For the Taking ✅

23 • Hate

Seraphina POV

What is the next step?

What is the next step after your father made you face your failures like a bull facing a matador?

What do you do next when your father tells you, you've been living a lie for nearly a month?

My mother sat quietly on the love seat adjacent to me. From the look on her face, I could see the struggle in her eyes as she tried to spike a conversation with me but was too fearful of the raging wolves that sat silently glaring at one another.

Desmond sat next to me which eased only a small portion of my pounding heart after the fiasco that ensued outside. Osiris stood tall and imposing next to me. His stare never left my father who sat silently on the love seat next to my mom. Ivy sat between us all in a recliner, her eyes moving over each and every person, no doubt readying herself if something were to go south.

The room was filled with an awkward tension that left my hairs on the arm stand on end. I didn't want anyone to fight or argue especially over something so mundane. I had handled it and made up my mind, I wasn't leaving, I was staying.

What my father tried to convince me of left me with unanswered questions, none of which were new. I had already noticed that Desmond hadn't marked me or moved me into his room or spend long periods of time together.

He was polite and kind but he wasn't exactly treating me as his mate. If this was his way of treating his mate then this was the bare minimum.

It wasn't enough to make me stray, however, I intended to stay here. Here felt more like home and family than I ever felt back at Dark Titan.

"You aren't going to take her back to that hell hole." Osiris seethed.

"I would never make her do anything that she doesn't want." My father spat back. "I'll leave that choice up to her."

All heads turned to me. I audibly gulped as all eyes rested on me. The sudden attention made my head buzz with a thousand different processes. What had happened earlier still played out in my head as I replayed it over and over again desperate to understand what it was that happened. I didn't want to miss a single detail or a single word.

"Then why sit there and try and convince her of something you know nothing about?"

My mother faced my father with a troubled look while he opened his mouth to speak. He shut it though deciding it was better to keep quiet.

Osiris growled out in frustration from my father's silence.

I peered over my shoulder to get a better look at Osiris. His tone of voice told me more than enough that he was pissed but when I actually looked at him I could see just how much he was struggling to keep a leveled head.

His arms were stiff, crossed over his broad chest. The same broad chest that smells delectable minutes ago. Whatever cologne he was wearing was probably the best one I had ever smelled. I hoped he'd continue to wear it.

Peering up higher from his arms I watched his lips form a thin line as he glued his eyes on my father. A tight line drew into his forehead as he glared daggers toward my parents. There was a little peek of his elongated canines that poked beneath his upper lip. He was trying to hide them but with every rumbling growl, his lips twitched enough to see the white pointy tips.

Wanting to defuse the situation I shifted my weight so that my back was more towards Osiris. I now faced more towards my parents as I made everyone aware of my decision.

"I'm staying here." I started. "I won't go back to Dark Titan."

"Sera, did you not hear what I-"

I cut off my father before he could add fuel to the fire that was already roaring in the room. "I heard you loud and clearly and my decision is still the same."