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The fear crawling up my spine pushes me to move, and I check the kitchen, only to be startled by a firm grip on my hair.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Vince's slurred words ring out, the smell of alcohol overpowering. My heart hammers in my chest as I grip his wrist and try to explain, “I was with Sa-” But he cuts me off mid-sentence.
“Were you with him? With Casen?” His words are laced with rage, and he accuses me, “Do you think I'll let him take you from me again, you little whore?” Before I can deny his accusations, I am thrown across the floor. My head bounces off the floor and I bite my tongue hard. Getting to my hands and knees he is already stalking toward me. I suck in a breath when I see his hand reaching for me, I dodge his grip that goes for my hair but he grabs my arm instead. His next question chills my blood. “Where is Casey? Where's my fucking daughter?”
My fingers dig into his hand, trying to make him loosen his grip as I try to fend off his angry tirade. I hold on to his wrist, the sharp sting of his nails digging into my skin. I fall silent, knowing that no words will pacify him in this state when he grabs my hair once again.
“He has her, doesn't he?” Vince asks, his voice devoid of any semblance of sanity.
I muster up a reply, “He's her father, he has every right to see her.”
My defense of Casen only seems to fuel his anger as he takes it as confirmation, and he scoffs, “So you were with him?”
Shaking my head, I try to deny his accusations. But it's too late. His fury takes over as he starts dragging me toward the front door screen. I kick and try to make him let go of my hair that's ripping painfully from my scalp. He snarls angrily, kicking me in the ribs, and I cough when the air leaves my lungs. The next second, he slams my head against the hard floor, and darkness envelops me. The last thing I hear is his menacing voice, “I guess I'll have to go get her myself…” Before the world around me goes dark.
Darkness swallows my vision, but only briefly, I know I must be dreaming because of the setting. I’ve been here before. I’ve lived here before. Déjà vu washes over me as I sit looking on the bench by the treeline. Casen had been gone for a month now. Our fight replayed in my mind constantly.
He admitted to killing Vince, but that wasn't all. He’s also killed the boyfriend I dated two years before him. Hearing that was shocking because he even helped me look for him alongside his family, even took me to the grave where he buried him. Only when I got there, I found six more graves marked out by the carvings in the trunk of trees. I shake the memory away, staring down at the ultrasound in my hand. Glancing at my phone, I am about to dial his number to tell him he will be a father when I hear a rustle in the trees, making my eyes dart to the tree line.
“Zyan?” I murmur. The wolf smells like Casen's, yet his coloring is slightly off. Poppy presses forward “Mate,” she murmurs excitedly.
“Casen?” I blurt, and the wolf cocks its head to the side. I smile, relieved he’s come back. I've done nothing but regret rejecting him. Then on my 18th birthday, I knew he for sure was my mate, his scent in my room drove me crazy just like the wolf's scent is now only in this form it's duller.
“It's you isn't it, you came back,” I cry, wrapping my arms around Zyan's neck. He sniffs me, licking my neck when he nips me. I jerk away, clutching my neck. “You can't mark me, not yet,” I tell him, my hand falling to my stomach. Zyan leans down sniffing my tummy, but then he growls. His paws swipe the fabric of my shirt.
“Geez, I know I fucked up when I rejected you, but no need to be a jerk,” I snap, wiping my tears. I turn to leave, irritated that he would try to hurt his daughter like that. He can be mad at me but I won't let him take it out on her. Suddenly, hands grab me, his scent enveloping me. “I know you're angry but I thought you'd at least be excited about your daughter, Casen,” I whisper. His warmth invades me and I grip his hands as they move over my prominent bump. Yet when his hands turn rough, claws scraping my skin, I grip his wrists.
“Casen, no. Stop, you're hurting me, you're hurting her.” Poppy goes to shove forward. “You can't shift,” I warn her, knowing it could kill Casey. When my blood runs cold.
“Wrong brother,” he snarls before sinking his teeth into my neck. My eyes widen in horror when I feel the bond click into place, feel his hatred, his burning anger, jealousy, making me realize it isn't Casen.
Poppy screams in anguish in my head as his marking me twists my stomach, pain courses through me everywhere and my pants become soaked, my water breaking. “No, no,” I choke on the words, feeling my surroundings darkening, “it's too early,” it's too early are my last thoughts.
The next second or it could have been hours, I wake in the hospital bed, my eyes flutter open to see the white ceiling. My stomach is killing me and Poppy is eerily silent. Hands suddenly grab me, my mother's face hovering above mine. “Mom?”
“Thank goodness you're okay,” she breathes out in relief, making my hands move to my stomach to find my belly flat.
“Mom?” I say frantically feeling my bump gone, I sit up feeling the strange tug.
“Not so fast you're still healing, your wolf is sedated,” she says, gripping my arms.
“Casey?” I blurt.
“She's fine, love.” Comes a voice that makes my blood run cold. I turn my head. To find Vince. “Isn't it a miracle, we found him, well, he found you,” my mother rambles, but I can't tear my gaze from him. His face is identical to Casen's but also different, a scar runs down one side of his face, it faded, very faded but there.
He brushes my hair back gently. “You should have told me you were pregnant. I would have waited, but you were so excited, had I known.” He shakes his head. I look at my mother. Surely, she doesn't believe him.
“Mom?”
“Casey's fine, your father is with her, he hasn't left her side, oh I need to tell him you're awake,” she gushes rushing out, and I move to follow her when I am shoved back down by Vince. I open the mindlink only for his hand to connect with my face before it connects to my father.
“One word, and I will drown the spawn you had with my brother, I'm on night duty with her tonight. Now behave, and I will take you to her, may even let you keep her,” he tells me and I growl at his words. The next second a needle is in my arm and my surroundings fade once again, only the next time I wake everyone is gone, and only he remains, my daughter clutched in his arms.
ChapterThirty-Eight
Casen
It's the same dream that has haunted me ever since that day. The memory is one that I wish I could forget, one I wish time and time again never happened, but it did. They deserved what they got, I don't regret killing them, it's the aftermath of what their deaths cost me that haunts me most. It cost me my brother. It cost me, my mate.
