Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Isolde
I’m naked in the tub when I next jerk awake.
“Sorry,” Lucas murmurs. “I wanted to get the rest of this blood off, so I figured a soak would help.”
Expecting to see blood in the water, I look around to see it’s surprisingly clear.
“Alesso helped me wash your body with a wash cloth, and we changed the water twice. You’re clean, so I figured the warm water would be good for any stiffness.”
Smiling slightly, I gaze up at him from where my head lays on his chest.
“This is really nice. Thank you,” I say. “I’m more tired than anything else.”
Experimentally shifting my hips from side to side, I grimace when I feel pain.
“And yes, I’m sore as fuck.”
“Your vagina is on time out for a bit,” he says. “The drugs in your system were the only reason Grant had sex with you. None of us want to hurt you. Instead, we’re going to pamper the shit out of you.”
“Ugh. Maybe don’t mention shit for a while,” I grumble. “Ophelia had very interesting techniques to get my body to process the forced heat medication.”
“The way it was absorbed into your body, she wouldn’t have been able to,” Lucas says. “That’s why it’s still working. Now, I have no idea what the lifespan of a full dose would be since I couldn’t do proper testing, and I gave you two doses.”
“Thank you,” I sigh. “It would have been so much worse if she’d been able to force my heat. I hated everything Ophelia did, and I can’t tell you how many things she fucking injected me with.”
“I’ve had lots of time to think while you’ve been sleeping,” Lucas admits. “I want to get a full physical done if you’re okay with it.”
“How full?” I ask, chewing on my bottom lip.
Lucas attempts to save my lip by pulling it gently away from my top teeth.
“I want to make sure that you’re not torn in any way from what they did on stage to you,” he says.
“Omegas are made for knots, but not acrobatics the way you had to move, Isolde. I only know what happened on stage because Oli and Alesso told me through the bond. I didn’t see it first hand.
Either way, no sex until you’re cleared by a medical professional and you decide you want it. ”
Taking a deep breath, I think about that. I know that he’s right. The haze I was in from the drugs altered my sense of reality, but I do remember what happened. The bat also was one of the most unpleasant things I’ve ever experienced. May Urock rot in hell, while blind and on fucking fire.
My pettiness apparently has a dramatic flair.
Swallowing hard, I nod. I definitely need blood tests done as well because of all the shit she gave me.
“Okay,” I whisper. “Can I have a female doctor? It shouldn’t matter, but—”
“Why doesn’t it matter? Because women can be just as cruel?
This is completely different, darlin’. You get whatever you want,” Lucas growls.
“Don’t apologize for what you need. We’ll bend over backward to get it for you.
Call me crazy, I don’t really want men around you when you’re in a vulnerable position either. ”
“Because of what happened?” I ask, almost bitterly.
“No,” he says, kissing my temple. “You’re ours to take care of. It’s that simple, and it always will be.”
Relaxing more against him, I nod. My fingers run over his legs absently since he’s behind me, stilling when I feel his boxers.
Smiling softly, I realize that he wanted me to be comfortable while he bathed me.
My skin feels like it can breathe now without a layer of crusted blood over it, and I can’t see any evidence of it on me either.
“Okay,” I say, yawning again.
“I think it’s time for you to get out of the tub,” Oli says, leaning in the doorway. Coming inside, he picks up a fluffy towel for me. “Take it nice and easy, Kitten.”
Leaning forward, I get out of the water, grateful that my legs are working again. The sedative had a wild effect on me, and I never want to feel that way again.
Lucas’ hands guide me up as he stands as well, and Oli wraps me in the towel before he lifts me out of the tub.
“My legs aren’t broken anymore,” I tease him, enjoying the princess treatment as he puts me down and begins to dry me off thoroughly.
Lucas grabs a towel for himself, tossing his wet boxers into the hamper as he dries off and wraps it around his waist.
“I’ll be right back,” he says, leaving the bathroom for a moment.
Oli wraps his arms around my towel covered body, and I soak in the happy feelings of safety it gives me.
“I’m so ready to go to bed,” he groans. “It’ll be nice to sleep, knowing you’re safe with us.”
“Who am I sleeping with?” I ask curiously.
“All of us,” Lucas says, reappearing in a pair of joggers. He holds up a sweatshirt that I recognize as his and I smile as he helps me into it, and Oli pulls the towel away to drop it in the hamper.
“Is there enough room?” I ask, taking Oli’s hand as he leads me out of the bathroom.
There’s a bedroom waiting for me as we walk in, and my jaw drops when I see the two mattresses pushed together. It’s on a pallet that reminds me of my nest, nice and low to the ground. The ceiling isn’t high vaulted, and I can easily identify all the exits.
Yes, it’s perfect.
Crawling onto the mattresses, I move until I’m in the middle without being in the crack, and face plant happily into bed.
“This is so fucking amazing,” I groan.
“Where have you been sleeping?” Grant asks, his teeth gritting together. They’re all surrounding me on the bed, and slowly lay down around me.
“You don’t want to know,” I say honestly.
“Yes, we do,” Grant says. “I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
Flopping onto my back, I blow out a breath.
“Ophelia extracts great pleasure in my suffering. It started with an ice cold shower with a high powered spray hose, and she made sure the water was directed into very tender areas,” I explain. “Ophelia was pissed about everything, and she thought Leila was biologically mine. Fuck, where is she?”
Sitting straight up in panic, I see the bassinet on the far side of the bed, beside Alesso.
“Oh my god, she’s sleeping by herself already?” I wail.
“Only here and there,” Alesso admits. “She’s going to realize that she’s not able to hear someone’s heartbeat and get mad.”
“She’s so pretty,” I mutter, my eyes glued to her long lashes and little nose. “Promise me nothing bad will ever happen to her.”
“I promise that we will protect her to the best of our ability,” Lucas says. “She’ll learn how to defend herself, and be a badass like her mama. No one is taking advantage of her and living to tell the tale.”
“Good enough,” I say, still whispering in my head that I’ll kill anyone who hurts her as I lay back down.
Yes we will, Grant says smugly as I glance at him. The bond is only half complete, but it still feels nice.
I love you, I tell him as I organize my thoughts.
“Ophelia‘s go-to form of punishment is to put my arms and legs into wood stocks. They’re heavy, make me feel unbalanced, and very uncomfortable because I can’t move well in them.
I was interrogated a lot by her men, and when I said something they didn’t like, they’d hit the bottoms of my feet with a thin cane,” I say.
There’s silence in the bed and I wince.
“That’s the position that I’d sleep in if I was allowed to sleep. I’m tired…” I hint.
I don’t want to relive the rest of what happened. The echoes of memory are sure to be just as bad.
“Okay,” Lucas finally says, and Grant pushes the slider switch until there’s only a hint of light.
The door to the room is closed, it’s quiet, and I’m already slipping into sleep as Grant pulls me into his arms to use him as my own, personal body pillow.
Fuck Ophelia. She’s going to die screaming for a mercy I don’t have in me to give her.
Grant
My face is half numb as I lay on the ground. I’m confused as to why there’s crying, and I can’t move my arms or legs.
This isn’t my dream, but Isolde’s, I quickly realize. She’s lying with her body contorted, her ass up in the air. I hear a scream, and then her stomach growls before I realize with horror how demeaning this position is. Isolde is laying in her own filth, half asleep on the ground as she suffers.
I’m getting snapshots of her time with Ophelia, and I try to change the scenery. Her mind is trapped, and I’m being slapped by Ophelia as I kneel now instead of laying prostrate.
“You stupid cunt, you’re ruining everything!”
Isolde refuses to say anything, and I realize that I’m just as trapped in this dream as she is. I see memory after memory as she cries in her dream, her body in the real world still snuggled against me.
I can feel everything as the alphas violate her on stage, my body screaming in horror. Groaning, I feel myself crying in my body as I hold Isolde tightly, unable to shake myself awake.
“Lucas!” I scream in my head.
Fuck, how is Isolde able to survive this? She pretends she’s fine, but then there’s a baseball bat being pressed against my ass and it’s shoved into my hole—
A slap across my face in real life pulls me out of the nightmare, and I gasp in pain as my eyes fly open.
“Grant, what the fuck?” Lucas asks, his face pale with fear. “Is she still asleep?”
“Yeah,” I rasp. “Really fucking bad nightmare. Come on, Isolde. Wake up for me, baby.”
My fingers push her hair out of her face, and I can feel wetness along her cheeks. It was horrifying for me, but she’s reliving all of it.
“It’s not real,” I hiss, turning so I can cage her body underneath me. If I regret this position because she decides to knee me in the knot so hard I’ll sing soprano, then so be it.
I need to get through to her.
“What…why are you crying?” Oliver asks, his brows drawn down as he sits up.
Lucas turns the lights up so the room is brighter, and my chest heaves from the weight of emotions I’m experiencing. I didn’t even live through this, and I want to kill everyone.