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Dimitris's eyes darkened just a smidge - enough for me to notice as he briefly looked away. "Yes." He didn't seem very comfortable, but he took a deep inhale and let it out slowly. "Elliott…had a crush on me for a really long time, back in a time when I wasn't the Moore people bowed down to or knew the moment I entered the room."
I could see the flood of rage in his eyes while he tried to hide the hurt this memory delivered. "He knew me when I was a nobody...when I was beginning to take the steps towards my revenge."
Closing his eyes, he continued.
"Back then, the world was far colder. No one cared about acts of kindness when you were poor. At one point in my life, our family was wealthy. It wasn't close to the wealth I carry now, but it was enough to have a roof over our heads and eat warm meals."
He opened his eyes then, their hazed intensity focused forward while they glimmered with intense pink - his wolf inching closer into control.
"Then a deal went wrong. A fuck up. Our father...the cocky fucker, he thought he was invincible. That nothing could take him down. What a fucking fool."
"He perished?"
"Kidnapped, tortured, and murdered when he was all drained out. He trusted far too easily. Assumed no one would be wishing for his downfall. He was so fucking wrong, and that left us with nothing. Our mother disappeared. Probably went on the run with a different alias and whatever money she saved in Switzerland. Regardless, we had no one. No family friends or anyone who'd be willing to take us in. We were too dangerous to take into the foster system, so the government ignored us. We went from rich children to homeless, and it was fucking hard."
"We?" My voice was barely audible.
"Me and my little brother, Mihkel. It was just the two of us for years," Dimitris whispered. "We sat in the corners of the streets, in the dark alleyways at night, begged for food during the day, and did anything to get by. We got to see how cruel and dark this world is first hand, but it brought us closer together."
"Is he back in Cali?" I quietly asked.
"He's dead." His stoic eyes locked on my widened ones. The heartache that bled into his statement inched into my heart. "All he wanted was to be happy. He didn't care about riches or getting payback on those who ruined our family. Our parents were nowhere near perfect, but they gave us a part of our childhood we knew was a privilege most couldn't afford to experience. My father may have had it coming for him, but his death...that was something no one deserved. Mihkel couldn't walk on the same path as me. He was beginning to see a bit of our father in my eyes, and could see how controlling I was becoming. The Alpha in me was growing faster than my own sanity, and I guess...he was afraid of watching me spiral down the same path. Frightened to see me die the same way and leave him behind."
He sighed and closed his eyes, struggling to continue as he swallowed the lump in his throat. "So he came to the conclusion that death was the only option."
I couldn't speak as the car slowly began to move once more, the passing lights dancing on his face.
"Mihkel's suicide made me realize that if I was going to rise up in the position of Alpha, I wouldn't be able to handle a bigger pack. It would drive me mad to lose someone so close. By then, the Forbidden Pack was slowly forming, and after we retrieved Jayce, I knew I had enough allies on my side," he revealed. "From that moment on, we worked hard. We trained twelve hours a day, working on our individual crafts and ensuring our weaknesses were minimal. We vanished from the Cali streets into the wilderness so we could become stronger, and when the opportunity came, we rose out of the depths of the forest into a society that had forgotten about our existence. And it was the most empowering moment of my life."
Opening his eyes, he slowly looked at me, those orbs of pink softening as they met mine. He reached out to brush away the single tear I hadn't realized was running down my cheek, and for that single stretch in time, it felt like the world was just between us as his hand remained pressed against my flesh.
"I vowed that no one else would join our pack. That I wouldn't expand myself for anyone else. Mikhel's death killed a part of me that carried a pool of emotion, so when Elliott entered my life, I couldn't let him be a distraction. He kept loving me, that tiny crush growing more and more, but my heart merely grew colder and colder. By the time I was ready to acknowledge his feelings, he'd decided to change himself into Elizabeth and by that point, I was nothing but a hindrance. My feelings for him back then were tiny, but I figured being with him would be easier than being with someone who knew nothing of the crimes I committed. However, with the tables turned and with the switch of his gender, I was just turned off."
Lowering his hand from my cheek, he continued.
"It made me realize that I was gay, but the option of dating a female didn't bother me. However, it was the idea of needing to open myself up to another that turned me off. Letting someone into my life full of secrets and intense desire for control wasn’t going to happen. Elizabeth was so different from when she was Elliott. The trust faded, and it was obvious her emotions turned into a fit of obsessive jealousy towards anyone who dared look my way. I figured it would never be a problem because who would possibly love me?" The spark of sadness in his last statement tugged at my heartstrings. "Besides, the only person who did cherish my existence decided it wasn't enough to save him from himself, right?"
"Dimitris," I whispered.
I wanted to say something comforting, to give some sort of emotionally wise statement that would ease his pain, but I carried a hint of guilt of my own, for my conscious actions surely triggered memories I was sure he didn't want to relive.
"When her rejection of any chance of us being together was put out there, I didn't give her the reaction she expected. Maybe she thought I'd fight for her, but I didn't have time for that bullshit. I was focused on building an empire and couldn't let anyone fuck it up. Each member of my pack was dedicating themselves to me, providing a level of loyalty no one else could. I couldn't be wasting my time with love, and deep down, she knew it. She began to become more of a hindrance, so I hired a succubus to keep her occupied. Obviously, since she was once a male, I couldn't go with an incubus. It kept her distracted. Long enough for us to come down to NYC with the intention of expanding. I assumed she wouldn't be any more of a hindrance, but I guess her desperation to be mine morphed into her attempting to hurt me."
"But she hasn't made a move against you," I voiced the obvious.
"Sure, she hasn't done anything directly to me," Dimitris agreed. "But she doesn't need to target me specifically to hurt me, Willow."
We shared a look that made his words finally click.
"I'm not a weakness to you," I voiced. "I'm just the new pack member that brought a bunch of bullshit with her."
He smirked, and suddenly he was inches from my face. His cologne danced around me while his eyes further softened and projected waves of lust.
"In this form, you're not. But then again, that Alpha energy of yours may kick me in the ass one day."
"My Alpha energy-"
He surprisingly kissed me, the pressure of those soft lips enough to make me want to press back. We fought each other until my arms were hooked around his neck and he grabbed me from my seat and moved me back on his lap.
