Chapter 34 Thea
THEA
My head is pounding. I feel it before I even open my eyes.
My eyes don’t feel much better. They feel so heavy.
I try assessing my body as best I can in this condition.
It feels like I’m lying down on something soft—a bed or couch maybe?
I don’t hear anything around me. I strain my ears.
It’s completely quiet. The moments before being knocked out replay in my mind, and I feel a tear escape and trail down my cheek. Duke, please let him be okay.
I need to figure a way out of this. There’s no time to just lie here.
It still feels like a fight to open my eyes.
The room is lit but dim with just a lamp beside the bed illuminating it.
It looks like a cabin of some sort with the wood paneling and beams along the ceiling.
It’s a struggle to move my body. It feels so heavy, just like my eyes.
My whole being feels groggy. I can’t feel the bonds.
Whatever he gave me must have temporarily suppressed them.
It takes me a while to fully sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed. I can feel the effects slowly fading the longer I’m awake. I still don’t hear anything, no movements from the other room. Nothing. It’s putting me on edge more not knowing where he is.
Standing shakily, I slowly move around the room, leaning on the various furniture as I go, from the bed and nightstand beside it to the dresser opposite the foot of the bed next to the door, which I assume leads to the rest of the cabin.
Going left past the dresser, I find an open door to an attached bathroom.
Next to the bathroom door is a closet. As quickly as I can, I check it to be sure.
No one’s there and there’s nothing useful I can use to escape.
I’ve basically done a loop of the room and ended up on the other side of the bed.
There’s more space here between the bed and closet, a large picture window in between them.
It’s still somewhat light out but it looks like the sun might be setting in another hour or so.
There’s nothing out there but bare trees and snow, more snow here than we had at the house.
Where am I?
I still have the clothes I was wearing on, except my jacket, shoes, and socks.
I didn’t see them in the closet either. With so much snow and how cold it is, just running out the door and hoping for the best is out of the question.
I need to make a plan. Wherever we are, he has to have a car nearby.
I need to find the keys and get to it. Not having shoes won’t matter if the car is near the house.
If we’re miles from another person and I don’t know where I am, trying to hike my way out isn’t smart.
If it’s the only option, I’ll do it but it’s a last resort.
The guys will find me. I know they will.
I’ll fight as hard as I can until I can escape or they come.
I’m so lost in my head staring out this window I didn’t notice he entered the room until I see a slightly faded reflection of him in the glass.
I can’t help the jump I make as a reaction.
His hands come down on my shoulders and his touch feels like ants crawling all over me, my body rejecting it completely.
“Hey, it’s just me. You looked so peaceful I didn’t want to interrupt,” he says with a slight laugh as he turns me to face him.
I get a proper look at him now that fear and panic aren’t overwhelming me like before, seeing that he’s a typical handsome alpha.
His short dark brown hair is perfectly styled and his blue eyes that look almost gray are staring at me.
I can’t help it but seeing how happy he looks riles up my anger.
He killed Connor, he’s a monster. He shouldn’t get to walk through life unassumingly.
I hate my height right now, because I loathe that he’s physically looking down at me.
Maybe that’s too much but it bothers me. I never much cared about my height after my teen years; it is what it is. But I wish his face was closer to mine so I could hit it as hard as I could. I suddenly regret not having Max or Connor show me any kind of fighting or self-defense.
His hand moves down to the lower part of my back and he begins to “guide” me out of the bedroom.
I was right that it’s a cabin, a small cozy one.
The living room is to the right of where we exited and the kitchen to the left.
Almost opposite the bedroom door looks to be the front door to the cabin and off the kitchen is a back door.
That must be on the other side of the bedroom’s attached bathroom.
It’s all an open layout with the kitchen being set up in a ‘U’ shape.
The other side of the cabinets and counter is a small round wooden table with four chairs.
The table is already set up with two places and dishes of cooked food.
He leads me to one of the chairs and sits me down in it like a doll.
My best way to buy time is to go along with his insanity as well as I can while trying to find car keys, a weapon, something to enable my escape.
“I hope you’re hungry, I made your favorites,” he says with a bright smile as he sits down at the chair to the left of me.
That chair puts him closest to the front door; he’d easily block any attempt at running.
Especially since I have the table in front of me and the cabinets behind me.
It’d be a clumsy and inefficient way to the door.
The back door could be an option but with no shoes and no further information, running now would only dash any of his false beliefs he has in “our love.” Gag.
“I actually don’t feel so great from whatever that stuff was,” I say as politely as I can muster. His smile drops and his eyes tighten as they seem to focus more intently on me. After a while, he seems to relax and begins putting food on my plate before serving himself.
“That’s okay, eat what you can. You’ll need your strength for tomorrow. By then the effects you’re feeling should be completely gone,” he says nonchalantly. My stomach drops at his words. What is he planning tomorrow? He might just tell me if I ask. I won’t know if I don’t try.
Moving some of the food around on my plate to look busy, I ask, “And what is happening tomorrow?”
His eyes light up and the smile that forms is disturbing, like in the woods earlier.
“We’re finally going to bond and be together completely,” he says, as if those words aren’t fueling a tidal wave of panic through me.
I can’t even think of a response before he continues, “It’s long overdue for us and needed before I take care of that pesky pack that took advantage of you. ”
It takes everything in my being to keep some semblance of composure.
That panic from before now is pure fear for my mates.
Gods, I can’t lose anyone else. My hand is shaking as I reach for the glass of water.
Get ahold of yourself, Thea. I can’t succumb to fear and panic.
If I do, he wins. I promised Connor we wouldn’t let him win and I will keep that promise, no matter what.
If I have to fight my instincts and reactions along the way, I will.
I’ll keep that promise and protect my mates.
After drinking some water to help my suddenly dry throat at that information, I say, “I don’t think I’d survive losing so many bonded mates. Can’t we just be together and leave them be?”
A low rumble of a growl comes from him. His hand grabs mine closest to him and squeezes it painfully.
I can’t mask the flare of pain on my face.
“You are mine. No one but me should be bonded to you. If only I’d gotten to you in Chicago but my ex-pack has kept me busy back home with some unfortunate legal business.
Then I would have been there for your heat and that deplorable pack wouldn’t have taken advantage and bonded to you in such a vulnerable state,” he growls out in frustration.
At the mention of his pack, something clicks in my brain and the anger that comes is too much to contain. “Why do you get to have a bonded mate still walking around but you had to kill Connor? And plan to kill my bonded mates?” I bite out, jerking my throbbing hand out of his tight hold.
His eyes widen slightly in surprise. Did he think I wouldn’t know about his beta?
I don’t mean to throw his beta under the bus but there is no logic in what he says.
Everyone associated with me has to die basically but not the other way around.
I don’t know why I’m trying to apply logic to his thinking anyways.
I need to figure out how he views “our relationship” so I can play along enough to escape.
You can’t do that if your anger is getting the best of you.
He recovers quickly, his expression changing into something resembling a parent scolding a child.
“As I wrote to you, I am sorry about Connor. But he and I could not agree on the important things a pack should.” He pauses.
Does that mean…? “I went to his office under the guise of becoming a new client. We ended up talking about many things, including our pack and those closest to us. It was clear from that discussion he would not have been a good pack mate with me. Since he wasn’t bonded, I hoped it would not cause you significant pain. ”
My mouth hangs open in response to his statement. He thought it wouldn’t cause significant pain? What the actual fuck. A tiny voice in the back of my head is telling me to rein it in, to contain the anger. But it’s drowned out by a primal scream, one I wish I could voice.
In a calmer voice than I thought I could manage, I say, “You were wrong. Connor was the love of my life when you killed him. You would never understand since you so easily left your own bonded mate. No respectable mate could do that.” The look I level him is filled completely with my disgust and hatred of him.