Page 19 of Met Your Mate

"I can't control myself if you keep doing that much longer, Omega," he grits out, stubbled jaw clenched and eyes screwed shut. "I've been holding on by a fucking thread for hours now, and won’t allow myself to break your trust further."

"Break my trust?"

Elliott's eyes flutter open, pain clear to see in his dark, dilated irises. "I touched you, Freya. I made you come on my fingers. On my fucking fist when you begged for my knot. Fuck, I wanted to give you what you asked for, but you weren't asking. The heat spike was." He drags his trembling hands down his face and growls. "I bonded you without your consent, Freya!" Elliott shouts. "I did everything without your consent!"

"Alpha," I whimper as I reach for him, needing him to know that he absolutely does not need to be guilty of doing everything in his power to save me from these fucked up heat spikes. "You didn't do anything wr?—"

"Hello, pets!" Ken's voice cuts me off as the door is thrown open and a group of enforcers flanks the doctor inside. "Now that was interesting to watch, young alpha! Who knew a fist could satisfy a greedy whore in the throes of a vicious heat? But I see you didn't waste the opportunity to bond her."

"He saved me, you piece of fucking shit!" I snarl, lunging for him and changing direction when I notice the enforcers reaching for my alpha.

"Careful, remember what happens to your mates when you are anything but obedient?" Ken drawls, flicking lint off his shoulder. Or I bet it was just a grey hair.

I clench my jaw so fucking hard, especially when I see my alpha is hardly resisting their forceful hands dragging him away from me.

"Eli! What are you doing?! Fight back!" I plead, my wrists protesting my lunge.

The bloodshot eyes and trembling bottom lip of my bonded mate are the last things I see before searing pain makes me believe my heart is being ripped out of my chest.

"No, please!" I gasp, crumbling to the ground. Black spots flicker through my vision, the pain of our separation and my alpha's despair becoming too much.

"Please. Please, come back," I whimper into the now empty room, only for darkness to steal my consciousness before disappointment and loneliness can descend and break my heart, mind, and soul all over again.

Chapter Eighteen

LUCAS

Idon't know what's worse, thinking of Ronan as our pack alpha in this situation or my big brother, whom I will forever idolize and look up to. He's feral and isn't showing signs of getting better. That is until the basement door is thrown wide and Elliott is escorted through with a look of complete horror on his tear-stained face.

It takes a moment for Ronan to react, but soon his furrowed brows shoot up, his eyes widen, and he snaps his head over to me.

I hardly hear Casey's broken cry at seeing his alpha in such a state. I'm too focused on the overwhelming chaos surrounding me and having nobody to guide me in the right direction.

What the fuck am I supposed to be doing?!

"Luc-Lucas listen to me," Ronan growls out, having to clear his throat. "She wants you. Freya wants you even if she can't explicitly say it. Fuck, I should have told Eli the same thing," he mumbles.

My heart thumps wildly in my chest, but I'm saved from having to say something when my brother shakes his head and continues. "You have to take care of her. Do everything she asks. Soothe our omega, okay? It's gonna be just fine. She needs us. She needs you to help her even if she isn't lucid."

"I—" I choke. "What?"

Elliott's door is slammed closed, but the big bastard doesn't even move. He just stares off into the distance with anguish rolling off him in waves, making my anxiety so much worse. Then my cage rattles, and I'm being grabbed by the group of enforcers.

"Lucas! Listen to me!" Ronan shoots forward, grabbing my shirt through the bars. "Treat her like a queen. Ignore everything else but our mate. Please, take care of her. It's the only way!"

Ronan's feral, Elliott's a shell of himself, and it looks like I'm next.

--

Ignore everything else. That's what Ronan said, right? He knew what he was asking of me. He fucking knew it! And yet, he didn't warn me about what exactly I'd have to ignore.

My mate is in chains. Not only is Freya trapped to the wall, but she's completely bare besides what I am assuming is Elliott's shirt in her lap. No bed, no blankets, not even a goddamn pillow.

Honestly, I'm shocked she got to keep the big shirt since it looks like these bastards are doing everything to keep Freya uncomfortable.

How... how the absolute fuck am I supposed to ignore this?! It's wrong. Everything is so wrong.

The circumstances I might be able to get past, but not the behavior of my omega. From the moment I stepped in this room with Ken and the enforcers at my back, my omega hasn't moved.