Kidnapped By My True Mate

CHAPTER 2

AYLA CROSS

Flashback on:

"I’m pregnant…" I whisper in shock, staring at the pregnancy test in my hands.

"My God… I’m pregnant…"

I turn around, expecting to see Damon behind me.

But the man… isn’t Damon.

It’s Cael.

He smiles happily before kissing me and pulling me into his arms.

"You’re going to be a dad, Cael…" I whisper, emotional.

Then his hand slides to my belly.

"My love… this is the best day of my life."

"We’re going to be great parents…" he whispers against my lips, and I nod, laughing.

Cael lifts me up and spins me around.

And then everything disappears, and when I open my eyes, I’m running.

I’m running from something… or someone.

"AYLA!"

Damon.

But he’s not calling me. He’s screaming. He’s furious.

I run faster, looking back and seeing him chasing me.

"YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME! YOU’RE MINE! YOU’RE MY WIFE!"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

I run toward the stairs, but before I reach the top, a hand grabs my arm so hard that I scream.

"LET ME GO, DAMON!"

"Ayla, you’re not leaving me. I love you. I did everything for you. Don’t you understand?"

"LET ME GO!"

"I will never let you go… even if I have to do anything to make that happen."

My eyes widen.

"You’re crazy…"

"I would never let you go back to him again."

Damon holds me tightly, and I turn my head and see that we’re at the top of the stairs.

"I would never let anyone have you, because you’re mine and you’ve always been mine. Do you understand that, Ayla? You’re mine!"

I struggle harder as he tries to drag me somewhere, but before that can happen, I trip and feel my body falling down the stairs.

Flashback off:

I wake up sitting in bed, crying and trying to breathe.

"Ayla?! I heard you scream. What happened?" Damon rushes into the room.

I look at him in fear, remembering the nightmare I just had.

"I… I saw things. It feels like… I remembered something."

"What exactly did you see?" he asks, trying to sound calm.

"Why did I fall down the stairs, Damon?"

He smiles at me, touching my hand.

"You tripped, Ayla. That’s all. You were going down and… you slipped."

"And where were you?"

"With Hazel. I heard the noise and ran to help you. It was just an accident, love. You had a nightmare. That’s all."

But the way he looks at me… like he’s measuring every word I say… makes me feel sick.

He touches my face, but I pull back slightly. I don’t know if he notices.

"How are you feeling today?" he asks, trying to kiss my forehead.

Before he can, Hazel runs into the room like lightning.

"MOMMY!"

She jumps onto the bed and into my arms.

I hug her and smile.

"I love you both more than anything," Damon says, watching us.

Hazel pulls my hand.

"Come have breakfast with me, Mommy!"

I try to smile.

"Of course… let’s go."

Damon gets a call and looks at his phone, tense and irritated.

"I need to take care of something from the pack. Urgent."

"Is everything okay?" I ask.

"Yes. I’ll be back soon."

He kisses Hazel’s head and leaves.

I stay alone with Hazel in the house, and after breakfast we play, doing puzzles and running around.

Hazel runs to the glass door that leads to the garden.

"Mommy! Let’s play in the forest behind the house!"

"Let’s go, my love."

I try to open the door, but I can’t.

I frown and try again, but it’s locked.

"What’s wrong, Mommy?"

"I… I think it’s locked…"

I run to another door, and it’s locked too.

He locked everything.

He locked me inside the house.

That same awful feeling comes back as Hazel squeezes my hand.

I look at the marks on my wrists, then at the locked doors, and everything seems to point to him.

I blink, tears filling my eyes as I remember his words from my nightmare:

"I did what I had to do, Ayla."

I try not to panic all day, and when night finally comes, Hazel falls asleep.

I’m almost asleep when I hear someone entering the house.

I leave the bedroom and go to the stairs, where I see Damon coming in.

"Sorry I’m late."

"Where were you?"

"Taking care of a few things. Why are you so tense?"

"Why am I tense? Maybe because you locked me inside the house."

His smile disappears.

"What are you talking about?"

I point at the doors — all of them.

"This. You know exactly what I’m talking about."

"I didn’t do anything."

"I’m not stupid, Damon. You locked all the doors. Why?"

He takes a deep breath and steps toward me, but I step back.

He notices, frowns, and raises his hands calmly.

"I did it for your safety. For yours and Hazel’s."

"Safety? From what?"

"From him."

I frown, confused.

"Who?"

"The man from the hospital. Cael."

"The… what?"

He steps closer, slowly, like an animal trying not to scare another.

"I should’ve told you. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about the doors. I just want to protect you."

"I…"

"I’ll make dinner," he says, leaning in to kiss my forehead.

During dinner, I watch Damon carefully.

"Did you remember anything today?" he asks, putting food on my plate.

I shake my head.

"No."

"I see."

He gets up and comes back with two pills and a glass of water.

"Take these. They’ll help."

I take them, but something feels wrong. Still, I put them in my mouth and drink the water.

"Is this… normal?" I ask as I start to feel very sleepy.

"Yes. You just need to rest."

He helps me up and takes me to bed.

I barely feel my body when I fall onto the mattress and fall asleep.

When I wake up, the room is dark, and I’m alone in bed.

"Hazel? Damon?"

I get up slowly, still dizzy, and try to open the door, but it’s locked.

"No… no, no, no."

"Damon! DAMON!"

"Open this door now!"

I run around the room, opening drawers, searching for anything.

I grab a metal piece from the window frame and start forcing the lock.

I gasp when I finally manage to open it and run, searching for my daughter.

"Hazel!"

My heart feels like it’s going to explode.

I see a door I’ve never seen before — locked. I try to open it until I finally break the lock.

It’s a dark basement.

I go down the steps and see many boxes.

I look around and start searching through them.

I feel that Damon is hiding something from me, and that something is terribly wrong in this house.

In the first box, I find many photos of me pregnant and smiling, and I frown, remembering that Damon said I always hated photos.

I open another box and see pictures of Hazel as a baby.

But then…

I freeze, and a photo slips from my hand.

Me and Cael.

We’re together in the picture, and he’s holding my belly.

Tears spill down my face when I find another photo — an ultrasound of Hazel.

I turn it over slowly and see my handwriting on it.

"Cael, you’re going to be a wonderful father."

"No… no, no, no…"

I drop to my knees, opening another folder and finding a marriage certificate.

Cael and I have been married for a long time.

I can’t breathe, and my hand trembles when I touch something at the bottom of the box.

It’s a newspaper clipping with my pregnant photo smiling in a headline.

It says I disappeared months ago, pregnant, and that my husband, Cael, is desperately searching for me.

"No…" I whisper, shaking my head as I look at everything around me.

Everything was a lie.

"Ayla…"

I turn quickly and see Damon standing at the basement door.

But now… he isn’t smiling.

He looks at me seriously, as if he’s assessing me.

I point at the newspaper with a shaking hand.

"You lied to me. I’m not your wife. I never was."

"Yes. You are."

"Stay away from me! Where is my daughter?"

"You shouldn’t be down here, Ayla."

I stand up, backing away as he starts coming down the stairs toward me.

"This house isn’t mine, we were never married. Hazel is mine and Cael’s, not yours. You made me fall down the stairs so I’d lose my memory…" I whisper through tears, and he shakes his head.

"You’re confused, Ayla. None of that is true. We’re married. We’re a family."

"No! Stay away from me!" I scream, but he keeps coming.

"Everything I did was for you and for us. Cael is the real monster in this story, not me. I would never hurt you, Ayla. I love you and our Hazel."

"Enough!" I scream, stepping away and starting to go up the stairs, but I stop when I hear his voice.

"Where do you think you’re going, sweetheart?" he asks, and I shiver.

"Away from you. To my real husband. Cael."

He slowly shakes his head.

"You’re not going anywhere, and certainly not to him, Ayla."

"Damon…" I whisper as tears fall.

"You shouldn’t have seen any of this, and now… you should start running, my love."