Chapter 22

Twenty-Two

LACY

I felt humiliated and embarrassed.

I didn't say a word when Ethan helped me stand back up on shaky legs. I pulled my panties back up over my thighs that Ryder had ripped off. I groaned in pain when the fabric touched my burning ass, so I pulled it off and stomped upstairs with it in my hands.

"Save those panties aside for me," growled Ryder, and I ignored him, but my pussy twitched in response.

"Don't follow me," I hissed at the guys.

None of them stopped Ryder from delivering his archaic punishment. And he had the honor of licking my pussy too. I was still throbbing with arousal, and my stomach clenched for an orgasm, but I didn't dare beg him for that. I couldn't show any weakness in front of them.

I locked the bathroom door and sat on the toilet. Sitting on there for a little while would be easier than sitting directly on a chair. My ass burned, but it wasn't too bad after the ice he applied to it. Familiar rage began brewing inside of me. Tears pricked my eyes and flowed down my face.

I cried, with my face buried in my hands. I lost all track of time when I was done.

Then I got up and wrapped myself in a bath towel. I should probably shower, but when I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw someone I didn't want to be reminded of—the broken girl years ago who was kicked out into the rain by her ex. My makeup was smeared from my crying, returning me to those terrible memories. All these years of building my life and self-esteem were destroyed in one moment.

There was no way I was going to let it happen again.

With rage simmering inside me, I burst out of the bathroom and stomped back down the stairs with tears streaming down my face- my towel still wrapped around my body. The men stopped talking and looked at me with widened eyes.

"Out! All of you!" I screamed. I saw nothing but red right now.

"What are you saying?" asked Ryder slowly as he got up from the couch. Ready to walk over to me and threaten me again.

Like hell, he would.

"You're fucking fired," I shouted. "Get out of my house. No one ever lays a finger on me like that, and this will be the last time it ever happens. I never want to see your faces again."

"Are you sure, Lacy?"

"I'm damn sure," I said, seething internally.

"If that's what you want, then," said Ryder, stony-faced. He nodded to his team. "Get all your things."

"Lacy, we're sorry," said Adrian, his eyes flicking between me and Ryder. There was nothing but tension between us, and my heart raced with rage and adrenaline.

"I spent years building myself up," I said. "I'm not about to let all of you ruin it for me. None of you defended me when Ryder went crazy on me. None of you helped me when I wanted to leave the house to have some fun or even go to work."

The men looked morose and upset as they gathered their weapons, hiding in every crevice of my house. I gripped my towel tightly to my chest as I watched them. The air conditioner dried the tears on my cheeks while I stood there like a statue at the bottom of the staircase.

Adrian and Cooper tried talking to me, but I wasn't having it.

I didn't want to hear from any of them. The heartbreak on the men's faces was evident when they finally knew I wasn't their omega and that there would never be a chance of us happening. When they were finally leaving, Ryder looked back at me again at the front door.

"It was great knowing you, Lacy," he said. "I'm sorry if I scared you. Don't be reckless, and take care of yourself. Okay?"

Something about him standing there, looking at me with sadness in his eyes, made me want to bawl and cry. But I held myself together.

Be strong, Lacy.

"Have a good night," I said. He gave me one last lingering look, and I closed the door behind him. Taking a deep breath, I looked up at the ceiling and saw that all the cameras they had installed were gone. Good riddance.

But as I walked up the stairs, I was crying again. Damn, these tears . I hadn't cried like this in such a long time, and it was ridiculous. The house suddenly felt barren, empty, and quiet when the armored car zoomed off. Once I was in my room, I grabbed my phone and dialed Olivia's number.

After I told her what happened, I needed her to tell me I was being stupid for feeling this way. I really needed her support right about now. But the phone rang and rang- so I ended the call, sighing.

I felt uneasy, and something was nagging at me, but I couldn't place it.

I was sleeping peacefully until I woke up to a hand gripping my waist.

My eyes flew open, and I saw a hulking figure standing over me in the darkness of my room with his hand on my waist. I tried to scream, but there was a cloth wrapped around my mouth. Heart-pounding wildly, I reached out to push him away, but my hands were tied behind my back.

"Settle down, pinkie," he said, his voice muffled with a mask.

No. No. No .

I thought I had locked all the doors. I even double-checked before going to bed.

Heart racing within my chest, he lifted me effortlessly over his shoulder like I was a bag of potatoes. I tried to kick and squirm out of his grasp, but it was useless. He carried me down the stairs like I weighed nothing at all.

"You shouldn't have left that ladder at your window," he said, chuckling, and I groaned at how dimwitted I was. First, I leave the ladder for easy access and then fire the only bodyguards willing to put up with me.

I was basically a sitting duck.

I tried to scream even with the rag wrapped around my mouth, just in case anyone could hear my muffled yells. I looked up and saw that he was walking towards a black car with tinted windows. Sunrise was starting to show, and I realized it was already the next morning. When I head butt his ear, he didn't budge an inch. I knew it had to hurt him even a little because my own head was hurting.

He dumped me into the car and sat beside me in the backseat.

"You finally have her," said the scratchy voice of the driver.

"It took fucking forever, but the famous omega singer is here now," said my stalker.

I stared at him with narrowed eyes as I scooted to the other end of the seat until my body was pressed up the door. I needed to put as much space between us as possible. I didn't want to be near the man who terrorized me for the last few days. My hands were still tied behind my back, and I tried to wiggle my wrists, but the bonds were secure.

The stalker ripped off his mask, and that's when I got a good look at his face. And my heart dropped.

It was my ex-boyfriend, Jordan.

He smiled wildly, seeing the look of shock in my eyes. He leaned over, untying the cloth around my mouth. Even with it off, I was speechless. Why the hell was he doing this? I never thought he would be capable of this at all.

"Why?" I croaked. Sleep was still in my voice, and I felt like I was in some sort of nightmare. I hoped to god this was just a nightmare.

He sighed, crossing his arms behind his neck as he looked towards the front.

"I decided I needed to change my life," he said. "I wanted to make a difference in this world by taking omegas to a special camp. Especially you."

"What camp are you talking about? Are you okay, Jordan?"

"I'm more than okay," he snapped, lowering his arms and looking at me with darkened eyes. "I never take disrespect from omegas anymore. Omegas are difficult now because they are free to mate whatever degenerate crosses their path. Betas, Deltas, Sigmas, and now fucking vampires. It's not the natural order of how it should happen."

I wondered how I never saw a warning sign that this guy was a weirdo. I never imagined in a million years Jordan would do this.

"So what if omegas mate them?" I said.

"Then alphas will be extinct," he answered. "Omegas need to bear the children from alphas. They are made for alphas and no one else."

"Why do you even care, Jordan?" I asked, trying to reason with him as the car drove further away from my home. The sun was now fully up and shining brightly down my face that I could barely see him.

His face looked tired, and his blond hair was unkempt.

His jeans were torn in several places. He looked worse for wear after I hadn't seen him for five years. I remembered how he took care of himself in the past and even trimmed his nails, but now he looked like he didn't care.

"When you rejected me, I knew that was it," said Jordan, scratching his unkempt beard. "You were the sixth omega who didn't care to be knotted by me. How do you think I felt after being rejected and led on for months by you? And yet, you allow a delta to tickle your butt and multiple alphas to knot you. Yes, I watched it all."

My face twisted in disgust at that moment. He was lost in his thoughts as he looked out the window. He was sick in the head for spying on me, and I suddenly realized how dangerous my situation was.

"I just wasn't ready. I was young," I explained.

"That's what they all say," he spat out. "You were the last straw. So, I joined the organization that would bring omegas under control again. An organization that hates the government for allowing vampires to live amongst us and take our omegas."

"What do you want with me?"

"To breed you," he said with an evil smile. "We will create babies with you. To produce more alpha werewolves and to prevent the extinction of our kind."