Page 75 of Claimed By the Damned

Zeke nodded. “When we notice something wrong, yes.”

After a moment, Amara sighed and shook her head. “It’s… It’s nothing. Really.”

The bathroom fell quiet for a moment, and he and Drake exchanged another look, but it was Knox who broke the silence. “You know you did this, don’t you?”

Her head snapped up, her eyes wide, and he knew then that Knox was right. She knew who did this to her, and she had been keeping it from them. “I didn’t… I don’t…”

Gently grasping her waist, Zeke pulled her close to his chest and tilted her head to meet his gaze. “No one is going to hurt you. Tell us so we can figure this out.”

“There’s nothing to figure out,” she muttered as if ashamed. “You know who it was.”

The growl that came out of Knox was inhuman, and it made Amara flinch in his arms. “I told you it was her asshole father.”

“He said that, if I don’t go home, he’s going to kill us all,” she added in a whisper, her hand going up to her throat. “He… he was there, at the hospital, when I woke up.”

His anger began to rage inside of him, but he didn’t outwardly show it. He didn’t want to alarm Amara more than she already was. Knox was radiating enough rage for all three of them, and Zeke had noticed that she was beginning to shy away from it a bit, pressing deeper into his chest. Even though he wanted to kill the bastard just as much as Knox did, he had to remain her rock. That was who he had always been for her.

“What did he say?” Drake asked, slowly reaching up and brushing a wet strand of hair out of her face.

“Just what I said. He wants me to come back, or he’s going to kill us. He doesn’t like being disobeyed. He said he’s going to use us as an example for the rest of the pack. If I don’t fall in line, I die. I guess some of the others are starting to try to leave too.”

Zeke met Drake’s gaze over Amara’s head. “What do you want to do?” he asked him, fighting like hell to keep his tone even.

“What the fuck are you even asking for?” Knox exclaimed loudly, also looking over at Drake. “You already said that, if he went after her again, we’d take care of it.”

In truth, Zeke didn’t know how much to say in front of Amara because he didn’t know where she stood on the matter. But her father had to be taken care of. Brad would always be a threat to his mate, and he would do everything in his power to make good on his threat. He already tried once, and they had been lucky that they found her in time.

“You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?” Amara whispered.

“Don’t worry about it,” Drake replied.

“She has a right to know that I’m going to rip him to fucking pieces,” Knox interjected through clenched teeth.

“Knox,” Zeke warned.

“What? I’m not going to fucking lie to her!”

“And we are not asking you to,” Drake stated. “But can you be a little more fucking sensitive about it? He may be a monster, but he’s still her father.”

Knox scoffed. “Father or not, he’s a fucking threat to what’s mine. That’s something I’m not fucking okay with.”

With that, Knox turned and stormed from the bathroom, throwing the door open so hard that it banged against the wall, denting the plaster.

“Knox, wait!” Amara called after him.

As she moved to follow him, Zeke stopped her with an arm around her waist. “Don’t. Just let him go.”

“What? Why?”

“When he gets amped up like this, it’s best to leave him alone to cool off,” Drake explained.

Amara shook her head. “That is the worst idea ever! What if he goes to score again?”

Drake shrugged. “You just have to trust him to keep his word to you, baby.”

At his words, she deflated a little. “I hate this. I hate every bit of this.”

It wasn’t clear which part of this she hated, but Zeke didn’t blame her. It was a shitty situation. But once Knox cooled off a bit, the four of them would sit down and talk about what their next steps were going to be. They would go over their options and see where Amara stood on everything. Whatever they chose to do next would be her decision.

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