Chapter 31
Juniper
After spending the night with Geo and Ev, my body is sore in all the best ways possible. I’m both exhausted and wide awake all at once by the time my eyes flutter open, finding Geo’s bed empty with only a note on the nightstand scribbled with my name on the front as any kind of evidence that last night wasn’t a dream. Not that I’d believe as much, since the awakening of emotions that riot through me tells me otherwise.
Geo and Evron each send me saucy little emotions that force me to rub my legs together, while Creek appears content and happy, each man flooding the bonds with so much affection that I’m already on the brink of tears from how overwhelming it all is.
Blocking them out for only a moment, but not before sending my own emotions down the bonds to them, I swing my aching legs over the edge of the bed before reaching for the note. I recognize Evron’s writing instantly and flip the paper open to reveal his pretty writing.
Had to get an early start in the kitchens, but I can’t wait to come home to you, my pretty little bonded omega. I miss you already.
Love, your super sexy alpha, Ev x
Laughing, I flip the paper over, only to find a small note from Geo.
You looked too peaceful to wake. Counting down the seconds until I come home to you. Love you, Gee.
Smiling as all kinds of warm, gooey feelings swarm through my body, I head out of bed and use Geo’s bathroom to clean up and get ready for school, reluctant to wash their scents away already but showering quickly regardless.
Once I’m done and dry, I find a shirt that belongs to Geo, and a hoodie that I know is Evron’s stealing them as I stride to the guest room that now acts as my closet. I dress quickly, leaving my hair to dry naturally, before heading downstairs with my backpack in tow and a pep in my step that simply can’t be disguised.
One check out of the window tells me the others have left for an early night, too, so I simply go about getting ready for school as I explore the bonds that now tie me to three out of five of my guys. Smiling to myself when I receive a gentle wave of love and affection from the others, I find a plate of pancakes already prepared for me, and I feel all mushy with appreciation as I realize Ev spent time making me breakfast even with his early start to his day. So, with a full heart and two new marks scarring my skin, I go about eating breakfast and finish getting ready to start another day at North U.
Just as I pull out of the driveway, receiving a text from Pace that he can see me and he’s on my tail, I feel a strange sense of foreboding overcome me as I pull away from the junction where the long driveway is housed. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I frown as I check my mirrors and surroundings for whatever the hell it could be that’s suddenly setting me on edge.
The guys must feel my worry, because I feel it echoed through the bonds, and I have to work to calm myself enough not to send my alphas and beta into a frenzy of panic and concern .
Texting Pace asking him to keep an eye out because something doesn’t feel right, I receive a thumbs up emoji and pull off, hoping the feeling will disappear shortly. It doesn’t, not a minute into the drive, not five minutes. Yet no matter how often I look around, how diligently I scan my surroundings, I can’t find the cause of why my skin feels tight, or why my pulse thrums rapidly, or why there’s a cloud of dread and foreboding floating above my head as I carefully navigate the roads.
Deciding to be safe rather than sorry, I check my mirror and find Pace’s truck following close behind me, and I fumble for my cell phone on the passenger side of the truck and awkwardly dial Pace’s number.
“You know you’re not meant to handle a cell phone while you’re driving, right?” he asks, serious as ever.
“I think someone is following me,” I blurt in a rush, ignoring his words while my heart beats frantically, the hairs on my body standing on end.
“That would be me, you know, your chaperone for the day. The guys already told you that I’d be sticking with you today, didn’t they? Are you alright today, Juno?” Pace wonders, and I can hear the frown in his voice.
Shaking my head, I try to take a deep, calming breath, though it doesn’t work even a little bit. “It’s not just you, Pace. There’s someone following me. I’ve felt it since leaving the drive outside the house. Take a look around, can you see anyone?”
Pace pauses for a long moment while he does as I ask, searching our surroundings, before he says, “I can’t see anyone out of place.”
“Are you sure?” I ask, hand shaking as I pull the phone away and press the speakerphone, dropping the cell to the seat beside me before looking left and right, only to pause on a car positioned a lane away to my left. A car I recognize, despite not being able to see the license plate number .
I can hear Pace talking, but I can’t make out his words, a ringing appearing in my ears as I look at the dark car with tinted windows. My entire body turns cold and the panic that sprouted in my body begins to grow until it’s all I can focus on.
“Pace? See that sedan with the tinted windows? What’s the license plate number?” I rasp, swallowing hard as my hands grip tightly around the steering wheel.
“Which one, June? There’s like three of them,” he asks in a rush, stern and growing worried now that he realizes I’m not fucking around.
“The black one with the silver trim. Tinted windows,” I answer, turning my indicator on to change lanes.
“I see it,” he confirms, changing lanes with me and sticking close. “I can’t see the license plate, though. It looks like it’s been painted over.”
Ice fills my veins not a second later, and when I peer over at the car, I find the driver has rolled down the window and is looking directly at me. Fear explodes from me in an instant as recognition dawns on me, a face I’ve seen haunting my nightmares now simply a lane away from me.
The driver smiles, an expression just as chilling as it was years ago, and my heart stops beating. I reach for my cell phone right before the psycho veers his steering wheel to the right and crashes into the side of my truck, colliding with the side of my truck so hard that I jolt painfully in my seat.
Everything happens all at once. I hear Pace shouting my name from my phone clutched tightly in my hand, feel the impact of the car driving into my truck like a battering ram, and see the horror as my hand on the steering wheel releases its grip in a poor attempt to protect my eyes when the window smashes and glass scatters everywhere with the next slam of the car.
Wedging my cell into my bra, thanking every deity that could exist that Evron’s hoodie is large enough that the neckline hangs low enough for such an action, I grip the steering wheel just in time for another collision. I try my best to control the car as it’s hit once more, my knuckles turning white, and just as I’m convinced that I’ve managed to correct the wheel the car beside me races ahead, right before the unhinged maniac clips the front left fender of my truck, sending me into a manic tailspin that there is no coming back from.
I’m helpless as my truck, ancient and decrepit as it is, hits a pothole just as the car plows into it. The dip sends the truck veering off to the right, mere seconds before we encounter a sloped boulder in the banking of the road. The last thing I hear is the screeching of tires and a crash of metal colliding with metal, before my truck soars off road, tilting to the right before I’m forced to hold on with all of my might as the truck falls and rolls down the steep banking that leads into a valley of thick trees.
I tumble down the banking for what feels like eons, my scream of terror filling the cabin of the truck while every good, pure memory flashes behind my eyes. Every moment with the guys, every laugh, smile, and cry. Every single thought I have as I fall and fall is of my pack, and I roll down the banking with only one regret, and that is not having bonded with the twins.
Thoughts filled with my pack, my eyes fill with tears and I cry out with pain as the truck finally meets the end of the banking, colliding harshly with a thick tree that bends the metal and dents the passenger side so severely that I know there will be no climbing out of it. The driver’s side is no better, the way the truck wraps around the tree distorting and morphing the whole truck until it’s framed unnaturally, the door bent and crooked.
The stop is so sudden, the jolt so fierce, that the seat belt I’d been wearing digs harshly into my body, I feel the agonizing snap of my arm breaking, and my head collides with the frame of the truck. The pain is instant, and I groan as I raise a shaky hand to my temple.
It takes a herculean effort, but I reach into my bra for my phone, finding it still intact much to my surprise. With blurry eyes, I swipe the screen and search for a number I know will answer .
The call rings twice before Lowie answers. “Hey, Angel. I was just thinking about you.”
“Lowie,” I rasp, crying out when I accidentally jostle my broken arm, a tear spilling from my eye. Another follows, drawing a line of tears down my cheeks, and my breath leaves me in a stuttered heave.
“Juno? What’s wrong?” Lowie demands, tone gruff and filled with horror, almost like he’s reliving a similar moment we shared when we were kids. “Where are you, Angel?”
“Low,” I breathe, hand trembling as I try to hold my cell to my ear. “Crash. It was them. Help.”
It’s all I can manage before the bump my head took finally takes its toll. I don’t hear a single word more from Lowie before darkness descends and I pass the fuck out with another touch of warmth that trickles down my temple and drips onto Evron’s once pristine gray hoodie.
***
A sharp sting across my face startles me, and I gasp awake, only to groan as pain radiates through every pore of my body. My arm is killing me, my head pounds, and it takes several blinks for me to open my eyes. Only, I wish I hadn’t, because the first thing I see is the nasty sneer of Peter Burton as he glares down at me where I lay in the mush and mud on the bank of a large lake.
“About fucking time you woke up, you little bitch,” the older son of the Burton family snaps, spittle flying from his mouth and hitting me just beneath my eye.
I try to recoil, only to whimper when pain floods through my system. Apparently, Peter doesn’t like that, because the psycho grips my cheeks hard, blunt fingers digging harshly into my skin. I’m sure he’s pressing into one of many of the cuts I received from the shattered glass, the sting beneath his fingers spreading through my face .
“I don’t think so, Juniper,” he snarls. “You’re going to fucking look at me when you tell me what the fuck you’ve done.”
“What—?” I try, only for him to pull his hand away roughly right before it collides with my face, forcing my head to the side with a harsh slap.
He’s gripping my face between his fingers once more and seethes, “Don’t you even think about lying to me. You know what you’ve done, you filthy little whore.”
I’m blinking back tears as fear infects my bloodstream, the crazed look in his eyes sending me into a panic, and I try to speak through the pain of his fingers digging into my flesh, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course, you do,” Peter grits, right before his free hand reaches for the collar of my hoodie and yanks it aside. With a rough touch that does nothing but send nausea and pain through me, Peter jabs his finger into Creek’s bond mark on my neck and spits, “You just had to give your pussy up, didn’t you? Who is it, Juniper? The first alpha who gave you attention. What, Josh and I weren’t good enough, but some fucker you don’t even know is? I always knew you were a worthless little slut, but I didn’t realize how fucking desperate you were.”
“Now, now, brother. There could be a reasonable explanation,” a chilling voice sounds out from behind Peter, and a moment later, I’m face to face with the younger son of the Burtons.
Josh has barely changed in the years that spans between us. His dark hair is still cropped short, his brown eyes still empty and void of anything that would make him look like an actual person. His scent, a strong, suffocating stench of spilled gasoline, chokes me when he grows near, and I’m helpless as memories surface and assault me. I remember the times where he’d corner me against a wall, push his body against me where I was helpless to feel how turned on he was at having me trapped and at his mercy. I remember when he’d yank my head back by my hair when I said something he didn’t like, or refuse to offer something that wasn’t his to take .
“I see you recognize us, little bird. It’s been a long time, huh?” Josh asks, tone void of any emotion, expression blank. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
“I wish you hadn’t bothered,” I spit awkwardly, Peter still gripping my cheeks tightly enough that I’m sure I’ll end up with bruises in the shape of his fingers.
My back talk results in another sharp and brutal backhand that has my vision blurring, the agony instant as it bleeds through my face. Pretty sure I bite my tongue, because hot, coppery liquid fills my mouth and I’m forced to spit it out awkwardly.
Peter sneers before moving away, standing shoulder to shoulder with his brother, and it’s like every nightmare I’ve had come to life. I’m stranded and wounded, left to the mercy of two rejected alphas who have clearly not changed in their ways in the time we’ve been apart. I find myself regretting how I took those years for granted, wishing I would have appreciated my freedom from the crazy family a little more while I had it. Because now? With the way the brothers peer down at me with contempt and disdain, things don’t look good for me.
Heart thundering so hard that my chest aches, fear spilling through my veins, I scramble up to sitting, crying out when my broken arm jerks with the motion. I try to scramble away, only they don’t allow me much distance before Peter is grabbing my ankle and yanking me toward them.
“Not so far, little bird,” Josh croons, and the sound sends waves of terror through me, knowing the last time I heard that horrible nickname was when he was trying to sink his hands into my pants. The only thing that saved me was Mr. Burton coming up the stairs with an almost finished cigarette hanging from his lips. I would have taken a million cigarette burns from that man if it meant I didn’t have to be alone with his sons. “I’ve heard you’ve been busy lately.”
I don’t reply, my body trembling so hard that my teeth chatter, from the cold or fear or both, I couldn’t say. All I know is that I’m experiencing a waking nightmare, I have no idea where Pace is or if he saw the accident, and I can feel echoes of terror coming from the bonds that link me to the guys.
“You’ve bonded with a pack that doesn’t include my brother and me, haven’t you, little bird?” Josh asks theoretically, eyeing me like I’m nothing more than a bug he’s stepped on. “So, tell me, what do they have that we don’t?”
“Everything I ever wanted and needed,” I rasp, eyeing them like they’re both crazy. Which, they fucking are. It’s been years and they’ve been looking for me this whole time. Instead of letting me go when I ran, they’ve hunted me down, but for what? What the hell could they possibly want with me not that I’m bonded to a pack that isn’t theirs?
“Well, now, that’s a shame,” Josh sighs, as though he’s genuinely disappointed that I found my pack, my family, instead of accepting their slimy offers. Every time I turned them down, the more aggressive their advances would become until it simply turned into a game of cat and mouse I wasn’t interested in playing.
Running away was the best thing I ever did.
“The trouble is, Juniper,” he says, walking slowly toward me before he crouches low in front of me. “We don’t share, do we, brother?”
“We don’t fucking share,” Peter seethes, sending me a nasty scowl as he glares at me from behind his brother.
Before I can question what that means, Josh stands and jerks his head toward me, muttering, “She’s all yours, brother.”
Eyes widening as a new pulse of terror floods my body, I try to scramble back, only I’m too broken to move fast enough. Peter’s hand is in my hair before I can stop him, and he drags me off the ground with a chilling chuckle. With his fingers digging into the roots of my hair, tearing strands out as he uses his hold to maneuver me where he wants me, he sneers, “Should have kept your hair the way it was. Looked much better on you. Didn’t make you look like a thirsty little tramp. ”
“Get fucked,” I grit, fighting against the agony that bleeds through my scalp as he drags me toward the water.
Laughing again, this bone-chilling sound that scares me more than anything Josh could ever do. Because where Josh is a controlling and perverted little creep, Peter is the one of the two that doesn’t have a handle on his anger. It takes very little to send him spiraling, and it always comes with that spine-shivering sound that has played many a part in plenty of nightmares.
“You’re going to wish you never said that, you little bitch. I was going to take it easy on you, but now? Fuck it. I don’t care if you suffer. You deserve to suffer. If we can’t fucking have you, then no other cunt in the world can,” he sneers, words spat like venom, and I’m all too aware of the danger I’ve found myself in as his words slowly process in my mind.
When they do, I find a renewed energy and urgency through adrenaline and fear, and I begin fighting against Peter’s hold. I drag my feet into the mud, only it’s too soft and only results in coating my boots in dirt. I scratch at Peter’s hand where it grips tightly to chunks of my hair, but he simply laughs again, tightening his hold until I feel hot tears fill my eyes out of pain and frustration.
“You should have picked us, little bird,” Josh calls from nearby, and he steps into view only enough for me to see the horrifying smile he wears as Peter drags me to the very edge of the lake and kicks my legs from under me. “You’re ours, Juniper. And we won’t stand by and let any other low life pack take what’s ours. If that means taking you away from them for good, then so be it.”
“You got your options, whore. Now you can pay for the wrong choices you’ve made,” Peter snidely retorts, right before he uses the hold on my hair to shove my head into the frigid water of the lake, cutting off the panicked scream that bubbles up my throat, stealing my breath, and trapping me beneath the freezing-cold water with another chuckle that will haunt me long after I die.