by Beth Rosalee
We all growl in agreement.
“What about the others who are coming to help? How long until they get here?” Tate asks.
“I will tell my father to send them this way and give a general location for them to search. But we are not fucking waiting on them,” he says, then shifts in seconds into his enormous black wolf.
He is the biggest wolf anyone has ever seen- until Celia that is.
He growls, pushing out his alpha power and forcing us to shift instantly, whereas it usually takes about a minute normally. It’s also not pleasant to be forced into a shift. We all huff out a breath, trying to shake off the pain.
“You didn’t have to force us, Alpha; we were all about to shift,” I growl into his mind.
“Not fast enough; now, let’s go,” he demands as he turns to head the way I came from, effectively ending that conversation.
I chuff at his back, letting him know I think that he is an asshole. Then, I sprint off back to the tires tracks with the guys following behind.
Chapter 23
Celia
I feel something sting across my face, making my eye snap instantly open. I thought that I was dead, surly the blood loss would’ve killed me… I look down at my exposed breast to see the cuts are completely healed- not even a scare. Only the remnants of his disgusting pleasure and my blood are left dried up on my skin. I see red as I feel a boiling rage well up inside me. Svana speaks into my mind calming some of the rage.
“I am here, Celia. You freed me when you chose to not submit to him and his torture. To not let him win again. Now listen carefully to m….”
She is cut off by Nathan speaking to me, “Did you have a nice rest, sweet pea? I think a day was long enough, consider that my last gift to you.”
As he finishes, I look up and snarl at him, while also realizing he has taken the gag out of my mouth. My senses are sharp, I can see the sudden spike in his pulse through his neck and his widening eyes as he meets mine. The sweat that is beginning to bead over his lip and brow as he tries to hold my stare, but he can’t.
“What the hell are you? No, no, this isn’t real.” He starts pacing and talking to himself, “She’s just a dumb bitch; you are in control. You just need to take what you want from her like you always have; then, kill her. You’ll find someone new once she is out of the picture.”
He nods to himself, then stops and tries to meet my eyes again. He keeps dropping his stare down to my nose every second or so, making me laugh and stare harder. Making me feel more confident in the moment.
“That is because you are The True Alpha. Now, let us break these bonds he has us in. We will be a victim no more!” Svana tells me with a fierceness I have always wished to have.
My fears come crashing back at me like a freight train.
“I-I can’t….how am I possibly going to break these ropes, Svana?” I plead with her to understand, losing my confidence again. “I am not strong enough; I never have been.”
I start sobbing as I drop my eyes from Nathan. I can’t do this, what was I thinking.
“NO! You are strong enough; you always have and always been strong enough. You are a goddess, Celia; born from your true father Fenrir. This is not your fate! You have more to do, there is nothing in this world that can stop you. Now, BREAK THE ROPES!” she yells at me.
Time slows suddenly as I heave in deep cleansing breaths.
I am a goddess?
That can’t be right….but it is, I can feel it deep in my soul. I can feel the truth of it running through my veins. I can feel the power waiting at my fingertips, ready to head my call. But what does it mean? And what is this power. What can I do?
“Later, Celia, I only know some, but we will discuss it later.”
Agreeing, and pushing those thoughts from my head for the time being, I focus back on the now.
Nathan.
Nathan is nothing to me, a tiny insignificant pest in my path to something greater. I must eliminate him. He does not dictate my future any longer. No one does, but me, because I am free…..
I.
Am.
Free.
With my heart racing and my adrenaline pumping, I look back up at Nathan with tears streaking freely down my face, and I fucking smile. I am not weak.
“You do not own me, Nathan. I am not the one who is going to die here. It is you, soon.”
I laugh as though I’m the one that has lost my mind now. I can feel it, the power that is flowing through my blood. The strength. I only needed to accept it. I only needed to realize that I submit to no one. I have suppressed my true self for far too long because I submitted.
“Shut up, bitch, you don’t get to talk to me like that. You will do as I please; now, open up and suck my cock like a good little cunt,” he tells me as he pulls his disgusting erection from his pants and walks up to me.
He has truly lost his freaking mind.
This is it; this is my opportunity.
As he goes to press his penis to my lips, I pull on that strength that I can feel inside of me. I strain my arms with all my might and the ropes instantly snap free. As soon as I feel them break, I surge up out of the chair, grabbing him by his penis and throat. I squeeze tightly, as I walk him back towards the wall, growling the entire time.
He struggles to decide which part of his body he should save. I help him out by twisting and bending his penis until I hear a popping sound, almost like popping a balloon with a needle. His erection instantly deflates, and his eyes cross in agony. His mouth opens on a scream, but no sound comes out since I’m still cutting of his air flow most of the way.
Letting go of the offending appendage, I draw my arm back and punch him square in the face. Blood sprays everywhere as his nose crunches under my knuckles. I have never hit a person in my life, but fuck, that felt so good. I draw back once more and punch him in the solar plexus, letting go of his throat and stepping back as I steal the air from his lungs. He bends over at the waist, trying to gasp in air to his seized-up lungs unsuccessfully, making me laugh with glee.
Afterward, I watch him struggle for another minute, then I finally hear his lungs starting to expand once more. I walk back up to him and grab him by his hair. Dragging him over to the chair that he violated me in, I slam him into it and grab the broken ropes from the floor, using them to strap him to the chair nice and tight. Then, I secure the gag around his mouth. “Now, this looks much better doesn’t it, sweet pea? Hmm?”
I laugh at my use of his nickname turned back on him.
“Now, sit right here like a good little cunt, while figure out where exactly we are. Do you have your cellphone with you?” I ask him, he just glares at me.
I slap him hard across the face, making more of his blood splatter all over my hand.
“Gross, now, I asked you a question,” I say while wiping the blood off of my hand and onto his shirt.
He nods his head and points with his chin that it’s upstairs.
“Good boy.”
I pat him on the cheek; then turn to leave. Pausing, I think better of it and turn back around.
“I better check your pockets first.”
I walk over and search each of his pockets, finding the pocketknife still coated in my dried blood in his front pocket as well as a set of keys. His wallet is in his back-right pocket, and…
“Aww, lookey here, your phone isn’t upstairs. It’s right here. You almost fooled me. You hoped I’d be gullible like I always have been and just believe your word. Tut, tut, not anymore, Nathan.”
Now that I’ve searched him thoroughly, I head out the door in search of where our location is, pausing to find the key and lock the door. Maybe I can figure out a way to call my Adonis Squad. Well, if only I remembered their numbers. Stupid technology making it where we don’t need to memorize phone numbers by heart. I should’ve memorized them!
Forgetting trying to call them, I head up the stairs that are right outside the door I was locked behind. Once I reach the top, there is another door, which is also lock
ed. After finding that key and unlocking the door, I open it into a cozy looking hunting cabin. I slowly walk around, looking things over, making sure no one else is here.
He did gag me because he didn’t want anyone to hear me, he said. But as I look around, its clear we are alone here and glancing out the windows I can see the cabin is surrounds by woods on all sides. He probably just got some sick satisfaction out of making me think someone might hear me. The basement was a storage room if all the supplies stacked in this bedroom are anything to go on.
Determining that we are in fact in the middle of nowhere in a hunting cabin, I continue looking around. No point and trying to leave here yet. I won’t have a clue where I am going.
“That felt so good, Svana. I feel so free now,” I tell her as I enter the hallway.
“Yes, I got great satisfaction from that as well, although I would’ve just ripped the disgusting thing off,” she snarls the last bit, making me chuckle.
I like this other part of me. She is fierce and brings out a fierceness in me that I have never possessed.
I head to the kitchen and find it completely stocked. Nathan was planning on staying here a while it seems. Thank the stars that I escaped when I did; who knows what other things he would’ve come up with to torture me. Shivering in revulsion, I push that out of my mind, knowing already I am going to suffer from more nightmares from this. Turning away from the kitchen, having no appetite, I go to the front room and sit on the couch. I pull my bloodied and destroyed shirt and bra free from my body and throw it on the ground by my feet. I grab the throw blanket off the back of the couch and just curl myself up into the fetal position and get lost in my dark thoughts.
Even if those of us who are damaged manage to put on a brave face every day and smile, doesn’t mean we aren’t broken inside. I’m broken inside; I don’t know if I can ever feel not broken after what he’s done to me. Healing takes a long time. Time I will now have, once I figure out how to finally rid myself of that waste of space down there.
I don’t have a clue how I will do that; I don’t think I have it in me to kill someone. I will figure that out later, for now I’m going to sit here until the numbness wears off.
Chapter 24
Grayson
The rage flowing through my veins right now is worrisome- even to me. The fact that someone has taken my mate from me, and I’ve only just met her, I don’t even have the words. I just see red. I don’t even know her birthday yet. I know next to nothing because I’m too big of an asshole to have tried.
I know that I’m an asshole and that won’t ever change. I just left her in my brothers’ care while I ran off and did nothing but think of her. I forced myself to keep my distance.
Why?
Because of my damn Alpha ego.
I need to kill something, and that something will be that motherfucker as soon as I find him. I am going to rip him limb from limb slowly.
I’m ripped from my thoughts when Wyatt suddenly jumps up from his sitting position and turns his head to start sniffing the air to the Northeast hard. He sniffs a few more times; then, speaks through our link.
“Her scent is back and she’s this way. It’s not far from here; let’s go.”
We all jump up from our little pow wow we were having and take off behind Wyatt like our asses are on fire. We run for about three miles to the Northeast until we reach a cabin out in the middle of nowhere.
Once it’s in our sights, we all slow to a creep, surrounding the house. Snarling, I tell my brothers to shift back to human form.
“Wyatt and Tate, you take the back door; Liam and I will go through the front.”
I give out the orders through our link, that way we can stay quiet and not alert him to our approach. I can smell Celia just inside and I can smell lots of blood, making a growl rumble out of my throat before I can stop it. I know she isn’t dead because I can hear her softly sobbing inside. My heart clenches painfully at that sound.
“Three, two, one….GO!” I order in their minds, then kick open the front door, bursting inside instantly, making Celia jump up from the couch screaming at the top her lungs as she throws her arms up in a protective position over her head, like she expected to be hit there.
I take in the scene quickly as Liam, Tate, and Wyatt join me. I notice the bloody clothes on the floor and Celia is standing there completely bare from the waist up. I react without thinking and grab her up in my arms holding her close, just breathing in her scent. Fuck, it feels so good to have her in my arms.
She gasps and pulls her head back to look at me in shock, clearly not expecting to be hugged. Once her eyes meet mine and she realizes who is holding her, she relaxes into my hold and begins to bawl anew. She grabs my bare shoulders and clings to me, climbing me until I pick her up and wrap her legs around me, squeezing her tight to me.
“Shhh, shhh, it’s ok, Baby Girl, we are here now. I’ve got you. It’s ok. Shhh,” I try and soothe her, as I sit on the couch and stroke her hair.
“Wrap the blanket back around her,” I tell Liam, since he is hovering right next to us like he wants to climb on the couch, too. “All of you search the house, find him,” I order them as I continue to stroke her hair in comfort.
She starts trying to tell me something, but I can’t understand her blubbering.
“I don’t know what you are saying, Baby Girl, you have to calm down. I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere, ok? You are safe.”
She takes another minute, breathing deeply through her sobs, trying to gain some control. Gods, she is so strong. She leans back away from me then reaches in her pocket, pulling out a set of keys. I squint in confusion, waiting for her to be able to explain. Taking one last cleansing breath she stutters out a whispered sentence that makes my chest swell with pride.
“H-h-he is…He is in t-t-the *deep breath* the basement tied up-p.”
“Good, Baby Girl. You don’t need to worry about him anymore, ok? I’m going to hand you over to Liam. You lay your head on him and rest. Everything is going to be taken care of; he will never hurt you again,” I tell her, giving her a kiss on her head and grabbing the keys.
Then, I nod to Liam, who just re-entered the room with Wyatt and Tate right behind him. Liam comes immediately over and carefully takes her into his arms, then lays back on the couch, making sure her blanket is secure around her exposed body.
“Keep her in here with you, not matter what she hears, got it?” I mentally ask Liam.
He nods his head in understanding, then holds her a bit tighter to him, getting comfortable. She snuggles in and closes her eyes, sighing quietly, probably in relief.
“There is a locked door just back here, Alpha,” Tate says, leading the way.
“Celia told me; I’ve got the keys here. She said she tied him up down there .”
I say it with pride as I work to find the key that opens the door. Once it’s open, I take the lead, following the steps down below. There is a short hallway directly in front of the stairs that leads to a second door. I stop and listen for a minute, using my enhanced hearing to see if he is moving around in there. All I can hear is his heartbeat and steady breathing, as though he is sleeping.
Finding the key to this door, I open it and find the light switch and flip it on. The rage is back instantly; I can smell her blood all over. The floor is cover in blood, mostly hers. In the very center of the room is where he sits tied to a chair, with his pants open and his dick out. It’s swollen, black and blue, and barely recognizable. His nose is broken and both of his eyes are black. His eyes shoot open once we enter and he pleads.
“Please help me, man! She broke my dick; she broke my fucking dick.”
He starts crying and I laugh a full belly laugh. I hear the guys laughing as well. I have to bend over and try to regain my composer after a minute. Whew, I haven’t laughed like that in a long time.
“Quit crying, you little bitch; we aren’t here to help you. You took our mate from us. Do you really believe you deserv
e to be fucking saved, scum?” I snarl at him in disgust. “No, you are going to wish you were dead by the time we are done with you.”
I punch him in the jaw once, then tell Tate, “Untie the fucker; let’s see what he is made of.”
Laughing, Tate does as I told him to, then asks “Can I have the first go, Alpha? I need to hit this fucker.”
I nod in agreement, knowing I need to wait until last, or this rage will consume me and it will be over way too fast.
Chapter 25
Grayson
Tate unties him; then helps him to stand up.
“Show us what you got, tough guy. Huh, you like hitting women, let’s see just how tough you are,” I say while Tate hops around like a damn boxer getting ready for a fight in the ring, making Wyatt and I laugh.
“Let’s go, fucker; hit me like you hit Celia,” Tate growls, slapping the punk across the face. “Come on.”
He slaps him again and again until he final responds by trying to push Tate away.
“That’s it, you little bitch, hit me,” Tate says opening his arms for a free shot.
As soon as Nathan realizes that he is backed into a corner and there is no other way out, something seems to flip in him. He charges Tate, aiming to punch him in the face, but we are too quick for him. Tate knocks Nathan’s hand away with his left hand; then, rams his right fist into Nathan’s stomach, making him bend at the waist.
Nathan loses his stomach’s content with the force of the hit. As soon as he’s finished, Tate’s knee comes up, hitting him square in his already broken nose. He flies up in the air for a second, his back arching with the force, landing on his back out cold.
“Well fuck, that was too easy,” Tate says, not even slightly winded.
“Pick him up and put him back in the chair, Wyatt. Tate, go get some cold water to wake this fucker. We aren’t done here,” I order.
Tate hurries off to grab the water as Wyatt picks up the piece of scum off the floor, depositing him into the chair.
“Wake up.”
I slap his cheek, trying to rouse him. Tate comes barreling back into the room with a giant smile on his face, a large pitcher of cold water and a towel in his hand.
