Beating Heart

//sometimes our demons overpower us, and there's nothing we can do to stop them//


//Julianne//

Despite being upstairs in Harry's room, I hear the door slam downstairs and muffled voices emerge into the house as well. I stay put and remain on the bed, just like Harry asked me to do. However, the waiting is already killing me. I've already had to wait over an hour for his return, how can I possibly handle sitting here any longer? A deep exhale comes out of my mouth, I must keep calm and collected - Harry told me to do something so I should fully fulfill his wants - even though it's difficult to do so.

A surprised gasp flies past my lips as I hear a heavy round of footsteps followed by a voice - a voice all too familiar to my ears. "We'll be down later!" Harry lets out a yell just as I witness the doorknob turn. The door slowly opens, as the creaking sound fills the air my heart begins to pound in its cage. I have been hiding behind that door for so long now, awaiting his arrival and he's finally here! Oh, thank God!

"Harry." I can't help but to say his name as he steps into the room, eyes darting straight from the floor to my face. His pink lips quickly shape into a happy grin and he starts the journey to me. I, being very impatient and bad at following orders, jolt up from my spot on the edge of the bed and hurry over to him. He swiftly engulfs me in an embrace and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. His smell fills my nose, reminding my heart and my mind that he's real. This beautiful, amazing creature that I adore so much is completely real.

"Baby, I missed you so much." Harry says, his lips rubbing against my temple as he speaks. Seconds later, he plants a garden of affection all over my forehead, leaning back so that he can get a better position. I let out a small laugh as his lips tickle my skin, and make my heart flutter in the process. "I missed you." I mumble back once he had stopped the pecking and drawn me back into his warm chest.

Being in his arms is by far the best feeling I have ever had the chance to experience, and I am certainly glad that he's all mine. "You will never believe what I done today." Harry pulls away from me, allowing his hands to fall from my back to my waist. He keeps me still in front of him as I tilt my head back, my eyes looking into his gorgeous orbs. "What did you do?" I ask with a smile, his tone of voice sounded so excited - like a little kid on Christmas morning.

"I can't tell you, but I can show you." His right eye drops into a cheeky wink. Moments later, before I could respond, his hands fall from my body and instead grab my wrist, yanking me behind him as he starts towards the door. "You're going to love it. Or at least.. I hope you do." A giggle escapes my mouth as we quickly reach the staircase. Harry slows down, hopefully as an attempt to prevent either of us from falling and getting injured.

His hand slides down to mine and he slots our fingers together, squeezing a couple of times just before we reach the hallway. I return the gesture, but I believe it might have gone unnoticed by him because as soon as Liam appears in the doorway of my bedroom, Harry disregards me behind him and lets me go. "Is everything the way I wanted it?" Harry asks Liam in a lower voice, but I can still hear him since I'm literally a foot behind him.

"Yeah, we followed your directions, captain." Liam smirked gently as he looked Harry up and down, observing his rather peppy mood. "Good, get out of my way." Harry gestures for Liam to carry on down the hall, and without a word, he does as he is told. Niall quickly shuffles out of my room as well. What on earth have they been up to?

Harry spins around on his heel, his hands grasping my waist immediately. He guides me backwards, away from the room. I feel his eyes staring down on me so I look up to meet his wondrous gaze. He's so bright and happy at the moment, like he just won the lottery or something. "I sorta lied to you about where I went today." Harry blurts out suddenly, taking me into slight shock.

"W-what do you mean?" I ask with furrowed brows, trying my best to hide my nervousness. If he wasn't out getting groceries, then what was he doing? Could he have been with another girl? God, no! Julianne, that's ridiculous. Right?

"I took Liam and Niall... somewhere. We.. picked up some things for you." Harry briefly explains as his lips shape into a sly smirk. Before I can reply to him, he grabs my hand once again, but this go around he doesn't start the trip. Instead, he uses his free hand to motion me towards the open door. I hesitate at first, but his nod of approval gives me the courage to step forwards.

The light is off, that's easy to tell since the door is wide open. I step over the threshold, Harry following behind me still grasping my hand. I lift my hand to the wall and run my fingers across it until I find the switch for the light. I push it upwards, the new bright light bulbs glow as a result. My eyes widen as I look around the room, and how different it appears to be. Earlier, nearly an two hours ago, it didn't look anything like this.

Harry's hands touch my waist from behind me, yet I don't pay him much attention. He gives me a slight push, getting my feet to lift off the ground. I take a few steps, moments later I hear the door shut. I suppose Harry really did take my thoughts into consideration the other night. He listened closely to me because everything I requested is exactly, one hundred percent right.

"I hope everything is where it needs to be." Harry's voice emerges into my ear, his soft lips kissing just behind it moments later. I pick up my hand and gently sit it on top of his, while my other remains hanging by my side. "If there's something out of place, don't hesitate to move it, love." Harry adds on along with another little peck of his soft lips against my cold skin.

"It's.. perfect." I whisper softly, just as my eyes roam over the newly hung picture frames. Those weren't in my old room, but the pictures that are inside of them were. "I added a few things here and there, just some small touches." Harry whispers gently as I continue to search the room, wondering what new things I could find. What Harry had was true, not only did he purchase the frames, but he also put together another dresser, which contains my clothes from my house I'm sure.

"H-how did you.. g-get this.. d-done?" I ask in a surprised stammer, my brain is having a hard time trying to comprehend how all of this came together while I sat upstairs waiting all afternoon. "We left early this morning.. went to your house.. packed up all of your things.. While that was happening, Louis and Zayn went out to buy the dresser, and a few other things I listed.." Harry takes a pause just to kiss the lobe of my ear gently, I adore that move of his. "They built the things that needed assembled while Liam, Niall, and I sorted through your clothes and your belongings. Doesn't take too long when there's extra hands helping."

In order to properly thank him for doing this, I turn around to face him, his hands lift from my body for a short time just to allow me to move. Once I am still, his hands return to their spots and he lowers his head. My hands settle on either side of his neck and slowly begin to trail to his nape. "Thank you for this, Harry. You're the best." I balance on the tip of my toes so that I can actually reach his precious lips. He assists me by firmly grasping my waist and picking my feet off the ground.

Before I had time to react to his movement, his lips press against mine and I gladly take advantage of our position. I raise my legs up and wrap them securely around his body, deepening our intimate moment. His right hand drops to the underside of my thigh, keeping me in the air, while the other remains on my waist. A moan slips from his mouth and into mine, making me smile gently against him. If I had the chance to stay in his arms for the rest of my existence, I would, without a single doubt, take that opportunity.

I tear my mouth from his, immediately receiving a set of furrowed brows and a pout from Harry. "Why'd you stop, sweetheart?" He asks softly, his eyes staring into mine so perfectly. My fingertips brush against the scar on his cheek as I cup that side of his face. "I just wanna look at you." I whisper back, softly resting my forehead onto his. He chuckles at my reasoning, clearly not upset at all by it. "We have an eternity to spend together.. You can look at me later, doll. I wanna kiss your pretty mouth." He gives me his devious smirk, lips leaning back to press against mine once again.

Just as they touch, I pull away and bite the inside of my cheek while I stare at him. He seems taken back by my action and just stares right back. "Eternity?" I questionably mumble the word, my eyes moving off of his and onto the wall behind his back. "Yeah.. I'm kinda immortal.. if you, uh, didn't know that, dear." He chuckles gently just as I plant my hands at his nape. I give him a playful roll of my eyes, of course I know that, I'm not entirely clueless.

"I know.. but I'm not." I say in a soft voice, at first I didn't want to bring it up but now it's too late. Harry just displays a weak half smile to me, nothing bold and bright like I normally see form on his lips. "You will be." His words make my heart nearly stop pumping. It's rather hard for me to believe that that is true. Harry's eyes narrow lightly as he continues to study my face, watching how I react as I debate this all in my mind, a place he can not eavesdrop on.

"Don't.. don't think about it now.. just.. kiss me, doll." Harry smiles a bit bigger this go around, his lips fall against mine but I do not have the energy to move. My focus is on something other than Harry's mouth, for once. He notices immediately and removes his lips from mine entirely. Without telling me why, he lowers me back onto the ground. Once my feet are flat and I am balanced, Harry's hands fall from my waist.

To my utter surprise, Harry turns away from me and steps into the hall, beginning the journey away from me. My body seems to be frozen and stiff, I can't move my feet. I can't go after him and beg him to stop, and to come back to me. I just stand still, as if I knew nothing about movement or actions - as if I were simply lifeless.


//Harry//

"Is everythin' alright, Harry?" Zayn asks with a heavy concern as I slam the door - heading straight for the forest line. I don't stop to communicate with him, instead I just continue on knowing that he'll trail behind me. He always does. "Hey? Harry!" He calls out as I get further away from him. It might be best if I keep my distance for a while, my veins are on fire and my blood is boiling underneath my heated skin. I can feel the light sting in my mouth as my fangs come out to join my rage.

I hear Zayn's feet stomp on the ground as he chases after me. I do nothing to try to outrun him, I don't really care anymore. No matter what they say or do, I will always end up acting upon the decision I make for myself. It's an Alpha thing, so they say. They can suggest things all they want, but I will always do what the fuck I plan on doing.

"Did something happen with Julianne?" The mention of her name makes a growl erupt in my throat. Just a second later, Zayn's hand grabs ahold of my elbow and he yanks me backwards. I have a desire to lash out on him, scream at him and ask him what the hell gives him the right to lay his hands on me - but I don't. I remain somewhat calm, as much as I can be at the moment, and I look over at him while tightly clenching my jaw.

"Did she piss you off?" He questions me with a sly smirk. I swallow harshly, attempting to control the wolf that wants to explode. "I did all this shit for her.. We did all this fuckin' shit for her.. and all she is worried about is immortality!" I didn't intend to yell at him, but it just kinda ended up happening. He flinches lightly, taking a step or two back once he released my arm.

"Immortality?" Zayn raises an eyebrow at me, clearly he's just as confused as I am right now. Why does she fucking care about that? She is perfect the way she is, she doesn't have to be like me in order for me to love her. Obviously she doesn't care whether I love her or not, so it seems. "I made a comment that was just a joke.. She, of course, took it too far." I sigh out, my attempts at remaining calm are beginning to fail.

"I'm sure she didn't intend to upset you." Zayn says with a shrug. I shake my head lightly, "Whether she meant it or not.. it hurt. I was trying to kiss her and she just.. she won't fuckin' let me." Those are my final words, there isn't a thing anyone could say or do that will stop me from storming off into the woods. As I flee both the scene and the conversation, Zayn doesn't try to run after me again and I mentally applaud him for doing so. He can easily tell when I have had enough of something.

Before I even notice it, I'm deep in the woods and I'm no longer standing on two feet, instead I'm on four paws. A growl escapes my body as I pick up my pace, heading to wherever the hell my feet lead me. I'm tired of not being appreciated. I never thought Julianne would do this to me, totally disregard everything I done for her to make her fucking happy. She hurt my heart, and it's a horrible feeling.


-

//Liam//

My knuckles gently knock against the closed door a few times, requesting to be let in the room. A few seconds pass, silence remains. I attempt again, knocking a bit harder this time. I know she's behind this door, I can smell her without a doubt. Harry's scent is pretty damn strong, since it is his room, but I can still smell her. "Julianne? Can I talk to you?" My voice breaks the dead air, hopefully she will just let me in and I can get this over with. I don't like to be all emotion or even helpful most of the time, but I feel like she needs to know something.

Shock fills my body instantly as she opens the door, her tear filled eyes lift to meet my stare. I smile gently and just barely moves the corner of her mouth. "W-what is it?" She asks with slightly furrowed brows. I swallow the lump forming in my throat, this is kind of nervewracking. "Well.. you really.. um.. hurt Harry's feelings earlier." I straight out admit this to her, she deserves to know what he went through, even if she doesn't care.

"I-I kn-know that, Liam. I.. I don't need you to-to remind me." She rolls her eyes at me as she goes to shut the door. I quickly stick my foot out, preventing her from closing it completely. She huffs loudly and swings the door back open. "What do you want?" She asks, becoming enraged by my presence. "You need to apologize to him." At the moment, I am easily controlling the temper in my body, my inner demons want to lash out on her but I know that isn't right. She hasn't done anything to harm me, so there's no reason to get defensive.

"Don't you think I know that?" She scoffs lightly at me. Before I can reply, she continues on, "obviously he isn't here right now so how the fuck am I going to do that, Liam? Please, if you know a gosh damn way let me fucking know!" Julianne not only raised her voice at me, but she spit out a few vulgar words that I haven't heard her say before. I exhale deeply, she's irking my nerves. "He'll be back soon. He just went to-" She rudely interrupts me with an irritated laugh, "Blow off some steam, yeah?" She shakes her head in disbelief at me as her eyes roll in her head once again. "Please get out." Her hand pushes against my chest, but I don't move. She notices that and I can see the frustration boiling on her face.

Julianne turns away from me, letting the knob go in the process. I remain in the doorway, not wanting to overstep my boundaries. "Every damn thing I do is wrong.. Everything I say either hurts him or pisses him off.. Every single fucking time I do something stupid he goes away for days at a time, Liam. I.." By the sound of her voice, I can tell she's dropping tears now. Her words are cracking and her pitch is varying. Julianne slowly rotates herself so that our eyes meet again.

The whites of her eyes are currently stained with red, and her cheeks are tainted with streams. She pushes her hair away from her face, securing it behind her ears. She's either awaiting my response, or she's trying to gather herself to further speak. I decide to not wait and find out, but instead to just talk to the girl. She's hurting, it's very evident to me.

"He isn't leaving. He's not even a mile away." I assure her with a soft sigh, leaning my body against the door's frame. Julianne shrugs gently, as if she didn't believe or trust one word that was leaving my mouth. I don't blame her, I'm not the most trustworthy person on the planet. "You are never the reason he goes away." Immediately, I regret saying this because she's going to question either me or Harry about this. Hopefully it will be me, because if she suddenly threw all her curious questions to Harry he might just lose his mind. He never wants her to know why he leaves, but I have a heavy feeling that will end pretty soon.

My words grab her attention, she lifts her head and stares at me for a quiet moment before speaking up, "Then w-why does he go? And.. and wh-where does he go?" My fears have became true. Unfortunately, due to the Alpha's strict rules about this topic, I am not allowed to speak upon it. The Alpha's rules must be followed, especially serious ones like this.

"I.. I can't.. discuss it... with you." I say with a light voice, hoping that she doesn't hear me but by the look of confusion on her face she understood me. "And why not? I live here.. I.. I've been told I'm apart of this family.. I'm.. I'm his.. his girlfriend, Liam.. Why.. why are things still be-being kept from me?" Julianne's ramble wasn't too long, but I wish it had been shorter. I hold my hands up in surrender to her, hoping that she will get my point, "I can not tell you, Julianne. I'm sorry, love. If I had it my way, or anyone else had it their way around here.. we'd tell you everything we know."

"I want to know.. why.. why you can't tell me.." Julianne carries herself to end of the bed where she sits herself on the edge, her puffy eyes staring at her feet. "Alpha's orders, Julianne. I can't break them." Her head snaps up automatically at my words. "The fucking Alpha's orders. That's all I ever hear!" She cries out, tears flooding from her eyes. I wish I could fix this, but I don't know how.

"I'm.. I'm sorry for even bothering you.. I.. I just.. I'm sorry, Julianne." With those words filling the air, I grab the handle of the door and I pull it to, closing her away once again. I take a deep breath before sighing again, she is stressful to deal with - I don't see how Harry can handle that. I mean, it's nothing bad or anything, she's just a bit dramatic and emotional. However, I guess if I witnessed my mother being killed by my father I would have some trouble with my emotions too..

"What the fuck are you doing up here!" Harry's voice echoed in the small space, making me jump. Before I had a damn chance to even blink, Harry's hands grab onto the collar of my shirt and he shoves me harshly against the wall. For a moment I was still on the ground, almost eye level to him - but that quickly changed when he lifted my feet off the ground. He tilts his head back so he can stare at me, his eyes are glowing and his fangs are out. "Did you fuckin' touch her!" He yells into my face, spit covering my skin.

"N-no. I s-swear to-to God!" I manage to get the words out. I take advantage of the air supply before it gets cut off because if this goes like all the other times, I won't be able to breathe for a while. "You're fucking lying! I smell her all over you!" Harry snaps, as usual he won't let me explain. "I-I.. She pushed me.. I didn't touch her!" I try my very best to defend myself verbally, but of course that doesn't get his approval.

"Why the fuck would she have to fuckin' push you away from her! Liam, I swear to fuckin' God if you touched her I will rip your fuckin' head off!" Harry screams intensely, which immediately draws attention from people in the house. I hear footsteps running towards us, along with the creak of the bedroom door that's beside us. Harry doesn't seem to notice either of these things, or care one bit. His hands grab my throat, keeping me up in the air. I claw at his wrists, needing to fucking breathe already. He smirks evilly at me, watching me struggle is something he's always found amusing, even more so if it's him causing my pain.

"Harry.. w-what's going on?" Gemma's voice breaks out, my eyes shoot to her direction and she's standing just a few feet away. Her eyes are glued on me but she's speaking to him. "I watched him fuckin' leave my God damn room! Julianne's in my fuckin' room!" Harry yells once again, I doubt the hollering will stop anytime soon. "Okay, okay.. Just.. why don't you let him tell you, yeah?" Gemma steps closer to us, her hand reaching out to Harry. I notice that it's covered in water and soap - she was in the middle of doing the dishes when she overhead us, I assume.

She sits her hand on his shoulder, but he doesn't move his eyes off me, or his hands. I gasp for air, getting only a small amount into my lungs. I try again, but I failed. "Hey, it's okay.." Gemma says in a soft tone as she slides her hand to Harry's elbow, trying her best to get his grip off me but it won't work. She's pretty strong, but she doesn't have enough strength to go against his.

"G-Gem.. get a-away from me. I.. I don't wanna hurt you." Harry huffs out, his eyes flickering over to her for only a moment before they run to stare deadly into mine. I don't have to worry about him harming Gemma, he could never do that. There are only five people Harry would never, ever dare to harm - his sisters, his mother, Julianne.. and her mother. All others are fair game in his eyes.

"I was here the entire time.. I.. I was listening, okay? He didn't touch her.. he didn't hurt her in any way." Gemma tries her best to get Harry to cope with her, I applaud her efforts. He's bullheaded and stubborn, it's difficult to get anything through his thick skull. His grip on my neck loosens, and I don't hesitate to take in as much air as I possibly can. He looks back over at her, "A-are you.. s-sure?" He asks with deep breathes, trying to calm himself down.

Gemma nods to him a few times, her hand falling from his arm. Surprisingly, Harry lowers me from the wall, dropping me onto the ground. I grunt lightly at the slight pain of my body slamming into the floor. He steps away, turning his back towards me while his hands tug at his hair. "She's fine, love. She isn't hurt." Gemma rubs his back with her hand, trying to keep him calm himself down. Once Harry's fired up and ready to phase, it's extremely hard to control him and to get him to relax is nearly impossibly.

"What the hell is your problem?!" My eyes nearly fly out of my head as I look over at the now opened bedroom door. Julianne's standing there with her hands extended in question, and what shocks me the most is that her eyes are focused on Harry instead of me. I figured she would blame me for this, but clearly I am wrong about that.

"Julianne, baby." Harry quickly gets excited to see her, so much that I watch his irsises fade to their normal shade. Julianne, on the other hand, isn't too pleased to see him - which is almost incredibly shocking to me. "Why did you do that to him? Look what you done to his neck, Harry!" Julianne raises her voice, her index finger pointing to me. Harry's eyes follow to where she points and I can only imagine the amount of bruising and discoloration that is on my skin right now.

I am able to feel the bruises, as usual, but I won't know how bad I look until I'm staring at a mirror. Julianne rushes over to me and hits her knees directly beside me. She lifts a hand and sits it on my cheek. I freeze as she pushes my head upwards to get a better look at my neck. I have no idea how to respectfully respond to her movements, so I just remain still.

"Why do you fuckin' care about him?" Harry asks while stepping closer to us. "Because you hurt him, Harry. God.. you're a fuckin' asshole." Julianne spat the harsh words at him, taking a quick glance before tracing her fingers against the bruises I suppose are on my skin. "What in the hell have you been doing with my girlfriend, Liam!" Harry angrily bursts out, assuming the suspected situation.

"We haven't been doing a damn thing!" Julianne screams back at him, rising to her feet now. I do the same as they approach each other, anger filling both of their bodies. "You must have a fuckin' thing for him if you care!" Harry leans down to her, spit covering her face I bet. She shoves him backwards, and he actually stumbles a bit. "You're so ridiculous, Harry! I don't have to fucking be in love with someone to care about them. You clearly don't care about anyone but yourself. You could have choked him to death." Julianne pushes him again, but this time he returns the shove.

His rough move had more impact on her body than hers did to him. She huffs at him for doing that, "You're a cold, heartless fucking monster!" In a blink of an eye, Julianne's body was pressed against the wall and Harry's hand had made it's way around her throat. Gemma and I both stand with our mouths agape, wide eyes staring at what's occuring. What the fuck is going on?

Notes

I apologize for the delay. I have been going through some very personal things. I will try my very best to upload as much as possible! The book is almost complete, which makes me nervous because I hope you guys will like the way it ends and how the next begins.

Leave feedback on this please, updates coming xx

**ALSO - I hope you all remember the secret of Liam's that Harry refused to tell Julianne.... The family's past is about to be dug up!