Accepting My Twin Mates

Chapter 104

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 104

CHAPTER 101 – OUT ON A LIMB?

Evgeniya

The realisation hit harder than a sledgehammer and my sharp intake of breath showed it.

“Clever girl. You’ve worked it out, oui?” Marceau’s fingertips circled the curve of my shoulders, sliding back up to grip either side by my neck.

“What, killing my father’s pack wasn’t enough for you, you psychopath?” I wanted to jerk my body away and throw the damned piano squarely at his head, but the fingers digging into my shoulders sharpened into protruding claws to trap me solidly with their unrelentingly strong hold.

“Don’t go getting testy with me over that, ma chérie,” his grip tightened, the tips of his claws piercing my skin through my shirt and drawing blood. “That unfortunate incident in Kamchatka wasn’t mine or my father’s choice and it left our family destitute. So, need’s must. Lotus River pack sat on small but pure gold and amethyst deposits and barely tapped into their potential. They wouldn’t let us mine voluntarily, so they required coercion. Leaving one pack member alive was my idea, so that they could spread the word of how rogues had destroyed their home. Which left the land abandoned with no one to raise any questions, because who wouldn’t believe a band of violent rogues to be capable of such atrocities? The riches we gained from such an easy performance built this whole empire.”

For the second time, his lips brushed my ear, following after me no matter how much I leaned away from the horrid sensation.

“My father’s men certainly played their part well to scare the pretty she-wolf they took. I think you can guess who they let escape,” his sickening low voice uttered. “The stereotype of you rogues has so

many wonderful applications.”

Qamar didn’t tell me specifically what was done to her, but it wasn’t hard to infer. Tortured with silver, scarring her for life, and raped, and the monstrous dog responsible quite literally had his claws in me.

My body needed little motivation from Evva to lash out. I couldn’t stand it one moment longer of being anywhere near the man, near his rank scent, having to endure his unwanted touching or his lecherous leering. I had reached the limit of my tether that had no stretch left to give and it snapped with an almighty pop.

The entire sequence of events played out in slow motion, blurring before my eyes as it enacted itself before me. The beat of my heart swung like a mallet against my ribs, booming in my ears and thudding in the same slow rhythm that matched my surroundings.

THU-THUMP…

My elbow flew up and connected with the side of Marceau’s head, throwing him off of me.

THU-THUMP…

The nearest guard raised his rifle containing wolfsbane in a smooth arc to fire.

THU-THUMP…

My eyes drew back wide and I stumbled up from the piano stool, attempting to evade its trajectory.

THU-THUMP…

But as the gun fired, Marceau moved with animalistic speed, catching the barrel and ramming it repeatedly into the guard’s face.

“You could have killed the child, you fool!” He roared, relentlessly beating the man and lifting him clear off of his feet in a single grip to toss across the room. “The pup is mine! You endanger its life again and I’ll make you beg for death!”

To date, I had only seen the oily and perverted side of Marceau, wrapped in a sleek and sharp suit. I hadn’t witnessed the side of him that his size and broad physique indicated, that of a ruthless killer.

“Take her…” he threw a pointed finger at my sprawled form on the floor. “…Back to her cell. And, so help me goddess and moon, if anyone attempts to harm her again, I will remove their canines with silver pliers!”

The remaining guard rushed me to my feet and out of the door before I could process what had happened or how close I could come to tasting my first experience of wolfsbane. I placed my hand on my stomach, cradling the tiny patch containing my pup.

What was I thinking? That was such a stupid thing for me to have done… I could have lost you.

My eyes pricked with a sting of tears that I blinked away, comforted that the tiny bond twanged to remind me he was fine and healthy.

‘Ok, yes, it was stupid and I shouldn’t have encouraged it,’ Evva cowed, knowing she had done nothing to dissuade my lax judgement. ‘But it wasn’t for nothing. Marceau just made a glaring mistake.’

‘Mistake? The wolf had gone berserk!’

He certainly never showed that level of anger when anyone else was about to be shot with poison… Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

The realisation struck me at the base of my skull.

Marceau wouldn’t tolerate a single hair on my head being harmed, not for my benefit, but because he wanted my pup. And after that guard had been beaten to a virtual pulp, the others would probably not

want to take any risks with my health or safety.

‘Exactly,’ the cogs began to turn in my wolf’s mind. ‘We just need a way to use this in our favour.’

‘Not to bust any metaphorical balls, but that’s a helluva limb to go out on.’

‘Ye of little faith-’

‘I didn’t say I wasn’t willing to go out on that limb with you,’ I followed the guard into the corridor that led down the line of cells. ‘Just that this time we need to be smart about it.’

I noticed that some of the cells now sat occupied, some of the other rogues and vampires nursed their sore and battered bodies, too focused on their bruised injuries to pay me any mind. As I approached my cell where the door was open ready for me to enter, a small groan caught my attention. Bastiaan, he was back and had taken a rather severe beating on this occasion.

“Do not concern yourself over me, lieverd (poppet),” he used the small pet name he had taken to calling me and pushed himself up.

My eyes scanned over his features as the door to my cell closed behind me. The dark bruising stood out heavily under his pearl-white skin where the swirling muted colours disappeared into the void of black, purple and blue patches under his left eye and around his jaw.

“Perhaps I should be concerned about you?” His weary yet worried voice drew my gaze to his dimly glowing gold eyes. “You look paler than I and that is not a good sign for a non-vampire.”

“Solnyshko,” my father called next, the distress etched on his face was barely contained.

He always hated watching me being led away, knowing he could do nothing to stop it. It terrified him that one day I wouldn’t walk back, or I would walk back broken because I had been taken advantage of

again.

“Dad, I’m fine,” my voice wobbled, coming down from the adrenaline high. “If anything, you may be happy to hear that a guard had his face smashed in.”

I fixed the guard outside with an unforgiving glare, daring him to rain any sort of consequences upon me. He promptly turned and strode away with speed, leaving us alone.

“Things must have gotten heated,” Diego chipped in, his Spanish accent adding to the sass of his words I knew were aimed as a jeer at the guard sprinting away. “The gilipollas looks like a terrified dog.”

I slid down onto my bed, wrapping my arms around my knees and trying to digest everything that happened, everything that Marceau had taken delight in revealing to rub in my face.

All this time, Luna Qamar had lived with her trauma, directing her fear as hate towards rogues she thought had taken everything from her. When, in reality, her life had been destroyed by the man her mate did business with. And Isaac had no idea, too focused on removing the wolves he saw as the bane to all werewolf society and blaming rogues for all that was wrong with the world.

My eyes drifted up and away from the concerned gaze of my father, landing on the small domed camera on the corridor ceiling. Where I sat was a blind spot to its surveillance…

…That was the limb we would go out on.

There would only be one attempt, no do-overs or try again next week. Bastiaan had warned that others had tried their own escape plans and all had failed. But none of them were a pregnant and pissed-off Lycan she-wolf that Marceau coveted.

My father was right; people never saw a loss coming when they thought they had won.

Pride cometh before the fall.

Evva rumbled with agreement. ‘And I’ll be waiting with my jaws open when he does.’