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“I can’t trust you,” I tell him, waiting for the pills to kick in. His voice grows fainter, and so does his presence, until I eventually can’t feel him at all. Sighing, I get up and walk out to the kitchen to get a drink, the powder-coated pills leaving a foul taste in my mouth. I grab a can of Coke from the fridge and am about to cut the cord when I stop.
My eyes dart to the telephone. Despite Khan being suppressed, I know he will be bitching at me about it being just a phone. Looking at the cord, I drop the scissors and clench my teeth. Instead, I plug the cord into the wall and handset base. I set the phone back on the dock and hurry back to my room before I change my mind.
“It’s just a phone,” I mutter to myself.
Chapter
Forty-Three
Elena
A week later
I am on the brink of going insane. Axton hooked up the house phone the night of our argument. We also haven’t seen Khan since and we know he’s been suppressing his wolf.
A week has passed, and I wait expectantly for Khan to return, only he doesn’t, and after a few days, I give up. We can smell the sleeping pills seeping out of his pores.
So for the past two days, we have been plotting our escape. He should have left the house phone cut off because that was his undoing, and I believe the only reason he left it connected was so I had no reason to escape if I could speak with my mother freely. Joke’s on him. I have been speaking with her, and we have been devising my escape daily.
All day, I sat by the phone, waiting to hear if she was able to pull it off behind my father’s back. He had her under house arrest, too. She never said much of what happened when she returned home, and I could only imagine. I tried to convince her to leave with me, but my father had to know something was up because she said Luke never left his side, and she wouldn’t go without him.
Hearing the phone’s musical ringtone, I rush toward it, snatching it off its holder.
“Hello?”
“We have guests coming for dinner tonight. I left a dress for you on the foot of my bed. Put it on and make yourself presentable. Tieriny will stop by at five to help you cook,” Axton tells me before hanging up.
I stare at the screen as it blinks, flashing green and red.
“Great, whoever these people are, we now have to play house for appearances’ sake. I wonder if he plans to fake our death when the twins are born?” Lexa growls in my head.
I go to place the phone down, only for it to ring again. I check the number and decide not to answer it if it is Axton’s number. Seeing it is my mother’s, I answer, holding the phone to my ear.
“You’re leaving tonight. Be ready,” my mother says into the phone.
“Mom?”
“Axton has organized a council meeting. Tieriny will be by to help you.”
“Wait. Tieriny from your pack?”
I recognized the name when Axton said it, but I didn’t think he meant the same person. Having said that, she did own a well-established restaurant with a five-star rating on neutral territory and was the main place the council used for functions. However, I am shocked Axton would keep her on the council books.
“Yes, I have already spoken to her. We have a plan, and that plan has now been moved to tonight, not next week,” my mother says when I hear a door open and shut before hearing my father’s voice in the distance.
“You won’t believe what that prick has left me out of—”
“I gotta go. Wait for Tieriny,” she says, hanging up.
Is this even going to work? I so desperately want out of here and away from Axton. My heart stings a little, knowing I will be leaving Khan in the process. I hurry to Axton’s room to retrieve the dress. Pulling it out of the garment bag, I am stunned at how gorgeous it is, knowing all the while it is just for show.
I feel like I am spinning out of control till Lexa reigns me in.
“Relax and breathe, Elena. You can do this. Get your hair together, put on some makeup, and play the part. Fake it till we make it out of here.”
Lexa’s reassurance is enough for me to get myself together. I only have an hour before Tieriny arrives to look “presentable,” as Axton puts it.
As I get ready, my mind wanders, and as I stare in the mirror, I can see the scars his claws have left across my chest. They are faint, but not much I can do as I place the dress on the bed. Khan must have convinced him to allow the phone; just thinking of Khan makes me emotional because I can’t even say goodbye. I hate Axton, but Khan, no. Khan, I don’t hate.
