Chapter 3 Captive
Captive
Cora
Someone had touched me. The moment I opened my eyes, the knowledge hit me, brutal and undeniable.
I bolted upright in the unfamiliar sheets, the slide of silk against my bare legs foreign and expensive. The outfit I’d chosen for the conference was gone, replaced by a delicate nightgown I’d never seen before. A cold dread, deeper than any stage fright I’d ever felt, washed over me.
My hands instantly flew to my neck. It would have been so easy for an Alpha to claim me while I’d been out cold. My stomach turned as I processed how vulnerable I’d been, how completely at someone’s mercy.
A bright purple bruise was on my upper arm, and I still felt a little light-headed. But there was no mark on my neck, nothing to hint I’d been violated in the worst possible way.
I took a few moments to catch my breath, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. “Hello?”
The word came out weak, swallowed by stone walls that gave nothing back. “Is anybody here? Can anyone hear me?”
Still nothing. The silence was absolute, a dead weight in the air. I snapped my mouth shut, feeling like one of those idiotic horror movie heroines who practically dared the villain to come find her. Clearly, whoever had brought me here had no intention of helping me. It’d be up to me to get out.
I forced my weak legs over the edge of the bed. My bare feet sank into carpet so plush it had to cost more than my entire year’s rent. Everything here screamed money and power, the kind that didn’t just buy silence, but erased the questions entirely.
A door stood across the room and I stumbled toward it, a fragile, stupid hope fluttering in my chest. I reached for the handle. It turned easily under my grip, swinging open to reveal… a bathroom. Wonderful.
The space looked like something from a spa magazine, all gleaming marble and a shower big enough for four.
The counters were lined with expensive products, still sealed.
Someone had prepared this cage with meticulous care, stocked it like they were expecting a pampered guest instead of a prisoner.
The thought was somehow more chilling than a bare cell would have been.
I spun back to the bedroom, my chest heaving with a mix of panic and exhaustion. On the other side of the room, I spotted another, heavier door. Sheer spite carried me there. I grabbed the second handle and twisted it.
Locked solid.
“Dammit!” I slammed my palm against the surface so hard pain shot up my arm. The door didn’t even rattle. It didn’t give me a single shred of hope.
Something inside me shattered. I tore through the suite, yanking open every drawer, every cabinet. Nothing useful appeared, just beautiful furniture and soft fabrics. Nowhere to go and no way to call for help.
The windows were lies, floor-to-ceiling screens playing forest scenes with a resolution so perfect it was scary.
Just another layer of meticulous, soul-crushing deception.
Complete panic finally broke through my shock, and I crumpled to the floor.
Hugging my knees to my chest, I tried to think through the terror.
The walls seemed to close in tighter with each breath I managed to take.
Movement in the corner froze every muscle in my body.
One moment nothing occupied that dark space, and the next, a man stood there.
Tall and broad with dark hair and pitch-black eyes, he exuded power through every pore.
His expensive suit fit perfectly across his shoulders in that way only an Alpha could ever pull off.
I scrambled backward across the carpet, trying to put distance between myself and this new threat. The bed frame stopped my retreat.
He tilted his head at me like a curious bird, but his face remained completely unreadable. “You’re awake. Good.”
Three words in that deep voice, and the memories came flooding back. The conference. Alexander Stormwright and his supernatural charm. This man intervening, stepping in before Alexander could pull me away. Shadows and lightning, his arms, and then… Everything going black.
“Damon Blackwood.” I grabbed the edge of the bed and hauled myself upright. “You’re the one at the conference…” My mind fumbled for words, for a way to describe what he had done. Instead, I settled on, “Where am I?”
“You’re in my estate,” he answered. “The Omega Suite. I brought you here after the incident at the pharmaceutical center.”
The casual way he said it made my stomach turn. Normal. As if people got kidnapped and woke up in luxury prisons every day. “This is absurd. You can’t… You can’t just bring me here without my consent.”
He arched a brow, the unspoken “Can’t I?” hanging in the air between us. “Alexander Stormwright was claiming you,” he answered. “I stopped him.”
His logic was a twisted, impossible knot. The sheer, infuriating hypocrisy of it was the only thing my mind could cling to. “By kidnapping me yourself?”
“He would’ve forced you to work with House Zeus.” He shrugged, something cold flashing across his face. “He’d already convinced you he cared about your research. About helping Omegas. By the time you figured out the truth, you’d already be bonded to him.”
The memory of Alexander’s perfect smile made my stomach turn. How genuine he’d seemed. How his concern for my work had felt so sincere. How much I’d wanted to believe someone finally understood what I’d been trying to do.
I’d been so leery in the beginning, but with every word that had fallen from his mouth, that had changed. I’d actually started to trust him. But it had been a lie.
“Why do either of you even care?” I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to project a confidence I didn’t feel. “I’m just a researcher with a formula.”
“Don’t diminish your work, Dr. Ellis. The formula is a breakthrough.
” He took a deliberate step closer. “But you’re asking the wrong question.
It’s not what you created, but how. How does one researcher succeed with a plant that has failed everyone else for centuries?
” He let the question hang in the air before answering it himself.
“Stormwright knows the answer, the same as I do. The formula works because you made it. Because of your blood. House Demeter.”
Wait, what? What in Eurydice’s name was he talking about? It was true that I’d grown up in an orphanage, and had never known my parents. But that meant nothing. I was just your regular, run-of-the-mill human. An Omega, yes, one who struggled with irregular cycles. But nothing beyond that.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “That’s absurd. Look at me. I’m a normal person.”
His lips twisted into a small smile, and my laughter died in my throat. “Oh, believe me. I’m looking. And there’s nothing about you that’s normal.”
I gripped the bed frame so tightly I was surprised it didn’t splinter in my hand. “What do you mean?”
“Your plants respond to you differently than anyone else. Nobody gets your results no matter how hard they try to replicate your methods.”
I had no idea how he knew that, but he was right. My specimens had always grown faster under my care. They produced compounds my colleagues couldn’t match even when they followed my advice. Even when they did everything I did.
There had been others who’d tried to use silphium in medicine before. It had never worked, not for them.
I’d spent years telling myself it was superior technique. Patience. Understanding nuances previous researchers had missed. That I was just better at paying attention to what plants needed. Could I have been wrong?
“Every Omega in House Demeter has always had a strong connection to plant life,” Blackwood pointed out, sensing his advantage. “Just like you do.”
I shook my head, refusing to even look at him. “You’re delusional. No.”
But fear clawed through my chest that he might be right. That everything I’d built my career on wasn’t really mine. That every achievement was built on something I’d refused to acknowledge. That I’d been lying to myself for years about what I was and what I could do.
Every paper I’d published. Every presentation I’d given. Every late night in the lab perfecting cultivation techniques when I should’ve been sleeping. All of it built on a foundation I’d deliberately ignored. Could it be?
“If I were House Demeter, I would know,” I croaked out, hating myself for sounding even weaker than before.
“Not if you were a dormant Olympian.” Blackwood’s full lips twisted into a predatory smile. “It’s rare, but it does happen.”
I’d heard of such cases, but honestly, I’d deemed them practically fairytales. Or at the very least, something that would never happen to me. And yet…
“You don’t have to believe me on my word,” Blackwood drawled, almost seeming to revel in my turmoil. “Look.”
He pointed to the side, and I turned, following his gaze.
That was when it happened. The small fern on the side table suddenly shot toward me.
Inches of leaves unfurled in seconds instead of weeks.
Roots visibly expanded beneath the soil, violating every principle of botanical growth I’d ever studied.
The room tilted sideways, my understanding of reality shattering completely. But Blackwood didn’t care.
“That’s you doing that.” He was no longer paying the plant any heed. Instead, he kept his focus entirely on me. “Your emotional state triggering abilities you’ve been suppressing your whole life.”
The fern kept reaching for me. When he moved between us, it curled away from his shadow. It stretched toward me again the moment he shifted position.
“Your formula works because you’ve been communicating with plants on a level you don’t understand.” Blackwood took another step closer and I had nowhere left to retreat. “That’s why nobody can replicate what you do.”
“This isn’t real.” I barely forced the words past my constricted throat. “It’s not possible.”
“Oh, believe me, it is.” His gaze held mine, merciless and vicious. “The Olympian Houses know who you are now. House Demeter Omegas are valuable and rare. There’s no going back. You just have to accept it, Cora.”
Cora. The sound of my name on his lips echoed too loudly in the cavernous suite. It was just a word, hardly anything compared to everything he’d done to me so far. It was the final straw.
My confusion crumbled, leaving only pure, absolute rage. Everything was his fault. I launched myself at him, wanting nothing more than to hurt him. To claw his eyes out, to rip off that smug smile from his lips.
Blackwood caught me with embarrassing ease. He held my wrists with a single hand and wrapped his free arm around my waist. I thrashed uselessly against his grip, twisting and turning, trying to use my body weight to throw him off balance. “Let me go!”
He didn’t move an inch, as if I wasn’t doing anything at all. “No.”
I tried to bite whatever part of him came close enough to my teeth. “Fuck you, Blackwood!”
That finally drew a response, but not one I liked.
He spun us and slammed my back against the wall.
The impact stole my breath, cold stone biting into my spine through the thin silk.
He pinned me there, his body a solid wall of heat and muscle.
“That, I might agree with. But I’m not sure you understand what you’re asking for. ”
I froze, something beyond fear locking my muscles in place.
Not submission because I would never submit to this violation.
It was the paralyzing recognition of a predator holding its prey.
His scent was already triggering responses I’d spent years learning to suppress, and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Keep fighting and it gets worse,” he drawled. “The more you struggle, the faster the heat comes.”
My heat? But… No. How could this happen? My suppressant should have held it all at bay. It had worked flawlessly so far.
My every rational thought screamed in protest, but my skin burned where he touched me. Fire surged through my blood, the same way it had before I’d perfected my work with the silphium.
This must be because of him. Because of Blackwood. “What did you do?” I gasped, tasting bile.
“Not this again.” Blackwood let out a frustrated sigh. “I told you before. This is all you. Your blood. Your legacy. You can’t escape it. You never could.”
I couldn’t bear to hear him anymore, to grasp what this meant for me, for my future. “You’re lying. And you can’t keep me here. This is illegal.”
The defiance sounded hollow even to my own ears. Damon was predictably unimpressed. “House Hades doesn’t ask permission. We decide what’s illegal.”
It was true. The authority of the Olympian Houses went beyond anything regular authorities could do. That didn’t make his ruthless statement easier to hear, and it didn’t change the state of my treacherous body.
Sweat gathered along my spine and between my breasts. An empty ache built low in my abdomen. I was already falling apart, and my formula was helpless to stop it.
Years of work. Years of control. Everything I’d fought for was failing right when I needed it most. All those late nights and careful calculations and research designed specifically to prevent this exact situation from ever happening.
Useless against whatever I’d inherited without my knowledge or consent.
I was fighting a battle I had no chance of winning. But even so, I refused to surrender. “You’re no better than Alexander Stormwright,” I spat at Damon.
He pressed his body closer to mine, so close I could feel his erection digging into my hip. “Maybe. But if nothing else, I won’t pretend to give you choices you don’t actually have.”
For a single moment, his grip on me tightened to the point of pain. Hunger consumed his carefully maintained expression, so fierce I expected him to consume me on the spot.
Instead, he tore himself away, leaving my skin cold where he’d been.
“You’re fighting me so hard now, Dr. Ellis,” he said, his voice dangerously soft.
“But soon, your heat will come. You’ll barely remember your own name.
Your need will burn away everything that you are.
Your intellect, your degrees, all those things you take pride in?
They won’t matter anymore. And when that happens… you’ll beg for my knot.”
Before I could answer, the air behind him seemed to split open, a tear of pure, silent blackness in the fabric of the room. A chill that had nothing to do with temperature emanated from it. He stepped back into it and was gone.
I slid to the floor and buried my face in my hands. As much as I hated Damon Blackwood for trapping me here, my reality was much crueler. It was my biology that was my real trap, and that, I could never escape.