#aidica

His hand raised, reaching out to caress her cheek, but she grabbed his wrist and stopped him.  “You and I are the same, Erica.  We’re survivors.  We do what we have to, not what we want to.” “I’m not like you,” she disagreed, shaking her head. “I can protect you,” he offered, his other hand splaying on the desk by her hip. “Liar,” she scoffed, throwing his hand away. “I protected you in the vault,” he retorted, boxing her in with his other hand. “I died in that vault!” she corrected, pushing at his chest, but he grabbed her wrists and pinned them to his chest to keep her from doing it again. “You charged Kali when I wasn’t around!  I-” Aiden started, but stopped and clenched his jaw as he thought back to that day.  His grip loosened as his head fell forward, looking at her hands before meeting her eyes again.  “I had to carry your body out.” “I don’t care,” she replied, swallowing dryly.  “If I hadn’t died then, you would have let me die like you left Boyd and Cora to die.” “I didn’t want anything to happen to you,” he tried to convince her. “You’re not powerless, Aiden,” she snapped.  “You’re all alphas.” “Yeah, well, it’s not as democratic as it sounds,” he told her, clenching his jaw as he let her wrists go.  “I feel bad about Boyd because it meant hurting you, but if you’re thinking I should be all filled with remorse, just try and remember Derek killed Ennis.” “Ennis died fighting Derek,” Erica corrected.  “What you did to Boyd was murder.  It’s not the same thing.” “What are you more angry about, Erica?” he wondered.  “The fact that Boyd was killed, or the fact that I was part of it?”  When her brows furrowed at his question, he chuckled and leaned towards her.  “See, I think a part of you does like me, and now that we’re clearly on opposite sides of this fight, you don’t know how to handle it.”  Erica shook her head, but her eyes remained on his as he invaded her space further.  “Want me to be the Romeo to your Juliet?”