Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Isolde
Ican’t feel my face and my asshole is on fire. I’m in the same position that they left me in a full day ago. I feel disgusting and oddly dehydrated too. No one has been by to check on me, nor have they bothered to offer the common courtesy of hosing me down.
I only recently was able to doze off due to the horror show of my intestines and sphincter working together to evacuate everything in my body. There’s nothing left in my stomach, so it’s all fluid leaving my body at a disturbing pace.
This is as much a punishment to dehumanize me as it is an attempt on Ophelia’s part to force the suppressants to pass through. I can only hope that there’s enough still absorbed in my system to keep her from forcing my heat.
Footsteps move across the ground, and they’re lighter than the alphas or Ophelia. This must be her daughter. I don’t know who could be her father other than Rock. Ophelia was never with anyone while I was in her auction warehouse, and Rock always gave her very special attention.
How did she hide this girl from everyone?
“Gross,” Avery groans. “Are you even alive?”
I keep my eyes closed out of exhaustion, knowing only one thing can come next.
The sound of water blasting is loud, taking the place where there was silence, and it crashes over my skin as Avery uses it to clean me off. I swear there are unmentionable things dried on my skin. It’s so fucking gross and inhumane.
She mutters to herself as she cleans the floor, making sure it goes down the hole left by the open grate.
“Daddy never would have made me do this if he was alive,” she complains softly.
I haven’t been able to see her well enough to decide if she looks like Rock yet, and she finally calls out for someone to come pick me up.
“I need to clean where the wood trapped her shit,” Avery says sweetly.
Thick arms pick me up and shift me to the side before he leaves again. I don’t even know this alpha’s name, and I can’t bring myself to care.
Avery has jet black hair that’s as dark as Rock Dresmond’s, and her eyes are soulless. It’s almost as if no light can reflect in it, due to how dark they are.
“Rock Dresmond is your father, isn’t he?” I croak out. God, my mouth is so damn dry.
“Is it that obvious?” she asks, giving me a non answer as she gives me a break from the hose using it on the ground. “We don’t talk about my father. You shouldn’t either.”
Avery strikes quickly as she shoves a hood over my face and gags me.
There’s no way to spit out the hard, thick rubber since it’s part of the hood.
Shaking my head, I can’t even gasp as she turns the hose on me again.
I can’t see her, but I can feel the freezing pinpricks of water as it hits my skin.
Shivering, I hear her laugh as she continues to talk to me as she works.
“We have big plans for you,” she says, her voice light as if she was talking about the weather or what her weekend plans are.
“We have to break all these pesky bonds though. Mommy says she thinks it’s another reason why the forced heat medications aren’t working.
She’s working on something now. Better safe than sorry, you know? ”
Fear that I’ve never quite felt before floods my system, and I begin to cry uncontrollably, my chest heaving.
“Noooo!” I scream, my voice muffled from the gag.
I drop every possible barrier in my mind and scream every apology that I can think of. I tell my alphas that I love them, but I’ll never know if they’ll be able to hear me.
“Shhh. It’ll be better for your alphas in the long run,” Avery soothes, her hand rubbing my back.
It wouldn’t be soothing even if I wasn’t naked, bound, and completely at her mercy.
“Fuck you!” I yell, knowing the words are completely mangled.
Her hand slaps the side of my head so hard that my ears ring, the wood at my ankles the only thing keeping me from falling to the ground.
“Besides, Mommy is going to dose the alphas who are going to fuck you with something that’ll make them tear you apart,” Avery giggles inappropriately.
“You know how good she is in the labs. She taught me everything she knows. Between us, I’ve thought of running away.
Wouldn’t it be marvelous to start over somewhere new? ”
Avery is batshit crazy, just like her father. Ophelia is a calculated, mean, selfish person. However, she’s not crazy. Somehow, that makes her worse in my opinion.
I’m hyperventilating, and in the darkness of the hood over my head, white bursts of light travel over my vision from my blood pressure shooting sky high.
“Since you’re going to die anyway, it would be a shame to pull your alphas into death with you. Right? Unless, you’re really that selfish,” Avery growls.
Leila. My alphas need to raise our daughter. I don’t actually know if our bonds are solid enough for my death to hurt them, but I don’t want to take a chance.
I throw caution to the wind as I attempt to send them images of where I am. There are only a few, grimy windows from lack of care, but I’ve seen a few trees. I also know that it’s two stories because I walked past a stairway when Ophelia dragged me in here after she used the hose to clean my body.
Outside of that, I know fuck all.
“We have four days to make this happen,” Avery says, unaware of my thoughts. “Someone drained all our accounts, and we need to leave Minnesota. You need to put on a very good show before they kill you.”
I feel her fingers pressing along my skin, and I stiffen as I shout the number four down through the bonds. This is it. She’s going to take them from me.
I’m having trouble breathing as my chest heaves, but Avery pushes the needle into my skin and fills my vein with whatever is inside it.
“You need a break,” she whispers as my body begins to sag. “Sleep, and Mommy will be back as soon as she’s ready to break your bonds. This is the only kindness you’ll receive from me. Don’t get used to it.”
Anything else she says becomes fuzzy as I pass out on my knees. Kindness indeed.
Lucas
My brain splits in pain, and I vaguely notice that my pack all flinches as well.
“Fuck,” I gasp, my arm tightening around Leila. “Someone take her…”
Hands lift the baby from my arms and I press on my temples with my fingers. There’s so much flooding my mind, but I can feel my beautiful girl for the first time in too long. I can feel pain, love, sadness.
“Someone get me a pen and paper,” Grant groans. “Isolde…”
“Damn. I got it,” Jed says, and I can hear the rustling of paper from a notebook being given to him. My eyes are shut, trying to focus on the images and words she's sending us.
“Anyone else hearing the word four?” I ask, straining to make out what she’s saying.
It feels as if her words are being snatched away by a roaring wind.
“Yeah,” Alesso rasps. “I see…a wet floor, brick walls…and a window.”
“So…much pain,” Oliver says, his hand resting on my knee and squeezing it. “Lucas, you’re projecting.”
Oh fuck. I didn’t think that he’d be able to experience my bond with Isolde through me.
Forcing air through my lungs, I pay attention to the broken words, freezing as I hear: “I’m sorry…they’re going to break us apart.”
“What’s for the best?” Grant mutters, voicing what I hear next.
As quickly as Hurricane Isolde comes through, she leaves, and I open my eyes to find my pack is shaken.
“We haven’t been able to feel anything for days since she’s been kidnapped,” I say, my voice cracking. “How was she able to do this?”
“She used her pain,” Adira says, holding Leila as she rubs her back. “Something really bad must have happened.”
“They’re going to break our bonds,” Grant says. “That technology is firmly under wraps. Unless Paula…”
“She doesn’t have access to it,” I growl. “It’s still with the research team and she wasn’t in that meeting. It was top secret information.”
“You can break bonds?” Morris asks, horrified.
“Under very specific circumstances,” I explain.
“If an omega is in a medical emergency where she will die and it’s known that her pack is very tightly connected, then yes.
The unlinking medication may be an option so they won’t be pulled into death with her.
I have very special protocols for when it can be used. ”
“It’s especially important if they have children,” Grant adds, gazing at Leila. “Losing all of their parents in one shot is cruel. Lucas went through every scenario, with multiple fail-safes. He understands how dangerous this would be in the wrong hands.”
“But Ophelia couldn’t have this technology through your company, right?” Quinn asks.
“No way,” Oliver says. “I couldn’t break into his company’s network without getting caught. I tried.”
“You all are very odd,” Linus says. “No wonder you fit together well.”
We’re all too wrung out to smile, but nod in appreciation.
“Let’s start looking for events that happen in four days,” Oliver says. “I don’t think it’s an auction…”
“What about a snuff show?” Alesso asks, his skin paling. He looks a little green, and as the full horror of that question hits me, I feel the same way.
“No,” Quinn says, shaking her head as she pulls her computer back to her.
“I got it, baby,” Callum says, his fingers already typing. “Don’t expose yourself to that shit. We’ll find it.”
“He’s right,” Oliver says, swallowing hard as he begins to scour for this type of event. “It makes sense that Ophelia would do this. Isolde got away.”
“What happened when she left?” Adira asks. “I don’t know why Ophelia would be gunning so hard for her. Wren went through her auctions at one point, as did Quinn and I. On second thought, Ophelia has no soul at all.”
“None,” Quinn mutters. “The turnover was so high at Jefferson City Auctions, but you said that Isolde was with Ophelia for years, right?”
Since we’ve been here, we’ve spent time talking about Isolde to keep from losing our minds. Pack Dresmond and Kelly are accepting of how distraught we are, having also lost their omegas at one point or another.