He might be surprised.
Chapter Two
Hudson
I looked in the rearview mirror at my home. Our home. No, it was never my home. It was theirs, and sometimes they would hold that fact over my head.
I could scarcely concentrate on anything except the drumming of my heart and driving. I’d found an apartment and a job on the other side of the country, far away from my harem, and hopefully far away from the memories of what they’d done to me.
The memories, pushed down in my consciousness, came back in blips of time. I spent so much of my thought process anticipating their needs and watching their behavior that I’d forgotten a lot of things.
About six months ago, I began documenting things online, in a password-locked journal app. I used my stepmother’s birthday as the code, since they wouldn’t ever know that date, especially since it was one of three stepmothers.
Once I began writing, the floodgates opened.
I wrote it all down as I remembered it. Under the covers at night. In those stolen moments of the day.
When they went on trips for so-called business.
At first, they were loving, overbearingly so. My harem consisted of two males, both wolf shifters, and a female hyena shifter. While I was the omega, they all mated with each other and, I found out, with others. So many others that one of the first things I asked for at my annual doctor’s appointment, was an overall health check, including STDs.
Thank goodness I had none of those. Shifters were generally considered immune to such human diseases, but with such careless behavior, I couldn’t be too safe.
Three months into the relationship, they insisted I stop working. I would get pregnant any day now, and it would be best for my health if I didn’t have the stress of working.
A decision, like many others, made for me.
I had no access to money.
Asking for basics like soap and clothes became a hassle until I simply stopped, telling myself that my low-maintenance omega status was something to be proud of. I gathered their scraps of soap and shampoo bottles with dregs for my hygiene needs.
Once several years went by and I hadn’t gotten pregnant, I was allowed to get a job. My wolf somehow stopped me from getting pregnant to protect me. With a child, this whole leaving process would’ve been ten times harder.
I got on the freeway at three in the morning after they never came home from some late-night meetings. Their meetings and trips had become more and more frequent.
I passed the sign telling me I was leaving the state I’d lived in all my life, and a hardened part of me began to soften. I’d grown so cold and protective that being happy and fun were distant whispers.
This was it. My chance to start over. I had a new apartment and a new job, thanks to my dad giving me a loan to start over. When I first told him what was going on, he thought it was a joke.
Not only had I put my alphas on a pedestal, I’d built the damned thing myself. Telling others about our issues felt like failure. Embarrassment for staying in such a situation.
The worst mistake they ever made was giving me a phone. It became my lifeline to abuse-recovery materials. To nightly calls with my dad, supporting me. Journaling.
They thought it was a way to keep tabs on me.
It was my doorway out of their abuse.
Hours later, I stopped at a motel and got a room to sleep for the day. I opened the door and shut it behind me, locking all the locks available.
I wondered if they had made it home yet. If they had called or texted, I would never know because I’d blocked all their numbers. Even though I’d made the decision to leave and was standing by it, my harem had a way of love bombing me. Of pushing all my buttons. Right now, I was too vulnerable. Didn’t trust myself to talk to them or even text.
My dad had saved me or helped me save myself. The motel already had a package for me at the front desk. A new phone. A new bank card. I had taken Beth’s car, but I would leave it here, have them tow it away or report it stolen, which one, I didn’t care. Some clothes to change into.
And a plane ticket to the city nearest my destination. My dad would meet me there.
I pulled the new phone from the box and called him.
“Oh, thank goodness,” he breathed out after answering on the first ring. “You made it okay?”
