The Alpha's Vessel [The Alpha's #2]
Chapter Eight

THEA PETROVNA

Before she had headed into the shower, Thea had locked the bedroom door and even blocked it by going as far as to move a chest of drawers and chair in front of it but it appeared that, that was enough. However, what really puzzled her was that nothing in the room had moved but somehow, he had managed to get into the room and slip into the bed beside her son.

Technically, his son too though she refused to acknowledge that, let alone voice it aloud.

The single window in the room was still closed and nothing had moved out of place however, Alpha Orpheus had somehow managed to make his way into her room however, it didn’t make sense as to why he had chosen to slip into the bed instead of into the bathroom, especially since she had left the door slightly ajar.

Not that she wanted a repeat of that horrific night, but she was just surprised that he had not taken advantage of the situation and gone in for the kill.

She wasn’t sure what was worse. Him slipping into the shower with her, or slipping in behind Malik and curling himself around him, feigning the role of the caring, dutiful father even though she knew that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

With his eyes closed and his chest moving up and down slightly with each inhale and exhale, she refused to allow herself to believe he was asleep as that would only cause her to lower her barriers, giving him the advantage of catching her off guard.

Even though she didn’t know a thing about him – other than the fact that he liked rape unsuspecting women in his past time – Thea didn’t hate anyone as much as him or trust anyone less than him.

She also refused to believe that he had snuck into their room only to fall asleep. With the way he had spoken to her over lunch and sent her purposeful looks whenever he got the chance, she knew that this was perfectly planned and far from a coincidence.

Looking down at the two of them now, she couldn’t help but note the similarities between the two, even if Malik was still five and had yet to grow up. With their equally dark hair that currently had a strand sticking up at the back, tan complexion and overall dark features, Thea would have no doubt in her mind as to who was Malik’s father, even if she had been sleeping around which she hadn’t.

Seeing him curled up around Malik like that, made her think that if things had been different between them – if they simple had, had sex and he hadn’t proceeded to forcefully take from her what he wanted – this could have been a very sweet moment that she had just walked into but instead, in reality, all she could do was worry.

She worried that he would keep bothering them and using futile excuses to come see – or rather, terrorise – them every chance he got. She worried that he would abuse his role as Alpha to purposely make his life difficult for them but most of all, she worried what would happen now that he knew their names and where to replace them. That, and the fact that he now knew that she had gotten pregnant and kept the baby.

Very aware that she wouldn’t be of any use with her mind plagued of such fears and worries – one which she would eventually have to address later but right now, they were doing more harm than good – Thea shook her head before springing into action.

The first thing she did was slowly backtrack to the bathroom and turn the shower on again. If were to wake up, she hoped that the sound of the water still running would fool him into thinking that she was still in there. However, she knew that was only wishful thinking as he was an Alpha wolf and no doubt would be able to sense her to be in the room and not in the bathroom like she hoped to fool him into thinking, but she just hoped it would at least buy her a few seconds of time.

When Thea had first barricaded the door, her intention had been to keep unwanted visitors out but now, she felt like it was suffocating her by keeping them in with him.

Once she reached the furniture in front of the door after having tip-toed over in hopes that she wouldn’t wake him up, she reached for the chair first. Not trusting herself to not drop it and wake him up with the loud noise, she held her breath as she pressed against the front of her body before slowly lowering it to the ground by the side, not the least bit concerned about returning it to its previous position behind the small desk on the other side of the room.

The chest of drawers was next and unfortunately, that was not something that she would be able to pick up, especially since she had resorted to sliding it over into position earlier.

Thea clamped her mouth shut as she slowly slid the chest of drawers out of the way, wincing and holding her breath in fear each time it scraped loudly against the ground.

Once she had cleared enough space to open the door and squeeze through the small gap, she didn’t dare move anything else in fear or making any more noise after having made plenty already. Although she was grateful and immensely relieved, she was surprised that with his enhanced werewolf hearing, Alpha Orpheus hadn’t woken up from all the sound.

While she had thought clearing an escape path was the hard part, she knew she was wrong as she turned around to face the bed.

With the both of them asleep and his arm carelessly over the little boy and the pillow she had propped up against him so he wouldn’t fall off the edge off the bed while she was in the shower, Thea knew that this would be no easy task.

Despite the fact that being near him was the last thing that she wanted to do, she needed to do this for Malik. There was no way that she was prepared to leave her son alone with his monster while she ran for help.

The both of them were in this together and that was that.

Once again, Thea held her breath as she took a few timid steps toward the bed. When her knees hit the edge of it, she couldn’t help but gulp as he reached down to gently tug on the pillow, hoping to move it out of the way so Malik would be better accessible and she would be able to pick him up.

As her fingers curled around the corner of the pillow, she tugged gently and held her breath as she glanced at the both of them. When neither of them moved, she continued tugging until finally, she had moved the pillow out of the way and dropped it to the floor.

Even after making it this far and only needing to pick up Malik before she made a run for it, it appeared that she had run out of time.

Before Thea could scream or even move out of the way, she felt a big, calloused hand squeeze around her wrist, not the least bit concerned with being gentle, not even when she squeaked out in both surprise and discomfort.

As another squeak passed her lips, she only had time to blink before he flicked his hand and forced her onto the bed and over Malik. It was a surprise to her that he had flipped her onto the bed without so much as bothering Malik next to her but with the Alpha wolf towering over her and his arms braced on either side of her head, she had far more worrisome things plaguing her mind.

“Get off me!” She attempted to scream as loud as she could but with one of his hands slapped over her mouth, the words were muffled against his palm and drowned out by it. Despite that, she didn’t let that stop her as instead of just accepting it, Thea tried to push back against him in a desperate attempt of escape.

When she tried to kick her leg into his shin, he dropped some more of his weight onto her, pinning her hips down on the bed with his.

At first, she stilled in fear but when she felt the bulge in his trousers press against her stomach, she screamed against the palm of her hand before trying to buck him off her even though he was both heavier and stronger than her. The fact that he was an Alpha wolf and she was a mere human didn’t help the situation any.

“I’ll let you get all your anger out before we talk.” He growled lowly, staring down at her with a dark, menacing glint in his eyes, the same one that he had looked at her with all those years ago. “But I’m sure the last thing that either of us would want is to wake anyone up.” He dropped his head onto the pillow next to her, his lips brushing against the shell of her as he spoke.

“Especially Malik.” He whispered into her ear, his tongue slipping out of his mouth to trace the edge of her ear, his warm, minty breath fanning over the side of her neck, sending delicious shivers down her spine.

She wanted to scream at him to not say his name, to not even look at him but there was no use.

The fact that her body was reacting this way both confused her and disgusted her at the same time, but now was not the time to dwell on that.

Instead, she continued writhing under him, trying to muster up all the energy and courage that she had but when that didn’t work, she bit into the palm of his hand as hard as she could, staring up at him with pure rage in her eyes.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He growled as he applied more pressure and forced the back of her head further into the pillow, not the least bit concerned about being gentle.

As he glared down at and rendered her body useless and unmoving underneath him, Thea couldn’t stop the nightmare of that fateful night slipping into her mind again. She tried to blink away the devilish thought but with the star of her nightmares having just made another appearance into her life, as well as having him towering over her immobilised body right now, it was difficult to not allow her mind wander off in that direction.

The fact that tears sprung the corners of her eyes and she felt her bottom lip begin to tremble from underneath his hand just made everything all that much worse. While she was embarrassed to be crying in front of him – especially when she knew that he couldn’t care less even if he tried – there was absolutely nothing that she could do.

All of a sudden, she felt like she had been transported back to that fateful day over five years ago, trapped as he brushed her body into the wall while he took from her what he wanted. She had been immensely intoxicated then and couldn’t think straight, her mind clouded and disoriented as she couldn’t figure out how she had managed to wander away from her friends but now, she was perfectly sober and in control of herself.

Yet she still felt powerless against him.

“Are you finished yet?” He asked with boredom dripping from his voice.

Not that she could verbally respond, but Thea just sniffled back in response.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He chuckled darkly and once she saw him lift his arm from beside her head, her heart started thumping loudly in her chest, as if it wasn’t beating erratically before already.

More nightmarish reminders of the events of what happened in the alleyway sprang to mind as she watched his hand disappear, afraid that he was here to take advantage of her once again.

Thea felt her face start to warm up as her eyes glazed over with even more tears, her vision now so cloudy that she could barely see him. As she felt her throat began to close up and it became suddenly very difficult to breathe, she was able to recognise all the tell-tale signs which just made her feel all that much worse.

While this was far from the first time that Thea had suffered from a panic attack – especially since she had suffered one earlier that day – before today, it had been many a year since such fear had struck her. In fact, she had never suffered from panic attacks before Orpheus had raped her, and they had occasionally propped up over the next couple of years but as of recent, she had felt like she was getting slightly better.

Unfortunately, all of that had now gone out of the window.

Thea wasn’t sure how long it had been or even when he had lifted himself off of her, but as she forced herself to focus on her breathing in hopes of calming down and reclaiming possession of her own body, she was relieved that her chest no longer ached anymore.

It was only when she lifted herself up into a sitting position and dropped her head between her knees to focus even more on regulating her breathing that Thea realised that she no longer had the heavy weight of him weighing her down and pinning her to the bed.

“What just happened?” He asked quietly once she had calmed down, the corner of his lips turned down

“Nothing.” Thea was quick to deny even though she knew that her suffering from a second panic attack of the day was far from nothing.

The Alpha wolf pursed his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at her, very evident that he didn’t believe her for even a second.

Thea merely sighed in response, unable to bring herself to respond, not that she wanted to at this point.

“I actually wanted to talk to you tonight but it appears that now isn’t the best time.” Orpheus pursed his lips as he stood up from where he sat on the edge of the bed, “That’s fine since we have plenty of time to talk.”

“Plenty of time?” The whisper barely passed her lips in question. “What do you mean?”

“You haven’t realised it already?”

Thea merely shook her head in response as her body sagged and she allowed herself to slump against the headboard, her body having given up fighting as right now, she was straining herself just responding back to him.

“You and Malik are coming home with me tomorrow evening.” He chuckled as he walked around the side of the bed and headed toward the door. Another chuckle sounded aloud as he paused and glanced at her from over his shoulder. “Thanks for moving everything out of the way for me. It’s such a pain having to crawl in through the window.”

By the time that she had turned her head both left and right to spot which offending window had given this rapist access to her room, he was gone.

-

Please remember to like, comment, review and follow me if you haven’t already! Also, support me on PATREON to read the COMPLETED book and get EARLY ACCESS to all my other books, including the third and last book in the trilogy!

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/LaylaKnight

Layla Knight

04.12.2020