Chapter 22 - Sara
When I feel a soft touch on my forehead, warmth grows in my chest, and I wake with a smile on my face.
“Shawn,” I whisper.
“Guess again.”
The voice is such a soft hiss, there is no way I could identify it—but I don’t need to. Even in my barely woken state, I know exactly what’s happening.
The hand that touched my forehead so softly clamps hard across my mouth and nose. I try to struggle, but I’m yanked out of bed, and an arm as strong as steel winds around my throat. With my face covered, it only takes seconds for the pressure on my throat to take me out.
When I come to, I’m being jiggled painfully against a sharp weight in my stomach. I struggle hard, my eyes flying open, and I see a swirl of trees and sky before my back slams against the ground hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs.
A shadow appears above me, and a sharp blow cracks across my face. Darkness crowds my vision, and there is a faint sense of motion beyond my consciousness, as if I’m being dragged.
The next sensation is pain. Horrible, excruciating pain ringing through my skull and lancing through my temples. Every muscle and joint throbs and aches, making me beg for the darkness to return.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Father’s voice says, right in front of me. “Wake up now, girl. Time to make breakfast!”
His words are so shocking, I open my eyes, coming fully awake with a jolt as I try to leap to my feet. All I end up doing is hurting myself even more as I strain against the ropes that are pinning me to a tall tree.
Father starts laughing, slapping his knee.
“Got you, didn’t I, girl? You thought you were back home again! Was the time with your husband really that good that it was a dream you’d never want to wake from?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I gasp, trembling against the ropes. “I’m not afraid of you!”
“Oh?” he says, dancing forward with his fist up. I recoil so fast, I hit my head on the tree.
“You’re scared, alright,” he chuckles. “But not scared enough. It doesn’t matter. I’m not out to torture you this time. I have a purpose that goes beyond my personal enjoyment.”
“You’re a monster!” I scream at him, fighting the ropes. “Fuck you—”
Father steps forward and slaps me hard across the face. Pain lances through me, making me choke and gasp as I writhe against the rope.
All this time, I never knew how strong he really was. He’s been pulling his punches my whole life.
“Listen up,” he hisses menacingly. “I need you quiet. If you want to start screaming, I’ve got lots of ways of shutting you up, do you understand?”
I nod, desperately gasping for air.
Can’t fucking talk with my face numb, anyway.
“Aw, but, boss,” Bruce says, appearing behind Father. “I really like it when they scream.”
“Yes, yes,” Father says, waving a hand at him. “I know all about your appetites. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to make sure you can have your fun exactly as you want it. At the moment, though, I don’t know exactly where her husband is, and we don’t want him showing up at the wrong time, do we?”
“Shawn,” I gasp, trying to force a scream out of my throat. “What—”
“What have I done? Nothing yet,” Father says. “Aside from kidnapping you, of course, and that was long overdue.”
“You’re scum,” I mumble. “You’re evil—”
“Oh, well, look who’s got opinions, now? You used to be so quiet, so submissive. What’s that boy been teaching you?”
“Self-worth,” I growl.
Father laughs. “What a pity. A great illusion. You’re nothing, and you’re worth nothing. I thought for a brief time that I’d found a use for you, but since that idea’s gone to hell, the best thing I can do now is get rid of you.”
“Shawn will come for me—”
“I’m counting on that, my dear. At the moment, I’m just waiting for the best possible timing.
I have to say, it was a lot easier stealing you out from under his nose than I thought it would be.
I was worried for a moment there that maybe he actually didn’t give a fuck, and you wouldn’t even be any good for leverage. ”
I glare at him, not daring to speak in case I unwittingly give him ammunition.
“Oh, now she’s quiet. Nothing to say, nothing at all?”
“I hate you!” I moan, despair, and pain mingling inside me until my body and soul feel like one singular ache. “I’d do anything to be free of you.”
“Even die?” he asks, stepping closer to me to glare right in my face.
Okay, maybe not that.
“C’mon, boss,” I hear Rafe somewhere behind me. “You said we could finally have her. My mouth’s waterin’ like crazy, seein’ her tied up like this.”
“Will you shut the fuck up?” Father growls, looking past me at Rafe. “I need you guys to do your fucking jobs and be good little doggies. This entire situation is turning into a fucking cluster fuck, and if we don’t act fast, it will be all our necks.”
Disbelief trickles through me, and I start to giggle.
“What’s so fucking funny?” Father demands.
“You’re already fucked,” I laugh. “The other alphas know everything. It doesn’t matter what you do now. The other packs will take your fucking head. It’s over.”
“Not if I kill you,” he says, grabbing my throat. “I’ll use you for leverage, kill Shawn, and you, then frame someone else for it. While the other alphas chase their tails over their dead pal, I’ll head to Eccles with my chosen few and check out that stone everyone’s talking about.”
“Oh, no,” I gasp.
“Oh, yeah,” he answers. “I was so fascinated by that legend as a kid. Something didn’t fit right. We had the story of the fire, and the quake, but meanwhile, don’t trust people—Eccles people in particular. Got me thinking that maybe this power was something that could be controlled.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” I swear at him. “Everyone who’s ever tried for the power of the stone has died.”
“Ah-ha!” he says. “So, it is controllable. That makes everything really simple.”
“You’re out of your mind!” I yell. “How can you possibly think you will get away with any of this. Shawn is coming—”
“Shawn is going to die,” he says calmly. “So are you. I wouldn’t worry your ugly little head over it any further. I’ll keep getting away with it exactly the same way I always have.”
“You didn’t get away with Talon’s death!” I say, taking a wild guess and trying to provoke him.
Father smiles slowly, a cold glint in his eye. “My dear, I wasn’t even there when Talon died. How could I possibly have anything to do with it?”
“Everyone knows you set him up. Shawn told me!”
“Well, Shawn isn’t ‘everyone’ now, is he?
” Father scoffs. “If by ‘everyone,’ you mean the pack, don’t worry, they are totally fucking clueless.
I told everyone Talon was hell-bent on attacking Eccles because he was sick of living under the threat of them, and he finally snapped.
So far as the rest of the pack knows, he was completely unhinged. ”
“How did you make him go?” I ask, my bravado finally failing me. “What did you tell him that made him go there?”
Father laughs softly. “I was really hoping I’d get the chance to share this with you, actually. I told Talon and Jess that Eccles warriors had kidnapped some of our women—specifically, you.”
“What?” I gasp, my heart breaking in my chest.
“I had one of your old dresses, torn up and splattered with a little blood. I took it to Talon with tears in my eyes and told him that you led a few of our girls out that way on a peace mission and got attacked and captured. I begged him to go and liberate you, but here’s the thing—I didn’t even have to beg!
He was out the door before I could even finish talking. ”
“That’s why Jess went, too,” I sob, my voice drowning in tears. “Oh, God. They went to save me!”
“They did,” Father agrees, grinning. “Earlier in the day, the boys and I threw some torn clothes around in a rough trail, and Talon led the warriors straight to their deaths.”
I have so many questions, but my sorrow swallows them, and all I can do is cry, trying desperately to take a breath.
“Aw,” Father says, looking into my face with an almost gentle expression. “Didn’t you know how much he loved you?”
I shake my head. “Fuck off,” I murmur. “Just fuck off.”
“I plan to,” he says. “And I’m going to take out your husband the exact same way—by using you as leverage.”
“Stop,” I sob. “Just stop. You can’t possibly get away with this. If you’re as smart as you think you are, just run for your fucking life.”
“I was going to,” he says. “Father has a nice setup in Caliente. We’ve got a business out there, and a supply route to the town. It’s how I get my luxuries.”
“I knew it,” I gulp, still trying to breathe through my sobs.
“You don’t know shit. We wanted control of the pack overall, and once Leah put Talon in the alpha spot, we had to play a long game.
When I overheard your husband and his boys at the party, that was when I thought I’d better scoot—but there’s no way I’d leave without giving you what you deserve first.”
“And us, boss,” Bruce says. “You were going to take care of us, too.”
“Of course I was,” he mutters, grinning, and I know he’d tie up his loose ends by any means necessary.
“Now, I’ve got to say I’ve got a hard decision to make,” he says, rubbing his chin a little.
“I could make a break for it to Caliente and live a nice, comfy life there with Pa. Or I can skip out to the site at Eccles and keep my ear to the ground and find out how that big ol’ stone works.
I think that sounds like the grand prize. ”
I slump against the ropes, all the fight going out of me. Tears flow down my cheeks, and sobs shiver in my chest.
“Ah, now you’re getting it,” he laughs. “It doesn’t really matter what I decide to do—you’re going to be dead by then.”
“You’re underestimating them,” I gasp. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“You’re a stupid little girl,” he snaps. “My plans are beyond your scope. What a twist of fate it turned out to be that your husband actually fucking loves you—and I hoped he was going to be an abusive son of a bitch that liked to rough you up.”
I shake my head, completely out of words.
He’s out of his mind. Maybe he always has been. I knew he was cruel, maybe even a psychopath, but I never guessed that he was this delusional.
“Fine,” I mumble. “Go ahead. Kill me. Execute your grand plan. You won’t get away with it.”
He stares at me furiously for a second, then slaps me across the face. Fresh blood pours out of my nose and down my chin, smothering my sobs.
“Careful, boss,” Bruce says, coming up beside him. “You said we could have her.”
“Yeah, I did,” he growls. “But I never specified what shape she’d be in.”
“So let me slap her around for a bit, while I’m finally thrashing the bitch as she deserves.”
Bruce comes closer, running a hand down my torn nightgown and squeezing my breast.
Father guffaws. “Yeah, okay. I’ll back off. But don’t start tearing chunks out of her yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s still a chance things won’t go right with Shawny-boy, and if she’s been too trashed, he’ll just see red, and we don’t want that. I need to be able to force his compliance—and that of his buddies—if they catch me before I can get him.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Bruce says, watching me. “So, we’ll watch her, then?”
“Yeah,” Father steps back, scenting the air. “I think they’ll be on the move by now, so I’m going to join up with them. You guys spread out when you hear us, okay? I might need backup, depending on how this goes.”
“Right,” Rafe says from behind me. As Father backs away, I see Axe approaching from the trees.
“We’ve got her, boss,” Bruce says. “We’ll keep an eye out here while you go get Shawn and do your thing.”
“Good,” Father says, turning to head back to town. “Remember what I said!”
“We will,” Bruce answers, grinning at me without turning to watch Father leave.
“Now the old man’s gone, we can finally have some fun with you,” Rafe says from behind me, his breath warm on my neck.
“Yeah,” Bruce agrees. “He won’t know the difference if we start now. Fuck him. I’m sick of his orders, anyway.”
As the three of them advance, the only clear thought in my head is that if the guys end up focused on me, at least Father won’t get any backup.
It might mean my dignity—or even my life—but Father alone against the other alphas? They’ll tear him to shreds.