CHAPTER FOURTEEN
For the second time in my life, I woke up covered in blood on a strange sofa. I was still dressed in the horrific hospital gown, but someone had laid a thick woollen blanket over me. I dimly remembered Maverick doing it when I couldn’t stop shaking. I lay quietly for a moment, looking around. The room was large and white—white walls, wooden floors with white rugs, and white velvet sofas. Above me, dark beams rose up to create an incredible vaulted ceiling. Maybe I was in heaven. I giggled at the thought, still feeling a little unhinged. Oh, white sofas.
I sat up, worried the blood had left a mark. At least it wasn’t my blood this time. The memory of Dex’s guts spilling out onto the boat deck came into my mind, and my stomach lurched. I lunged for the closest receptacle and vomited into a potted plant.
“When I envisioned you on your knees in my house with your bare ass in the air and your delicious pussy on display, I hadn’t expected you’d be throwing up into a plant pot.”
I wiped my mouth and turned around to see Lucas watching me from a doorway. He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed. He’d changed from the suit he’d been wearing earlier and was now dressed in black fatigues and a black T-shirt. If I hadn’t just lost the final remnants of my dinner to his indoor foliage, I would have said he looked edible.
“Where are we?” I asked, crawling back to the sofa and pulling the blanket around me. I tried to stand, but my legs felt shaky, so I quickly sat down.
“Like I said, my house.”
“But you live in a cabin with Maverick and Asher.”
Lucas shrugged. “The place came with the vineyard when I bought it. I fixed the place up, and it’s handy to stay at if I get back late from jobs. Plus, sometimes I need to entertain buyers, and the place looks good enough to convince them there’s money in it.”
I looked around. “It’s white,” I said, starting to smile.
“What’s wrong with white?” he asked, straightening up and starting to walk towards me.
“I didn’t really think you’d be... Nothing, nothing’s wrong with white.” I grinned at him as he came to stand in front of me, staring into my eyes.
“Let me guess, you were thinking black with some industrial-looking furniture? Maybe some death metal posters on the walls?”
“Maybe,” I admitted.
He rolled his eyes and held his hand out. “Let me take you somewhere darker. Can you walk?”
“I’m not sure,” I replied, taking his hand.
He helped me stand, and I swayed a little, but at least this time my legs held my weight. Lucas slipped his arm around my waist. “Tell me if you need to sit down, or I can carry you.”
“I’m okay. Where are we going?”
“To the monster’s lair,” Lucas answered with a grin, though his eyes were cold. “Secrets are being exposed all around. Must be some planets aligning somewhere, or going backwards, isn’t that what they say?”
“Maybe. Come on then. Lead me down into the darkness, Lucas. Show me where you really live.”
He gazed at me, his expression deadly serious. I returned it without blinking. He sighed and led me out of the room. We followed a corridor that ran along one side of the building. The outside wall was glass, looking out onto some kind of courtyard, but I couldn’t make out much in the dark.
“How long was I out?” I asked.
“A couple of hours,” he answered.
The floor here was grey slate, but the walls were still white. Strange, abstract artwork hung on the walls, and several doors opened off the hallway. Lucas stopped at the last door. He pushed it open, revealing a flight of steps that led downwards into darkness.
“You weren’t kidding,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.
“No, I wasn’t,” he replied. He leaned over and flipped a switch. Fluorescent lighting flickered to life, leading down the stairs to another corridor, this one floored with simple concrete. It reminded me of a prison, and as we descended, I shivered.
“What’s down here, Lucas?”
A couple of personal wine cellars, some storage units, and an office.”
“You keep your office in the basement?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“It’s the office for my other business, and it’s more of a safe room.”
“You have a safe room?”
He shrugged. “In case anyone ever works out who I am and comes here. There’s also a secret tunnel that leads out of the house and down to a private jetty on the beach near here.”
“Now that’s cool, a secret tunnel.”
He smiled, and this one was warmer. “I’ll have to show you sometime. Right now, though, we’re going in here. He pushed open one of the heavier metal doors, and we walked inside. I looked around as he helped me sit down in the battered leather office chair that stood at one end. I sucked in my breath, and Lucas gave me another cold smile.
“Maverick said you should know.”
“I did.” Maverick stepped forward, wiping his hands on a piece of cloth. They were spotted with blood.
“Your hands!” I gasped, grabbing them and turning them over. His knuckles were split and bleeding.
“They are fine. I wanted answers, and our friend over there wasn’t too forthcoming.”
Maverick gestured behind him, and my gaze fell on the man tied to the chair in the centre of the room. His missing eye and fluid soaked shirt immediately gave away his identity, although his face was bruised and swollen from Maverick’s questioning.
“Has he said anything?” I asked.
Maverick shook his head. “Not yet, but Lucas hasn’t talked to him yet. We’ll soon find out who he’s working for when Lucas gets involved.”
I closed my eyes. “I already know who he’s working for,” I said. I opened my eyes and looked at Maverick. “You asked me once who my pack was. I didn’t want to tell you, I didn’t want to cause... trouble, but they’ve found me. This man works for my father.”
Maverick watched me calmly. “Who is your father, Nova?”
I took a deep breath. “Caleb Dawes. Alpha of High Rocks Pack.”
“Not Nova Dawson then,” Maverick said quietly.
“I used Dawson after I left the pack, but no, not legally.”
“And Tessa?”
“My half-sister,” I answered, watching him for any sign of his thoughts.
He nodded slowly. “Explain.”
His tone was completely emotionless, and it tore at my heart. I might have coped better if he’d yelled at me.
“I told you a lot of it on the boat that day. Nothing’s any different. When I arrived on the island, I was afraid. Our packs have been in some kind of cold war since before I was born. We were raised to fear the sea wolves, told you were cruel and violent.”
My eyes flicked to Lucas, and I was surprised to see his mouth turn up at the corners. For someone who hated being lied to, he was surprisingly calm.
I sighed and turned back to Maverick. “I was born an omega, rare and valued, and then raised to mate the son of the Sea Wolf Pack’s alpha, a bid for peace between the two packs.”
“Jaxon,” Maverick surmised in a heavy voice.
I nodded. “I was terrified. Everything I’d been told about your pack was horrific, but in truth, it paled in comparison to what I was already living through. I almost welcomed the match as I got older—it would offer some kind of an escape—until my father realised I would never be able to shift, and he had to renege on the deal.”
“He beat you,” Maverick said. It was a statement, not a question, but I nodded anyway.
“Repeatedly. For months. I was the reason your pack was going to hunt us down and murder us all, even the pups. The guilt destroyed me. I tried to be a good omega, I really did. I submitted over and over again...”
Maverick closed his eyes, and I could tell he was remembering the conversation on the boat. He knew what my submission had meant and what it had led to.
“So you left?” Lucas asked.
I shook my head. “I never would have gotten away. Father’s alphas would have hunted me down and ripped me apart. No, he banished me. He said if I ever came back, he would give the kill order, so I left. I made it to the city and found... my mate.” I looked at Maverick. “You know the rest.”
Maverick looked at me, his expression unreadable. “You were going to let me marry your sister? Even when you knew...” He shook his head, and I reached out to touch his arm.
“I couldn’t stay, Maverick. I was broken, scarred, and ruined… an omega who can’t shift, and I was scared that if my father found out where I was, he’d come after me... and he’d come after you.”
Maverick leaned against a nearby table, staring at the floor. “It’s a lot to take in,” he commented after a few moments.
“I wanted to tell you,” I murmured quietly.
Maverick raised his head and looked at Lucas. “You’re awfully quiet, brother.”
Lucas looked at me. “I already knew.”
“What?” I was astonished. “How?”
Lucas shrugged. “After the claiming, I left the island. I saw the scars on your back. I’ve been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things. It didn’t take me long to work out what had been done to you. I went to the mainland and worked out roughly where you went into the water. Asher helped me track sea currents and tides in the area, though he didn’t know what I needed them for. You went into the water from High Rocks Pack’s land.”
I nodded. “I went back to ask for sanctuary. I was pregnant and alone, and I’d lost my job. I hoped having proven I was... fertile... my father would take me back in some form.”
“I take it he didn’t,” Maverick said.
I met his gaze full on. “My father doesn’t forgive or forget. He gave the kill order, and I was hunted through the woods until I reached the cliffs. Jumping seemed like the best option at the time.”
Maverick nodded slowly, then pushed himself off from the table. He walked over to the bound man in the chair and hit him, then he hit him again and again.
“Maverick, stop!” I ran over and grabbed his arm. “It wasn’t him! He’s just a beta. I remembered his face on the boat. He never touched me.”
Maverick looked down at me, his face like thunder. “Except when he held you down on the boat for his friend to rape you. Except when he held a knife to your throat. And how many times did he stand by and watch them beat you? Force you?”
I dropped my gaze to the floor. “It’s not... He couldn’t have stopped them.”
Lucas laughed. “Of course he could have. Betas rising up against alphas isn’t normal, but it’s not unheard of. He’s just a coward, aren’t you, mate? It’s why he’s not talking. He’s scared of big bad Alpha Caleb.” Lucas sauntered past us to the beta who was looking rather pale at this point and, in a flash of movement, brought a knife down into the man’s thigh.
The man screamed as Lucas began to slowly twist the knife in the wound.
“Ah, now, don’t be like that. I didn’t hit an artery or anything. You won’t die from a little flesh wound.”
The man made a whimpering sound.
Lucas smiled. “Now, I suggest you start talking. Maverick’s a good guy. He has a bit of a temper occasionally, but you did threaten his mate and try and steal her away. But me...” He grabbed the guy’s face and leaned in, staring into his good eye. “I’m not a good guy. I’m a very bad wolf, and your alpha has nothing on me.”
“I’m not saying anything,” the man said and spat in Lucas’s face.
I gasped and started forward, but Maverick held me back.
Lucas wiped the spittle away with his hand and looked at it on his fingers. He shook his head then reached out and wiped it on the man’s face, his eyes fixed on that one bloodshot eye. The man recoiled in his chair. Whatever he saw in Lucas’s eyes was definitely unnerving him. He began to struggle in the chair, and Lucas smiled coldly. The look on his face sent chills down my spine.
“Do you know how many scars she has?” he asked the man.
The guy shook his head.
Lucas sighed. “Neither do I. I tried to count them a few times when she was asleep, but I could never see them all. I got up to about a hundred and thirty on her back alone.”
I stared at him. “What the fuck, Lucas?” I whispered. Maverick put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, but I was rigid and cold.
Lucas looked at me, his dark eyes boring into mine. “I can’t believe it took me so long to see it, but it’s there behind the sunshine. It’s why we are fated, Nova. You have it too.”
“Have what?” I whispered, a chill snaking over my skin.
“That darkness, that cloying, all-encompassing infection of trauma and damage that rots away in your core. It’s why I wasn’t afraid to show you my darkness, because you meet it head-on with your own. That makes you so beautiful to me, Nova, the most beautiful being in the world, and I love each scar they gave you, but at the same time...” He swung back around to the man in the chair. “How dare you?”
He whispered it, but the words rang clear in the empty room.
“How could you have even dared to touch her? How could you have stood by while they did that to her? She was a child.”
The man in the chair straightened up and glared at me. “She was broken, defective. What good is an omega if she can’t shift? Fucking was all she was good for. I’m only sorry it was only the alphas who got to play. I’d have ripped open that whore’s pussy over and over—”
I felt his words like a knife in my heart, giving life to the whispers in my mind that had plagued me since I was young—worthless, ruined, broken. I was nothing.
Lucas looked up at me, his eyes bright, then turned and hit him across the face with the knife in his hand, so the handle connected with the guy’s cheekbone. I heard the crack and saw droplets of blood hit the floor.
“What did you call her?”
The man spat blood into Lucas’s face.
“She’s a fucking little whore, you fucking psycho,” the man sneered, though his voice shook.
Lucas leaned in close. “She’s my mate too,” he whispered.
I saw the blood drain from the man’s face.
Maverick tightened his grip around my shoulders and eased me backwards. “Time to go, Nova.”
“What?” I asked, looking up at him. His lips were pressed tightly together.
Lucas looked up and smiled. “Go with Maverick, my sweet sunshine. You need rest. I’ll be there in a bit when I’ve finished work.”
I blinked at the weirdly sunny tone in his voice, as though he was saying he was popping to the office to pick up some paperwork. I watched as he turned back to the prisoner and dangled his knife in front of him.
“One hundred and thirty.” He brought the knife down, slamming the blade through the man’s hand where it was tied to the chair arm.
The man screamed, and Lucas smiled.
“One hundred and twenty-nine...”
The man stared at him, tears spilling from his remaining eye. “No...” He looked up at me. “No, please... Please, don’t leave me here with him. I’m sorry.”
I met his eye for a moment, blanching a little at the bloody empty socket next to it, until I remembered why I had clawed it out. I stepped forward, pulling out of Maverick’s arms, and kept my eyes on the prisoner until I reached the chair. He relaxed a little, feeling relieved.
I stopped and leaned down, then turned and brushed my lips over Lucas’s. “Don’t be long, my love. We’ll keep the bed warm.”
I didn’t give the guy another look, just smiled at Lucas. He returned the smile with a sweet one of his own, then turned back to his work.
I walked over to Maverick who was standing there with his mouth hanging open. I took his hand. “Can we go to bed? Or maybe a shower first?”
He nodded. “Sure, anything.”
“Good.” I headed for the door, but the exhaustion was beginning to take a toll on my body. I was healing fast, but it was using a lot of my energy, and I swayed on my feet. Maverick was by my side in a heartbeat, scooping me up into his arms. He carried me out of the room, pausing in the doorway to look back over his shoulder at Lucas.
“We need information too, Luc. Not just revenge.”
Lucas nodded, his eyes never leaving the guy’s face. “I’ll save his tongue for last.”
Maverick nodded and moved away, the door swinging shut behind us. By the time we reached the floor above, we couldn’t even hear the screams.