Reclaiming Her Heart

Chapter 25 - Hide and Seek

Jadea

Adam led me into the pre-determined room where the scenes would happen. We both agreed having a separate space for the scenes would be good.

I hesitated at the threshold of the room. The moment I stepped in there, I would have to shift into the submissive mindset. Something I wasn't used to doing very well since I was an alpha. A very strong alpha of a very strong pack. It wasn't often I found myself submitting to anyone, or allowing others to make decisions for me. Or bossing me around in any sense of the word.

This was going to be hard. Harder than I initially thought it would be.

Taking a deep breath, I knew there was only one way to find out if this was ultimately going to work or not. And that was trying. I closed my eyes, counted to ten. Slowed my breathing. Slowed my heartbeat. Adam was my Dom. I would submit to him.

Stepping into the room, I kept my head down. I walked over to the edge of the bed and knelt on the floor, awaiting instruction.

Adam didn't waste any time, seeming to feel my anxious energy. My need to just try something to ease the noise, uncertainty, and confusion swirling in my mind.

From the top of the dresser, he picked up several beautiful and brightly colored ropes. They were made specifically for Shibari bondage.

"I am going to use these to tie you in a reverse prayer. Only your upper body will be restrained during this scene," he explained. "I'm going to have you change into this." He held up a very beautiful lavender chiffon and silk baby-doll. While lacy and feminine, it covered everything and was long enough not to be indecent. "I know submitting isn't something that comes naturally to you. I am hoping this helps keep you in your feminine, and in that sub-mindset during our scene."

An interesting tool, I mused to myself.

He handed me the outfit and I changed into it. Pulling on the silken, lavender booty shorts that matched.

"Stand here." He pointed to a spot in front of the bed where there was room for him to work. I did as instructed. I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't that Adam was rather competent at the intricate knots and ties. He didn't fumble. The ropes he pulled securely across my body and wrapped around my arms and chest felt comforting. Like a very tight hug. I closed my eyes and reveled in the moment.

When he was done, he stepped back and looked over his handiwork. "Does anything pinch? Or feel too tight?" he asked diligently, walking a circle around me, being critical of the ropes and knots.

"No, sir," I breathed. "It feels, nice. Calming. Soothing."

"Good," he affirmed. "I am going to blindfold you. Then I will lean you over the edge of the bed. Since we are focusing on your time with Hans, would you be okay if I set the scene by using this paddle," he held up a thinner wooden paddle. He was hoping to use it to increase my adrenaline, to get me closer to the mental state I was in when I was a pup under Hans's misguided care.

Normally, these details were worked out before a scene. Since we hadn't discussed this part after I'd changed our scene direction, and we were starting the scene sooner than expected, Adam was adapting as he went. "Yes, sir."

"I may jerk you around a bit too. That depends on you and how you are doing."

Again, I nodded my consent.

"Okay." Adam slipped the blindfold on, then helped me to the edge of the bed where he gently helped bend me over till my torso rested on the mattress. It gave him a beautiful open angle to use the paddle on my ass and thighs. One large, warm hand traced the curve of my hip as he said, "I don't want you to count the strikes. I want you to focus on the pain, and remember how Hans hurt you."

I took one shaky deep into my lungs and nodded. "Yes sir."

With my vision gone, my hearing became acute. I heard him shift. Heard him wind up for the strike. As the paddle swung towards my body, I heard the soft whistle of air as it moved. When it struck, it was a sharper pain than I was expecting. It took the breath from my lungs. Adam's presence in my mind—assessing the strike—was unfamiliar.

"What is your safe word?" he asked, pausing.

"Pineapple." I breathed.

"I am not going to soften the blows," he stated after a moment's deliberation. In his mind I saw he would not stop until he deemed I was in the right frame of mind. I could see the intention there and decided to trust him.

His hits were precise. They hurt. And I focused on the lasting pain. Of the continuous procession of thwacks. It was intense, and I could feel the panic in my chest rising, could feel my inner child responding as I focused on Hans and how he made me feel in conjunction with the very real pain I felt in the moment. I focused on the last hunt with Harley and Benji. Something really bad had happened. Father's anger was beyond usual. It bordered on maliciousness.

As each hit landed, I could fairly hear Hans's heavy footfalls closing in on where I hid in the brush, praying he wouldn't find me.

Then the footsteps ceased. Silence fell. And I thought I was safe. Until a hand closed around my scruff and yanked me up out of the brush—

The instant that thought crossed my mind, Adam's strong grip grabbed the rope and hauled me up off the bed before slamming my back against the wall.

Shit!

The panic sank its dark talons into my chest and sent me spiraling into inky blackness. And then the floodgates opened. The memories from that horrific moment came crashing down on me.

***Flashback***

I was yanked up by the scruff of my neck and a red-faced Hans was glaring at me. His eyes flaring red from the anger he felt, his entire body shaking with it.

"Run," he growled, dropping me before shifting into his primitive wolf form. He stood on two legs, like a man, but his body was covered in fur and his head was in the shape of a wolf. His long fingers had sharp black claws that raked the air. "I'll let you live, if you can escape me little twit." When I didn't move, he screamed, "Run!" leaning over far enough his nose was pressing into mine.

That snapped me out of my stupor and I scampered away. I didn't understand what he meant! Would he kill me if he caught me? I was his daughter!

"You have an hour head start, Jadea!" Hans's dreaded voice followed me through the trees as I fled. "And then the games will begin. You better pray I don't find you, because if I do, your death will not be swift. No one, not even my own daughter gets to defy my orders without consequences."

I didn't understand! I hadn't done anything other than try to get food. Others in my father's pack were allowed to use their powers to hunt, yet I wasn't. Why was I being singled out? Why didn't he love me?Why did he loathe me?

I ran to the river and plunged into its cold depths, hiding in a spot upstream where Benji and I came to fish many times. There was a good hiding spot just under the bank. A deep slow spot that was hard to see. I grabbed onto a tree root with my teeth and prayed Hans wouldn't find me.

Time was irrelevant in that fishing hole. Minutes felt like hours. As the night wore on, there was no sign of my father. As much as I wanted to get out of that freezing water, a deeper sense kept me there.

Suddenly, I saw him. Across the way he moved out of the bushes, his gaze searching. He was slow. Meticulous, stopping many times, listening and sniffing the air. My heart rate picked up and panic took hold. Could he hear me over the sound of the rapids? Could he know I was nearby?

His ears shifted, and I swore his gaze landed on mine. I believed I had been caught. I would have bolted if a deer hadn't bounded out into the stream at that moment. The animal splashing through the river just in front of me. My body jerked in response to the deer, my blood pressure spiking. When the deer ran off downstream, Hans stood there for many seconds before wandering further upstream.

I didn't leave my watery hiding spot until dawn broke the sky the next morning, when I knew I would be safe. I went back to my father's land where he was waiting for me. He snatched me up by the scruff and held me in front of his face. "You surprised me last night," he snarled, sounding frustrated about the outcome.

"What did I ever do to you!?" I screamed in his mind, unable to filter myself in that moment of exhaustion and emotion. "I'm your daughter!"

"You are no daughter of mine," he snapped back. "Your mother, the lying, dishonest b***h she is, couldn't keep her damn legs closed! You are a bastard child! You are not of my blood! And if it wasn't for your grandfather forcing me to raise you, I would have already killed you!" he seethed.

He let me go and disappeared into the woodland. As I gimped my way back towards the house, I heard the frantic calls for Hans ring out. Whatever was going on was big. It had everyone scrambling around the compound. Right now, as everyone was distracted, was the best opportunity I would get to sneak away.

I wanted to ignore whatever was going on, but when I heard Benji's name... I couldn't help it.

"What is it?" Hans demanded.

"He's nowhere to be found. And neither is Harley. Benji never came back after yesterday's botched hunt and Harley went out to find him."

Hans cursed vehemently under his breath. "Gather a search party. We need to find them."

Everyone went running in separate directions, trying to find the two missing boys.

Knowing I couldn't leave until Benji was found, I took off into the woods as well. It didn't take long for me to find him. Well, I didn't see him first. I smelled him. I smelled the blood and death in the air.

My heart rate picked up, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My stomach bottoming out. I didn't like this. "Benji!" I called out into the void, trying to reach his mind, but he was not there.

And then, I came upon the scene of the crime. There was Benji sprawled out on the forest floor. His eyes were open in death, black and soulless. His fur stained with blood. His belly ripped wide open, guts spilling out. The cut looked too neat to be made by an animal.

Right behind him, my gaze caught on a shocking sight. Light green eyes, like mine, stared back. The wolf stepped out of the shadows and I c****d my head in confusion as I stared at what seemed like a reflection of myself. Though, there was Benji's blood on the mirror image's snout, neck and paws. When the wind shifted, I knew who this was.

"Harley?" I asked. There had been talk about Harley's gift being the same as Pappy Elam's. It was a very rare shifter power, where one could shift into any being as long as he, or she, had seen that individual at least once.

In the conversation that followed, Harley admitted to setting me up when we were hunting the deer. And now, he was setting me up again, trying to get me killed. As he alerted the pack to their location, he said, "I didn't kill Benji, Jadea. You did. At least that is what father is going to see," he smirked triumphantly, lunging at me so he could pin me down and rub Benji's blood all over me. Making it look as if I was the killer.

This event was what set off Hans. This was the tipping point for him. This was when he decided to strip me of my womanhood in an attempt to get back at Elam. Elam was the reason I was here in the first place. And so, Hans blamed Elam for what happened to Benji. Once the surgery was complete, Hans threw me into the trunk of the car and dropped me off in the wilderness, still fresh and bleeding from the surgery.

"If I ever come across you again, I promise I will kill you."