SWNOVELS Chapter 3
Imogen
“Back again, aren’t you? I already told you that you couldn’t outrun me, little flower.” He said even as he approached my bed. “It’s time to pay daddy his dues, sweetheart.”
I steeled myself and stood up. “I don’t want to do this here. You said we would always do it in your room.”
“Alright, sweetheart.” Even though it was late in the evening and my unlit room was dark, I could see the mocking smile on my father’s face with the moonlight that filtered into my room through the window blinds.
Before I could talk again, he grabbed my hands in his large ones and dragged me out of my room towards his room even as I tried to stall by dragging my feet.
An overwhelming feeling of hopelessness filled my heart as we got to the door of his room. When he released his grip on my hand to open the door, I ran. I knew he must have done it intentionally, but I couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to run.
However, even though I rushed down the stairs trying to get to the front door as fast as I could, I was no match for him. He caught me easily, and I knew he let me go just to enact this little scene, since it was easy for him to catch me if he wanted. After all, while I hadn’t shifted and was just a little stronger than the average human, he was a full-grown adult werewolf and was even the beta of the pack.
He dragged me back to his room and threw me on his bed, tearing off the clothes I wore. “You think you can escape your duty? You’re mine, and you’re going to remain mine forever. That’s why I sabotaged your mating with that little cub they call the Alpha’s son.”
I tried to squeeze my eyes closed to think of something else as he cuffed my hands to his bed and moved away from the bed to remove his clothes.
He didn’t stop using my body till 4 am and then he fell asleep holding me tightly in his arms. It took several minutes to extract myself from those filthy arms before I staggered to my room, feeling thoroughly disgusted with myself.
How could I have allowed this to happen again? I had managed to avoid this for the past year and some months, but a little carelessness had taken back all the work I had done to make my body feel like mine again.
As I walked past the mirror in my bathroom, I wished I could cover it up so I couldn’t see my disgusting body anymore. I filled my bath with hot water and added some cold water till it was just hot enough that I could try to use it to reduce the sore feeling in my nether regions and all over my body from the bites and scratches inflicted on me by my father.
After five minutes, I drained the tub and took a long hot shower as I tried to scrub away every trace of the things my father had done to me.
I knew I was already sinking into the depression that only booze and men could cover up for me. I also knew that I couldn’t allow Nate to see me like this because hearing his scathing remarks at this time would hurt more than they usually did.
So I packed a bag and grabbed my fake ID and some of the makeup I used to look older than I was. I also took some money from the box I’d stored some in and picked out all the cash in my father’s wallet before making my way to a motel where I crashed until it was time for me to go to work.
* * *
I was working the counter at the lingerie store when Harriet and Sophia walked into the store.
Since Harriet found out where I worked, I had come to hate working here, but this was the only place willing to hire a high schooler other than the bar I used to work under the table for. And because Nate would probably feel disgusted if he found out that I worked at a nightclub, I had to quit my job there for this one.
When Harriet came to the counter, I dutifully rang up her purchase while studiously ignoring her mocking stare.
“You can’t smell it, can you?” She taunted with a smug smile.
“Smell what?” I pretended to ask, trying to ring up her orders faster.
“Nate’s scent all over me. We were together last night, and he scent-marked me,” She said with a smile.
“She’s probably too human to know what it means for Nate to scent-mark you,” Sophia said with a scornful smile.
“Well, it means he will soon mate with me, and I’ll soon be your Luna,” Harriet explained smugly.
My hands shook, and I fisted them around the lingerie I was holding, even as I tried to make my face empty of my current emotions.
“That’s great for you, I guess,” I tried to say nonchalantly, but my grimace probably gave me away.
“Thanks.” Harriet smiled sweetly. “Please stop squeezing those black garters. I want to wear them to surprise Nate tonight.”
I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to ring up Harriet and Sophia’s orders without stabbing them like I really wanted to or breaking down in front of them.
“By the way...?” Harriet said, and I turned to face her with a smile that I was struggling to hold on to. “It’s not good to skip school so often, you know. Mrs. Annette already called your father.”
* * *
“Ten more shots!” I slurred, even as I started downing the five shots in front of me.
“No more shots for her, Tib.” A commanding voice said from my side, and almost immediately, the bartender ignored me as though I didn’t exist.
I turned toward the owner of that familiar voice even as I tried to remember where I had heard his voice.
Pointing at him drunkenly, I exclaimed, “Oh, you’re that guy!”
“What guy?” He asked with an amused smile.
“The hot guy that caught me sleeping in the house in the west area,” I said with a drunken smirk.
“Come on, let’s dance.” I urged him toward the dance floor. “If you’re a good boy, I’ll let you take me home.”