Age Is Just a Number

“Come on, Beck,” Collin said. “Calm down and think.” Beck shook his head, a snarl escaping his lips as he glared at his old friend. Golden eyes burned with fury and desire. Collin sighed and stepped back. “What do you want me to do, Beck?”

“Let me go,” came the gravely response.

“You know I can't do that, mate,” Collin said, making eye contact with his friend again. Beck growled at the gesture. “Is she really worth it?” Beck held his eye contact, but said nothing. Collin straightened. “She's a lost cause, mate. She's made you into this...”

“Jess needs me,” the Scot-Irish replied, his voice softer than before. “Just as much as I need her.”

“You've done with out her for one hundred and seven years—”

“And did you not see how I was?” Beck demanded.

“Happy? You and Millie had it all, Beck. But you left her for some crazed eighteen year old who hasn't got barely an ounce of sanity left in her.”

“Don't talk about her like that,” growled Beck. “Its not her fault.”

“Maybe not for her own problems, but she's the reason you're acting this way. You're turning into a rogue just like her.”

“So be it, then.”

“Beck, you ain't thinkin' sense, mate!”

“Leave it alone!” Beck snapped, lunging at his friend. The chains around his body snapped taunt at his weight. “Get the hell away from me!”

Collin's eyes dropped to the ground, disappointed and hopeless. He left the room without another word. Beck stood there, muscles straining against the chains that bound him. Finally, his body slackened and he slumped there, hanging uselessly to think. Think about Jess and what was happening to her. He thought he could save her from her own insanity, her own downfall. But she was only dragging him along with her.

It really didn't matter. Beck would let her drag him to Hell for all he cared. That worried him. He'd never been so bound to someone—not even Millie had made him fall to such servitude. But he didn't loathe it; he craved it. She was his reason for living, his object to protect at all costs.

Beck smiled to himself. Jess really didn't need protecting. She was ruthless, blood-thirsty. Completely and utterly insane. Yet he still felt that need and a love for her that seemed so twisted to others, but made absolute perfect sense to him. Others would never understand those feelings that roiled inside him. His exterior was hard, unmoving, but the inside...His insides were a pile of compassion for those he cared about. He'd die for those that his heart had opened to and he had no problem dying for a werewolf that had been drawn to insanity through traumatizing, heart-wrenching events.

The werewolf's smile dropped and once again his mind was plagued with negative cogitation. Jess was alone up there, being treated like an animal or criminal. They didn't know how to handle her or understand her. She would tear the place apart without him.

Again, he pulled against the chains, lunged, and strained. The metal links refused to give. Flashes of them locking her away, confining her, strangling her in an attempt to keep her “under control”.

If they hurt her, he swore he'd kill them. No matter if that wasn't his usual thought process. It didn't matter that he was acting completely out of his own persona anymore. Jess was not going to last long without him. He couldn't bare to even think that it would be all his fault if she were to kill herself or be killed.

There was a slight give from the wall and Beck lunged forward again. The door suddenly swung open.

“You're really going to try it, huh?” asked Charlie as he stepped into the room. “Let me assure you, Beck, I won't let anything happen to Jess. I promise you that.”

“You don't understand,” Beck growled, though his stance had relaxed some. He trusted Charlie more than a lot of the others. The guy was neutral and honest. “She needs me.”

“She needs to learn to live without you first, brother,” the Texan stated, crossing his arms. “Trust me, you'll be doing her a lot a' more harm than good if you decide to break outta here.”

Beck's body slumped even more as he looked at the other werewolf. His eyes were no longer burning with fury and hatred like before. Instead, loss and need cascaded from them. “You promise you'll take care of her for me.”

“I swear on it,” the blind werewolf said. “Stay down here and reflect on what you're going to do for her once they let you out of here.”