by Helen Scott
"Jax, it's okay. Just let him go, karma will catch up to him, and I'm fine, really," I said, hoping that he wouldn't murder the guy in front of me, because that was what he looked like he wanted to do. I couldn't be witness to a murder and skip town, that would give the cops even more reason to go after me.
"So he can do it to someone else? You want that on your conscience, Nina?" Jax demanded.
"No, but maybe we could drop him off at the police station or something. This doesn't have to get violent," I said.
Finally he turned and looked at me, taking the murderous gaze from the stranger and softening it before he looked at me. "Look at yourself, Nina, we need to get you fixed up, you're in bad shape, and I can't let that stand, not in my territory." The words sent a chill down my spine. So this was his territory now? Everything I'd suspected was true, the wolves of my old pack had taken over a new section of the city, which meant that I had to run as far and as fast as possible if I wanted to escape pack life again.
"Please, Jaxon, consider this a favor for me," I said, pulling out the big guns.
"And what do I get for that favor? You'll go to dinner with me?" he asked, but there was something in his tone that told me he already knew what my answer would be.
I shook my head.
Without looking he turned slightly and slashed the blade, cutting the man's arm. I winced and he watched me like he was logging my reaction.
When I didn't back down, didn't take his offer of dinner like a good little wolf bitch, he turned back to the man who had attacked me and slit his throat. The surprise that twisted the man's face before his body crumpled in the hold of the enforcers would haunt me for the rest of my life, I just knew it.
Jax tossed the knife to the ground and wiped his hand on one of the enforcer's sleeves. The guy took it, like being Jax's napkin was standard practice. I knew it was too late for me to run now. Maybe if I had tried when they first hauled the guy off me, but pain was throbbing from my head to my arm to my leg and just moving to protest the way Jax was treating the guy had made me want to howl in pain.
"You're in bad shape Nina. Gods, you're lucky we were around when you screamed. Can you imagine if you'd been all alone? If no one heard your scream of distress and you were stuck fighting that guy? You might be the one that was dead." Jax had turned on the puppy dog eyes, but I knew they were fake. "When I saw it was you I was so scared. If something had happened to you in my territory after I'd promised Sam I'd take care of you? I'd never forgive myself."
"It's fine, I'm okay. No harm, no foul."
"How can you say that? Look at you!" Jax's voice raised so he was almost shouting at me.
"And look at him," I said quietly.
"He got what was coming to him for hurting you," Jax replied.
The sentiment made me shiver. He was talking about me like I was something he owned, or maybe just coveted. Either way it made me want to run for the hills. I didn't respond, didn't know what to say so I just stood there and hoped the encounter between the two of us would end quickly and peacefully.
"It's not safe for you out here, clearly. Plus you're still bleeding heavily. We need to get those wounds cleaned up, and get your head looked at. Come with us," he said as he grabbed my uninjured arm.
I shook him off, stumbling backward in the process and said, "There's a hospital a block away, I'll just go there, but thanks."
"You'd rather go to a human hospital than a shifter healer?" he questioned, sounding astounded at my reluctance to go with him.
"The hospital is closer, plus I can go straight home afterward," I hedged as I took a step backward.
Jax's brow furrowed and I wasn't sure if it was in confusion or anger but he said, "We have the best healer in the area. She does amazing work, you won't even feel like you needed a healer by the time she's done."
He was trying too hard to get me back on pack land, and it was like I could feel a net being cast around me with no way out. If I didn't make it out now, I wasn't sure I ever would. I took another step back, my heel catching on some loose stones as I did so, making me wobble.
"Easy there, champ, I think you might have a concussion or something. Human doctors can't do anything for that except tell you to be careful and rest. Aggie can heal you so you don't even have to worry about it." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, and as he held his hand out it was like the net was drawing ever tighter but I still couldn't find my way out.
"No, that's okay, thanks," I said before turning to walk away. I'd had enough of these games.
The snarl that ripped through the air behind me made me quake with fear even though I tried not to show it. The sound reminded me of the previous alpha right before he'd ripped my parents throats out. My stomach lurched.
"Such an entitled brat, aren't you? I'm offering you something nice, something that most humans would kill for if they knew it was an option, and you spit in my face? Sometimes you just need to let go and let someone who knows better handle things. Clearly you're not taking care of yourself, so this is for your own good." I knew he was approaching me from behind, but ever since that snarl I hadn't been able to move. I was that scared little girl again, except this time I had no Sam to hide behind.
When I turned to look at him, it was only to find a black object being swung forcefully at my head. I had no time to duck or dodge, the blow landed barely a second after I saw it, pain exploding across my face as it made contact. My body gave up the fight without my consent. The blackness came rushing in hard and fast, swallowing me whole.
14
EVERYTHING HURT, and it felt like I was dying. I knew I wasn't; I didn't smell of death, but I sure as shit felt like it. My leg ached and my arm twinged, but the worst was my head. It throbbed like a son of a bitch and even trying to open my eyes felt like I was going for a new weightlifting record at the gym.
My brain flooded with images of what had happened. Jaxon attacked me after he killed a different man who was attacking me. What the hell was going on? Had the world lost its mind? I was seriously starting to think so, or maybe I just attracted crazy bad luck. I mean what were the chances of running into Jaxon at a party only to have him start stalking me via his men? That kind of shit only happened to people who seemed to have bad luck stuck to them like gum on the bottom of their shoe. People like me. I wanted to run from the thought, but I knew no matter what I did it would still be there in the back of my mind, haunting me, so I tried to open my eyes.
When I finally got my eyes to stay open, and the staying part was key, I glanced around only to find what looked like a warehouse surrounding me. I was on a bed, I could even say I was in a bedroom, but it wasn’t a normal bedroom. Sure, it had windows, filthy ones that I couldn't see out of, but there was exposed ductwork and concrete everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. The walls and floor were all a lovely shade of concrete gray. Not to mention the fact that the ceilings were taller than any house I'd ever seen and when I focused it looked like the roof was made out of corrugated metal. In fact, the only soft thing in there from what I could see was the bed I was lying on.
When I finally got around to paying attention to myself I realized that my running shorts and tank were missing. I was in clean clothes, well, a large clean men's T-shirt that was big enough to come to my thighs and a pair of boxer shorts. The worst part was when I realized I didn't have any underwear or a bra on.
Someone had changed me. My stomach rolled at the thought of Jaxon or one of his enforcers touching me and seeing me naked while I was unconscious. They could have done anything to me and I wouldn't know. I didn't feel like they'd taken advantage of me, but that didn't necessarily mean anything, after all, I had no idea how long I'd been unconscious.
My arm and leg were both wrapped up, clearly all that talk of taking me to a healer was utter crap because if they had I wouldn't have needed to have my wounds bandaged up like that. It wasn’t just the gauze bandage either, it felt like there was something taped to my skin underneath. Plus, if they had ac
tually let a healer treat me I wouldn't have remained unconscious for who knows how long.
I pushed up into a sitting position, happy to find that I wasn’t tied up, but I felt woozy, like maybe I'd lost a lot of blood or like … well, like I hit my head and then someone else hit it with something hard. If I still felt the effects of the hits to my head then I couldn't have been out that long, right? Fuck I hoped nothing had happened while I was out.
My heart raced as I pushed to my feet and lurched toward the door. No luck. I twisted and pulled on the handle but it was locked up tight. There was no getting out of this room for me, not without assistance from whoever held the keys at least. I moved to the windows to try them next. When I got close enough I realized that they weren't dirty, they were painted over. I scratched at some of the paint on the glass and it came away under my fingernail, but when I looked through the little area I'd cleaned, more black paint stared back at me from the other side of the window.
I flipped the locks on the windows and pulled but nothing happened. They didn't budge an inch. I looked around for something to break the glass and found nothing except my elbow. It would hurt me to break glass without anything to protect my skin, I had no doubt about that, but I needed to get out more than I needed to not feel pain. I braced myself and smacked my elbow against the glass.
"Fuck," I muttered as it just ricocheted off the surface doing nothing except leaving a nice mark that I was sure would bruise.
I tried a couple more times, but there wasn't even the tiniest crack, nothing to indicate that I could even break the glass, so I stopped. There was no point in giving myself more injuries for nothing.
This was a prison, plain and simple. There was no other way to describe it. Hell, it wasn't even as nice as a prison because as far as I could see there was no bathroom. I also had no choice but to sit and wait. Someone would come for me eventually, I knew that, I just had to be prepared.
Time passed. I had no idea how much, just that I dozed and woke up scared more times than I cared to count. Finally, I heard a key in the lock.
When the door opened Jaxon was there.
"You're awake, good. How are you feeling?" he asked as he came in and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Like someone knocked me unconscious," I snarled.
"You were being unreasonable and needed medical attention. I had no choice," he replied sadly as though that was what had really happened. "You lost a lot of blood, have you been feeling dizzy or woozy at all?"
Did he think this was normal? That every man went around knocking the women they were interested in unconscious and locking them up in a warehouse?
"I'm okay," I said eventually, for lack of anything else to tell him. I certainly wasn't going to tell him how weak I felt, or that if I moved too quickly it felt like the room was shifting under my feet.
"Are you hungry?"
I nodded because it was true and I also wanted to keep my body fueled so it could heal and be ready to fight when it was time to try and get out of here.
"Good," he said with a smile as he pushed to his feet. "I've got reservations at one of my favorite restaurants. You're going to love it. There is a dress code though so you'll need to change." He opened the door and grabbed a garment bag from the other side before coming over and placing it on the bed. "There's something nice in there for you. I'll be back in a few minutes and we'll go." He opened the door and exited, the lock clicking behind him. He didn't trust me. At least that was something, not that it would make escaping any easier, but maybe I could get away at the restaurant.
I awkwardly unzipped the bag with one hand, trying not to mess with my bandages, and pulled out a dress. Black satin with lace around the neckline. There were heels in the bottom of the bag, which I was sure would go great with my giant bandage, along with some jewelry and a bra. I felt around for more but that was it. The bastard was making me go commando. If I ever got the chance, I was going to … do nothing because he was an alpha wolf and I was a bitch. I couldn't raise a hand against him even if I wanted to. All he had to do was pull on the alpha magic and he could make me stand down. Why he hadn't used the alpha magic to try and manipulate me yet, I wasn't sure, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The bra was the perfect size, which was just creepy, and the dress fit like a second skin, also creepy, and the shoes were a perfect fit as well. The creep factor was officially through the roof. My tits were pushed heavenward with the bra combined with the dress and I felt like if I took a couple deep breaths I'd be able to split the whole thing open.
I'd just finished putting on the jewelry when the door opened again. Jax gave me a once over before he said, “Take the outer bandage off, that was just a precaution.”
I did as he said, revealing the almost healed wound on my leg and hand, which were being held closed by some butterfly bandages. When I stood he gave me an approving nod and held the door wide for me. I walked out, holding my head high and trying to remember how to walk in heels and not show any pain that I felt from the wound on my leg. Other than the blackout party I hadn't worn heels in a long time, so I was still a little unsure with them on, especially when they were over three inches high.
We were escorted to a car with a driver and taken to the restaurant, which was this small Italian place where the tables were squeezed together and there was only one booth in the back, which was, of course, where we were seated. Usually I hated booths, the table was always too far away or too high with no way to adjust, but this time I would have given my left tit to be in that situation. The table was tiny, narrow and barely as long as the booth. This meant that my knees hit Jax's when we were both sitting down.
The toe of his shoes hit the base of the seat I was in and his knee pushed between mine, forcing my legs to part for him. I caught him subtly scenting the air. The answer to his question was no, I most definitely was not aroused.
I needed to get away from him, but I had no idea how to do so. When the waitress came up she flirted with him like crazy, giving me the stink eye when it was my turn to order. I didn't get the chance though as Jax decided to order for me.
Different staff members dropped by and said hi to Jax, women flirting and batting their eyelashes and men bragging like they were trying to get on his level. If they wanted to be a murdering psycho then they were going in the wrong direction.
Either way, this wasn't just a restaurant that he favored, it became very clear over the course of the evening that it was his restaurant, and this was his booth. No one else touched it. His reservation was standing because he was probably the damn owner, so getting help from the staff was a no go. From the looks of things none of them would believe me even if I told them he kept me locked in a warehouse, although some of the women might offer to trade places with me the way they were drooling after him.
Jax was self-centered enough to make conversation for both of us, not worrying that I was remaining quiet. It didn't stop his legs from rubbing on mine under the table, even going so far as to man-spread with his legs between mine, forcing me to sit indecently even though I tried to get around him and sit properly. I was mortified and hated every second of it. I hated him. Whoever he'd been to me as a child was not the person he was anymore, that much I was sure of.
It didn't help that it was obvious what he was trying to do. He kept making direct eye contact with me for extended periods of time, touching me even when I recoiled, treating me like I was already his mate even though we hadn't imprinted on each other. He was doing everything he could think of to make that happen though.
The longer the night went on the angrier he got. When the main course finally got to the table he started stabbing his steak instead of eating it, turning the rare meat into a bloody pulp on his plate. Okay. Not just angry, but crazy too, although I'd already guessed that.
I twirled my pasta around my fork and took a mouthful, enjoying the delicious food that was better than anything I'd eaten in a long time, while my mind grasped at the straw
s of an escape plan. "You know imprinting isn't a choice right? If I was going to imprint on you, if the mate bond was going to form, it would have done so by now. There's no reason to beat yourself up, or prolong this situation when we both know it's not going to work," I said, ironically trying to soothe him, but also trying to get him to see reason.
When he looked up at me from the pulp on his plate his eyes were hard and held the same murderous rage I'd seen in them at the cafe and then again when he killed the man who had attacked me. Suddenly the pasta wanted to escape my stomach and the second bite I'd taken turned to ash in my mouth.
I'd just swallowed and opened my mouth to try and say something, apologize maybe? Anything to stop him from killing me, I never got the chance though. His hand lashed out and his knuckles connected with my cheek, whipping my head to the side with the force of the hit. Spots swam in front of my eyes, and when I tried to focus nothing happened. The dark blotches quickly expanded and took over, giving me over to the blackness once again.
15
MY HEAD SWAM as I came around. Too many knocks to the noggin in too short a time frame. It took me a while to remember where I was and what happened, but when I did I wanted to bolt immediately. Except as soon as I tried to move, my head spun worse than anything I'd ever felt before.
"Easy, baby." Jax's voice came from somewhere close by and dread pooled in my stomach.
When my eyes finally obeyed me and opened, I saw that Jaxon wasn't the only person in the room with me. Yes, he was there, sitting on a chair by the door, but there was also a woman in scrubs bending over the bed. I looked down to see what she was doing and found an IV in my arm.
My eyes traced the cord from where the needle came out of my skin to the bag of fluid. I prayed that it was just a saline solution and that I was dehydrated, but I knew that wasn't the case. As I stared in disbelief for a second the nurse, who was a shifter from her scent, added something blue to the fluids dripping into my arm through the injection port.