Chapter 42
Chapter 42
The house looked like it came straight out of someone’s nightmares. The cabin looked like it was on its last legs of life. It looked like termites had eaten into the front door and steps and a hollow sound was made anytime breeze blew into the house. I could not hear any sounds coming from inside it but somehow, I knew that Kiara was inside there. I could feel it inside of me and that was what gave me the courage to keep moving.
I tried to be quiet but the moment I stepped on the stairs, it made a creaking sound. I froze wondering if anyone had heard me and hoping that they hadn’t. When I didn’t hear any response or movements from inside, I slowly made my way up the rest of the stairs trying to avoid making any more sounds which proved to be hard considering how old and worn the stairs were.
When I turned the knob, I was shocked to find the door open. Did they leave it open because they thought I was going to come? I didn’t have time to think about it because I heard a scream coming from inside the house and I knew instantly that it was Kiara. I pulled the door open and ran inside only to come face to face with the barrel of a gun. The gun was pointed right between my eyes and because of how close it was, I could not see the person holding it.
I held up my hands to show that I was not armed. “I did ask you asked. I came without telling Jaxon. Take me to my daughter.”
The gun was moved from my face and I could not believe what I was seeing in front of me. I blinked twice hoping it was some sort of an apparition or that I had imagined the whole thing but the person stood there smirking at
1. me.
“Welcome,” Cressida said with a cruel smirk. “We have been waiting for you?”
Before I could ask who ‘we‘ was, I felt a presence behind me and cuffs were slapped over my wrist. I turned to see Dana smirking down at me. She looked just like her mother and they were wearing the same black ensemble. I looked around expecting to see Violet jump out from the shadows but she never came.”
“Where’s Violet?” I asked with resignation knowing I was not going to get out anytime soon.“would have thought that this would be a family affair.”
“Violet is busy handling her own family,” Dana sneered from behind me. “I thought it would be harder for you to forget the mate that left you for her.”
She intended for her words to hurt me but all they did was make me feel sad for her. It was almost like they had lived their entire tives just to spite me and I honestly thought that was a terrible way to live so instead of rising to her bait, I stayed silent and just stared at her with bored and unamused eyes.
“That’s enough talking,” Cressida said. “I would have thought that you would be more eager to see your daughter.”
5
I didn’t give her the expression she was looking for but my skin itched to see Kiara. Dana pushed me forward and I followed quietly behind Cressida. The inside of the house was just as terrible as the outside. There were loose floor boards and I saw at least two rats scurrying around unbothered. There were barely any pieces of furniture and I honestly wondered why they chose this place of all
places. There have to be a million better cabins to choose from and seeing as Violet is Luna now, they should have no shortage of money.
They l
led me through what used to be a door but was now simply a doorway and I saw Kiara tied up in a chair. There was duct tape over her mouth and there was crusted blood on the side of her head. Her eyes were filled. with tears and there were tear streaks down her face. She also had a huge red welt on the side of her cheek as if someone had hit her there.
Anger filled me and I pushed past Cressida as I rushed over to her. When she saw me, her eyes widened and tears. Cued to fall down. My hands were behind my back and I wanted so badly to hold her so I maneuvered until’l
I was able to drag my hands over to my front by stepping through them. I ended up burning the inside of my thighs with the silver but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
I
“What are you doing?” I heard Dana ask and I heard her footsteps start to move in my direction but Cressida stopped her.
I hesitated before touching Kiara because I wasn’t sure if the silver would do anything to her. She didn’t have her
wolf form yet so there was no way I could be sure if it would have any effects on her. If she was a lycan, it would
not bother her because silver did not affect lycans the way it did us. It weakened them only a little and did not
have the same burning effect it had on wolves.
I slowly ran my fingers down the welt on her cheek and more tears flowed freely from her eyes. She was staring at me as if she expected me to just take her to safety but the truth was that I was outnumbered and even if I wanted to, they would easily overpower and kill me then do whatever they wanted to her. I didn’t know how to explain that to Kiara so I settled for pressing a soft ki*s on her head.
“We will be out soon,” I whispered so they wouldn’t hear me. “I promise you that. I just need you to hold on a little longer.”
Her eyes were still wide but she seemed to understand because I saw her give me a discreet nod of understanding. I smiled softly and tried to be brave for her even though I was inwardly freaking out. If she knew I was terrified then she would be too and I needed to stay calm to ensure that I was able to think of a way out for us in the case that Jaxon did not find the letter where I had dropped it.
Cressida grabbed my shoulders to pull me away from Kiara and I panicked. I fought against her and I managed to
dislodge her hold on me but then I heard the cocking of a gun and I looked up to see Dana holding the gun to Kiara’s head. I knew from the look in her eye that she would not hesitate before pulling the trigger so I stopped. fighting and I allowed Cressida pull me away and she threw me into a corner of the room.
I slammed the back of my head against the wall hard and black spots danced around my vision. The metallic smell of blood filled the air and I knew it was from me. They must have smelled it too
because Dana squealed like a school girl and clapped her hands in glee. Cressida just smirked and gestured for me to sit down and the only reason I did so was because of the gun still pointed at Kiara. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.
“Get your gun away from my daughter,” I said pointedly once I was sitting. “I’m co operating with you so I see no reason why my child should be threatened. You look too trigger happy and I’m not taking any chances.”
Cressida hesitated for a second then she nodded to Dana. Dana reluctantly put the gun away but I could see that she wanted nothing more than to shoot it. Once Kiara was out of harm’s way, I allowed some of tension leave my shoulders and I looked up at Cressida.
“Why?” was the only question I could ask. “I am not even going to ask why you took her because I know you did it to spite me but I want to know why you hate me so much. I never did anything to you that deserved this amount of hate. I tried to love you when you first came but you were determined to treat me like crap.”
Cressida’s face was a perfect mask and for a second, I thought she was going to ignore me but she slowly made her way overlto me. She crouched down and held my chin between her fingers. Her eyes held daggers and poison and if looks could kill, I would have been buried six feet under
“Your biggest mistake is thinking that there is a why,” she said slowly. “I will do anything and everything to make sure that my family has the best that life has to over and I don’t care who I have to screw over to get it. With you in the picture, my children were never going to get the love they deserved from your father and I was never going to be treated as I should.”
She released my chin and stood to her feet. “You were simply a means to an end Freya. You were expendable and you were in my way. I don’t have any particular problems with you but I want what is best for my daughters which is why I drugged your father last minute and had him take you instead of Violet.“.
“Wasn’t that enough for you?” I asked. “Wasn’t the knowledge that I was going to be with the cruelest man on the earth enough for you? You had the life and you had my father. What inore was there?”
“He wanted you back,” she spat. “Before he died, he wanted you back and I knew I needed to take care of him so I did and once he was taken care of, I searched for you. I searched and I found out that you were happy and I was now swimming in poverty because your father was dead. It was your fault.”
She kept on speaking but I couldn’t hear her. The only words that were swimming in my head were ‘I needed.to
take care of him!
I looked up at Cressida. “You killed him, didn’t you?”
A small smile graced her l*ps. “He died in a tragic rogue accident. That was no one’s fault.”
Fury rippled inside me and I was going to rush after her when I heard a sharp caw overhead.
“Would you look at that?” Cressida said with a cruel smirk. “It looks like we have some visitors. I wonder who it could be.”