Chapter 4
Imogen
The first time it happened, I was only 13 years old. I was reading a book just after dinner in my bedroom when my father came to get me.
“Ginny, come on. Drop your book and come play with daddy,” My father had said as he pulled me to his bedroom.
I was an innocent child who had just lost her mother a month ago, so I hadn’t understood all the leering grins my father had been throwing my way since my mother’s death.
When we got to his room, he told me to sit at the edge of his bed and stripped naked.
“Daddy, do you want to take a bath?” I had asked innocently since my father and I had been bathing together occasionally since my mother’s death.
“Yes, sweety. Let’s take a bath together, shall we?” He said even as he impatiently pulled off my clothes.
As soon as I was naked, he struck like a vicious viper and destroyed my innocence. I could never forget that day.
I could never forget the pain, the screaming, the loud sound of my cries of “Daddy, please! No! It hurts daddy! Daddy let me go! Please!”, and my attempts at reasoning with my father with my words and tears since my punches and kicks didn’t work.
But it was all for nothing because later on, I realized that after my mother’s death, my father had worked for a long time on soundproofing our house just for that first night and the nights that followed it.
I shot awake with “Daddy, it hurts!” still on my lips. Even though I was awake, it took a while to shake off the nightmare that was an actual memory.
I remembered it just like it was yesterday. The rusty taste of blood in my mouth, the hurt between my thighs, and the pain all over my body as I curled my body in a fetal position in a small corner of my father’s bed after the act, sobbing and whimpering in pain.
“You mustn’t ever tell anyone, Imogen. No one can know we did this together, or that you seduced me and forced me to do this to you. Or you’ll no longer have friends, and everyone in the pack will know you for the whore you are. I’m the beta of the pack, and the Alpha will probably banish you and throw you out of the pack for being an abomination that seduced her father.” He paused, and then his serious expression was replaced by a lecherous grin. “Now come on, sweetheart, we are not done yet. You still have to satisfy daddy before it’s morning.”
“But daddy, I don’t want to do this anymore. It really hurts. I can’t feel my legs.” I tried to protest as he dragged my pain-filled body across the space I’d placed between us when he was through with me.
For the first time in a long while, someone shook me out of my memory-induced nightmare. “Wake up! Listen, it’s just a nightmare!”
When I finally disentangled myself from my nightmare, I found myself sobbing messily with snot dripping down my nose, and the face of a beautiful stranger close to mine. Without a word, he pressed my face to his bare chest and wrapped his arms around me in a strange yet very secure and comforting hug.
With his hug, it took a shorter while to let go of the phantom panic, aches, and hurt of my nightmare. But a single movement was all it took to destroy the peace I had gotten from his hug as I quickly realized that we were both naked.
Even though I was getting flashes of memories of having sex with him, I still asked, “Did we...” My voice cracked, so I cleared it and asked, “Did we have sex?”
“Yes.” He replied, looking at me with concern.
I nodded because he had already confirmed what I knew had happened. And now, I didn’t know how to face Nate. Despite our rocky relationship, he’d been the only person close to me in the past year, since everyone else in the pack had pretty much isolated me. So he knew me better than anyone and he could tell at first glance that I had cheated on him if he looked closely enough.
If he was tentatively considering mating with me before, he probably wouldn’t want to anymore. After all, I had cheated on him twice now.
I didn’t like to cry over spilled milk, so I just felt really numb as I accepted the fact that Nate and I were probably never going to be officially mated mates.
With the way things had been going since he first discovered that I was his mate, I had to conclude that Nate and I were probably not meant to be and the moon goddess had made some kind of mistake pairing us together. And the universe was trying to correct her mistake.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I looked up to find the guy from the bar staring at me with concern.
I glared at him, trying to avoid looking him in the eyes. “Talk about what?!”
I didn’t want to see the look of pity in his eyes or any sign of the glint Luke usually had in his eyes whenever he thought of fixing me and owning me.
“Your nightmare.” Unlike Luke, however, he was awfully patient and when I looked into his eyes, I couldn’t find pity in them.
All that was in his eyes was concern and something that looked like distress.
“There’s nothing to talk about. Listen, let’s just forget all about this, okay? I have to go.” I pulled away from his arms, threw off the blankets, and made my way around the room naked, picking up my clothes.
“You’re welcome to sleep over if you want. I promise not to ask anymore.” He said.
I turned to look him in his coffee brown eyes. And before I knew it, I found myself nodding.
“Good, now, do you want me to get you a new room, or do you want to stay the night with me? I promise we won’t do anything other than cuddle.”
I couldn’t resist agreeing to a cuddle with him because, even though I hadn’t noticed it earlier, something about this guy made me feel safe.
“So, what’s your name?” He asked. “We’ve met twice now and I still don’t know your name.”
“Imogen, but people call me Ginny,” I replied as I raked my fingers through my hair. “Do you have a boxer or shorts I could borrow?”
“Sure. I’ll call you Imogen, I’m Thomas, but you can just call me Tom.” He paused and then said, “Why don’t you take a shower? I’ll place a boxer and white shirt on the bed for you and…”
“What?” I asked even as I edged towards the door to the bathroom that he had pointed out.
“When was the last time you ate?” He asked.
As I tried to reply that, of course, I ate yesterday afternoon, he interrupted, “I mean a home-cooked meal, Imogen, not fast food.”
I tried hard to remember when because since I couldn’t cook to save my life and I had no home; I was quite used to skipping meals or eating fast food, takeouts, and snacks to assuage my hunger. So I opened my mouth, closed it, then opened it again, choosing to answer honestly, “I...don’t know.”
“Well, hurry then. I have leftover homemade chicken casserole and apple sauce. I’ll go heat them up for you.” He said and turned to walk out.
“Tom?” I called.
When he turned to stare at me with a questioning look, I couldn’t help shifting awkwardly as I said, “Thanks...for everything.”
His stunning coffee-brown eyes glinted with warmth. “You’re welcome, and it’s my pleasure.”
With a smile, he left the room.