Page 60 of Claimed By the Damned

Her father’s eyes narrowed as he squatted down and took a handful of her hair to pull her up to his face. “That’s where you’re wrong,” he stated quietly, angrily. “End things, Amara, or I’ll be forced to execute them. I won’t have my daughter riding off into the sunset with rogues.”

With that, he threw her back onto the floor.

Amara winced as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. She was fairly certain that a few of her ribs were broken or, at the very least, cracked, due to the force of his beating. But they would heal. They always did.

Swallowing a mouthful of blood, she turned her defiant gaze up to her father. “No. I won’t do it. I won’t reject my mates just because you are a miserable old bastard who refuses to let me be happy. I’m leaving the pack, Dad. I’m going to be with my mates. Disown me if you must, but I’m done. I’m taking back my life, and I am going to be happy for once.”

That was the first time she had ever spoken against her father, and she had to admit it felt good. Maybe it was knowing that her mates were waiting for her, or maybe she had just reached her boiling point. Whatever it was, she clung to it to give her the strength she needed to get through this.

A menacing grin took over her father’s face then, making her breath lodge in her throat. “Do you think you’re smart?” he asked her, cocking his head to the side. “How smart would you be if I had them chained to a table and made you watch while we peeled back their skin, layer by layer, strip by strip? Can you hear it, Amara? The beautiful screams they’d make?”

Amara gulped, her face blanching, as the image appeared in her mind in vivid detail. She didn’t need to imagine what it would be like because she had seen it happen before, with other rogues her father had gone after. He was ruthless and cruel, even more so than the rogues he so desperately hated, and he didn’t even have a good reason for hating them either.

Her head pounded, and her vision tunneled as the images played out in her mind. It was so clear, felt so real, that she had to close her eyes and turn away from the man who called himself her father.

He tsked. “Poor little whore. You’d have no one to fuck then. No one would want you after they’re dead.”

“You’re a monster,” she whispered. “No wonder Mom left you the way she did.”

“What did you really think was going to happen?” he screamed, throwing his arms out to the sides. “That I’d give you my blessing to run off into the sunset with your ‘mates’?”

“I don’t want or need your blessing,” she spat, blood and spit flying from her lips. “But if you just let me leave the pack, then I won’t be a problem or a burden for you anymore. Isn’t that what you want anyway?”

“You’re my flesh and blood, unfortunately. If I let you do this, the rest of the pack will think they can get away with anything, and I can’t have that. I will be obeyed, whether it’s by their death or not.”

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She had known her father wasn’t going to be happy with her decision, but she didn’t think that he would go to these lengths to keep her away from her mates. He wasn’t going to let her go without a fight. He wasn’t going to give up on this or change his mind – that much was clear now – and the only outcome of that was her boys getting caught in the crossfire.

Those were her options: Reject her fated mates, or risk her father killing them. And she didn’t like either one of them.

“Fine,” she relented, the tears falling more freely now. “You win. You always win.”

Even saying that she would do as her father told her to do caused her heart to shatter within her chest. She could feel the pain spreading throughout her body like tiny shards of glass, tearing her apart from the inside out. It was suffocating and nearly unbearable, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt.

“That’s right. I knew you’d come around,” he cooed, patting her cheek. She ground her teeth together to mask the pain. As he rose to his feet, his lip curled in disgust. “Now, go clean yourself up. You look and smell pathetic.”

“Yes, sir,” she muttered, wiping the blood from her chin as he walked down the stairs and out the door.

Her jaw ached, as did her cheek and ribs, but that was nothing compared to the pain she felt just knowing what she needed to do. It was the only way to protect them, to save them from her father’s wrath, but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow.

Pushing herself shakily to her feet, she cursed herself for not just leaving well enough alone, for not rejecting them when she had the chance. It would have saved them all a lot of pain and heartache.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Drake

Drake was bouncing on the balls of his feet as he, Zeke, and Knox stood outside Amara’s bookshop, waiting for her to show up. She had promised them that morning before they left that she would gather her things and tell her father that she was leaving the pack for them, and they wanted to see how it went. They knew he wasn’t going to be happy about it, but there was really nothing that the guy could do. They were fated. However, he still had a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach that just wouldn’t go away, and he needed to see her if only to be sure that she was okay.

If he was being honest, he still had no idea how he had been able to deny the bond between them for so long. Now that he had accepted it, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest. He felt better than he had in years, and even the weather seemed to reflect that.

It was a beautiful, bright, and sunny day. The weather was warm with clear skies and a gentle breeze that rustled his hair as they stood on the sidewalk. The town square was filled with the sounds of happy, squealing children, who were running around, chasing bubbles or playing tag, and there seemed to be more people out and about as well.

Unfortunately, though, there was still no sign of Amara, and the bookshop was supposed to have opened over an hour ago. To his knowledge, she had never been late like this before, and that didn’t help his already fraying nerves.

“Where is she?” he asked no one in particular.

“Maybe we should call her?” Zeke suggested, his eyes focused down the road where she would be coming from.

Drake shook his head. While he was worried about her, he didn’t want to risk making a call to her right now. “Probably not the best idea. What if she’s still talking to him?”

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