Page 100 of Scapegoat

“What the fuck is that?” I asked. Mum finally got what she wanted, my smile fading.

“I did some research in my time away from my home too,” she replied. “Humans are such ingenious creatures. It’s a drug that induces a heat in dogs for breeding purposes.”

Sweat prickled all across my skin and I tried to wriggle away, but she clamped her hand down on my shoulder.

“Coercing someone takes a lot of effort, the alphas don’t admit that. It’s only easy for them to step in and stop someone considerably weaker than them.” She straightened up then. “It’s why I was removed from my birth pack and placed in Stanthorpe. Those idiots knew. I was more dominant than every single one of them. And the alphas you know? They kept clear of me, knowing that they’d just embarrass themselves trying to control me. But with this?”

She jabbed the needle into my thigh, making me grunt with the sudden pain. When I tried to thrash around, to get it out, her thumb pressed down the plunger, injecting me with the dose.

“Ignore your idiot sister,” Mum said, stroking Anna’s hair. “You’re actually lucky you’re not an omega. Pathetic creatures, they lose themselves into animal states like this.” Then she turned to me. “You’ll give me everything I want before I’m done. You’ll be begging for that privilege.”

Ned had tried to assault me, but that was nothing compared to what this felt like. The drug pumped through my veins, transported by my pulse that was already beating too fast. My nipples hardened against my bra, then Anna jerked back as slick splattered my thighs.

“Ew!” she said, leaning into Mum.

“She’s little more than a mindless beast, or she will be as her heat rides her,” Mum said. “It won’t take long for her to do anything I tell her as she seeks relief. Let’s go now.”

“Where the hell too?” Greg snapped, then seemed to think better of it. He dropped his gaze, kept his eyes trained on the floor. “People will be looking for Kaia.”

“Will they?” Mum sauntered towards the door with my sister in tow. “Who looked for Kaia when she left Stanthorpe? Her own father didn’t. When I get her to reject the bond, even the young alphas won’t care about her anymore. All of the love they think they feel for her will evaporate, leaving them ready, willing and able to claim their true mate. One who already wears their marks. Come on, darling. Let’s get you something to eat.”

Greg crept forward once the door was shut and I jerked back as best I could when I saw a glint of a knife. “Shh… shh…” he said, cutting the bindings around my arms and legs. Blood rushed back into my hands and feet too fast and too hard, but it was doing the same throughout my whole body. I cringed away from his touch. It felt wrong, bad, and yet my body throbbed with need for my mates. The wolf howled, scratched and paced inside me, wanting to come out, but my mother’s order pressed down on me, even in her absence. I would stay in skin and I would suffer.

“I’m sorry, Kaia,” he told me over and over, as he led me towards the door.

Chapter 57

I was in hell.

My feet trailed along the ground, my hands grabbing for Greg’s arm, his shoulder, but everything about me felt like it was three times the size it should be. I had paddles, not hands, and each time they slipped over his skin, I whined. This was wrong. He was wrong. This wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

“Shh… shh... shh,” he said, right before he opened the door of a cage.

I blinked, my vision swimming, but when I saw it, I stiffened.

“No,” I said, shaking my head furiously. “No!” I tried to slap at him, summon my claws, but all I had were these rubbery fingers, soft and useless.

Greg grabbed my shoulders and gave me a shake.

“You’ll be safer in there. She can’t hit you, can’t make you do anything else. It’ll be OK, Kaia.”

“Kai…” I ground out, throwing my head back and baring my shitty blunt human teeth. “And if it’s that good, you get in.”

Get in with me, that was a stray thought that made my gut turn. Being in a small space, a soft space, with other men, my men. Yes, that was exactly what I needed. But I was standing here with a man who smelled wrong, felt wrong, just as he stared at me with a kind of desperation that simply amplified mine.

“I can’t protect you out here,” he told me.

“Why?”

“Your mother is like a fucking sledgehammer. I never wanted her, not even in high school.” His brows creased. “I only wanted Jenny, but… Then I’d be talking to Abby, not paying any attention to what was being said, nodding along the whole time, wanting to get closer.” Greg shook his head. “You can’t resist her, so there’s no point in trying.”

It was his fatalism that had him dragging me over to the cage, but I hadn’t been cowed yet. I fought his grip because his touch burned my skin and not in the good way. Wrong, wrong, wrong, my instincts screamed, forcing me to try and get away. And I knew. As soon as I saw the cage, made of old steel mesh spotted with rust, I knew. Nothing good would come from this. I twisted, jerked, scrabbled at the floor and then sank my teeth into his arm, tasting hot, coppery blood, all to no avail as he shoved me inside. The door closed with a clang and then a padlock was pushed through the hasp, one I tested the strength of immediately as I shoved my feet against the door.

“Greg…” I ground out as I watched him shrink back. “Greg…!”

“I can’t help you,” he said, tears filling his eyes but that just made me so fucking angry, I was burning up. “I can’t even help my fucking self. Here.” He shoved an old drink bottle full of water towards me, opening a hatch in the fucking cage to push it towards me. “This is about all I can do.”

I refused to accept that giving up was the only option.

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