Chapter 28

Twenty-Eight

JADE

T he next morning, I was lying in a pool of my own sweat on the mattress.

My heat had come during the early morning hours after a night of constant near orgasms. Argon hummed a dark song as he stood in front of the window watching the birds feed. He was the oddest fucking male I'd ever met. At times he'd zone out, randomly and it creeped me out each time.

All night, he'd either finger me, suck, or lick my pussy until I was about to climax. Then he stopped every time I screamed in frustration. It would get worse and worse to the point that my heat had taken over my body. And when it did, his smile was the worst I'd ever seen. A look of absolute feral and domination came over his eyes. He liked controlling my body that wished to obey his every command. Every stroke of his tongue or finger took my body to new heights.

Every hour he would do it, giving me a ten-minute break in between. He was brutal and relentless. I was tired and fearful at this point- shaking uncontrollably on the bed.

I was scared when he would knot me. He was biding his time.

My stomach clenched painfully and repeatedly from my heat as it traveled down my pussy. My thighs were covered in a sheen of slick, leaking from me. I was exhausted, in pain, and horny for a knot. But I didn't want his knot. When he found out I was in heat, he roared in victory, and I had never seen his eyes redder.

"You're in heat," he said calmly, turning to me. "Tonight marks the night that I will rut you and mark you as my mate for life. We will wait for the full moon. Isn't that exciting?"

"Why are we waiting for the full moon?"

"It'll give me more powers, and I will use the gravitational pull from the moon to free myself from here," he said, convinced that it would work. I grew terrified at the thought of him escaping this house to wreak havoc on the world with me as his mate. "Do you hear that?"

I strained to hear what he was talking about as I lay there. I could hear faint shouting coming from outside the guesthouse. He was shouting my name over and over. I heard the front door crashing down.

"Caleb," I whispered. He had come for me. My heart soared in my throat, and I wanted to cry. I stood up naked on wobbly legs."I'm in here!"

"He won't be able to come in," laughed Argon, facing the door. "Soon, you'll scream my name when I'm deep inside you."

"Caleb!" I screamed again. I heard pounding on the door.

"Open the door," Caleb roared from outside the door. I heard them kicking the door and wiggling the doorknob. An unearthly orange glow surrounded the door frame, preventing them from entering.

Argon's eyes were glued to the door, fully concentrated on keeping them out.

I ran around the room, looking frantically for a weapon while he wasn't focused on me.

Something. Anything to use as a weapon.

I couldn't find anything except for a metal paperclip on a desk. Snatching it, I ran towards the pentagram drawn on the ground. I looked at Argon and back at the drawing. Then, with clammy hands, I used the paperclip to drag across one of the pentagram lines, breaking the connection.

"What are you doing?!" screamed Argon, turning to me. With his concentration erased, the door finally crashed down. Caleb rushed in, throwing Argon against the wall. Dravin and Nick pounded inside the room. All three of them were holding Argon down.

But Argon was too powerful. He flung them off him one by one, trying to get to me. But Caleb wouldn't let him.

He launched himself at Argon again.

I scratched the pentagram like crazy with the paperclip. My fingers were sore, and my body was in relentless pain from the heat as I was hunched over the image. My nails scraped against the concrete floor as I rubbed off most of the lines from the drawing.

I heard a loud yell, and I looked up.

Argon was vanishing into a cloud of black smoke, black specks and particles hanging in the air as he disappeared back to where he came from.

"Oh my god," I said in relief, collapsing on the ground, still fully naked, but I didn't care.

"Are you okay?" roared Caleb, rushing over to me and kneeling beside me so quickly that I fell onto his arm as he cradled me on the ground. "Jade, talk to me."

"I'll be okay," I said, my throat sore from screaming yesterday and today. No water or food. I was hungry and trembling still from the torture Argon put me through.

"I'm sorry for everything," said Caleb, his voice thick with emotion. "My mom will be punished accordingly. We will take you inside now and give you whatever you need."

"But…," I started to say, but a female's scream interrupted my words. "Oh my god, it's your mom." I jumped off of Caleb's lap, grabbed a sheet from the mattress, and threw it around my body. Did I do something to hurt her?

"Stay here with me, Jade," said Nick, grasping my wrist and stopping me from joining Caleb and Dravin rushing out of the door. I tried pulling away from him, but he tightened his grip, pulling me to his chest.

"Let me go," I shouted, pulling away from him. "I've gone through torture and worse. Let me go to her."

Pity filled his eyes as he gazed at me. I was disheveled and worn from last night.

"Okay," he said, holding my hand as we quickly made our way outside.

Even though it was raining outside, the sun on my face was bright, nearly blinding me. I had been indoors for far too long, stuck with the devil himself. Caleb's mother was writhing on the ground, holding her forehead, and screaming outside the guesthouse. Caleb was muttering soothing words, trying to get her to calm down.

"She's having a breakdown again," he explained.

I ran over to her and dropped to my knees next to her.

"It's him. It's Argon torturing her again," I said. I placed my hand on her forehead, and it felt like I was struck by lightning.

Darkness shrouded my vision, and my breathing escalated.

Closing my eyes, I absorbed everything she was feeling. Images of dead omega skeletons in a cave pierced through my mind's eye. Omegas screamed for their lives as he clawed them to death. An image of Caleb on the ground, holding his dead wife in his hands, and a cackle sounded deep in my mind.

Argon was enjoying this.

Flooding my mind with images of the tortured and dead omegas.

"Jade, Jade!" I could hear the alphas shouting. They sounded far away, muffled like an underwater chorus.

My hand on her forehead felt like it was glued to her as pressure surrounded us, keeping us under his control.

"Leave her," I commanded the presence, trying to snap back into reality. Instead, the images in my brain whirled faster and faster until I could barely breathe. "Leave us alone! Leave her. You're not welcome here!"

My heart was racing, and my palms clammy as I fought for my life and her life.

"She has a debt to pay," Argon snickered. I shook my head wildly, and Caleb's mother screamed with some invisible pain he inflicted.

"She doesn't owe you anything."

"I made a promise to him that if he helped us, I owed him," said Zaneesha.

What?

"Get out of her mind," I shouted, pressing my hand tighter on her forehead, projecting strength into her. "Think of your happiest moment. Don't pay attention to what he's throwing at you. Please Zaneesha. Come back."

"I can't," she groaned. I opened my eyes and stared deep into her struggling face. Her pupils were dilated, and she looked ready to collapse.

"Don't listen to him," I shouted. "He's nothing. He's weak and powerless."

"No, he's right. I deserve it," she said, trembling all over. "I had a premonition that he would be evil, yet I brought him back to life."

"And he is evil," I said, even though I felt sick.

"I should let him take me," she said, shuddering.

"This is what you deserve," whispered the male voice into our minds.

"Don't let it control you," I shouted over his voice.

Tears rolled down her face as she scrunched her eyebrows in pain.

I heard an invisible male shriek in the air as Zaneesha's eyes opened wider, focused on me. Concentrating with all her strength.

"Leave me alone," she whispered, with barely any force in her words. When his hold began to diminish, her next command was stronger. "Leave Argon!"

Suddenly, I felt the invisible force burst around us. The heavy feeling over my body disappeared, and a calm, tranquil feeling fell over me. I took deep calming breaths, slowly removing my hand from her forehead. Zaneesha sat up from the ground, also regaining her breath.

"It's gone. Do you feel that?" I asked her, smiling as I laid a hand on her forearm.

"It is," she said, her voice trembling. Tears flowed down her face as she hugged my sheet-covered body. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. I understand why you did it," I said. "He's way too powerful."

"Thank you," she gasped out, touching my face. "I don't know how Caleb found someone like you. Your inner strength and soft heart saved us both. You didn't need to save me, and I am indebted to you."

She turned to Caleb who was sitting quietly watching us, and hugged him next. I pulled the sheets tighter around me, hunched in pain.

"Are you okay?" asked Bruce, who I didn't notice was beside me the entire time.

"I'm in heat," I gasped out.

"Carry her inside. Now," said Caleb, panic written all over his face.