Fallen Into Hell: Fallen: Book 2, Layna Snow [the mitten read aloud .TXT] 📗

couch to face them both. She wanted to ask them to forgive her, but she also needed to leave.

And not just for Annie.

She needed space. Needed to collect her thoughts. To protect herself from more pain.

Because she didn’t think that she could take anymore.

“No, I won’t just take her up there and let her go. She doesn’t get to say that to us! She doesn’t get to act like-“

“Enough!”

“Stop pretending to be emotionless, Thane! You don’t want her to leave either!” Sin said, turning to her and glaring. “You want to leave? Fine. Go. Good luck finding your own way, without our help and without your stuff. Go, see how far you’d get! But you won’t, because you’re smart. You learned that you can’t make it down here without help. So now what?”

Did he think he was convincing her? As if she’d just bow down to him now that she was trapped?

No!

Everything was tumbling around her mind and body, and she wasn’t sure how it would fit back together. Her love was strong, but the self-esteem that she found down here could rupture just as quickly. Like air without a balloon, it would just disappear.

“I’ll take her.” Thane said, his deep voice surprising her, and disappointing her.

He’d take her and feel nothing.

His voice was as flat as it had been the first day she had come. She thought she was getting through to him, that he was softening, but she couldn’t tell now. And she wouldn’t look at him to see. It was hard enough looking at Sin.

“You will not!” Sin yelled, striding past her to get to his friend. “You won’t take her anywhere! And you will not give it to her!”

Thane rose one eyebrow and strode towards the bedroom, completely ignoring his friend.

Sin hadn’t just stood there like she had—too numb to move—he went to the weapon area and took a sword. Then he moved back, standing in front of her, facing Thane as he returned.

She could see the confrontation coming, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“I will fight you, Thane. You don’t understand. You can’t just cross me. I won’t always follow you, I don’t take orders from you. We are partners and you can’t just ignore what I say! You’ll thank me for this later. This time, I’m right.” The determination in Adrian’s voice was impossible to ignore. He wouldn’t let up.

“Never against her will.” Thane intoned. It was the most she’d ever heard him say.

“I wouldn’t rape her! She’d want it! How dare you say otherwise!” Adrian growled, and Sophie knew that if she didn’t stop them now, they’d fight. It wasn’t about her anymore.

Two alpha men couldn’t live together forever without butting heads. She’d seen brothers fight, and knew that Thane and Adrian wouldn’t stop until one was on top, and then they’d regret it.

They’d blame her for coming between them and starting this. And she desperately wanted to avoid that. It would kill her to break this bond, even if she hadn’t meant to.

They might not understand siblings, about growing up, but they were brothers. And she knew how it felt to lose something so close to you.

Sophie took a breath and acted quickly, stepping between them and looking at Thane, who held something in his giant fist.

Her bag!

Did they find it when they were looking for her? Or when they went to train? It seemed impossible, but there it was.

It had everything she felt was important. She didn’t care about the gun, or about the food. It was the things from her family that meant the most to her. And she thought it had been lost forever.

And then a memory hit her. That first day, she was so tired, and Thane went to get something from the door, but Sin stopped him.

Had it been here? The whole time? They had her things and kept them from her. They were going to let her live without those mementos? Would Sin even have given them back when she left?

No, he wouldn’t!

Because he didn’t care about her happiness.

“You were an easy lay. You came to us, remember? Feel free to go to him. I’ll find someone else when you’re gone. Someone who knows what’s up.” His words from that night in the play room came back to slap her. To cut into her anew and rip her apart in side. She could feel her heart beating, but didn’t know how when it was nothing but dust and rubble.

Thane wanted her out and Adrian thought she was just a whore. And not a very good one. Why was he even bothering to fight for her when he could find someone new? Someone better.

Heart bleeding, and with tears streaming down her face, Sophie turned and slapped Sin. She didn’t bother with anything else. She had nothing to say to him. And she had nothing to say to Thane. He didn’t even bother to address her, this whole fight, just talked to Sin about her as if she wasn’t there.

So she took her bag from Thane and waited by the door for him to get some weapons and move the rock.

Adrian didn’t say anything, he just stormed into the bedroom.

Sophie felt empty as she walked through the darkness after Thanatos. They didn’t speak, didn’t touch. It was horrible to have to walk near him, to smell his unique scent and not be able to touch him. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, but it wouldn’t solve anything.

He still didn’t care about her. He didn’t even try to stop her or hold her when they made it back to the Hellgate. He just hoisted her up and followed her out.

She was one raw, giant ache, and not even the crackling Hellgate could come close to the