Big Knot Energy (Shadowverse #2)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Issa

Six months ago

“ D id you think I wouldn’t find out?” Antonio bellowed, his hand clenched around my jaw so I was forced to look into his eyes when all I wanted to do was cower.

He released his hold on me but only long enough to draw his hand back and whip it across my face. My head was thrown to the side from the force and tears welled in my eyes. I’d stopped trying to make excuses, stopped begging him for mercy, stopped begging him to stop.

I wasn’t sure I could even form a coherent sentence anymore. My lips were swollen and a split down the center of the bottom made it throb to my racing heartbeat.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Slap . “A fucking beta .” Slap . “ Nothing! ”

That last word was followed by a closed fist punch that sent me stumbling back until I landed hard on my side. Pain ricocheted through my hip, my back, my elbow, and my shoulder before my head slammed against the hardwood floor.

Stars danced around the edges of my darkening vision, Antonio’s curses and threats sounding so far away.

Maybe I was dying. Maybe I would finally get away from him, away from my family, away from this life that I hadn’t chosen.

I supposed I should have been afraid of dying, but all I felt was relief. I would finally find peace.

I’d been texting my sister’s pack as often as I thought I could get away with, trying to warn them of various ambushes or even when my fathers planned to steal from their shipments.

And Antonio had found a way to uncover the texts I’d thought were permanently deleted.

Now, I laid in a heap on the floor, my eyes closed as my heart thundered harder than I’d thought was survivable. Surely, it would give out at any moment and send me into cardiac arrest. That might not be the most comfortable way to go, but it would still set me free from my alpha’s torment.

Not my alpha. I might carry his bonding mark, might have stood at the front of a room during the bonding ceremony my parents had planned, but he wasn’t someone I wanted, someone I would ever want. He didn’t give a shit about me.

We’d had another beta in our little fucked up pack, but at least he’d been able to get away after that first week together. He’d slept with me because that was required of us, then split. Neither Antonio nor I had heard from him since.

Although, I highly doubted my alpha would tell me shit about anything, even Carlos contacting him.

I’d thought about Carlos a few times through the years, wondered if he was happy, if he’d found a better pack, better alphas, or if he’d merely moved away and stayed off everyone’s radar.

Darkness filtered in and out as consciousness tried to escape me. Whether I died or was no longer awake, at least I would escape the pain igniting the nerve endings across my entire body.

In the past, Antonio would only hit me where my clothes would cover. That way, I wouldn’t have to apply so much makeup to cover the bruises and cuts. He would also inject me with sedatives or slip them into my food and drink to keep me docile, to keep me from speaking my mind, to keep me from fighting him when he tried to have sex with me…

When he tried to knot me.

For a while, I’d wondered if I simply didn’t like sex. The mere thought of Antonio so much as touching me made my stomach turn and my skin crawl.

But I was beginning to think I wasn’t opposed to sex in general, but sex with Antonio.

I wasn’t an omega. My body wasn’t made for an alpha’s knot. Not that he gave two shits about what I wanted, whether I enjoyed myself, or whether he caused me intense pain each time.

My lids fluttered when the sound of a door slamming shut shook the floor and sent a fresh wave of adrenaline through me. Was it possible Antonio had left? Was I alone?

And what were the odds I could get to a set of keys and take the car that was mine from when I’d first come here and been allowed to come and go as I pleased?

I had to get to Cora. Had to warn my sister and her pack. Had to warn them that our parents had made plans to kill the alphas of Pack Rivera and their unborn child.

The room spun and my stomach lurched as I pushed to a sitting position. Where was my phone? Whether or not I could find my keys, I had to find a way to warn Bain, to warn Cora and her mates not to trust my mom.

No matter how doped Antonio kept me, I was still able to hear everything that was said around me. I always wondered if my alpha thought the sedative disabled my hearing or caused memory loss. But he and my fathers had always spoken freely in front of me.

They thought I would remain the dutiful daughter. They thought I would remain loyal to them, to the alpha they’d forced me to bond with, that I would put them and their power-hungry ways above my sister and future niece or nephew.

Why was the room swaying so much? Or was that me? I couldn’t force my eyes to focus, could barely see through the swelling, and there was a constant ringing in my ears.

But I had to warn someone, damn it. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my little sister and her baby and I’d had the information that could keep them safe.

Pushing onto my knees and grabbing any piece of furniture I could to steady myself, I finally found my phone across the room. The screen was cracked and barely readable, but I had to try.

My vision swam in and out as I typed then hit send. No point in deleting it this time since my alpha had been able to find all the others.

Phone still in hand, I used the side of the couch to pull myself to my feet, blinking slowly to try to clear my head enough to drive. I had to do something but was starting to worry I might kill someone else when I passed out behind the wheel.

Pack Rivera’s estate wasn’t far. I would simply have to stick to the backroads and hope I didn’t veer off the road or into the other lane.

My legs felt like a newborn foal’s as I swayed side to side and hit every piece of furniture and even the walls on my way to, hopefully , grab my car keys.

They still hung in the exact same spot they had since the day I’d been moved into this house by my parents.

Antonio didn’t want me. Didn’t love me. He loved the connection to my family, the power and money he gained by working for my fathers, for being a member of the infamous Pack Alvarez.

But I was his property, at least in his mind. Forget the fact I was a beta, forget the fact there was absolutely no guarantee I would ever be able to carry his heir. Forget being faithful to me or showing me the smallest scrap of respect. I was a tool for him to use at his will.

The keys jingled against the fob on the keychain as I put my hand to the wall and slid along to the garage, nearly tripping down the three steps and over to where my newer model Mercedes Benz sat.

My beta siblings and I might not have been favored by our parents, but at least they’d cared enough about appearance to ensure their kids all drove nicer cars.

Not that prestige or appearance ever meant a damn thing to me. I was just happy I had a car that would actually start and get me where I needed to go without it breaking down on me.

The garage door seemed like it took an eternity to rumble up enough for me to finally back out and head down the driveway and to the roads that would lead me to Cora.

I had no idea whether she was home yet, but from what I’d heard from Antonio, there was an attack on her pack planned for when she was visiting the obstetrician. Pack Rivera’s guards would be at their home, though. They could contact Bain or one of the others and warn them.

My vision was still doing that weird in and out thing where the edges were rimmed with sparkling black, narrowing my sight down to a pinpoint. I had no idea whether it was from a head injury or from the swelling in my eyes. I was terrified to so much as look in the mirror for fear of what Antonio had done to me sending me into a panic attack. No way could I drive then.

Not much further .

I just had to hang on long enough to get to Cora’s house, to warn one of her alphas or their guards, then…

I didn’t care what happened to me after. I didn’t even care if one of my sister’s alphas decided to execute me. After all, my own alpha was behind all this bullshit. In my head, I deserved death. I’d earned a death sentence merely by association.

The rapid, reverberating thud of the warning strip snapped me back to attention. I’d had no idea I was drifting off the side of the road until those vibrations sounded through my sedan and rattled my seat.

“Just a little further,” I said aloud, trying to keep myself awake and alert .

It couldn’t be more than another ten minutes. Please don’t let it be more than another ten minutes.

I wasn’t sure I had much more than that left in me. It was a struggle just to keep my eyes open and my thoughts clear. Or clear ish .

There. Up ahead, the first of the tall gates surrounding the estate of Pack Rivera came into view. I’d made it. I was here.

Foot on the brake, I slowed my vehicle, or thought I was as I approached the manned front gates. I could barely make out bodies clad in all black, but they were blurry and out of focus.

The closer I got, the more those bodies moved in a frantic motion, waving their hands in the air like those blow-up dancing advertisement balloon men in front of car lots or businesses closing shop.

Oh shit. Oh no . My pinpoint vision was becoming more of a blurry dot.

I was almost there. Just a few feet more.

My head drooped forward a second before my entire body was thrown against the seatbelt and the airbag deployed, my face planting against it and the burn along my cheek blaring through the rest of the pain for the briefest second. The scent of whatever the hell they used in those safety implements filled the car and stole my breath.

Voices boomed around me. Something tapped beside me over and over. But I could barely open my eyes or lift my head.

Blinking hard, I forced my head to raise with the last few ounces of energy I had left and turned my eyes toward a man whose face was framed in the window.

“Open the door,” the man ordered. He had dark hair and gray eyes and reminded me of Cora’s alpha, Bain. Could this possibly be the brother, Enzo?

I blinked a few times, trying to clear my vision and thoughts, but finally lifted a hand to hit the button to unlock all the doors.

My side was yanked open, then a man with pretty green eyes lowered in front of me, his hand cupping the back of my neck before smoothing it over the back of my head.

“Is anything broken?”

“What?” I asked. Was anything broken? Anything like what ?

“Can you tell me if anything’s broken? Do you have a headache? Any dizziness?”

I continued to stare at him as I tried to make heads or tails of what he was asking me. That wasn’t important. None of that was important. I had to find Cora. Had to warn her.

My hands felt like they were made of rubber as I tried to push him out of the way and climb from the driver’s seat but tripped over my feet. Or the ground. Or maybe it was the air that threw me off balance.

The man with the pretty green eyes, the one who kept touching me and asking me questions, lifted me from the ground. I swayed, my head rolling against his chest as he carried me.

“Call Bain,” he ordered.

“Can you tell us why you’re here? Who hurt you, Isabelle?” the one I thought might be Bain’s brother asked me, his tone far gentler than any I’d heard from an alpha, especially one who was supposed to be the enemy of my family.

“Corazon,” I managed to groan out.

“She’s not here,” Cyrus said. “Call a doctor. Is Henderson still working for Bain?”

A doctor? Were they calling a doctor for me? And who was Henderson?

“No idea. And Bain’s not answering his phone.”

“I’ll contact the doctor,” another man said. A door opened then closed.

I was set on a soft surface; I assumed a couch. Feet thundered against the floor, then someone was thrusting a glass of water into my hand and said, “Here.”

A wet cloth was dabbed at my face, pulling a hiss from between my teeth when the cloth irritated a cut there.

“Tell Corazon,” I managed to push out as I wrapped my hand around the wrist belonging to the person tending to my wounds.

His brows lowered and he looked from me to the guy standing over us then back again .

“What do you want me to tell her? You want her to know you’re here?”

I shook my head, trying to remember what exactly my sister needed to know. “Not mom.” The words came out slurred.

My eyes refused to focus, my lids constantly lowering as sleep or unconsciousness beckoned me forward. Sleep sounded so good right now.

“Not mom. Not your mom?” the pretty eyed alpha asked, cupping my face in both of his big, warm hands. He was definitely an alpha, but I’d never seen one be so gentle, especially not with a beta.

My lips felt numb as I said, “She’s lying. Mom…my mom. Tell Corazon.”

“Your mom is with Corazon today. Did you want us to call her?”

Panic gripped me as I tried to focus on the man hovering over me. “Stop her. Tell Corazon. Mom…the baby.” Why did my words sound so slurred? “She’ll hurt Cora.”

And the last of my energy depleted. I heard the men muttering around me, heard them making orders, hopefully calling Cora or her alphas.

But blackness swallowed me into the abyss. And before the last of reality faded away, my final plea was that I wouldn’t wake up.

That I would finally be free from the world my parents had forced me into.