson had been reduced to an angry vengeful monster.
"Stop" I whispered.
Father didn't hear or maybe he didn't care. He grabbed another spider from the jar.
"Father," I said, my voice cutting through the tension.
He turned, his expression hardening only a fraction.
I think sometimes he wishes I had died too instead of being a constant reminder of everything he could no longer have.
"Chase. This doesn't concern you."
"Why do you do this?" I asked. The question came out quiet, tired.
Because I was tired of it. Because it was a question someone needed to ask.
Father's eyes flashed in anger "I know his your brother. He needs to be punished" he picked up another spider.
I looked down at my hands in my lap. To the pouch always attached to my chair. I grabbed the gun filled with silver bullet and I aimed it at him.
"I said stop!"
He turned around to look at me.
"Chase?!" Father roared, making Mother flinch.
I hate that she does that now.
Flinches like she wasn't who she was.
When she was Mulan Stormhart -Dubois, daughter of a king... sister of a king...wife of a king. Warrior Queen like you've never seen before.
Now, she it just seemed like she was holding her breath for the next disaster.
"Your stupid bullet can't kill me. I am the Alpha"
"But it's going to hurt like hell" I reminded him.
"You know" He stood up, irritating eyes pinned on me. "Saving his ass is what landed you in the chair, Chase"
I shot close to his leg forcing him to back away, while Mulan scrambled to get to Greyson, moving the spiders away from his terrified body.
"Greyson! Grey!" Mother screamed as she pulled him to herself, tears rushing down her face.
I moved closer to them. Using my chair to kill most of the spiders.
"It's okay, Mother. It's okay now"
Father stormed out and slammed the door. Mother flinched.
I realized.
We were who we are now.
A crippled invalid.
An angry monster.
An abusive father.
And a warrior Queen who flinches at every sound.
There was no healing us.