“Darius!” I screamed as he flipped me by my hips onto my back. My hand whipped out and slapped him hard across the face. He seemed shocked.
I kicked away from him, scrambling up the incline. I felt his hand in my hair only seconds later. “The shre—”
“Enough! Shut up! I am done with your lies,” he snarled, jerking me back by my hair. I clutched his hands and tried to explain, but my lips wouldn’t open. Tears trekked down my face as he dragged me kicking and screaming from the forest before I felt his magic erupt as he opened a portal.
I felt the portal’s pull before I found myself in my old room. Darius tossed me on the bed by my hair, and I felt the strands rip free painfully from my scalp. My scream was mute, I felt it vibrate out of me, but no sound left my lips. I nearly rolled off the bed, and the door burst open as Tobias and Kalen stepped in.
“Get out! You don’t go near her. You don’t fucking look at her. You don’t speak to her,” Darius roared as he turned, glaring at Kalen, who stared in horror at what he was witnessing. Blood trickled down the side of my head, and I touched my fingers to it, wondering what I had hit it on.
“What happened? What did she do?” Tobias asked while Kalen was forced out of the room by Darius’s command.
“She tried to escape,” Darius sneered, and I shook my head and tried to explain, yet the words never left me. Darius had taken my ability to talk.
“She wouldn’t,” Tobias defended me.
“She was nearly on the fucking road,” Darius snarled.Road? I was near the road. I was sure I hadn’t wandered that far in, but I wasn’t paying much attention.
“Aleera?”
I shook my head and tried to tell Tobias I wasn’t, trying to explain, knowing he could tell I was speaking the truth.
“Let her speak,” Tobias snapped at him.
“She was by the fucking road, Tobias. What else would she be doing so far out? You can tell if I am lying, and I don’t fucking lie,” Darius snarled at him.
Tobias watched him before his eyes fell on me. “Why? Everything was going fine, Aleera,” Tobias snapped and stormed out, leaving me with Darius.
“You always ruin everything,” Darius snarled, walking toward me, and I flinched away from his burning rage. Yet, he grabbed the front of my shirt and jerked me forward before fishing my tablet from the back of my pants held by my belt. I reached for it, but he pulled it away.
Tears trailed down my cheeks as he stripped me of everything, only leaving me with a sheet and my bra and undies. He took my tablet, my freedom, and my voice. He took everything.
Chapter 55
Kalen
Iwanted to go toher, but Tobias glared at me from where I sat on the bed. Lycus also stood before me, arms folded over his chest as we waited for Darius to return. When the door opened, my eyes darted over to it, and Darius stepped into the room. His aura was burning hot, threatening to set the room on fire.
My mouth opened, and I wanted to ask if he had hurt her, but I quickly stopped myself with one glare from Lycus. Darius removed his shirt before undoing his pants and chucking them in the laundry basket by the door.
“Kalen, I can feel your burning curiosity. I didn’t hurt her,” Darius said, not that he sounded happy about it.
I knew he had reason to hate her, but I wanted to understand. She seemed so excited for years when I spoke to her about finding her mates. Then once she manifested, she ran, and I didn’t believe it was only because Darius had apparently killed her parents.
If she only knew that the army Darius was building was not to take over the rest of the world but to protect her, maybe she wouldn’t have run. I wanted to know why she ran. There had tobe another reason. She had to have another reason, but instead of letting her explain, they wanted revenge for things she was unaware she had done.
Darius placed her tablet on the bed, and I glared at him. “What the fuck, Darius?” I snarled at him before snatching it off the bed.
“She can earn it back, along with the rest of her possessions,” he said.
“The rest of her stuff?” I asked, but he clucked his tongue at my outrage, and I saw his eyes flicker. He could be such a possessive asshole, and I knew half his issue was that he was jealous. I could fucking feel his and Lycus’s jealousy.
However, looking over at Tobias, he was livid. He and Aleera had been getting along well, and with one incident, he was back to being a prick.
“What, that’s it? You won’t say anything at all?” I asked Tobias, and he sat back in his chair and folded his arms, looking directly at me.
“Darius told the truth. I would know if he lied.”
“His version of the truth. Did you ask her?”