(Greyson)
I ignored him.
Coaxing Chase out was like herding a drunk, stubborn bear. But eventually, I got him moving.
He made it outside the stinky tavern before he started hurling words at me.
"I shouldn't have come after you that day" I said to himself more than me.
"Well" I dragged his drunk ass further away from the tavern. "No one asked you to come after me, Chase. No one did"
I tried to keep the anger away from my voice. But talking about that blasted day brought out the worst in all of us. It placed him in the wheelchair but it took everything else from me.
"I shouldn't have come after you that day" He said louder this time and I simply lost it. "I shouldn't have. No. No. No"
"I didn't ask you to come! I wanted to be left alone. But you always have to be the good son. The good Alpha heir. The good brother. The better person. I didn't fucking ask you to come for me! So, fuck you! Screw you! Die already!" I screamed in his face and left him there and started walking away.
It wasn't my problem. I wasn't going to stand there and be taken apart for something he chose to do.
As I walked he started talking.
"Take care of your brother, Chase. You are older, Chase. Set better examples, Chase. Keep him out of trouble, Chase. He's your little brother, Chase. He is your responsibility. You should know better, Chase!" He was talking to himself now. Muttering it out loud in this teary voice that forced me to keep going.
Go back. Elma whispered in my mind. Don't leave him there. Go back.
Stay out of my business, Elma. I warned him.
Go back, Grey! He screamed in my head.
"It was not my fault!" I screamed back at Elma out loud.
I just kept walking. Just kept walking until I turned a corner and I couldn't keep walking.
"Son of a bitch!" I screamed out loud before turning back to get him.
When I found him, he was half asleep and some couple of drunks were robbing him.
"Get away from him before I tear you apart limb by limb...and leave the Gold ring, man!" I screamed at them and they scattered.
I stared at him a few seconds, before I started dragging his drunk ass away.
Saber found us a room in a quiet, respectable lodge.
No perfume, no sticky floors. I half-dragged Chase inside and dumped him onto the bed.
"Go. I will stay and make sure he doesn't choke on his own vomit in the night" I told Saber.
Saber left without a word, shutting the door softly.
I wrestled Chase's boots off. He mumbled something and grabbed at my face as I leaned over him.
I watched him. Never hated a person more in my life.
"Not the face, brother"
His hands were warm and clumsy. For a second, he just held my cheeks like I was his favorite doll as his blurry eyes searched mine.
I didn't know what he was looking for. Probably more things to be disappointed about, more things to regret. It was one thing he had in common with our father.
Gently, I pried his fingers away and pulled the blanket up to his chin.
I was just turning toward the chair when his voice stopped me.
"Would everyone's life be easier if I just died?"
I didn't look back. "Go to sleep, please"
"Would your life be easier, little brother?" he insisted, the words slurred but piercing.
"Yes," I snapped, irritation flaring. "Now shut up and sleep. I need to figure out how to sneak you back without Father or your… Tilly noticing."
He let out a long, heavy sigh and curled onto his side, pulling the blanket tight around himself like a little child. "She's not mine anymore," he whispered into the pillow. "She called off the engagement. It's over. At last."
He was asleep in an instant, his breathing evening out into soft snores.
I stood frozen. Over. At last.
I was at the bed in two strides, shaking him. "Chase! Chase! What do you mean, it's over? Chase!"
He just snored.
Feelings twisted in my chest—triumph, shock, and something else I refused to name. I snatched my jacket from the chair.
The door slammed behind me just like that.
I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I couldn't stay in that room with him, with my gigantic feelings that was this close to suffocating me.
With the irreparable rift between us. There were wounds that could never heal. Impossible to heal.
I just knew one thing and one thing only—I was free. It was over.
Finally. My life was my own again.