Chapter Fourteen
Ocoee.
“This is a bad idea,” I say to my old friend as we head out of the city towards Kildare. “I don’t trust that the crazed wolf isn’t already here in the city, waiting to make his move. You shouldn’t be leaving her alone.”
“I need you with me. She will be safe. They have him locked down on their lands. But we need to fortify the wards. I don’t trust them to hold him for long.” Alec looks across the car at me and I roll my eyes at him.
“Didn’t you ask me when I would start using my infinite wisdom to help you? I am, now. Let me go back to her.”
Shaking his head at me, he continues to drive toward Kildare, stubborn as ever.
***
Colin.
I stand around the corner at the end of the hall and watch as the warlock leaves. I slipped out this morning behind the couple when they drove out of Kildare and headed to the city. Hitching a ride a few miles away from the keep, I made good time getting here. I could track them fairly easily. Embracing this cursed magic within me has only made it grow.
As I stand here and stare at Sam’s naked body, I notice the collar around her neck and I can smell him on her. The bastard must die, but first I will reclaim what is mine.
***
Sam.
“You slut,” Colin says to me as he brings his hand down on the side of my face. The smack makes my eye feel like it is going to pop from its socket and I flinch back away from him, stumbling backward into the apartment. He follows me in and slams the door behind himself. The pictures on the walls shake with the impact.
“You’re wearing his fucking collar!” He flies at me then and I trip over the rug on the floor, falling backwards, my ass colliding with the hardwood. My ankle screams in pain from twisting it as I fall. I roll to my stomach and try to crawl away from him as he grabs my ankle and drags me back across the floor to him.
My naked body being dragged over the rug burns and I know I’ll have abrasions on my skin from it.
“Colin, stop!” I yell at him as he continues to drag me towards the door.
“Shut up, Sam. I’m done asking nicely. You’re mine and I’m here to claim what is mine.”
Terror fills me at hearing his words. No! He wouldn’t! The idea of him forcing himself on me makes me retch onto the floor.
“Ocoee!” I scream, hoping he is still close enough to hear my call for help. But nothing happens. No one comes to save me.
Colin lets go of my ankle and turns on me, grabbing my hair and pulling me up by it. I stand awkwardly on one foot, unable to put weight on my injured ankle.
“Please,” I plead with him, my eyes full of desperation. “Don’t do this. This isn’t you.”
“Och, lass. But it is. I have finally embraced the darkness within me and accepted who I am. What’s wrong? You don’t like it?” I watch as his eyes flash black and he pulls me towards him, kissing me roughly on the mouth. My teeth grind against my lips, and I taste blood. The pain still shooting through my cheek from where he smacked me makes me whine.
I try to twist out of his grip, but he still has ahold of my hair, and it is no use. When he releases my mouth from his, the anger on his face is palpable. I feel it rolling off him in waves. He reaches around behind my neck with one hand and undoes my collar. Taking it off and throwing it across the apartment.
I slip from his grasp at that exact moment and turn to grab the doorknob, trying to escape into the hall and call for help. I turn when I feel him behind me, but it is too late. He shoves me hard into the door frame. My face collides with it, I hear the sickening crack of my nose and taste blood just as everything goes dark.
***
Colin.
Bending down, I roll Sam onto her side and see her bloody and bruised face. “It’s a shame you couldn’t just come quietly,” I tell her unconscious form. Looking around the apartment, I spot the blanket on the couch and rise from my stooped position by her body to retrieve it. Wrapping her in it when I return to her, I pick her up and head out of the door with her. Down to the first floor and to the waiting car.
I have to decide where to take her, unsure of where to go from here. Realizing, only now, that I didn’t think this plan all the way through.
“Oh well, I’ve got her now,” I tell myself as I head for the city limits. I make slow progress getting out of the temple bar district with the foot traffic of pub goers filling the streets, but once I reach the main road, I hasten.
Wicklow 66 KM, the sign on the side of the highway reads, and I decide to turn in that direction. I’ve been there before when I was a teen. I remember some of the area. There will no doubt be somewhere there for me to hide her while I make my way back to the keep and speak with the pack.
I’m the true Alpha. The magic has chosen me now and they will accept me as their leader over Finn or I’ll kill them all. My wolf speaks in my mind as I continue down the path I have chosen.
***
Friday—Wicklow.
Sam.
When I come to, my arms are numb and aching. I try to open my eyes, but one is swollen completely shut and the other I can barely open a slit. As I look up, I see metal cuffs around my wrists, they’re cutting into my skin and dried blood is crusted down my forearms. Putting as much of my weight on my legs as I can I hiss at the searing pain in my injured ankle.
“Ah, you’re awake. I was wondering how much longer I was going to have to wait for you.” Colin’s voice fills the dimly lit space. I can see shafts of light coming in through broken sections of the roof and know I have been out all night.
It is the next day, still early from the looks of the light. Looking around the space, I try to make out his figure. Deciding it is useless and with my head still throbbing, I let my head lay on my arm and close my eyes.
“What’s wrong? Not excited to see me, Sam?” His voice is closer now and when I open my one eye, I see him standing in front of me. The dark look on his face terrifies me and I flinch back from him as he reaches his hand up to touch my face. The pain shoots through me when he lays his hand on my cheek. I’m pretty positive my nose is broken.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” I snarl at him and push myself as far back from his touch as is possible in my position.
“Oh, lass. You’re going to have to change your tune. It’s just the two of us now—”
“You’re insane if you think I’m going to be staying with you willingly, Colin. I wouldn’t let you touch me if my life depended on it.” He laughs then, a maniacal sound that sends a shiver down my spine and I tense.
“Oh, it does. Trust me, doll. I let it slide before when you left me to go to Sara.” My eyes widen at his words. “That’s right, I know. You think I didn’t follow you that night? Thought I would leave the bar and let you just crawl into bed with another man. While I’ll admit it did sting to know you chose a woman over me, but she didn’t seem like a threat to me and our future. But this,” he points at my body, “what you’ve done now, selling yourself to another man, like a common whore. That is unforgivable, and you’re going to have to pay for it.”
Colin circles me now and runs his hand down over my bare back, his fingertips giving me goosebumps and sending another chill through me. Bringing his hand back up to my neck, he grabs me and tightens his grip around my throat. His fingers interlace over my windpipe as he pulls my body back against his. “I will not forget what you’ve done. It is going to cost you physically. I’m tired of these games we’ve been playing and by the time I’m done with you, I’ll be the only master you serve.” As he speaks, he squeezes my neck tighter and I gasp, seeing stars in the corners of my vision.
As he pushes me forward off him and releases me for a moment, I inhale a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart. My throat burns as I gasp, “Please, Colin. This isn’t you.”
“I already told you, Sam. It is. I’ve finally stopped fighting what I am and now you’re getting the real me.” He is still talking when he steps back around to face me again and I see a thick leather collar in his hands. “You’re mine. You belong to me. It is as simple as that. The fool who thought to take you from me is going to have to die. But before he does, I’m going to break you and make sure he watches as you kneel to me this time.”
Approaching me again, he closes the collar around my neck and pulls it tight, securing it at my nape. It is tight, too tight, and I can’t inhale deeply. Grabbing the chains securing my wrists, I lift myself up slightly and sigh at the fleeting relief of not having the metal bite into my skin for a few seconds.
I watch as Colin steps back from me and surveys my body.
“Nothing but a whore,” he spits at me and turns to cross the barn back into the darkness. When he bends to pick up something on the ground, my eyes dart back and forth between him and the bag he has on the floor. I can’t tell what he is holding until it is too late. Spinning as he stands, he throws his hand out towards me and the end of a whip unravels across the space between us. The white hot burning of it meeting my skin across my left thigh makes me scream.
Looking down, I see he broke the skin and a thin line of blood bubbles up through the cut. Then the warmth of it on my skin spreads down my leg as it drips to the ground.
“You’re going to have to be quiet, otherwise someone will come looking to see what all the fuss is about, lass.”
I watch him as he brings his arm back over his head and the whip comes down on me again, this time across the other thigh. I grit my teeth and bite back my screams, swallowing it. The feeling gets caught in my throat and I gag on it for a moment. I see the same stream of blood down my right leg.
“That’s my good girl.” The words sound closer and when I look up into his dark eyes, he is standing only a few feet from me. “But I’m going to be honest. I don’t expect you to stay silent for this next part. So…” He holds up his left hand and I see the ball gag he is holding in it. Tears overflow from my eyes, and I unwillingly cry in front of him. Not wanting to give him my tears, but unable to stop my body’s reaction to the pain in my legs and wrists.
“Open your mouth like the good little whore you are. Come on, I know you can. I’ve seen you do it to suck that warlock’s cock.” Grabbing hold of my head by my hair, he jerks it back hard and the room spins for a moment with the quick motion.
I lick my lips and then spit at him. Colin laughs again, the same crazed laugh as before. He takes hold of my jaw with his other hand and digs his fingers into my cheeks, squeezing and grinding the sensitive insides of my mouth against my teeth. Forcing me to part my jaw and open my mouth to him. Shoving the ball into my mouth too deeply, causing me to gag around it, he buckles it behind my head, and it, too, is too tight. Digging into my already bruised and battered face.
As he lets go of me, I drop my head and let it hang, my chin on my chest. Releasing the thin control I had over my emotions, I let the tears fall freely.
Ocoee. Alec. Anyone. Please? I beg the universe to send someone to save me from this lunatic. I hear his footsteps behind me, rather than see him make his way around to the other side of the barn. The snap of the whip in the air next to me makes me wince and I try to shift away from him, the best I can with my restraints keeping me at his mercy.
The searing pain of the whip coming down on my back catches me off guard and I scream around the ball in my mouth, spittle escaping and coating my lips. Colin hits me with it again, making X patterns over my skin repeatedly. I feel like he is flaying me alive and my screams muddle together into one constant howl.
Finally, as I feel the warm blood from my back running down over my bare ass, I’m mewling like an injured animal. Too weak to lift myself up by my restrains again, they cut into my wrists deeper and fresh blood runs down my arms, merging with what must be a river of it on my back. My head lolls to the side, my strength gone. I weep.
Feeling his hand on my chin as he tips my head back and looks into my eyes, I see his glowing and soften for a moment. But I don’t fool myself with false hope. The kind man I met back at The Sub Shoppe nearly a year ago is gone. The monster standing before me has taken his place, and I know my only hope of survival lies in submission to him.