her sweet chains

Episode 29

“Little one? What the hell are you doing here? And what did you do to that window?” Roger squealed lifting himself up from under the bonnet of Pete’s battered old Explorer, as I jumped out of the car in front of the den.

“Where’s Darius?” I barked,

“Little one are you insane, Darius told you to stay at school, and where the hell is Jamie?” he asked leaning round to peer into the car behind me, “and who the hell is that on the back seat.” I folded my arms,

“That’s my mate Ashton.”

“Is he unconscious?”

“Yes.”

“OK I’m not human but I don’t think that’s normal?” he said blandly.

“He wouldn’t get out of the car, he said in I couldn’t drive in the state I was in I proved him wrong.”

“And he passed out?”

“After I slipped him some GHB.” I Said matter of factly,

“Oh.” Roger said shrugging as if that cleared the whole matter up. “The window?” He asked, I shrugged

“Jamie is at school, he had the car I needed it so I took it.”

“You hotwired it.”

“Oh don’t act shocked you taught me how to do that.” I said as I strode up the steps towards the front door. “DARIUS.” I shouted seeing his study was empty.

“Hey.” Roger shouted “what am I supposed to do with sleeping beauty here?”

“Kiss him.” I called

“Jessica Emily Mar.”

“No time for all that.” I snapped cutting of Darius’ snarl.

“What the hell are you doing here I specifically told you to stay at school?” Darius snarled as he calmly strode out of the library.

“Hey Darius, what do you want me to do about her mate?”

“What?” Darius snapped as I flipped a hand casually.

“My Ashton is in the backseat of my car I drugged him with GHB about an hour ago.” Darius growled,

“Where’s Jamie?”

“School.”

“Does he know where you are?”

“No.” I said proudly “but he has been ringing for the past half an hour as that’s when I should have reached home.”

“Right.” Darius said sternly “Roger Drive Jessie’s car back .Ring Jamie and let him know what’s happened and then leave her friend to sleep this off at her flat he shouldn’t suffer any real adverse effects.” He said wearily as I strode into his study and calmly sat myself down despite the fact that the adrenaline was wearing off now I was finally inactive my hands had begun to tremor and my legs were twitching.

“Jessie do you need time to shift?” Darius asked carefully noticing my twitching.

“No.” I snapped forcing my legs to be still, this seemed so much easier than easing my emotions but I knew I had to try as that was the only way to fully repress my shift as did Darius so he sat behind his desk and simply sat quietly as I closed my eyes and focused on taking slow calming breaths. Eventually I did feel the twitches ease out as I actually found a calm point of view easier now I was here in Darius study. I opened my eyes and Looked at Darius who only seemed to take a few seconds to sense my gaze and raise his eyes to mine, closing the file in front of him which he had been pursuing. He looked at me sedately for a few moments; I didn’t know what to say for some reason now I was here all my thoughts and protests simply refused to form a sense coherent thought.

“Jessica why are you here?” he asked finally still watching me sedately.

“Are you insane?”I asked Darius just raised a single eyebrow quizzically, “you actually want me to answer that.” I said slowly,

“You came here against my wishes when you can do no real good here and that’s ignoring what you did to Jamie and of course ‘your Ashton’. Do you realize what Jamie will go through when he realised that you were gone?” I just opened and closed my mouth noiselessly several times,

“I…I was worried.” I finally managed to gabble, genius! “Maybe I didn’t respond in the best way but…he’s …he’s Derek.” I finished equally lamely as I started.

“You think that I don’t want to find evidence to acquit him. I am searching for any evidence I can that he didn’t do this.”

“How can you even consider it for a second you have seen him grow everyday since the day he was born. Would you even have considered it if she didn’t look so much like me?”

“Jessie.” He said in a growl “if anything that’s what makes me doubt he did it more than anything.” I frowned at him. Darius sighed and slid his chair a tiny distance back reaching into the concealed fridge dropping a large slab of chocolate and a diet coke on the table, I just frowned more. “You haven’t eaten for hours if you don’t eat you get grumpy.” He said plainly. I narrowed my eyes at him for a second which of course had no effect on an alpha and he simply sat back in his chair watching me patiently. I managed to resist for about a full thirty seconds before I gave up and with a growl my stomach won the battle with my pride and I grabbed the chocolate.

“So.”I said licking chocolate off my fingers, “what evidence is there.” Darius sighed

“There’s a hell of a lot of not a lot.”

“Huh?” I said successfully confused. Darius smiled fondly but the smile didn’t last long as he realised I wouldn’t be diverted.

“Derek was drunk he left the grounds he admits that, but beyond that he honestly doesn’t know what happened. But he of course says he would remember if he…killed someone. I found his scent around the crime scene well as close to the crime scene as I could get and by the time I actually got to where that poor girl was well they had contaminated the scene to the point where I couldn’t figure anything out .” he rubbed a hand across his forehead, with a sigh.

“It was definitely a wolf?” I asked in a hushed whisper that almost screamed my reluctance, and Darius nod was equally reluctant.

“There was no way those wounds could have possibly been inflicted by anything but an animal.”

“It could have been a big dog.” I put in hopefully Darius smiled as if I was six years old and had asked him to confirm that Fairy’s are real.

“It could have been a big dog.” He agreed softly

“Were there any other wolves around?”

“You mean rogues?”

“One could have snuck this close.” I suggested lightly looking intently at the piece of chocolate I held.

“It’s possible.” Darius said awkwardly,

“But you didn’t find any sign of one did you?”

“Like I said the scene was contaminated and I could hardly shove my nose into the dirt looking for a more subtle trail.”

“So he really could be you know telling the truth.” I said weakly

“I really hope so” Darius said lightly,

“Because you don’t want to kill him or because you don’t want to believe that I've f****d with him so badly that he’d abandon his control completely just to rip apart a surrogate me.” I said gently keeping my eyes down as I didn’t want to know what Darius’ response would be.

“Jessica.” He said gently as not having any chocolate left to gaze at instead began tearing the wrapper into shreds. “Derek loves you. You may not truly believe that you’re his mate but he does so he would never do that to you. He would never hurt you.” I finally raised my eyes to lock on Darius’ I could see my reflection in the mirror behind him that my eyes were wide and were now a beautiful shinning gold.

“Darius raised his eyes to the ceiling clearly searching for something he could say to make this better but was saved the necessity of having to make something up by the sudden shrill tone of the phone. Darius all but lunged to answer it thankfully.

“Yes.” he said gratefully as I heard Jamie’s voice drifting down the phone line. “Jamie yes she’s here.” He said perching the phone under his ear he walked from the study, which I knew was purely so that he would be free from this intense conversation he wanted out of, as he didn’t need to talk to Jamie in private. I sighed and reached out for my diet coke my hand freezing as suddenly my eyes locked on the file on his desk. I bit my lip honestly unsure of what to do curiosity battling with my desire to protect my own naivety about these events, my curiosity won out as I quickly snatched the file and pulled it to me. I held the pale cardboard folder in front of me staring at it. I flung the folder down on the desk with a sigh as I ran a hand across my forehead roughly, suddenly afraid to see what was inside.

“Damn it.” I growled savagely at myself “you are a wolf not a f*****g kitten.” I hissed reaching out I flung the file open before I could rethink. I instantly felt my insides recoil as I saw the pictures the memory of the taste of blood the feel of flesh tearing beneath my fangs welled up inside me making the pictures much to real . my hands trembled as I spread the pictures out across the Desk, my eyes glossed over the reports and witness testimonies that was for later, now I had to see what had been done, and I couldn’t resolve the pictures with my Derek with his firm yet tender hands with those intense eyes the only hint of what was angering him beneath that flawless surface control. The girl hadn’t just been killed she had been destroyed , her body was soaked in blood torn to shreds from the sternum almost to her groin the pictures showered how this cavity was almost empty her organs had been torn out and were strewn all around her body on the grass. I slid another photograph towards me which showed a close up shot of her heart or what was left it had been torn out and deep tears destroyed the strong muscle. I bit my lip as I realised what this picture showed, somebody had taken deep bites out of her heart. Without warning my stomach heaved and I leaned over vomiting violently on the floor. I wiped my mouth with a shaky hand. I wanted to run to Darius I wanted to hug him and smell my daddy the scent that had always made me feel safe. even though I knew I couldn’t it wouldn’t work not this time. against every rational thought inside me my eyes slid back to the photo’s still horrified by what they showed , The poor girl had obviously been identified by DNA or something as the pretty face I had seen in the photograph on my computer had been completely destroyed by a set of large claws had clearly swept across it multiple times slashing the skin almost completely off only her eyes remained unscathed staring blankly at the sky eerily her long hair spread out like a fan beneath her the light brown tinged with gold had vanished to be blanketed by a layer of thick crimson blood which every inch of her exposed skin was coated in as all her limbs were also marred by these long deep claw marks. I bit my lip as I felt my eyes stinging with the threat of tears. I shuffled all the photos back into a rough pile and I shoved the whole lot back into the folder. I shouldn’t have looked in there because now I needed answers. I bounced up to my feet and carrying the file I silently slipped out of the study. I could hear Darius’ voice from the living room, clearly trying to soothe an irate Jamie with his instance that I was okay and he didn’t blame him in the least for my escape. I slipped noiselessly across the hall I know my family enough to know that doesn’t mean that nobody heard me as I tripped down the stairs towards the basement but the most important thing was that nobody made a move to stop me.