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“Okay, bed now. Before I wake Mom and tell her about what your potty mouth just said,” she scolds.
Luke sighs heavily as she nudges him back to the door. “I need to pee first.” He darts off, and I laugh as he races down the hall and into the bathroom.
I open my mouth to speak when Elena beats me to it. “No, you aren’t keeping my brother hostage.”
“He’ll be fine, Elena. Prove you’ll bring them to me, and you can have him back,” I offer.
She chews her lip, then shakes her head.
“I won’t let harm come to him. Besides, I like your brother. He has no filter.”
“That’s what I’m worried about!” she retorts.
Luke returns, and she tucks him back in bed. She looks like she wants to stay with him, but reluctantly leaves and follows me to my room.
Chapter
Sixty-Four
Elena
Never in my life have I struggled to sleep so much. All night I toss and turn, sleep refusing to take me as I wonder how long Axton will keep me from our sons. Yet Luke’s eagerness to remain here until I return keeps playing on my mind. I wonder if Mom would consider staying here with Axton.
She will be safe here until I return. The idea of leaving Luke here by himself worries me to no end. Turning my head, I see Axton sleeping, facing away from me. Sitting up, he is still fast asleep when I spot his keys on the bedside table next to his head. As quietly as possible, I pull the blanket back. He is asleep, and this is our chance to escape him.
Lexa, feeling my change in mood, pushes forward. “Elena, quick before he wakes.” She looks through my eyes to spot the keys.
My heart beats hard in my chest as I pull the covers back and creep out of bed. Moving around to his side, my fingers lock around the keys, the jingle making me freeze in place to glance at him. His eyes are still shut, and I let out a breath, quickly fisting them so that they don’t rattle and make noise. As I stand upright, the floor creaks, and his eyes snap open.
I barely have time to blink before he reaches out and grips my wrist, jerking me across his body and pinning me face down beneath him against the mattress.
Lexa wails in my head at my failed attempt to get us back to our sons. Axton pries my fingers from around his keys, peeling each finger back until he retrieves his keys, taking them and any hope I have of escaping.
He drops them back onto the bedside table and glares down at me. Emotion clogs my throat, threatening to suffocate me, as I fight back the urge to break down in frustration.
“You had to ruin it, didn’t you, Elena?”
His words set my blood on fire, and Lexa roars inside, just as furious. We ruined nothing; he fucking ruined everything. Everything. I hate him for it, hate what he did, hate that he took everything from my family. From our sons! I want my family back. I want Alisha. I want my old life back. I want myself back.
Our boiling anger erupts, spewing in a tsunami of hate for everything he has done.
“When will you learn? You aren’t fucking escaping me again!” Axton yells at me, and I shake my head.
That anger smashes through me as I scream it at him before lashing out and attacking him. Axton growls at us, but I am too far gone. I want to hurt something, hurt him, anything. I need my babies; I need them because, at this point, they are the only reason I am still breathing. The only reason I haven’t ended it all. My reason for fucking breathing, and he is keeping me from them. So I fight back.
“Stop it, Elena!” Axton snarls.
When my elbow connects with the side of his head, he grunts, pinning my arms to the bed. Lexa surges forward, trying to buck him off when he roars in frustration. His canines slip out between his parted lips, pressing to my neck, and I freeze in place, knowing he can easily make me submit. My breathing is ragged as my chest heaves, and tears prick and burn my eyes.
I’m tired of barely holding the scraps of my damn life together. It almost doesn’t seem worth it anymore. I no longer feel like fighting every step of the way, only to be let down by the end result. To find I am fighting for nothing because an Alpha always steals it away in the end.
“Submit, or I’ll make you,” Axton growls, his teeth raking down my flesh in warning as his grip grows tighter.
All my life, I have lived with responsibility, lived with the burden of what is expected of me, and lived up to everyone’s expectations. One leaked sex tape, a one-night stand, and one stupid decision thinking I could walk away from my mate ruined everything I’d worked my entire life for. A goal I now see as foolish because I’d been fighting all along for something that would never be mine.
Daddy’s little prodigy, Daddy’s future Alpha, the Alpha’s daughter. A title I lived and clung onto with everything I had, an identity I desperately craved and worked my ass off for.
Ripped away, I took on the persona of Jake’s plaything, Jake’s broken doll, all to save the two little beings growing inside of me. Then, Axton came for us. I finally thought I would catch a break. Thought he would take some burdens away and, for once, let me breathe. Because despite my rejecting him, I was still his.
