Chapter 94

Helen POV

I duck to avoid the slap that I know is coming.

My father has been down here every night since Russo ran off, leaving me behind. He can’t contain his rage anymore. He’s furious with me for being such a disappointment of a daughter.

He knew I didn’t kill Diana and I’m still suffering for her death. If anything, I feel so bad for my sister. She was a tool used by my father and my step-mother to forever torment me. She was tool, a weapon, and she died because of them.

Not because of me.

His next slap connects and I collapse onto my chest.

“Fuck,” he snarled, panting through his exasperated sighs. “I can’t win with you, can I? You just never stop fighting me, Helen. You have to break eventually.”

I spit to clear my lungs, the blood splattering against his boots. He hissed at me like a snake.

“Worthless spec,” he snarled, swinging his boot back, ready to find its way into my already broken ribs but he stopped. Looking over his shoulder, the light from upstairs pouring into my basement jail. “What do you want?”

“It’s getting late, Alpha,” Kesler breathed, speaking so fluidly and calm. “Let me handle this from now on. You need a break, after all.”

“I need her to submit,” my father barked. “She can’t even act as a peace token! I needed the Fae’s help in infiltrating the Alpha King’s palace to finish him off, and she ran off my only ally! She’s useless even when she’s half-dead.”

Kesler nodded, standing beside his Alpha dutifully. “She deserves punishment, Alpha. I’m not arguing with you over that, but with Scott dead, you no longer have an heir.”

My father looked at him curiously while I crawled backwards, ever so slowly, trying not to spook either of these volatile wolves.

“What are you saying, Kesler?”

“I’m saying you will need to put your future into someone very capable of running the pack. I have a stark black fur—I am a pure breed. No matter the past tri-color of your daughter’s fur, she is now a pure coated wolf as well. It’s natural, Alpha.”

My father snickered a laugh. “You want my whore daughter as a mate? She will never be Luna of Fiery Cross, not after what she’s done to my family; to Scott. She isn’t worthy of title.”

“She won’t have one,” Kesler assures him. “I’ll take a mate and keep Helen around to bare my pups in pure-bred fashion. She can be a concubine to me, for all I care, but with her behind the scenes, her pure Snow White coat will help produce a pure-breed of wolves for me.”

My father hesitated, not out of pity, but in honest consideration.

“Well, I don’t know, Kesler.”

I bowed in a little bit of relief. Maybe he would stick up for me for once in our lives.

“I want her to suffer. This deal seems too lenient.”

I fell with his claim.

Kesler grins wickedly. “Oh, don’t worry, Alpha. I have no problems making her suffer. She may have killed her mate, but she never rejected him. One sensual night with her and she’ll break at the betrayal of her bond from that Lycan. It will be like fire inside of her wolf.”

My father’s eyes twinkled with that claim. “Really? I never considered that. I guess she can be yours, Kesler, if you promise to take over her beatings every day in punishment for what she’s done to my family, and to my pack.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

My father and Kesler shook hands. When the Alpha stepped over me, I felt his hand brush calmly down my whipped, broken spine. “Your suffering will end someday. But I want to be sure you really feel the punishment for what you’ve done.”

My father perches himself in the doorway of the stairwell and leans on the wall causally.

He gives Kesler a wave of his hand, baring permission onto him.

“Go for it. I want to watch her suffer.”

Kesler wasted no time, charging forward to grab a stick off the wall along with the other whips, cuffs and chains that sat there. He held the stick in hand, waving it over his head and bringing it down onto my spine.

I screamed in angst.

My father smiled widely for the first time in along time.

“We’re going to be at this all night, little Luna,” Kesler purred, bring the twig against my back again to prompt another scream. “I’ll make it worse if you pass out. Trust me.”

I shook my head, finally having enough of this torture. “FUCK YOU!”

The basement went stone silent, the air frozen and cold. I could only hear my pulse and continued to swallow my rage that kept building in my throat with the blood.

I was as good as dead anyways! I might as well speak my damned mind.

“What did you just say, concubine?” Kesler snapped.

“I said, fuck you,” I snarled. I flinched hard, my ribs cracking in response to the stick coming down against my surface again and again and again—” Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!”

He was going to kill me. I was happy to accept it. As long as my mate healed from my betrayal, from my death, then it would be worthy. Justin wouldn’t take another mate, but he could find happiness. He could find a good wolf, a pure coat, and they would live happily ever—

“What is that?” my father hummed, holding his wrist up to pause the torment.

Kelley screamed and it traveled through the basement.

“Go protect the Luna,” Kesler called, throwing the stick down. “I’ll join the warriors in securing the boarder. We’re under attack.”

My father turned to rush off, to protect his wife and the only real member of his family left, but he stopped short of himself.

Something led him to turn around, to kneel beside me, his hand finding the back of my hair at once.

“You are no longer my issue, mutt,” he breathed, glancing over to Kesler who watched on with piqued interest. “I live for the day you die, Helen. Everything I’ve ever said to you, about you, is true. You’re dead to me.”

With that, he stormed off.

I couldn’t pinpoint why, but as I watched him retreat upstairs, I knew it was the last time I’d see him. Maybe it was the attack of a fight upstairs, or my step-mom’s guttural scream and then suspicious silence afterwards.

There was too much I wanted to say to him, that I needed to scream at him, but instead I let my head rest on the floor, waiting for Kesler to retreat like he said he would.

He had other plans, dragging his palm up and down the front of his tight pants.

His plans were defiantly darker than protecting the pack. He doesn’t give a damn about this pack, he just wants to digest the need he has had since he arrived.

I shut my eyes and steadied my breathing. No matter what, I would die by his hands.

May as well let it be now.

“HELEN!”

My eyes shot open at that voice and Kesler backed away from his stance over me. he disappeared into the dark shadow of the basement while a familiar face came running down the stairs, unsuspecting of the ambush waiting for him.

My eyes widened in horror. “No, Randy! Watch out!”