3

Elise

I can't stop the tears from flowing, no matter how hard I try.

How could he do this to me? After four years of promising to love one another for eternity. Why would he do this to me? All I ever did was love him.

And why would he do this with my stepsister of all people? If it were a random girl, it'd still hurt as hell, but hearing him pound into the girl that made most of my life here a living hell makes it so much worse.

With every moan and overly sexualized conversation, they have, my heart breaks even more. They both sound like something out of a poorly shot blue film.

I clench my fists and step back to the door. They didn't even bother to close it properly.

Biting my lower lip to stop any sobs from escaping me, I push the door open further. The haphazard pounding of my heart is loud enough to give me away, but I stare ahead.

I need to see it. The anger and sadness welling up in my chest have deleted all rational thoughts from my head. I wrinkle my nose in displeasure. The smell of sweat, lust and other bodily fluids that I don't want to mention permeates the air.

But even worse than the smell, is the sight of it all.

There may stepsister is, hands-on Jared's chest as she bounces atop him with wild abandon. A thin film of sweat covers every inch of her exposed skin, and she's completely naked, so it's a lot.

"I think I'm . . . Jared, I'm . . ." She trails off and opens her eyes as her mouth stretches wide to accommodate what I believe will be the loudest scream I've ever heard.

But her head moves forward, and her wide eyes are fixed on me instead.

She blinks.

I blink back.

The scream comes out of her mouth, but it's too shrill and jarring to be a result of whatever is causing her legs to lock in place and her hips to stiffen.

A moment passes between us as she and Jared come down from their high.

In one swift moment, she rips herself off Jared and wraps an arm across her breasts, although it does little to hide them. I can't help but look at the clear-white liquid running down between her legs as she stands.

"Babe, what's wrong?" Jared asks, then turns around until he finally sees me.

He looks down at himself, then pulls up the sheet to cover his lower half.

I look over at my step-sister's disheveled hair and rosy skin. And to think that I once imagined what it would have been like to experience what she just did with Jared.

She shrieks."Spying on me now? You're such a freak!" She then pushes past me as she exits the room.

Leaving just Jared and me.

Even with the number of tears that must be running down my face, Jared still looks at me with nothing in them. No expression. No remorse. Nothing at all.

Is this the calm, gentle boy I fell in love with?

Seconds pass between us. Then minutes. Finally, he speaks. His expression melts into guilt and chagrin as he slowly comes down from the bed and onto his knees.

"Elise, my love. I'm so sorry."

Before the words are out of his mouth, I shake my head from side to side like a crazy woman. "No. This is it, Jared. I can't go on, not after what I just saw."

"Baby, I never meant for this to happen—"

I scoff through my tears. "You didn't? So you just woke up and happened to be five inches deep in my stepsister's vagina, right?"

"Let's put this behind us," he tries once more, reaching for me.

I recoil. "Yes, this is already behind me, and you know what else I'm leaving behind? You. Goodbye." I turn around on my heel to leave even if this is my own room, although the place has been forever tainted by the act that just took place in it.

"This happened because of you, and you know it," he spits out.

I stop with one leg out the door.

"You wanted to be my mate so bad. But you wouldn't let me taste you. How was I supposed to resist your sister?"

My eyes burn from too much crying, but it doesn't stop more tears from escaping. I simply shake my head and continue my exit.

"Get back here, you whore!" he calls after me, voice full of irritation.

He grabs me by the arm and pulls me back into the room, shutting the door behind him.

I stumble and fall to the ground. Pain shoots up my wrist when I use it to break my fall, causing me to cry out.

Jared towers over me, sheet long-forgotten and stark naked before me, giving me a full view of what had been inside my stepsister minutes ago.

"Don't act all righteous with me, Elise. You were spying on us, so you must have enjoyed the show, right?" He comes down on me, pinning my body to the ground with his weight. "Don't worry, you won't have to imagine what it feels like because I'm going to show you right now."

"Get off me!" I push at his bare chest with my good hand, but it's no use. He rips open the shirt I'm wearing, and the buttons fly about.

I gasp. "No! Stop it!" I wriggle beneath him, desperately trying to get away.

"Shhh. Don't fight it, bitch. You know you want some of this. I'll make your wishes come true. Maybe if you get pregnant, you'll finally be useful for something."

At his words, a chill runs down my spine. I can't comprehend it at first, and my eyes fail to understand what I'm seeing.

Jared, my lovely boy, trying to rape me and get me pregnant.

Since my strength is no match for his, I'll have to do something else. "I'm pretty sure that tiny thing of yours is incapable of getting ANYONE pregnant."

Jared stiffens, eyes wide. "What the fuck did you just say?"

How predictable. A lot of men tie their worth to the strength of their manhood, and it's pathetic.

With him distracted, I bring up my knee sharply and smile with satisfaction when it connects with the soft flesh of his scrotum.

He shouts in pain and grabs himself, falling off me and unto his back. "You bitch."

I rush to my feet and dash out of the room, down the hallway, and into the living room, where my sister sits, now dressed. Her eyes graze my scattered form, and something like unease floods her gaze.

I say nothing to her, and walk over to the front door, hearing Jared's feet thudding close behind.

"Elise! It's my right to have you, don't you get it? Get in here now like a good little girl, and I promise I'll be gentle with you. If you don't do as I say, there'll be hell to pay."

My eyes dart to my stepsister, who says nothing as she watches this exchange. Oh, right. She doesn't care about me. But I thought she'd at least find it annoying that the guy who she'd just slept with was flat-out threatening another girl for sex.

"No," I say. "I will not sleep with you. Not today, not ever, and you can't make me. You're sick."

Jared slowly nods, faking a distressed look for a moment as he stands, hands still covering his man-bits. "Fine. Fine. Then I hope you know that you're no longer going to be my mate." A cruel smile falls on his lips. "And tonight, everyone else is going to know too."

I run out of the house, needing to escape the traumatic experience I just had.

Four years of my life, went down the drain, along with all my hopes and dreams. Is this the price of loving someone? Could all this have been avoided if I just pushed away the thought of love?

Come to think of it, I had been so happy to accept Jared's confession of love to me, simply because it felt so great to finally have someone who saw me. Someone who I could lean on.

But obviously, it wasn't meant to be.

I run until I get to my favorite spot by a little pond. It's been my secret hiding place since I was a child, and even Jared doesn't know about it. I would have told him about it today, maybe we would have come here to lie in the grass and watch the stars after our mating ceremony . . .

I shake my head to snap out of my thoughts. I look into the still water. There aren't any ducks today. I wanted to watch them quack and swim across the pond in their usual manner.

I cool breeze brushes over my skin, causing goosebumps to erupt in less than a second. That's when I remember my disrupted state of dressing. My shirt is still open, exposing my bra and a portion of my belly. I pull it closed, but it doesn't stop the cold.

Out of the blue, the warm fabric falls on my shoulders. I look up to see who it is, pulled out of my pit of sorrow by receding footsteps.

It's a guy in a dark shirt and grey shorts. He's really tall, and something about him feels all too familiar.

I rise up from the bench before he gets too far. "Wait."

He stops and turns back to look at me. It's him. It's the guy who by some strange twist of fate, always ends up being around me in my time of need.

He stares at me, eyebrows raised in question. He has this dark and full mane of hair that spills around his face. In school, it's usually tied in a man bun, but now it spills free, framing his well-sculpted face.

I pull the sweater around me tight and take two steps forward. I'm not so close to him, but I'm not far away. I'd like to get closer, but my nervousness has tied shackles to my ankles.

"Thank you," I tell him. My voice is so low that I barely even hear myself.

But he gives a small nod. It might be just my imagination, but the corner of his mouth twitches. "You're welcome," he replies, then turns around and leaves me standing.

I melt into his sweater; the only good thing that has happened to me today.

Still, I forgot to ask for his name.