The Beast's Possession
34: You’re an interesting one.

**Aife

pov**

This was so unfair, I literally couldn't stand it anymore. Ever since Bane came into my life, he did everything to make me more miserable with every step he took.

And now, just as I was a tiny bit closer to replaceing out a little more about the forsaken pack, he had to appear out of nowhere and cut the conversation short.

"Oh, Alpha. Sorry, I thought you wanted me to take her for a walk? I had no idea you didn't want us to come to the gardens." Silvia muttered with a fearful expression on her face.

I understood why some Alphas wanted to be feared, but wanting your own pack members to fear your very existence seemed like too much for me.

"I don't mind, Silvia. I just decided that sitting cramped in the office for the entire day couldn't be good for my health, so I came outside for some fresh air," Bane chuckled.

I instantly furrowed my brows at his statement. Didn't he claim something else just a moment ago?

Seeing how Silvia looked as confused as I felt, she had to think about the same thing.

Unfortunately, she was the only one of us two who could voice it, and honestly, I doubted that she would, not that I could blame her. Bane terrified her.

The silence between us dragged out so much, I felt uncomfortable. While Bane had removed his hand from Silvia's shoulder, he was still gripping mine, so that didn't help ease the tension either.

Just about when I was done with the situation, Bane let out a loud, throaty laugh. "I'm just messing with you two. I didn't come here for fresh air. Just like I mentioned earlier, I came looking for you two. Since you're technically working, Silvia, I decided to take our wonderful reject on a walk myself. After all, we should start getting to know each other better, right?"

As the last words left him, I could feel his eyes on me. Bane's gaze had a surprisingly disgusting effect on me. I felt like my skin was both burning and crawling at the same time.

"Oh," Silvia breathed out. I could feel how the tension left her body and slid into mine, adding to the already awful feeling that was nearly freezing me. "In that case," she muttered as she stood up and glanced at me. "I will see you around." The silence that followed Silvia as she left was deafening. It made little to no sense, but that was the only word I could think of to describe the situation.

Of course, when Bane sat right next to me, it became worse.

His eyes didn't linger on me for too long, but the brief moment was enough for me to understand he was disappointed with me.

"You're an interesting one," Bane announced as he leaned against the backrest of the bench.

I didn't dare to breathe, let alone look at him. Based on my experience so far, it didn't matter what I did, he always found a fault in me and my behavior.

"As someone who comes from pure Alpha bloodline, the first problem I see is your gender. An Alpha is a man, not some nail-painting girl with pink highlights, or whatever the fuck you call that shit, in the hair." Bane laughed at his own joke. Quite frankly, I didn't replace it funny, but he wasn't here to seek my opinion. The reason why he came here was to remind me that he had the power to make my life a living hell whenever he felt like it.

And surely, since there wasn't anything I did that he could reprimand me for, he had to use whatever he could. For as long as it hit hard, it seemed to work for Bane.

Sometimes, I felt like he could read my mind, like he could dig his claws in me and pull out my biggest insecurities just to use them against me.

Being reminded that I was nothing but a girl was one of the things I hated the most. Plenty of people before Bane had accused me of being unworthy of the title just because I wasn't a man. Even my father, although a very loving one, had done that more than plenty of times.

I was so done with listening to everyone's opinions on my abilities long before I had gotten my wolf.

Everyone knew that the strength behind an Alpha depended on one's wolf. I didn't have mine yet, so neither I or anyone else could know if I would turn out to be a failure or not. "Then, there's the fact that you're timid as fuck. An Alpha stands tall and brave against everything while you flinch away from every movement like a little bitch." And again, he laughed.

I wondered how this self-proclaimed mighty Alpha would react if someone slaughtered his entire pack before he met his wolf, and then took him in as an actual slave.

For Bane, the world was a mess of grays while I tried to see the colors and notice the little things. There was beauty in everything in my eyes... Except for him.

Bane knew only his wrongs and rights, not the general ones. After all, everyone but him knew that committing war crimes was wrong. And his war was in his head. Bane invented one to get whatever he pleased. He wasn't a trustworthy man who would stand up for others.

"So, if I take away the fact that you're a woman and a coward, is there any good quality in you? What makes you believe you would be fit to become an Alpha? Is this another time you will use Killian as your shield and base your worth on his idea of marrying you?" Now, Bane sounded like he was accusing me of something.

My eyes widened at the unexpected verbal attack.

How did his insults evolve into reproaches about a completely unrelated issue was beyond me.

Against my better judgment, I glared at him. Bane was constantly going out of his way to make me feel less than I was. He did everything in his power to point out how useless I was in his eyes.

If the only thing I could do was make him feel even a fraction of the negative things he had forced upon me all this time, I would consider that a victory.

Clearly, this beast of a man had no one to set him straight. Not that I would ever try - for all I cared, he could rot, burn alive or drown, and I wouldn't move a muscle to help him.

"What?" Bane finally realized that my gaze was focused on him.

Funny how he looked so puzzled while I prayed to the gods to gift me an ability to set him on fire or thow actual daggers at him as I kept glaring.

"You can't be seriously offended because of my opinion, can you? How big of a snowflake you are, for fuck's sake? Stop acting like the planet stopped spinning just because I voiced my thoughts. Don't like them? Well, it sucks to be you then. Suck it up and move on. Let's go back, you're supposed to cook me dinner."