Big Bad Alphas novel Chapter 15

"Yeah." Caroline scoots closer to me. "You kinda did."

   Eric sighs and runs a hand through his hair, then looks to me. "You're alright?"

   "Alright? She's the one that just tackled him to the ground," Caroline dramatically motions to me, though I am right beside her. "You literally charged at him like a bull."

   I shrug. "I just got infuriated, really quickly. He deserved it."

   "Hell yeah he did," she chuckles.

   "Alright," Eric grabs our attention. "Besides attacking Landon, did you two need anything?"

"Isabella just asked me to show her where the training grounds were, but I know the reason now." She smirks at me, and I swiftly take Eric's attention away from her, already feeling my cheeks warm up.

"I just wanted to learn where everything is," I lie. I can lie as much as I want, but the look on Eric's face tells me that he knows why too. Thankfully, he does not call me out on wanting to see him. If that happened, I do not know what color my face would turn, but it would be something beyond the brightest shade of red. "I remembered that you said you were going to be here, and I wanted to talk, I mean, if you have the time."

"I have time."

I do not know if he expected me to start talking, but I turned to Caroline who is still standing with us. Apparently, she did not catch the hint. Awkwardly, I clear my throat, and her face is smeared with realization. "You want me to go?"

I nod, and my eyes practically push her away. Once she is far enough, they focus back on Eric who seems to be rather amused. "Okay, what did you want to talk about?" He asks me smoothly, his voice sending chills down my spine.

"It's actually about your father—"

"It's still on your mind?"

"Well, Caroline did tell me a few things," I murmur, worried about how he may react. What if he thinks I went behind his back? Did I?

"Caroline," he ponders. "Couldn't wait until I'm on my deathbed?"

I sigh. "I had to know why you thought you were the one who did this," I motion to the bruises. "I didn't know it was linked to your father."

He nods and briefly clenches his jaw.

"Eric I, I was worried about you," I say truthfully. "I feel so in the dark, and if this issue comes between us—which it has—then I want to solve it now."

   He shakes his head at a leisurely pace. "It's not that simple."

   "I know that you two fought because of the decisions your father was making based on your mother. I'm not going to push my way into your family problems, but I don't want this problem to become an obstacle for us, a-as mates. And if you have nightmares or whatever about hurting me—"

   "I do not have nightmares about hurting you," he says bluntly, and I try to maneuver the fact into my web as if I am a detective trying to piece this all together.

"Then tell me, why did you think you caused the marks?"

He crosses his arms. "You know about the fight, well, sometime during it I got on top of him and began to choke him out of instinct. Voices were yelling at me, but I couldn't hear them anymore, everything around me shut off as I stared down at him. My hands just kept squeezing tighter as I saw the pleading in his eyes, I thought I was going to kill him."

I stand silently, without an urge to speak.

"Eventually someone pulled me off, but the image of his face and my hands were sealed in my head. That moment was the reason for my reaction to your marks because I thought somehow I did to you as I did to him." He pauses. "I would never hurt you, Isabella. I could never hurt you, and I need you to know that."