Unbroken

“No! You will answer me—”

“I said, MOVE!”

Skye tried to get past her, and the second her mother’s hand shoved hard at Skye’s chest, fury erupted out of him. She cried out, and that was all it took for him to break loose.

As they screamed at each other, he raced around the house, knowing for sure that if that damn door wasn’t unlocked, he’d fucking break it down with his foot—

The knob twisted and he ran in, his growls tearing out of him when he saw Skye on the ground, hand on her cheek, looking at her mother with horrified eyes.

She struck her?

Skye’s mother stood over her, shaking, her hand still raised, her face fallen and broken like she’d realized what she’d just done—

She barely looked up in time to see him advancing at her, his skin prickling with rage. He shoved her so hard, her back hit the wall with a hard thump, and he didn’t give a single fuck at the pained cry she let out. All he cared about was Skye, who lay frozen on the ground, looking like someone had ripped her heart straight out of her chest. He immediately bent down and picked her small body up, uncaring that Skye’s mother was following them, her hands all over Skye, pleading, “Baby, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry—”

Hunter shoved her hands off her, roaring, “Don’t fucking touch her!”

She began to sob as he stormed out of there with Skye held tightly to his chest. He strode quickly down the trail, their cold breaths clouding around them as eyes peeked out of windows to watch them. He went straight to his house, but that fucking thing inside him slithered through his body, urging him to go back, to hurt that woman for touching her, for making her cry—

He brought her inside, to the familiar sound of his mother’s television blaring from her room. He took Skye straight into his bedroom and set her down in his bed before climbing in after her, holding her as she shook in his arms.

“It’s okay, Nugget,” he whispered, but his heart was pounding, and he felt like he wanted to vomit from the torrent of angry emotions surging through him. “I’m here.”

He didn’t know if that was much of a comfort. Usually, it was Skye comforting Hunter, and not the other way around. He felt lost, scared, like he didn’t know what the fuck he was doing.

“It’s okay,” he repeated, because that was what she would say to him, and when she wouldn’t answer, wouldn’t even look at him, he brushed the hair away from her face and stared pleadingly into her eyes. “Come back to me, Skye.”

She stirred out of her shock, staring back at him in that broken way he wasn’t used to seeing. “She hit me,” she said, voice broken.

He felt his eyes go raw with unshed tears. He traced her face, grazing her inflamed cheek. His chest constricted painfully. “Skye…”

A tear fell from her eye. “I’m so sad.”

His body shook. “What can I do to make it go away?”

“This,” she answered weakly.

“This?” he repeated, uncertain.

“Keep holding me, Hunt.”

That he could do. He brought her to his chest, stroking her back, and while this eased her, he found it was also feeding that dangerous serpent that slithered within him.

You help me,he wanted to tell her then.You help me feel normal, like I don’t want to turn on myself to make this sickness go away.

She settled down in his arms, and soon it was quiet, the atmosphere loaded with sadness, with her hurt. She appeared betrayed, her foundation rocked. Hunter was shaken, too, because he’d never seen her mother lose it like that.

“I don’t hate her,” she whispered then, her voice scratchy. “I just feel so unheard.”

He nodded, swallowing hard. “I shouldn’t have climbed in your room last night. Not like that, when I was covered in—I’m sorry, Skye, I fucked up—”

“Don’t you dare blame yourself,” she retorted, pulling away to look at him. He didn’t know how much she could see of him in the dark, but then her fingers traced his face, and he never felt so transparent. “I never want you to stop, okay? I’m here for you always, and my mom? I’ll take a thousand of those fights if it means everything stays the same between us.”

He looked down at her, blinking back emotion as he tightly responded, “I don’t want you to be sad, Skye.” It physically hurt him to see it. “Keep shining, Nugget.”

Another tear escaped her eye. “How can I keep shining if everyone wants to put out my light, Hunt?”

He let out a ragged breath. “You have to learn to build walls. To not let what they say get inside you.”