Page 18 of Where We Ended

Mom stared at me, silently sipping. Then lost her patience.

“He’s training you to take over The Destroyers…surely you know that.”

Shaking my head, I swallowed and replied, “Alec will…”

“Alec will be set up somewhere else. You’re his first born. He wants you to take the Destroyers.”

“I won’t.”

Her eyes softened, her beer lightly hanging from her fingers. I didn’t know where Dempsey was, but I refused to ask.

“You will, Son. You will do whatever he asks of you…why do you think he’s doing all of this to you?” Her left hand gently pulled at the long sleeve I had on, pushing it up. The knife marks were still raw from when I didn’t please Fable. Drawing blood was a reminder that there was always more pain to be felt.

At that moment I wished my mother could fight Fable. I wanted her to protect me, to tell him I didn’t have to go anymore, and in any normal legal custody exchange I wouldn’t have to, but there was nothing normal or legal about my relationship with my father, or hers.

Fable took what he wanted, and half my mother’s body was broken and burned from fighting him off when I was little. She held on for as long as she could, but this was always going to be inevitable.

“Then how do I stop it? How do I stop him?”

My mother pulled my hand into hers and gently stroked it, like she used to when I was little. “You learn from him, Son. You train, and you tuck away every single piece into your brain, you turn it into a weapon…”

“And then?” My voice came out weak and I hated myself for it.

She gave me a sad smile. “And then you kill him.”

SEVEN

NATTY

PRESENT

The minimal light from the window bled into the room like an ominous dream I couldn’t seem to wake up from. The metal around my wrists pinched as I tried to move my arm away from Alec’s head. It made me hiss in pain.

“For fuck’s sake, Alec, these are too tight.”

The cuff around his wrist, connecting us, was significantly looser and it was currently attached to the hand tossed behind his head. He didn’t care that it forced me awkwardly close to him, nor did he seem to mind that I was in pain.

He confirmed as much when he clicked his tongue, staring up at the ceiling. The grayish hue of the room led to a brightened ceiling, and it had me wondering if there were still guards rotating in shifts outside our window. It honestly had me wondering how thick the opaque glass was, and if I could somehow use these metal cuffs to break through it.

“If you didn’t want to be locked up then you shouldn’t have tried to run.”

I thought back to the moment he’d opened that door and found me sneaking in, he was beyond angry. So much so he grabbed me, viciously tossed me on his bed and slowly leaned over my chest, dragging his nose down the length of my neck. My breathing hitched as fear climbed my throat, coating my mouth like ash. I didn’t think Alec would touch me, but his hands landed on my hips, where he gripped me, and his knee landed between my thighs.

“Don’t,” I rasped, unsure of what he was going to do but desperate for him not to do it.

He’d drawn back and stared down at me, then pulled my left wrist up and aggressively slapped the handcuff on. My diminishing freedom hadn’t really sunk in until he slammed the other link onto his wrist.

“There, Artemis. You’ve been chained to your beast, now you can either slay me, or fuck me, but you’re not getting away without doing one of those things.” His anger twisted with hurt, and I hated how it made me feel. This dance Alec had done around me my whole life, always making me feel horrible for not choosing him. It only worsened after that night together all those years ago.

I stared at the dark green color along his walls, listening as Alec started falling back asleep. It was morning, and I was hungry. The silence in the house was unnerving. We were obviously staying somewhere not many people knew about, if any. While there might be a few members moving around outside, I hadn’t heard any of them enter the house. Even after Rachel had mentioned Fable having women over, I had never heard a single moan, shout or scream.

It was complete nothingness and being locked in this room was driving me crazy.

“Won’t your club miss you?” I turned my face, inspecting the man chained to me.

His dark hair was skewed messily, all dark strands that matched his dark brows. He had equally dark lashes, and I assumed perhaps he’d gotten those from his mother. Silas didn’t have long lashes like that; if he did, they might lessen how beautiful his eyes were.

Alec let out a sigh, bringing his free hand to his chest to scratch. “I have people in place taking care of things while I’m gone.”

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