“No, you can’t,” he said. “Obviously not. You chose those fuckers in Indi’s pack. Why would you do that when I was right there? We have everything in common, don’t we? And what do you do? Skip out on our time together forthem?I even buy you drinks when we go out, and for what? For you to fuck another alpha on your stream right in front of me? I knew you did camming, but you never acted like a whore until you met them.”
The word was hurled at me like an insult. Sometimes someone in my pack would say it, but then it was used as a praise, something to feel good about, and nothing out of his mouth felt good.
“Is that why you trashed my apartment?” The same word scrawled across my wall became a vivid image in my mind.
“You needed to pay!” he spat, the viscous liquid from his lips flying; luckily, none got on me. His scent was already horrid enough—I think if he actually spit on me, I would have thrown up. “You needed to understand I was right there for you. Like your car. It was trashed. Why didn’t you call me? I would have helped you, proved to you what a good fucking alpha I was.”
My eyes widened, realizing just how deep this was going. “H-how did you know about my car?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he took a deep but shaky breath. It was obvious he wasn’t in his right mind, maybe he never has been.“None of it matters now. The only thing that matters is you’re here where you’re supposed to be now.”
He reached for me again, my arm this time, and I couldn’t help but flinch at the sudden contact. Especially somewhere so important to me. It obviously angered him, but he didn’t yell at me again. “I’m going to take you somewhere to remove that mark, and then I’ll bond you, and we’ll go somewhere else, start over. And you won’t have to stream anymore. You won’t have to do anything except take care of me and our children. We’ll have a perfect, normal family. Yeah?”
My blood ran cold at the mention of any of that. I had to get out of here, but there was no way I could fight him—he was so much stronger than me. And he obviously wasn’t alone.
Frustration and despair washed over me. Longing for my pack was heavy; I just wanted it all to go away.
He reached up to swipe one of my tears away, but I smacked his hand, the sound ringing through the room.
He clutched his fist tight, like he was preparing to hit me. I braced for it. “I’ll give you a pass, because today has been… abnormal.”
Abnormal?That’s not how I would describe it.
“But you don’t pull away from me ever, understand?”
I shouldn’t talk back, I knew I shouldn’t.
“You don’t fucking own me,” I said. “And you never will.”
Suddenly, I went from sitting up to flat on my back, his body pressed over me as he had in Marcus’ room.
“Let’s see about that.” His hand reached down, obviously going for the button of his pants. My heart sank. I started fighting back, kicking my feet and trying to free my arms that were currently locked in his grip above me.
“Once you get a little of the right knot, you’ll fall right in line.” He had me pinned down quickly, his hands beginning to paw at me.
“No, stop,” I pleaded, but he wasn’t listening.
I was obviously making this hard for him, but he was persistent. A faint memory back in the bedroom came to mind. I’d landed a solid blow to him somewhere. My legs kicked harder, looking for that spot on his leg.
It was clear I hit the perfect spot when he let loose a scream, one of his hands flying to his injured leg. I took the opportunity, trying to slide away, but even with one hand, he was able to hold me pretty steadily.
“Don’t think you won’t fucking pay for that.”
His hand reached for the hem of my shorts, and I could feel my body tiring from all the fighting.
Just as I was about to give up hope, a creak from the door up the stairs rang out in the room.
“Help!” I started to scream, but Jason put his sweaty hand over my mouth.
“There’s a problem back at base,” the man from before called down. “We need to go back.”
“I’m a bit busy,” Jason yelled up. “Go by yourself.”
“I’m here to keep an eye on you,” he said. “Now get your ass up here, or I’ll tell the boss, and your agreement probably goes right out the window.”
He growled, an ugly, irritated sound. “Fine, I’m coming.” Jason turned back to me. “Stay here and don’t do anything fucking stupid. I’ll be back for you.”
He pulled off of me, readjusting his pants before climbing up the stairs.
