Lonely Life #4
Luke demanded to know, “WHAT IS SO FUNNY?” I answered, “Nothing it’s…” He cut me off staring into my eyes demanding to know, “TELL ME NOW!” My body locked and I answered, “There’s a voice saying funny things. Her name is Tatum.”
Luke hissed, “HOW?! Fucking Alpha’s. Luckily, I’ve been prepared for this with your disease.” What? Luke said, “Just in case I came prepared. You’ll be handled, rest assured.” He pulled out a syringe. I screamed and tried to run from him, but he caught me and tackled me.
I pleaded, “Luke, stop.” Luke hissed, “Never. You are mine to toy with and nothing will interfere with that.” Tatum snarled in my head, then whimpered as if in pain, and fire exploded in my veins. It felt like I was burning alive. I screamed until Luke hit me in the head with his elbow.
Flashback Ends
I was pulled out of those thoughts when my mom knocked on my door. She held out her phone and left, slamming the door as she went. I hoped Melanie was calling excitedly greeting, “Hello.” Luke’s voice came over the phone, “I’m very disappointed in you, Odette.”
I sighed, knowing mom was right. I was naive.
My mother was never going to let me talk to Melanie again.
I retorted, “If only I still cared about what disappoints you, Luke. What did I do this time? I’m terribly sorry I live off my income and maintain a 4.
0 GPA. I’m really the worst. Or maybe it’s because I called you an abuser, which you are, and broke up with you. ”
Luke warned, “Don’t you speak to me like that.
We are not broken up, and we never will be.
Your mom told me you got yourself kidnapped.
” I muttered, “Thanks for your concern and we are broken up.” Luke asked, “Do you know how long it would’ve taken me to track you down?
Do you think I have the time to save you all the time? ”
I told him, “I wouldn’t ask, or want, you to save me. I’d have rather stayed with the crazy people, who thought they were Demons, than spend one more second with you.” Luke said, “Odette, you need to be very careful. I am angry enough because your mother told me you were rude to her.”
I asked, “Why are the two people who claim to care about me more annoyed that someone broke into my old apartment and kidnapped me than worried about me? The answer is obvious: neither of you actually care about me. You never did, and now you’re mad I noticed.”
Which I’d noticed before I was kidnapped. Luke’s voice softened, “Baby, I’m sorry. I just tried to visit you and couldn’t get in your building. It made me angry.” I told him, “That doesn’t make sense, Luke. You could’ve just walked through the front doors. Besides, we are not together.”
Luke told me, “One day you will understand that you are mine, Odette.” I rolled my eyes, “I’m not yours, and I don’t even think you like me. You hit me, Luke. You hurt me, locked me away, then just left without an explanation.”
“You make derogatory comments about me and my body. I’m never good enough for you, no matter how hard I’ve tried.
As you said, I’m too immature. So, I’ll do us both a favor and tell you to find someone closer to your age.
Preferably someone who has graduated high school since we are DONE. ” I hung up on him.
Mom flung the door open and ripped the phone away grumbling, “I don’t know what I did to deserve such an ungrateful daughter.
I’ll call Luke’s father and try to undo the damage you have done.
” I told her, “Don’t bother. I don’t want to be with Luke.
As far as what you did, maybe not being a mother at all.
To get loyalty you have to give it and you certainly have never done anything for me. ”
Mom yelled, “Life isn’t about what you want.
” I snorted, “Of course it’s not. My life has always been about what you want.
Sorry, there are consequences for not acting like you give a shit about me.
They happen to be that I don’t care what you want for my life.
It makes me want it less than I already do. ”
I paused then added, “It also makes you a worse mother than I thought. Which was already a hard bar for you to beat. Yet you’re here telling me a man who injected me with an unknown drug, knocked me unconscious, then was nowhere to be found is who you want me to marry.”
I pointed at her, “Keep this up, and I’ll go straight to the police. You don’t want to go to jail and we both know it. So, keep Luke away or suffer the consequences of your decisions for once in your life.” Mom retorted, “We are leaving in thirty minutes.”
Of course we were. I was happy here and I had friends.
Lux lived in this state, but not this area.
If only I had paid more attention as a child, I’d know where he lived and could go talk to him personally.
I just didn’t remember the name of the town we lived in no matter how hard I tried.
It gave me one hell of a headache when I did.
Why couldn’t I ever have nice things? My mom yelled, “Have you taken your medicine today?” I shouted, “Yes!” I clutched my pills to my chest. My one lead on my birth father was that he had a blood disorder.
I had leukopenia and these pills to take every day to keep from getting sick. I had a low white blood cell count that would lead me to get infections easily. Unfortunately, it wasn’t super rare for people to have this disorder.
It was rare to have a case as severe as mine as I did, requiring medication, but that didn’t mean my dad had it as seriously as I did. Few people did, actually. I was rare. Yay me. Mom had to take me to some weird, out of network, voodoo doctor to help me.
Mom insisted that wasn’t what that lady was called, but she was old, creepy and clearly into voodoo. She wouldn’t let me see her face either, it was covered for some reason. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that lady thought she was some kind of evil Witch.
Heck, her name gave me shivers: Valdoma. She looked at me like she was happy something was wrong with me. I didn’t like her. Mom came back into my room. I’d left a note for Melanie under my bed. She’d come by eventually.
I’d addressed it to Ashley just in case.
Mom ordered, “Go get in the car.” I grabbed my bag and went down to the car.
We were going to another new place. Mom followed fifteen minutes later.
She threw the note at my face saying, “Your friend won’t be finding you again.
” Probably not. When I turned eighteen though, I could track Melanie down in Nashville.
I was thinking about other things for now. Like the fact that I knew Luke occasionally showed up to check on me, I’d know to watch out for him. Mom muttered, “The last thing I need is some girl filling your head with these modern ideas. Abusive. Honestly.” Modern ideas?
It was absolutely NOT a modern idea to consider it abuse when someone you were in a relationship with hit you. Considering it anything else was simply archaic. I snarked, “If you’d bother to listen when I talk, you’d have heard me say I didn’t tell my friends about Luke.”
Mom asked, “Then where would you get the idea he was abusive?” I stared at her, wondering if she’d avoided technology all her life. I answered, “Google.” That wasn’t true. The school here had an assembly on abuse.
Honestly, I knew my mom was abusive right along with Luke. My ex was just around more than she was. Mom neglected me, but when she was around she was verbally abusive. I was never pretty enough or skinny enough.
The irony was that I lived in an apartment and not with my mom and her boyfriends because she didn’t want them to give me attention. As I’d gotten older, she’d worried I’d steal them from her, but in the same breath say I wasn’t pretty enough. It made no sense.
Mom muttered, “I can hardly keep you away from the internet.” Nope. She’d kept me away from a lot though. I used to love fantasy books. I was drawn to books about Werewolves but when mom found my hidden stash, she threw the books at me.
One hit me hard enough that I passed out. When I woke up, she had gotten rid of them all. Mom said that no daughter of hers would be some freak who believed in that shit. I was eight then and still to this day thought that stuff would be cool.
Turning into a wolf that could run around freely and being part of a pack. They were like family, and I desperately wanted one. No one ever had my back anymore since we took off when Lux’s dad won custody of him.
In the fantasy worlds crafted by many authors, Supernatural groups in the stories had great family connections. Not just Werewolves either. Other Supernatural’s did as well. They had their factions, but those factions had their back.
The only person who loved me was Lux, and I didn’t even know his last name. I didn’t know my last name either though to be fair. My lovely mother always said she didn’t give me one. She had to have a last name though and so did my dad. Everyone had a last name.
Which on some level the woman had to know I knew that. Talking to my mom was kind of pointless because you don’t get answers only insults. We drove the whole way to New Mexico, leaving Nashville and my newfound life behind me.
This time, I wasn’t going to follow their mold though. I had friends when they left me alone in Nashville. I fit in and I thrived. I wasn’t letting that Odette go. Melanie wouldn’t want me to. Mom found a new boyfriend pretty much right away.
Not the guy we moved here for though. No, no, that would be crazy talk. I was left in an apartment all by myself again, going to yet another new school. There were clear cliques here. Sometimes, I swear there were groups that were like catalog models in the schools.
They were very fit, the best at sports, and stuck to their groups. They always looked at me oddly. They asked strange questions too. I could never figure out why though. Part of me wanted to think they wanted me to belong with them.