Chapter 43: ❤️ Valentine’s Special — You against me

Amina’s POV

Three years.

Three years had passed since the last time that my gaze plunged into his dark eyes. Despite the time and the distance, it seemed like nothing had changed. He still held a hatred and a loathing for unfair life while I remained victim of the feelings that I once had for him. I couldn't believe that three years later, he still had me in the grip of his anger and at the mercy of his twisted whims.

I wanted badly to fight back against him, to take actions and to run away, but not a bone in me could move. It was the same problem that I had faced over and over. This unnerving disconnect between my mind and my body had always rendered me powerless and vulnerable to many things and to him especially. The more that time passed, the more the gap between what I was and what I felt that I could be grew further. Today was no different.

He stroked my face with his long and slender fingers and wiped away the tears that incessantly streamed out of my eyes. Every square inch of my skin was burning under his touch and, as he brought his lips closer to mine, I felt a sudden nausea creep up from my stomach to my throat.

“Did you miss me, too?” He asked mockingly.

His breath snaked its way to my nose and his familiar peppery smell gave me absolute goosebumps. My whole body trembled with fear and the only words that could come out of my mouth were a series of lamentable pleas that further proved my cowardice. He smiled proudly, loving the extent of his power over me and gently pressed his lips on mine. Feeling disgusted and wanting to escape his poisonous kiss, I pushed my back against the wall and flung my head to the side. I could tell that my attempt to free myself of his hold infuriated him as he grabbed me by my sore neck and forced me to meet his eyes.

“You’ve been a very busy little bee, haven’t you my love?” Micheal whispered, returning his lips on me.

He slid his mouth up to my ear slowly and in a chilling icy tone, he kept toying with my mind.

“I’ve been looking for you for a long time. Where have you been, flower?” He sighed in my ear before pulling away when his fingers grazed the base of my neck.

His eyes laid on the mark that Benjamin had left on my flesh and a fervent jealousy seized control of him. His dark pupils dilated, his jaw tightened and his pursed lips quivered with emotion.

“Do you think that you’re his, now?” He spat out as his anger mounted. “Do you think that you belong to him?” He kept yelling, unleashing his bitterness.

In an instant, I found myself on the ground, jolted, confused and hurting from the violent slap he had laid on me.

“You’ll never be his, Mina. You will always be mine.” He kept screaming as he suddenly grabbed me and threw me against the hard wall.

My nose threathened to break when it violently met the wall, but Micheal didn't seem to notice my pain. He pressed his body against mine and drowned his own sorrows in my hair. I couldn’t stop crying as I was overwhelmed by him and my conflicting behaviour. *‘What is wrong with me?’* I screamed in my head. I wanted to kill him and yet, I was giving in to my fears and to him again. I could feel Micheal’s hands slide down my body and hit the top button of my jeans.

“No Micheal, please don’t.” I begged knowing very well the place that his perverted mind had already taken him to.

“Shh, Mina.” He whispered back to me. “Let me make love to you like I used to. I promise that you’ll forget about him.”

“You mean rape me like you used to.” I let out in a brittle tone.

He chuckled under his breath and just as I thought my mind would go blank, pictures of Benjamin flooded in my head like a tsunami. I was suddenly taken over by a new sense of inner-peace and instantly, my breathing steadied and my muscles relaxed. The serenity that the thoughts of Benjamin brought me allowed for Travis’s voice to cross over and give me, in contrast, much needed focus. I would’ve preferred to die rather than to let Micheal touch my body again and helped by my newly found courage, I pushed my hand against the wall and threw my body back onto his. Micheal pulled back from me, destabilzed and distracted and in one quick move, I stretched out my left arm and ripped into his face with my nails. He groaned in pain as he staggered further away. I used the precious seconds that I had just won to take off towards the door.

I bolted down the hallway and to the first door that I noticed. I hoped it would lead to freedom, but to my great despair, I stumbled upon Gisele berating another dark-haired she-wolf. She couldn’t have been much older than eighteen and she looked absolutely terrified. They both noticed me at the same time and as Gisele’s anger shifted on me, the young girl exhaled with relief.

“What are you doing here?” Gisele asked, moving in my direction.

I ignored her question and focused on running back to the hallway only to be stopped by a furious Micheal. His scratches were already healing but his ego had been badly bruised.

“You bitch!” He screamed at me before knocking me out cold with one punch.

I woke up a few hours later and found myself back in the room I had desperately tried to get away from. My arms hanged above my head, chained to the ceiling and blood spilled from my lips. The pain that I felt throughout my entire body almost sent me back to a sate of unconsciousness, but Micheal's cold voice forced me wide-awake.

“You’ve changed, my love.” He spoke from his chair. “I’ve underestimated you, but I won’t do it again.”

Benjamin’s POV

“Benji, wake up.” Mina’s sweet voice filled my sleeping head.

I wanted to remain in this blissful state forever, but as my mind pulled me away from my cocoon filled with dreams, Mina’s voice morphed into that of my sister’s. I opened my eyes to find Roxy's face hovering above mine.

“What do you want?” I asked hoarsely, rolling away from her, angry that she would break the beautiful spell that I was under.

“Benji, it’s Mina…”

“What about her?”

“She didn’t leave Benji. She was taken against her will, by Craig and his mate.”

“Why are you talking about?” I groaned my disbelief and burried my head in Mina's pillow.

“Benji, I’m serious!” She yelled in frustration. “Mina didn’t leave you. She was kidnapped by Craig and brought to the rogue Alpha.”

“Craig?” I whispered in response as her words were finally becoming loud and clear.

“He admitted it, Benji. Ryan has him locked in your cellar, but he won’t say another word. We need you, so get up!”

She whipped my covers off of me before running out of my room. I laid in my bed, frozen by the sudden rush of emotions that came crashing down. I was happy to find out Mina had not abandoned me, but immediately dumbfounded to find out that Craig had betrayed me. But, perhaps, the single worst feeling and the one that left me completely shattered, was the overwhelming guilt that overcame me. While Mina was in danger, alone and terrified, I chose to let go of my duties as her mate. I rejected her when she needed me the most and I couldn’t stand to live with myself. I didn’t deserve to breathe anymore or think any longer and I didn’t deserve to feel anything. I only deserved to die for breaking our mate bond and letting her down, but as I thought of her trapped by Micheal Miller, I felt indomitable anger pushing me to get out of bed and head to my cellar. As I got closer, I could make out the scent of every person waiting for me and by the time that I reached below ground, Craig's incense smell was the only one that I could focus on. I opened the heavy door of the crypt and saw my parents, Roxy and Ryan. They stood directly in my sight and my rage bubbled over at the fact that my view of the traitor was obstructed.

“Move.” I hissed under my breath.

He was standing on his feet with both arms outstretched to either side of his body and held up by silver shackles. When his eyes met mine, he smiled at me in a way that he had never done before. His condescending look made me want to kill him. My vision tunnelled and I could almost taste his blood as I imagined myself ripping his throat out. Even my abscent wolf cannoned back into my restless mind and demanded release as he, too, hungered for death. Craig’s eyes widened when he noticed the ominous changes in my demeanour.

“I’m gonna wipe that grin of your face, traitor.” I snarled lowly, hinting at the world of pain that I was about to put him through.