Chapter 26 - Lydia
Something pulled tightly against my wrists was the first thing I registered as my eyes opened.
Finding myself stuck between vaguely familiar walls on a bed that brought me a deep-seated sense of dread, it all came rushing back at once.
I was in Jack’s house. On his pack grounds, all because my parents tricked me. Once again, they lied to me. They betrayed me.
Sitting there on the bed, leaning against the metal-frame headboard, I trembled, hands bound together with a thick rope. It was done so tightly that even my sharp nails couldn’t cut through it.
That anger coursing through me mingled with fear and frustration.
I was furious with myself for ever thinking I could trust my parents. I was angry with them for not listening to me and helping Jack get to me. Even more so, I was undeniably pissed at Jack for his persistence. For not giving up when he should’ve weeks ago.
My entire body was shaking, and I tried to keep it together. But knowing he had succeeded somehow tied my stomach in knots.
After all that time of hiding away and being protected by Sebastian and the pack, I wasted that effort the moment I accepted my parents’ word. The moment I allowed myself to be vulnerable with them, only to have it thrown back in my face in the most painful way possible.
The second I heard footsteps in the hallway, a bitter, icy chill moved through me. Then, the door was pushed open, and Jack came in.
As our gazes met, unfiltered disgust hit me like a wave. It deepened the moment he smiled at me smugly.
At that moment, there was no missing the maturity in his features. While his shifter blood helped him appear younger, his age was still evident enough to a more critical eye. He was old enough to be my father, and that made knots twist up in my stomach to consider.
I felt sick even being near him—the tell-tale sign that he wasn’t for me, and he never would be.
“Welcome back home, Little Finch,” he muttered, visibly caught between triumph and anger. “You’ve caused a lot of problems for me since the day you decided to run. But finally—finally, you’re back where you should be.”
My lip curled with anger as I looked at him, forcing my fear back so that I didn’t give him that satisfaction. “This isn’t my home…it never was.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed at me as he approached the foot of the bed and leaned in. A sneer crossed his face. “After everything I’ve done for you and your parents…and you disrespect me? In my house, you want to disrespect me?”
I winced slightly from his tone, hating how his booming voice filled the bedroom and practically rattled my brain.
When I didn’t say anything, that fury entered his eyes. “Like an ungrateful bitch, you ran from me. You made a mockery of me and this pack when all I wanted was to take you as my mate—A high honor you failed to appreciate. And, of course, you had to make things agonizingly difficult by shielding yourself behind that big-shot alpha.”
Listening to him explain the situation as if he had been an innocent party throughout made my blood boil all over again. He had been far from blame-free, and he was putting me in a compromising position all over again.
There was no doubt in my mind—he groomed me.
He waited long enough for me to turn eighteen to claim me, and before that, he always had his eye on me. Those small touches and glances made my stomach turn to even think about.
As that wrath pulsed within my chest, aware that my situation couldn’t get any worse, I snapped back at him. “I never wanted it. Nobody listened to me, and I had to leave to protect myself from you!”
With a sharp gaze, Jack closed the space between us and reeled back, colliding his palm with my cheek in a harsh slap. My head whipped to the side from the force as shock filtered into my system, and I tongued the flesh inside my mouth, vaguely tasting blood from where my teeth caught skin.
As the pain lingered for a moment, I looked at him in pure betrayal, a gaze full of hatred for him. “It doesn’t matter anyway…I have my mate, and you can do nothing to change that.”
More anger raced across his face at that, but it gave way to bitter amusement as he laughed to himself. His hand came up to grip my jaw, forcing me to meet his eyes even as I wanted to look away. “You may have dirtied yourself by mating with him, but all bonds can be broken, Lydia. One way or another, we will clear your being of him, and we’ll take care of that parasite growing inside you.”
The mention of my child and his pure disdain for it made everything halt around me. A cold, agonizing chill gripped me, and I was afraid for their fate above my own.
For a moment, I was shocked that he even knew. I hadn’t said anything about it. But then I remembered how heightened an alpha’s senses could be, especially one jacked up on angry hormones and the need to get whatever he wanted. Of course, he could smell it on me.
I swallowed hard at that, fighting to pull away from his grasp. “No—”
“Sit still. Cooperate with me, Little Finch, and it might hurt a little less,” Jack growled, reaching for a roll of tape sitting off to the side. He effortlessly pulled off a strip and placed it over my mouth, eyes gleaming darkly at the prospect of what he planned to do. “Sorry about this, but I can’t risk worrying the others.”
With my mouth covered and as I sat there, bound and helpless, my heart rate picked up. Fear sank its claws into me as I began to panic.
I couldn’t lose my bond or our baby. I just couldn’t.
Every part of me wanted to scream for Sebastian, but with my mouth covered, there was no point. I would never be loud enough to lure him to me.
“You disobeyed me, Lydia. You failed to do as I required of you, but we’re going to erase all of that now. We’ll start from scratch and pretend like none of this happened at all,” Jack began, voice eerily gentle as he placed his hand against my stomach. “I’ll cleanse you from top to bottom, and you’ll be my mate. You’ll carry on my legacy for me.”
My chest rose and fell in rapid, panicked breaths as his fingers felt like ice against my stomach, bracing myself for pain far deeper than I could ever prepare myself for.
Clenching my eyes shut, I tried to have faith in not only my own fortitude but also in Sebastian's and my connection. Despite my fear, I reached for it, imagining a rush of warmth and adoration moving down that tether.
I wanted him to know I loved him, unlike anyone else, regardless of what might happen. I only wanted him and needed him to feel it for himself.
He helped pull me from a dangerous situation and helped me see through the lies and manipulation that had been spun around me for so long. He proved to me that he was nothing like the monster he was made out to be.
Focusing on that thought, I braced myself for the inevitable.
But Jack paused, his touch hesitating before pulling back.
Confused, I opened my eyes to find him poised on something else, concentrating as he listened.
At the same time, I caught what had ensnared his attention. Outside of the house, it sounded like something was disturbing his pack as people began to talk, their voices alarmed and fearful. Without a doubt, something was going on.
With his senses heightened beyond mine thanks to his alpha status, Jack focused on it for a moment longer before he grit his teeth and growled out, “We have unwanted visitors.”
Even if I didn’t know absolutely what that meant, the absence of his touch was a relief.
But his gaze locked on mine with a domineering edge as he held a finger in my face. “Don’t move a muscle. I’ll be back for you.”
While his threat made my stomach turn, I could breathe a little easier as Jack pulled away and left through the bedroom door with a quickened pace.
But as I sat there, stuck to the bed and tied up, my mind was a mess as I considered the possibilities.
I hoped more than anything that Sebastian had felt my appeal to him and that, with whatever luck I may have possessed, he was coming to take me back home.