The Ripple Effect

"Stop shaking. He can't touch you—not unless he kills me and my ghost first."

Orion had grumbled the last part, not that it did much to comfort me. His hands were gripping my arms much too tightly as he tried to force me closer to the river's edge. I cried and begged him to let us go home, but he just wouldn't listen!

"Please!" I begged once more, shaking my head as if I so desired whiplash. "I want to go home!"

"No. Luca, get your ass out here! I want to have a word with my favourite brother!"

"Orion, stop," I whimpered, pushing against his chest with my back. Not that he budged.

"Luca! Iah! Whichever the hell it is, I can't rightfully say that I care! Sophie says she saw you here, and I'd just like a moment of your time," Orion snarled right beside my ear.

I never wanted to get on his bad side!

"He's not here! Now can we go?"

Orion tensed, and I followed in suit. Last time Orion froze like that, I wound up getting shot!

"Should I be honoured that my little brother wants to see me after all these years, or should I don my silver-proof vest?"

Orion all but threw me behind him when his look-alike crept out from behind a towering willow.

In the right light, this man didn't look like such a monster. He wore a pained smile and sad eyes, ones that begged me to believe that he wasn't the beast I knew him to be. Luca's hair was also a bit unruly, probably from the life of a rogue, and was shaggier than it had been in the picture in Orion's dresser. But his eyes were that same blue.

And yet it didn't look quite right. Upon first meeting Orion, I had easily differentiated Orion from Luca just because of the lack of evil in those blue eyes.

But that same evil was not present.

"You son of a bitch!"

Not that Orion cared to notice, not as he leaped across the river and began pounding his fists into his brother's face.

"Orion, stop!" I shouted, cringing as my voice echoed around me. But it didn't get his attention.

"Get off of me, you cad!" Luca rasped, knocking Orion right in the jaw and scrambling onto his feet as Orion jumped right back onto his own.

"Like hell! You didn't listen to Sophie, so why should I listen to you?" Orion growled, lunging at him again.

"Sod off! I don't even know what you're waffling on about," Luca grumbled, dodging each fist as if he was simply being annoyed by a fussing toddler. "Use your words, eh?"

"You can't talk to me like that—like nothing has even happened!"

"Nothing has happened! You've gone mad, Orion! Is this what the title Alpha does to you?"

"I'm just here to kill you—then I'll be on my way," Orion snarled, straightening his back when he realised that his every punch missed and was all for naught.

"I did what our father asked of me, Orion. I left. So why are you digging this up again? I left because it was easier for all involved, yet here you are making this an issue again!" Luca snapped, his cheery disposition suddenly fading. "You all were so quick to throw me out. Now tell me why!"

"Why?" Orion staggered back. "Why? You raped Lorena! You had a kid that wasn't legitimate, and then you left him. You—"

"Shut your damn mouth!"

I cringed when Orion was slammed into a nearby tree so roughly that a groan tore past his lips.

"Get your filthy hands off of—"

"I thought I said to stuff it! You can berate me all you want, little brother, but you will not bring Lorena into this! Say another word about her, and I'll kill you!"

It was like Orion was in a fight with a scruffier-looking, taller version of himself.

"Luca..." He snapped his wild eyes to me. "Please let him go."

"You're damn lucky to have a mate like her watching out for you. So why are you here screaming at me when you have that waiting for you at home? Give me one hell of a good reason, or I'll snap your head right off of your neck!"

"You'd know she's so great. That's why you tried to steal her from me!"

Orion collapsed to the dirt like a broken doll, and Luca stepped back. He narrowed his eyes, but then he glanced to me.

"Sophie..."

He took a few steps towards me, but I backed up.

"Stay back, Luca. Just go away."

"Do you know what he's talking about?" he asked, tilting his head to the side as he ignored me. He stepped right over Orion's crumbled, groaning body as if his brother was just another rock.

"That's close enough!" I whimpered, continuing our dance as he stepped through the creek.

Orion was trying to get back onto his feet, but it was obvious that Luca had smacked his head onto the tree a bit too hard.

"I said we shouldn't have come here," I muttered spitefully to the fallen man.

"I asked you a question, love," Luca told me. I glanced back up, and I screamed out as he reached out to catch my wrist.

"You damn cur!"

I staggered backward when Luca was knocked aside, pinned to the ground by a red blur.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asked me. His gaze kept shifting from the groaning man below him to me, so I nodded.

"I'm fine."

"Good. Orion, do I have your permission to take this...disgusting rogue as a prisoner?"

"Throw him in the damn dungeon," Orion moaned, still rolling around on the bank.

He wasn't much help, was he? Obviously blind rage was not his strong suit...

Daniel grabbed Luca's arms and held them behind his back as he dragged him back the way Orion and I had come.

Luca gave me one last pitiable look, like he was begging me.

But I didn't know what he was pleading for.