Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
When I finally get there, I park the car sideways, not giving a shit about etiquette. But when I jump out of the vehicle, my stomach drops.
The front door has been pulled out of its hinges.
A trail of glass and blood drops is scattered out onto the pavement.
I have never known true terror until today.
I bolt inside, almost tripping over my own feet. “Aurora?!”
My voice is strangled, and the more I call out, the more desperate it becomes.
“AURORA!”
My calls are returned with silence.
All that’s left are shattered windows, broken down doors, a sharp, teeth-like indent in the floor, and a tiny trail of blood.
I go to my knees and dip my finger inside the trail, then take a lick.
The taste brings my blood to a boil. My muscles tighten against the fabric so violently it tears under the strain. My teeth grind so wildly against each other that tiny chips fly off.
I thought I knew what rage was. Until now.
Until Lex dared to take my woman from me.
But I will make them pay in fucking blood and bones.
CHAPTER 21
Aurora
I kick and scream and dig my heels into the ground as I’m dragged back to the one place I wanted to escape. But I would rather die than stop resisting their attempt to subdue me. I’m done playing the weak victim. I am not going to go quietly anymore.
“Let me go, assholes!” I yell, stomping down on the back of the man carrying me so hard he starts to wobble on his feet.
“Couldn’t you tie her up better, dude?” he asks his fellow guard.
“Stop ignoring me!” I screech, and I bite down on the zip ties around my wrist in an attempt to break them.
“Help me carry her,” the guy holding me says.
I kick him in the belly again, and he makes an oompf sound.
Suddenly, two hands lift my ankles up in the air, while the guy holding me pulls me off his shoulder and grabs my wrists instead, holding me like a piece of wood being thrown on the fire.
When the door of the mansion comes into view, I panic. “No, no, no!”
“Shut the fuck up,” the guard growls as he kicks it open and hoists me inside.
I fling around inside their grips but to no avail. I can’t win two against one.
WHACK!
A sudden hard hit on the floor in the middle of the living room makes me cry out in pain.
They threw me down like a piece of garbage.
The guard swiftly cuts through the zip ties that bind my wrists and marches off, shutting the door behind him.
Groaning, I come to a rise, but the fogginess in my brain instantly clears the moment I spot my own father sitting in a chair right beside Lex.
My stomach drops.
“Welcome back, dear,” Lex muses, smiling like a crazed maniac.
But I can only stare at my father, who looks down at me with disdain.
“Papa …?” I mutter in disbelief that he’s actually here without fighting even a single second.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Lex says, tapping his fingers against the chair. “Yes, Aurora, your father is here as well. Astute observation.”
Tears well up in my eyes as I gaze at my father’s, whose soulless eyes make me feel numb to the core.
He’s calm. Far too calm.
Like he’s actually here, willingly.
“You … You sold us out, didn’t you?” I mutter.
Father doesn’t even blink.
Beast was right.
He gave Lex the location of the beach house. But why? Did he want Beast to get captured that badly?
But he knew I was there too.
Why would he do this to me?
“You knew I was there too, not just Beast. You knew they’d come take me,” I rasp, barely able to speak through my anger. “Why?”
His face tightens, darkens, and his muscles stiffen as he shifts in the chair.
Still, there’s no response.
Oh God no.
This can’t be happening.
Panicked, I push myself backward across the floor while Lex begins to laugh.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I bump into the door and crawl onto my knees to stand, but no matter how many times I jerk the handle, it refuses to open.
“Open this damn door!” I yell, punching the wood.
I know it’s no use, but I’ve got to do something. Anything.
“C’mon, stop that bullshit and just sit down,” Lex barks.
I turn to look around, but there is literally nothing in this room I could use as a weapon. It’s like everything has been stripped in a premeditated fashion. Like they knew I’d be coming and that I would make trouble.
Lex points at the couch. “Let’s have a chat.”
I stare at him and my father, wondering what they’ve been scheming. Whatever their plans are, they can’t be good.
“No,” I growl from my corner.
Lex raises a brow. “Would you prefer it if I put you in the cell immediately?”
Panic seeps into my bones.
I swiftly spur into action and huddle to the couch, farthest away from both of them.