Pregnant for the Alpha and Vampire

Chapter 4 The Locked doors

The rain came down in sheets, cold and relentless, and Furia stood at the front gate of her father’s house with her hand pressed against the iron bars and her body shaking from the cold that had seeped into her bones.

She had been standing there for over an hour, her dress soaked through and her hair plastered to her face and her fingers curled around the bars, and she was not sure anyone was home because the windows were dark and no sound came from inside, but she could not stand in the rain forever so she finally raised her fist and knocked. The gate swung open almost immediately, and Rhys stood there with his hair wet and his face pale and his eyes wide as he grabbed her arm and pulled her inside.

“Where have you been?” he asked while looking at her face and her torn dress and the bruises forming on her cheek. “Why are you just returning home by one in the morning?”

He guided her toward the house with his hand steady on her arm, and the front door opened before they reached it to reveal Lord Theron standing in the doorway with his hands clenched at his sides and his face carved from stone. Lady Marguerite stood behind him with her arms folded and her lips pressed together, and Celeste was coming down the stairs with her robe wrapped around her and her eyes bright with something that looked like satisfaction at the noise she had heard.

Lord Theron stepped forward and grabbed Furia’s arm, pulling her away from Rhys and forcing her to stand before him. “Where have you been?” he asked with his voice low and his teeth clenched, but Furia opened her mouth and no words came out, and she stood there with the rain dripping from her dress onto the floor and her throat closed and her hands shaking, and she could not answer.

Her father’s face went dark, and he released her arm with a shove that sent her stumbling back. “I have been hearing things from your mother,” he said while looking at her with his jaw tight. “I chose not to believe them, but now you leave this house and decide to come back in the middle of the night, so did you believe I had travelled and would not be home?”

Rhys stepped forward with his hand out. “Father, she looks cold and bruised, so let me take her inside and...”

“She did not even inform anyone before she left,” Lady Marguerite cut in while stepping closer and pointing a finger at Furia. “The baker’s son saw her earlier today coming down from an expensive carriage, an unknown carriage, and if you do not believe me, you can ask him yourself.”

Lord Theron looked at his wife, and then he looked at Furia, and his hands were shaking with a rage he was barely holding back.

“After we left the seamstress,” Lady Marguerite continued while moving to stand beside her husband, “she volunteered to go for Celeste’s jewelry, and even when I refused, she insisted, so I gave her money for a carriage. She was supposed to be home by six, but instead she was out there with no supervision, so was she wishing to disgrace this family before the Claiming Night?” She looked at Furia with her lips curling. “Who knows what is going on with her, or if she is no longer pure.”

Anger seethed through Lord Theron’s face, and he stepped forward and grabbed Furia’s chin, forcing her to look at him. “Have you dishonored this family’s name?” he asked with his voice low and his teeth clenched.

Furia opened her mouth, but no words came out, and she stood there with his fingers digging into her skin and her throat closed and her heart pounding, and she could not answer.

Lord Theron’s face went dark, and he broke the order he had made about not marking her before the Claiming Night, and his hand came across her face with a c***k that sent her head snapping to the side and her vision swimming.

Rhys stepped forward to take her arm and guide her inside, but Lady Marguerite moved between them with her arm out and her face hard. “You will not,” she said while looking at her son with her eyes narrowed. “You will not interfere.”

Rhys stood there with his hands shaking and his face pale, and he looked at Furia standing in the middle of the hall with her dress dripping and her face bleeding and her hands shaking, and he wondered why she was not saying anything because he knew all those things they had said against her were lies, but he was powerless against his mother and Celeste was just standing at the bottom of the stairs with her arms folded and her lips pressed together, enjoying the show.

Lord Theron looked at Rhys and held up his hand. “You will not take her or go near her,” he said while pointing at the two male servants standing by the stairs. “Lock her up, and if she comes out before I call for her, you will answer for it.”

The servants took her arms, and she did not resist because she did not have the strength to resist; they pulled her up the stairs and down the hallway and pushed her into her room, and she heard the key turn in the lock behind her with a sound that was final in a way she had never heard anything be final before.

She stood in the middle of her room with her dress still wet and her hands still shaking and her face throbbing where her father had hit her, and the only thing that circulated through her mind was the crazy events that had happened that evening, events she was sure nobody would believe even if she told them, unless maybe Rhys. She was so fazed that she did not realize where her hand was going until she touched her neck and felt the locket there, the locket she was sure she had kept in her room before she went out.