Page 1 of Big Knot Energy (Shadowverse)

CHAPTER 1

Issa

Six months ago

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” Antonio bellowed, his hand clenched around my jaw so I was forced to look into his eyes when all I wanted to do was cower.

He released his hold on me but only long enough to draw his hand back and whip it across my face. My head was thrown to the side from the force and tears welled in my eyes. I’d stopped trying to make excuses, stopped begging him for mercy, stopped begging him to stop.

I wasn’t sure I could even form a coherent sentence anymore. My lips were swollen and a split down the center of the bottom made it throb to my racing heartbeat.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?”Slap. “A fuckingbeta.”Slap. “Nothing!”

That last word was followed by a closed fist punch that sent me stumbling back until I landed hard on my side. Pain ricocheted through my hip, my back, my elbow, and my shoulder before my head slammed against the hardwood floor.

Stars danced around the edges of my darkening vision, Antonio’s curses and threats sounding so far away.

Maybe I was dying. Maybe I would finally get away from him, away from my family, away from this life that I hadn’t chosen.

I supposed I should have been afraid of dying, but all I felt was relief. I would finally find peace.

I’d been texting my sister’s pack as often as I thought I could get away with, trying to warn them of various ambushes or even when my fathers planned to steal from their shipments.

And Antonio had found a way to uncover the texts I’d thought were permanently deleted.

Now, I laid in a heap on the floor, my eyes closed as my heart thundered harder than I’d thought was survivable. Surely, it would give out at any moment and send me into cardiac arrest. That might not be the most comfortable way to go, but it would still set me free from my alpha’s torment.

Notmy alpha. I might carry his bonding mark, might have stood at the front of a room during the bonding ceremony my parents had planned, but he wasn’t someone I wanted, someone I wouldeverwant. He didn’t give a shit about me.

We’d had another beta in our little fucked up pack, but at least he’d been able to get away after that first week together. He’d slept with me because that was required of us, then split. Neither Antonio nor I had heard from him since.

Although, I highly doubted my alpha would tell me shit about anything, even Carlos contacting him.

I’d thought about Carlos a few times through the years, wondered if he was happy, if he’d found a better pack, better alphas, or if he’d merely moved away and stayed off everyone’s radar.

Darkness filtered in and out as consciousness tried to escape me.Whether I died or was no longer awake, at least I would escape the pain igniting the nerve endings across my entire body.

In the past, Antonio would only hit me where my clothes would cover. That way, I wouldn’t have to apply so much makeup to cover the bruises and cuts. He would also inject me with sedatives or slip them into my food and drink to keep me docile, to keep me from speaking my mind, to keep me from fighting him when he tried to have sex with me…

When he tried to knot me.

For a while, I’d wondered if I simply didn’t like sex. The mere thought of Antonio so much as touching me made my stomach turn and my skin crawl.

But I was beginning to think I wasn’t opposed to sex in general, but sex with Antonio.

I wasn’t an omega. My body wasn’t made for an alpha’s knot. Not that he gave two shits about what I wanted, whether I enjoyed myself, or whether he caused me intense pain each time.

My lids fluttered when the sound of a door slamming shut shook the floor and sent a fresh wave of adrenaline through me. Was it possible Antonio had left? Was I alone?

And what were the odds I could get to a set of keys and take the car that was mine from when I’d first come here and been allowed to come and go as I pleased?

I had to get to Cora. Had to warn my sister and her pack. Had to warn them that our parents had made plans to kill the alphas of Pack Rivera and their unborn child.

The room spun and my stomach lurched as I pushed to a sitting position. Where was my phone? Whether or not I could find my keys, I had to find a way to warn Bain, to warn Cora and her mates not to trust my mom.

No matter how doped Antonio kept me, I was still able to hear everything that was said around me. I always wondered if my alpha thought the sedative disabled my hearing or caused memory loss. But he and my fathers had always spoken freely in front of me.

They thought I would remain the dutiful daughter. They thought Iwould remain loyal to them, to the alpha they’d forced me to bond with, that I would put them and their power-hungry ways above my sister and future niece or nephew.

---