Chapter 54

ELEANOR

I didn’t know how long I was in that locked room. Eventually, the door creaked open.

Benjamin and Chantelle walked in, but they were accompanied by my dad and stepmother.

~Oh, thank the Moon Goddess. They must have made a deal with Benjamin to get me free.~

I started to speak, but then stopped when I saw the sinister looks on their faces.

“I think she’s starting to get it, honey,” Karla said to my father.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her, though I didn’t want the answer.

“Well, we teamed up with Benjamin here so that it would make our work easier,” Karla said and looked at my father.

My eyes pooled with tears while my entire focus shifted to my father.

“Don’t look at me like that!” he yelled as he looked away.

“Why are you doing this, Dad? Even if you don’t accept me as your daughter, why don’t you at least let me live in peace?” I questioned him.

“You haunt my life like a plague, Eleanor. I wanted to erase everything that happened in my past, forget about it, and move on. I can’t let you live anymore,” he yelled while the others looked between us.

“What did I ever do to you?”

“You constantly remind me of her! Despite breaking my bond with your mother and living with Karla, I still felt a void, a constant pain in my chest. I tried all the medications that I could, but nothing worked. When I finally consulted with a witch, she gave me the best solution. If I killed you, the pain would go away. After all, you are a part of me and her. Without you, I can finally be at peace. Without pain,” he said, and a dark look crossed his face.

I was betrayed. I had opened myself up to my family again, and I was betrayed. They were never my family, and all I could think about was getting back to my real family—Xavier and our pack.

Soon, someone else walked in the room. The moment my eyes met his, it felt like the air had been ripped from my lungs. It was him. The same man I’d seen in my nightmares. The very one who had mercilessly murdered my mother.

“Do you remember the night your mother died?” my father asked me, but my eyes were fixed on the rogue. “I thought that would solve my problem. I hired this man to kill your mother, so I could live in peace,” Dad said with a proud smile on his face, which made me sick.

“How could you fucking do that!” I yelled at him as I tried to break free from my chains.

“For my happiness, of course. I must say, he did a very good job,” my father said as he patted the rogue’s shoulder, who had a dirty look in his eyes filled with lust.

“I thought I could finally have my time with my mate in peace, but no. You had to come and ruin it. I planned to kill you on the way back from the mating ball, but unfortunately, you found your mate.”

“And we tried to kill you again in that car accident, but you just refused to die,” Karla said casually.

“And that’s when we teamed up with Luca. When we were looking to hire a rogue to kill you, that was when we heard about Benjamin Luca Garcia. And my friend here introduced me,” dad said as he pointed to the rogue who killed my mother. “He wanted revenge on Xavier, and I want you dead, so it’s a win-win for both of us. And I never knew it would be this easy to kidnap you,” my father said while tears were running down my cheeks.

“We thought you might do your detective work to find Avery, and that’s why we faked her kidnapping, but Xavier was adamant to have you inside the pack. While we were trying to think of another way, you made it easy for all of us by going shopping in the human town,” he said. His words made me look stupid but I didn’t say anything.

“I can just kill you like this, but my friend here wants to be rewarded for his work,” my father said as he pointed toward the rogue.

“So, we will kill you once he has satisfied himself,” my father said, and this made Benjamin look at my father.

“This isn’t what we agreed upon,” Benjamin argued when I saw my father getting angry.

“Why do you sound so stressed? It won’t take long, and I know those idiots must still be looking for her in that human town,” my father said in a nonchalant tone, but I saw the uneasiness in Benjamin’s face.

“I agreed with you that you can kill her, but I told you that we must finish as soon as we can and leave this place.”

“I know what I’m doing. Don’t raise your voice at me again,” my father warned in a deadly calm voice.

“Fine, only thirty minutes, and then we will finish her,” Benjamin said, and my father nodded his head before he turned around to face me.

“Enjoy your final thirty minutes, sweetheart,” he said as they all left the tiny room one after the other until it was only the rogue and I alone.

“Please, don’t do this,” I begged, my voice trembling as fear gripped my chest. But the rogue kept moving toward me, each step slow and deliberate.

“The night I saw you, I decided that I wanted to taste you, Eleanor. If you could cooperate, then this would finish quickly,” he said in a sickly sweet tone while I rapidly shook my head.

“Pl…please,” I begged him, but before another word could leave my mouth, he grabbed my dress and tore it, leaving me only in my bra and panties.

“Wow, you’re even more beautiful than I thought,” he mumbled to himself as his eyes raked over my body.

That was when I began to scream.

I screamed, calling for someone to come and help me, but this earned me a hard slap across my face.

“Shut up, bitch!” he said, getting irritated, but I didn’t pay heed to his voice.

The rogue frantically looked around when he saw the torn pieces of my dress. He grabbed some fabric, stuffed it inside my mouth, and tied a cloth around it so that I couldn’t spit it out.

“Now if you promise to be good. I’ll get you unchained from the chair, but I’ll have to keep you bound. It’ll make it more comfortable for you. But you have to promise.”

I slowly nodded my head. He unlocked my feet from the chair and locked them back up

“Good,” he said as he opened the lock on my hands.