Chapter 3
928 Words
Jax’s POV
"Freya..." the name hit me like a punch to the gut.
My throat throbbed, and my palm burned right where I had touched her skin. That damn spark still vibrated in the air, mocking everything I had believed until now.
A vampire. A murderous bloodsucker. Like those ice-cold, death-reeking, red-eyed monsters who laughed in my face while they spilled my parents' blood on the kitchen floor. But this girl... Freya... she was different. Her pointed ears, that stubborn, golden light in her green eyes, and that scent that didn't resemble the stench of corpses at all. She wasn't like them.
But her fangs were still sharp. Their blood flowed in her veins. She was still my enemy. And yet, my inner wolf howled for her. It wanted me to kneel before her, tear her chains apart, and carry her to my room.
I sickened myself.
"Go to hell!" I growled, but my voice probably sounded more uncertain than I had wanted it to.
I turned and stormed out of the cell. I slammed the heavy iron door behind me with such force that plaster started falling from the wall. I turned the key twice in the lock, as if by doing so I could lock away that strange, sweet scent that was beginning to poison my mind.
I practically ran up the stairs leading out of the basement. With every single step, my parents' last look flashed into my mind. They were killed by pureblood vampires. Ordinary leeches. Not strange, pointed-eared mutts like her, but that didn't change the fact that the girl belonged to their kind. And now, along with her name, she had burned herself into my soul.
As I stepped into the bar, the noise died down immediately. The members of my pack—nearly thirty grumpy, tattooed bikers—were all watching me. You could feel their bloodlust in the air. For them, this was simple: we caught an intruder, an enemy who needed to be executed. They didn't know what I knew. They didn't feel that suffocating bond that was trying to tear me apart from the inside right now.
Silas, my Beta and oldest friend, stood at the bar, swirling a glass of whiskey in his hand. His gaze was dark and searching. He knew my every mood.
"Well?" Silas asked in a quiet but ominous tone. "Are you done with her? Or can we start the fun?"
The others grunted in agreement. One or two were already sharpening their knives on their pants.
"No," I answered, stepping behind the bar. I poured myself a glass and downed it in one gulp. It burned, but not enough. "We're not done with her. Not yet."
"Jax, she's a vampire!" Kane, one of my most hot-headed fighters, stepped forward. "You know the rule. No mercy for leeches on our territory. Why is she still alive?"
I slammed the glass down on the counter with such force that it shattered to pieces beneath my hand. The shards cut into my fingers, but the pain felt good. It distracted me from that woman in the basement.
"I am the Alpha!" I roared, and my voice drowned out all opposition. "I make the rules! This woman... this Freya... is something else. A mutant, an experiment, who the hell knows what. She doesn't smell like the ones we know. I'm going to extract from her who sent her, what those pointed ears are, and why she fled here of all places."
Silas's eyebrows shot up when I uttered the girl's name, but he wisely remained silent.
I looked over the pack and saw the doubt in their eyes. I had to show them that I hated her, too. That she meant nothing to me. I had to punish the girl for fate making her my mate, and I had to punish myself for desiring her.
"Listen to me!" I declared in a cold, cruel voice. "The mutt stays in the basement, chained up. No one goes in to see her. No one speaks to her."
I paused for a moment, and my heart skipped a beat when I gave the next order:
"She gets nothing for days. No food, no water. And most importantly... not a single drop of blood. We're going to starve her out. We'll see how big her mouth is when the vampire hunger starts chewing her guts apart. I'm going to break her."
"That's a slow death, boss," Silas noted quietly.
"It's the death she deserves," I lied to my pack, and I lied to myself, too.
In truth, I hoped that if I tormented her long enough, if I kept her far enough away from me, this damn bond would break. I wanted to show destiny that I, Jax Wilder, would not be fate's plaything, and I certainly would not submit to someone whose veins coursed with the blood of killers. If I have to, I'll watch her wither away.
"Silas, you guard the key," I tossed the metal ring onto the counter. "Anyone who breaks my command and gives her anything will deal with me. Have I made myself clear?"
The answer boomed in unison:
"Clear, Alpha!"
I turned, and without looking at anyone, I headed for the exit. I needed my bike. I needed the speed and the wind to wash out of my head that green-eyed girl who was down there in the dark, hungry and thirsty, waiting for the slow agony.
But deep down I knew: the real agony had only just begun. For both of us.
- Writer
