I Belong To You Aurelius

Chapter 2: The Stream Of Reckoning

Thalia’s hands shook at her sides, fingers curling into fists so tight her nails bit into her palms hard enough to draw blood, but she couldn’t do anything, not a damn thing, because the girl standing over her was Celina Redd, daughter of the alpha of the Red Claw Pack, sister to the heir, and Thalia’s employer.

The word tasted like ash in her mouth.

“Get up, omega,” the blonde b***h said, and when Thalia tried to push herself out of the stream, a foot connected with her shoulder and she went under again, face-first into water that stung like crazy from where her lip had split.

She came up sputtering, heard them laughing like this was the best entertainment they’d had all week, and maybe it was, their lives were so perfect they had to manufacture their own drama by drowning servants in decorative streams.

“You really had some nerve, didn’t you?” The voice belonged to the redhead, and she was leaning down like she wanted to make sure Thalia heard every word. “Thinking you could spread your legs for the heir and he’d actually keep you around, what did you expect, that he’d marry you?”

The tears came before Thalia could stop them, hot and humiliating against her cold skin, and she hated herself for it.

She’d been stupid enough to believe Marcus Redd when he’d whispered sweet promises in her ear while he’d taken everything she’d had left to give.

She’d let him use her body over and over, let him make her feel wanted for the first time in her miserable life, and the moment he’d grown bored she’d lost the only protection she’d had in this place.

Now here she was, drowning in a stream while his stupid sister watched with cold satisfaction in her eyes.

The next slap came out of nowhere, snapping Thalia’s head to the side hard enough that stars exploded behind her eyes. When she could focus again, Celina was crouched in front of her, close enough that Thalia could smell the sickly sweet perfume mixed with something sharper, something that made her wolf stir restlessly in anger beneath her skin.

Satisfaction and cruelty. The scent of someone who enjoyed causing pain.

“Smile,” Celina said softly, dangerously, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “Smile and thank me for disciplining you properly.”

Something inside Thalia cracked, maybe it was the last thread of self-preservation she’d been clinging to, maybe it was just that she’d had enough of bowing her head and taking whatever people wanted to dish out, but whatever it was, it broke.

The words came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“You’re a f*****g b***h,” Thalia said, her voice hoarse from the water she’d swallowed but the words were clear enough. “If you’re so pissed your brother f****d me instead of you, why don’t you crawl into his bed yourself.”

The clearing went dead silent. Even the birds seemed to hold their breath. Thalia could see the shock rippling across every face staring at her, could see the exact moment Celina’s expression transformed from smug superiority to murderous rage.

Part of Thalia’s mind was screaming at her, telling her she’d just signed her own death warrant, but another part, the part that was so tired of running and hiding and pretending to be less than she was, that part was almost relieved.

If she was going to die anyway, she might as well go out swinging.

“You little—” Celina didn’t finish the sentence, just jerked her head at her friends, and they descended on Thalia like a pack of wolves on wounded prey.

Hands grabbed at her, yanking her hair, her arms, her soaked gown, and Thalia snarled, actually snarled like the wolf she was, and felt her eyes flash with power, that strange silver glow that had always marked her as different.

“Freak,” someone hissed, the word cutting through the chaos, and for a heartbeat they all hesitated, staring at her glowing eyes with something that looked like fear, but Celina’s voice cut through their hesitation like a whip.

“I don’t care if her eyes f*****g glow purple, hold her down!”

The moment of hesitation passed and they tackled her to the ground, dragging her out of the stream and onto the muddy bank. The beating started in earnest, fists and feet connecting with ribs and stomach and face.

Her wolf pushed forward beneath her skin, demanding she shift, demanding she tear into them with teeth and claws, but she forced it back down because shifting meant exposure, meant everyone would come running and the moment that happened she was as good as dead.

Thalia couldn’t defend against all of them, her body was already exhausted, but something primal surged through her veins when her back hit the ground. Some desperate animal instinct that wouldn’t let her just curl up and die.

Adrenaline flooded her system wildly, burning away the exhaustion and the pain and the fear, and suddenly she could move. Her hand shot out and found hair, soft and perfectly maintained, and she twisted her fingers in it and pulled with everything she had, dragging one of the girls down to her level.

The blonde b***h. The one who’d kicked her into the stream. The one who watched her with suspicious eyes every damn day.

She became the sole focus of every bit of rage and anger Thalia had been swallowing for months, for twenty-two years, for her entire miserable life.

Thalia punched her with every single thing she had in her, feeling bone give way under her knuckles and blood spray across both their faces. Even as the others beat her from behind, even as ribs cracked under someone’s boot and she tasted blood in her mouth, she kept hitting that one girl.

If she was going down, she was taking at least one of them with her.

The girl screamed but Thalia barely heard it over the roaring in her ears, over the sound of her own heartbeat thundering like war drums. She kept fighting because stopping meant accepting this was all she deserved, and some stubborn part of her refused to believe that.

She poured every ounce of her rage into destroying that pretty face, into making sure this one would remember her, would carry scars just like Thalia did.

In the distance she could swear she could hear something approaching. Footfalls, fast and unnaturally light for their speed, barely disturbing the forest floor. But it all seemed very far away compared to the immediate satisfaction of feeling that nose break under her fist one more time.

Then a voice cut through the sounds of the fight, cold and irritated and familiar enough that she felt her stomach twist.

“Just what the f**k is happening here?”

Everything stopped. The hands holding her down, the feet that had been aimed at her ribs, even the girl whose face Thalia had just destroyed froze beneath her.

Thalia looked up through the haze of pain and tears to see Marcus Redd standing at the clearing’s edge, barely breathing hard despite clearly having run here at speed. He looked every bit the noble heir who’d used her and thrown her away like garbage.

But Marcus wasn’t alone.

The man standing beside him made Thalia’s blood turn to ice.

Suddenly everything clicked into place, the festival, the visiting dignitary she’d been told to avoid, the diplomatic meetings she hadn’t bothered learning about because what did any of it matter to an omega like her.

She knew that face. Would know it anywhere even after months of trying to forget it. Had seen it in her nightmares every single night since she’d run.

Aurelius Morales.

If she’d known, if she’d had any idea that he would be here, she would have left in the dead of night and never looked back, would have risked starving in the wilderness rather than face him again.

His grey eyes locked onto hers and she watched recognition flash across his face.

Fuck, Thalia thought, still straddling the girl she’d beaten bloody, her hands shaking from adrenaline and terror. f**k f**k f**k.

Months of running and hiding and it hadn’t mattered at all, because here he was, and there was nowhere left to run, no way to disappear, not with those eyes pinning her in place like she was prey he’d finally hunted down.

“You.”