JEREMIAH She. Fucking. Ran.My deceitful little wife thought she could leave me. That she could slip away into the night like a whisper and disappear. Like I wouldn’t find her. Like I wouldn’t drag her back. Like I wouldn’t make her pay.I gripped the steering wheel so hard it creaked beneath my fingers. The world outside was a blur, but my mind was crystal fucking clear with everything I needed to do. I was going fucking easy on her. But now… I am going to show her what a real monster looks like.I looked at my phone. She wasn’t far. She was moving near the tree line, apparently thinking she’ll be safe in those trees. She should’ve learned her lesson by now. She will never be safe from me, and especially in the trees that felt more like a home to a predator like me, where I have hunted her not once but so many times now I could find her with my eyes closed. A notification on my screen had rage flooding my system a
NINA “J-Jeremiah…”He took a step closer and even though there were still at least eight to ten feet between us, fear slithered down my spine like icy fingers. Every cell in my body screamed at me to run and when I took a step back, he paused. His head tilting in a way that seemed too familiar. I swallowed.He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. The cold fury radiating off his body was enough to choke me. I had felt anger before, I had seen rage… but nothing compared to the storm in his eyes as they burned into mine.“You want to run, wife?” He said, his silver eyes dropping to my feet and his lips curled in a snarl. “Run. Run like hell, and when I catch you I will make you regret you ever tried.”Then he moved.And I didn’t think. I didn’t wait. It was like a primal urge, an instinct telling me to run from him, to let him chase me even when a very logical, sane part of me knew that he’ll catch me and there was no other option for me except to be captured by him.But still I ran.The
NINAAs soon as we cleared the tree line and Jeremiah stepped on the cold asphalt, I saw cars lined up on the road. I wanted to bury my face in his chest and hide, feeling ashamed for reasons that weren’t right as I saw the men standing in a line, making a passage for their king to walk. It made me guilty that there was a teeny tiny part of me that was ashamed for running away. I understood my regret and guilt over being caught and for being responsible for everything that seemed to be unraveling now, but I didn’t understand why there was a spark of guilt inside me for making my escape in the first place. And why in the hell, did I wanted to hide myself in the man who was the reason I was this mess.Jeremiah didn’t stop to put me down as he stalked toward the waiting car in which we’d gone to the party- the same party that felt like it was days or weeks ago instead of just mere hours.Before we reached it, Lachlan stepped out. His green eyes taking me in and then looked at Jeremiah
NINA Lachlan disappeared into the adjoining bathroom without a word, and I heard the distant sound of water running. After a few seconds I realised he was filling up the bathtub for me.I’d have walked there instead of waiting on the bed but the pain in the soles of my feet made me reluctant to do so. And as I finally took a look at my feet, I realised what a mess I had made of them in my attempt to escape. The adrenaline and fear had made me ignore the pain but at the sight of my bruised, scratched and wounded feet with debris and whatnot sticking and cuts on my feet that had dried blood around, the pain slammed into me like a force that brought tears to my eyes. No wonder the monster had taken pity on me, if he was even capable of that, and instead of making me walk to the car, he had actually lifted me in his arms.And somehow those arms had felt like a comfort in my state. Thankfully, Lachlan came out just then
NINA“Can you touch me?”He stopped, his hand stopping just on the inside of my knee. “Where do you want me to touch you, kotyonok?” When I remained quiet, now nervous more than ever, he said, “Say it. Ask me anything and I’ll give it to you.”“T-touch me… between my legs.” I could feel my cheeks flushing pink at my own words. What was I doing? I have no idea.“What am I touching between your legs, Nina? Be specific.”I wanted to glare at him but it felt like it’d take too much of my energy. Instead I answered him, “My pussy.”There was a soft smile on his lips before he stood up and tugged his shoes off, he must’ve gotten rid of his suit jacket during my escape or afterwards. And as I thought about my escape, my mind wandered off to the attack that had happened. My eyes on their own accord looked all over him, wondering if he had gotten hurt but I didn't see anything. And something inside me, that had clenched in what seemed like worry began to settle.And then, there was nothing to
NINA It had been nearly a week since I ran barefoot into the forest, since my husband looked at me like he wanted to choke the life out of me. And if Lachlan was to be believed, since Jeremiah stared at me in the bathroom like he wanted to fuck me until I screamed his name and begged for mercy. A week of dread. A week of me dreading what my monster of a husband planned to do, how he will punish me for trying to run away from him and the life he had dragged me into. Every morning for the last week I’d woken up with dread pooling in my stomach, thick and heavy like lead. And every day, he said nothing. Just watched me with those steely grey eyes that promised punishment. A silent warning of what was to come. A vow to make me pay. The only relief I found came at night. Not peace. Not sleep. Just Lachlan. When the estate grew silent and sky darkened outside, I found myself waiting for him. The man with green eyes and gentle touches, and his beautiful soft murmurs that coax me to u
NINA I looked down at my phone reading his recents texts.Mr Wrong: Are you alive or am I texting a ghost?Mr Wrong: Are you scared I’ll come for you? Weren’t you the one who told me to get you? [This one he had send me before too, like he thought I was scared of him.]Mr Wrong: At least, let me know you’re okay.Mr Wrong: This is going to be my last text, if you didn’t reply I won't ever text you again. After debating for a whole minute, I tapped on the reply box and typed a message, after a moment’s hesitation I hit send. Nina: I got kidnapped that night. Now I am in Russia.After sending the text I scrolled up to our last exchange which was just before Lachlan and Jeremiah had kidnapped me.Nina : You wanna bet? Fine. Come get me, if you can.He hadn’t texted me but he had called me that night. And for a brief moment I’d thought he was one running after me but it wasn’t him, it was the monster who uprooted me from my life as I knew it. Though the texts waiting in my inbox tol
NINANo one asked me If I was ready. No one cared.Humiliation coiled in my gut like fire as the beautician gently coaxed me down to lie down on my back. I felt their eyes on me like a blanket in summer, almost suffocating me in the heat. And I could distinguish their gazes, Lachlan looked at me like he wanted to keep an eye on me, to make sure I was okay. While Jeremiah’s gaze, lingered in places, like he was cataloguing, like he was appraising something he owned. His gaze was the heat that melted shame into something more dangerous.I almost jumped out of my body when one of the women touched my knee. It was the older woman, she placed her hands on the inside of my thighs and then prompted me to spread my legs. I swallowed, feeling the cold air caress my sensitive flesh. My eyes went to the younger one who walked to us, pushing a table to the bench I was lying on. I saw the pot of wax on it and my muscles locked in place. I have never had a Brazilian wax, the normal wax was enoug
NINA It was ten in the morning when Lachlan entered my room, bearing a breakfast tray in his hands. The scent of buttery toast and coffee curled around me. If he thought it would fix things, like food could erase the way I was dragged, punished, humiliated under strangers’ eyes, while the one person who promised to stay and be there for me... vanished, then he was hugely mistaken.Because his presence now, the warm food, it didn’t bring me comfort. It was a slap, a mockery. And all it did was remind me what a fucking liar he was. A deceitful fucking man. A manipulative bastard.Worse than the monster himself.He walked in like he had a right to. Like nothing had happened, like he hadn’t fractured something that was already delicate between us. Like I hadn’t been left alone and stripped bare in front of the wolves, and he hadn’t walked out afterwards instead of holding me. Instead of giving me a safe blanket he had left me in the care of the monster.He put the tray on the table near
NINA My eyes fluttered open and I looked at the bed beside me, at the empty space, and felt a heavy weight in my chest. Like the presence I had felt wasn’t here in the reality but deep somewhere buried in my heart. It was a dream. I told myself it could only be a dream, but its echo was wrapped around me like a comfortable blanket. Like a blanket I had adored in childhood and lost somewhere along the way, but now I could see it peeking through the clutter of forgotten things, shining and beckoning me, as it looked down at me from the top shelf that I couldn’t reach.He was there in my dreams. Once again my husband was in my dreams and he wasn’t the monster he was today. I had willingly crawled into his lap, I had felt safe with him. He was the man who’d brought me my favourite food and gave me a relief from my horrible life.I sat up slowly and let out a breath when I felt my whole body tensing up in discomfort. And then my present, my reality, rushed back to the forefront of my min
Flashback continues...NINA “You need to eat more, lisichka. How will I hunt you next time if you fainted in the middle of the chase.”I sucked in a breath, he made it sound like there was more to our little game of chase. I licked my lips and despite myself I obeyed him. Somehow it felt good to obey him, to make him see that I could do whatever he wanted from me.As I ate, I watched him. And watching him, made my body relax. It always did when I am around him, except that initial nervous energy that takes hold of me. But being close to him, my muscles would relax, no longer coiled up to fight or run from danger. Even though I knew he was dangerous, he felt less so with every other threatening presence around me.And it was all because of the last few days. Because something had changed without me knowing it. The quiet between us wasn’t threatening anymore. It had morphed into something else. Slowly, subtly, it had become a respite from the nightmare that was my life. I used to be s
Flashback #4 NINAThe house was quiet. And it was way past midnight. But I was still waiting… He hadn’t come yet.I didn’t even know when it had started, this habit of waiting for him. Of glancing at the balcony doors every night, my breath catching at the slightest shift of shadows, thinking that he had finally come.But he wasn’t there.For the past ten days, he had come at midnight like clockwork. But even though he had been at the dinner table last night because my father had invited him, he hadn’t come to my room afterward like he usually did. And it seemed he wasn’t going to come tonight either.With a disappointed sigh, I slid down on the bed and pulled the covers over my head. I was just about to let out a frustrated breath when I heard the balcony door creak open, and the air in my bedroom shifted with his presence.Jeremiah Sokolov.The Russian. Enemy of my father.And my only chance at freedom.The small lamp at my bedside table barely illuminated him, but I knew exactly w
LACHLAN "Then maybe you never did.” And then he walked past me. But I wasn’t done.His words made a crack inside my chest, spilling the pain and making a mess. “So that’s why you chose to do what you did tonight, to test me? To hurt me, because you think that I never loved you.” I whirled him around by his arm and glared at him, “If you want to punish me then do so… don’t fucking use her, or question my feelings in this way,” I yelled, my calm that I was known for was nowhere to be found. And because I was filled with so much need to destroy something, I grabbed the bottle from the bar and threw it across the room. It shattered on impact, but not nearly loud enough to compete with the noise inside my chest. I'd need something else to drown that out. “And you will take that punishment? To spare her?” He asked, his grey eyes glinting with a warning. If I was sober, I would’ve laughed in his face for being jealous of me and Nina. Wasn’t it him who brought her in our lives? Wasn’
LACHLAN I didn’t know how many drinks I have had. At least it had stopped hurting at some point and now all I was filled with was this rage that needed an outlet, or someone to blow it out a breath at a time. I tried the easy method, I went to her bedroom. But I found her sleeping, peacefully, or maybe once again she was lost in another of her nightmares. But I saw her wet hair and the jar of ointment on the bedside table and I guessed that Jeremiah, for once, had taken responsibility and done the aftercare like she needed. At least I hoped that it was him.I hovered near her bed for a while, and then tugged the covers down and glared at the marks that I revealed. Fucking Jeremiah. Fucking arsehole, for not only doing this to her but also in front of them all. He hurt her. He humiliated her. Degraded her in front of everyone and I was okay with it. He wanted to take it out on her. He wanted a sense of satisfaction for the pain he went through. He wanted an outlet and he got one i
JEREMIAH When I finally put her down on the tiled floor of the bathroom, she stumbled but caught herself on the sink and then she glared at me. “Get out.” I looked down at her. My suit jacket had slipped off her shoulders, and she stood there… Naked and vulnerable. Looking too small. When I didn’t move, she grabbed the first thing she could get her hand on and threw it at me. A toothbrush. I let it hit me in the chest, before it dropped down on the floor. I took a step toward her and grabbed her arms. “You either let me do this, or you sit here all night crying like a broken thing.” “Why do you even care?" She gritted out, trying to pick up the bottle of hair oil next to hit me with. I grabbed her wrist. "I don't. I am making sure, you don't die before you fulfil your side of the agreement." Her eyes spat daggers at me even as tears pooled in them and fell down her cheeks in rivulets. "Go to hell!" She cursed, hate written all over her face. I grabbed her chin and forced her
JEREMIAH The silence in the car was thick— like blood drying on skin, like ash after fire. She hadn’t said a single word since we left the club. And for the first time I wasn’t too comfortable with this silence. I’ve always preferred it in the past. It’s predictable. Reliable. Uncomplicated. But tonight, it feels like a scream stretched thin across the leather seats. It’s suffocating like the silence in that dark cell where I was kept. She was crying. Again. The way someone cries when they were trying not to. The kind that doesn’t beg for attention. Not loud, not hysterical but just those quiet sobs that crawl under your skin and settle into your bones. And then then those quiet sobs turned into more, they begin to shake her shoulders, like something inside her was breaking with each breath.I fucking hate it.And I didn't understand why. But hearing her muffled cries had my jaw locked. And my mind? It felt like a fucking battlefield.I should feel victorious. I should feel sati
NINA“Lift her,” My husband ordered, voice like sharpened ice. “And put her on the table.”The table? My breath froze in my lungs, the blood roaring in my ears, making it impossible to hear anything else. Olezka moved toward me before I could do anything, not that I even had the strength anymore. With my skin stretched taut like any time now I will catch on fire as I burned with shame and pain.But thankfully, Lachlan was there as he lifted me and carried me with a tight expression on his face to where Jeremiah wanted me. On a padded table in the center of the room. The surface was cold, the leather felt chilling to my heated skin as I was laid bare on it. I hissed through my teeth when my aching arse, the raw flesh, came in contact with the cold surface. My thighs instinctively tried to close, a last shred of modesty screaming inside me even when I knew it doesn’t matter.But at least Kayne and Xavier were not there anymore. Jeremiah laughed. “Now you want to hide, when we can cl