Chapter 43
Jade
When I had thought Damian had gotten worse, I had no idea just how much. Or maybe he hadn’t gotten worse at all. Maybe this was who he had been hiding.
I lifted my chin and stared him down. If he was going to kill me, then I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. I wasn’t going to let him take my dignity too. He had already taken so much from me. “What did I do now?”
He didn’t acknowledge me. Instead, he whispered like a madman to himself. I could hardly distinguish what he was saying until I heard, “They will come for her next. They got the kids out. This is their next stop. I can’t let them take her.”
My heart leapt into my throat. Had Micah managed to help my pack get the kids out? While he was focused on his muttering. I took a look at my surroundings. The barred door was wide open. He dragged his fingers through his hair and made it stand up. I took a deep breath before I took off running. If the kids had made it out then I didn’t need to worry about the witches. We could get out. They could band together. All I needed to do was tell them. But as soon as my foot passed over the threshold, he had his hand wrapped around my hair. My entire body jerked backward as lightning lit up the back of my skull.
Pain blossomed in my tailbone as it connected with the damp brick flooring. I wheezed as he yanked harder on my hair. I had no doubts that he had taken chunks of it out of the back of my head. I scrambled backwards on the cobblestones but it was no use. He only continued to pull harder.
“If you thought you could escape, the jokes are on you.” His voice didn’t sound as crazed. It sounded almost clear. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and tried to get some kind of relief but his grip was too firm.
A cry escaped my lips as he threw me down onto the ground. Damian leaned over me and smiled. His eyes were clear and that’s what scared me the most.
“What do you want from me?” Pride swelled within my chest at my steady voice. I honestly didn’t know how I managed it. My head ached and there was a warm trickle down the back of my neck that worried me.
“What I have always wanted from you, I have wanted Rafe Crimson but you have yet to deliver him to me.” He tilted his head before he smiled. “Except I don’t want him anymore. I want you. I have wanted you since I wrapped my fingers around your neck. I had thought I wanted to take you so Rafe would come to me. But now I want what’s his. I will not let him come in here and get you.”
“I belong to no man,” I snarled.
“I will break you of that, like I broke all the others. Do you smell their blood down here? Can you hear the phantom echoes of their screams?”
I sat up straighter on the floor. “You will have to kill me. Do you understand me? You will never own me. You will never have any piece of me. Not now, not ever.”
Pain bloomed on the side of my face and darkness kissed my eyes.
When I came to, there was a small fluorescent bulb hanging above me. There wasn’t anyone in the room and I was spread out on a metal table. Every single horror movie I had seen growing up didn’t make this situation any better. I squeezed my eyes closed as I tried to think of anything that would help me get out. Horror movies had been my jam growing up. There had to have been something in them that would have prepared me to escape from this moment. But the longer I thought about it, the more I started to panic.
Leather restraints kept my wrists pinned to the table on either side of me. Thankfully I was still wearing the nightgown but it didn’t cover much. My legs were also strapped down to the table and from what I could see, my feet were raw.
The back of my head still ached but the front of my head ached worse. Why hadn’t I fought harder?
“I’m glad you’re awake,” Damian said from the shadows of the doorway. “Now we can talk.”
I yanked on the bindings but they were too secure. Even all of my training wasn’t enough to fight this. The wolfsbane definitely didn’t help. Why hadn’t I starved myself? Why had I been so compliant?
“Many years ago, I was born of a wolf and a witch. Much like your friend Lucas. My mother was killed in a war that my father started. He was foolish and didn’t care about what would happen to those in his pack. After the war, he found his true mate. The one that his soul called to. My mother was forgotten and in turn, so was I. He sent me to live with witches. Living with wolves wasn’t good for a son that never got one. I was a disgrace to him. After all, his firstborn would eventually take up the mantle of Alpha. But I couldn’t do that. After I went to live with the witches, he never spoke to me again. I wrote him letters weekly. Sometimes daily. All I wanted was my father’s approval. The letters were all returned. I thought it was because I was a witch. I began experimenting on myself. But it didn’t matter, a wolf never chose me. A wolf chose every single witch and mortal I put it in, but never me.”
“And that’s why you’re doing this?” I coughed.
Damian took a step farther into the room. “No, I do this because I want revenge for everything I ever wanted and will never get. But I’ll have to break you first. I’ll have to rip your wolf from you and then mate her to me.”
Horror clouded my vision.No.
He took a step closer to me and ran the tip of a blade down my arm. Blood immediately bubbled up from the wound. I couldn’t feel the pain as I fought the restraints. All that mattered was getting out. I would feel it later, but now, it didn’t matter.
There was a slight stinging pain as he did the same to the other arm. I watched with rage as the blood spilled from my arms. He was still shirtless with his scars on display.
“What happened to you?” Maybe I could stall.
He stopped with the knife and looked down at himself. “This is what it takes to merge with a wolf that doesn’t want you. Over fifteen different venoms from different packs. This is what I was left with. I was shredded from the inside out as the wolves wouldn’t choose me. Do you know how painful that is?”
I could imagine. My first transformation hadn’t been sunshine and daisies.
His pupils widened as he twirled the knife between his fingers. “Do you think I can cut your wolf out?”
He ran the knife up my thigh. This time and instead of fighting him, I rolled my head to the side and threw up again. It splattered his chest with a sickening sound as he tried to leap away from it. But he couldn’t escape how sick he made me feel.
His retaliation was quick as his hand shot out and darkness took me over once again.
