Chapter 13: Power & Control

  There wasn’t much to do in my little room.

  Four walls, a bed, and a bathroom. No windows to let in any light, so I couldn’t even tell what time of day it was. After my incident in the bathroom I had retreated back to the bed and curled up on top of the covers. I couldn’t bare to pull them over me because I had no idea where they had been. For all I knew this is where Ian took all his captors to; the last room they ever saw.

  My hair was a rats nest from all the activity I had been through in the past day, but I couldn’t be bothered to drag my fingers through it so it didn’t form dreads. There was air conditioning coming from somewhere, I knew because the room was cold, but I couldn’t see any vents to let in the air. It didn’t matter, because either way my skin was covered in goosebumps and my teeth were chattering. The leggings and t-shirt they had me in provided no semblance of warmth but I wasn’t going to get fully into the bed.

  It might have been hours or minutes, but I had finally had enough. I was shaking as I got back out of the bed, leaving an indentation where I had been balled up, and headed back towards the bathroom. The shower had no curtain but I shut the door to have some privacy. Luckily the dial on the shower was similar to the one I had at home so I knew how to turn it on as hot as possible. There was no heat in the hair but the water was scalding, during my skin red with the touch.

  Thanking god, I stripped from my clothes. A small comfort came with the fact that I was wearing the same underwear as before; I stacked my clothes neatly on the seat of the toilet because it looked like all I had.

  The shower felt like heaven--the sudden change in temperature caused some pain but it was more pleasure. No shampoo or conditioner were on the shelves but I still wet my hair down so that the warmth would totally envelope me. Not wanting to get out, I just sat down on the floor of the shower, letting the water pelt down on me.

  There must have been a hot water pump because the heat never went cold and pretty soon I could feel my body temperature returning to normal. The longer I remained in the bathroom the more my mind returned to me. Depressing state as I was in, I was enraged that I had simply given up in the time I had been locked in the little room. I wasn’t one to give in--never. Did Tristan not complain about my stubbornness to a fault? Did I not fight for him?--for us?

  And I was sitting here letting myself be sorry.

  I opened my eyes with a growl, lifting myself off the ground and snapping the water off. There was one lonely towel sitting by the sink, just large enough to cover my body and I used it to dry myself. My hair wouldn’t be dry no matter how I tried to ruffle it so I let it be and tugged back on the clothes that I had folded. Somehow they felt better on my skin now that I had washed of the remnants of their eyes and touch.

  No mirror hung on the wall so I couldn’t see how I looked but I’m sure it was hellish. My neck still throbbed and my body ached but I clenched my teeth and braided my wet hair down my back.

  Samantha William’s didn’t sit back and the world control her. She took the people around her by the collar until they were down to her level and made them see and concede to her point. It was time I resumed my place on my stubborn pedestal and grabbed the situation by the balls, because I wasn’t going to be Ian’s bitch.

  First things first, I paced the room to make sure I had every aspect of it memorized. There wasn’t much to work with, but it helped keep my anger at bay. From the wall that held the headboard of the bed and the wall with the doors, twenty medium strides lay. Same was between the other two. The prison was a perfect square, with a six stride bathroom attached.

  The bed was roughly queen sized and extremely plush for a captive’s cell. There was still the indentation from my body, but other than that it looked untouched. A singular light hung from the ceiling, too tall to reach even by standing on top of the mattress. It was the only thing keeping the whole place from delving into complete darkness, not quite bright enough to replicate sunlight, but more like the way the sky looked when the sun had already set for a few minutes.

  My feet paced the cold tile floor; the chill no longer bothering my elevated temperature. I tried hard to work a way out--some escape from the room with no windows or vents. It had occurred to me to punch a hole through the plaster of the walls, but it was only a thin layer of normal looking paint that covered steel alike to the entrance door.

  Running my hand along the perimeter, I tried feeling a weak spot, but everything was solid. Several circulations left me agitated and a desperate feeling sunk into my stomach.

  The only thing left was the door.

  It was large, taller than me by at least twelve inches and wide enough to permit two grown men entrance at once. Or one man carrying an unconscious girl. I swallowed the acid that churned in the back of my throat and reached around the whole of the doorway. All the edges were sealed shut, overlapped on the axis end with bolts thicker than my hand. Despite the rest of the room being cold, the steel was strangely warm--giving hope that there was civilization on the other side.

  Moments of my hands stopping in the middle of the door in defeat, a lock slid out of place from inside the contraption and I jolted back as it pushed towards me. No thoughts went through my head as I immediately bolted towards the opening, but a arm wrapped around my middle dragging me back. Screaming and wiggling to get out of their grasp, I fought like a wildcat to be free, but it was no use because their strength outweighed my own. I was only awarded a glimpse of an endless dark hallway beyond the door before I was tossed back into the room and the door slammed shut.

  The lurch in my momentum had me struggling to stay on my feet but I managed my balance and spun around to face the person who opened the door in record time.

  Jay stood there, only a small amount of surprise in his eyes, but mostly muted anger. I didn’t care how angry he was at me for trying to get out, they were all idiots. Obviously the mechanics of kidnapping didn’t click in their heads because they didn’t seem to realize that I wouldn’t be following their every whim and stay sitting on the bed waiting for them to come to me next.

  Letting the inner beast in me take control of some reigns I lunged again, this time prepared. I didn’t make a habit of punching people in the face, so I wasn’t really prepared for the fire that burst through my fist when it came into contact with his cheekbone. The snap of his face sideways was nowhere near the crackled snap of my fingers as they failed.

  Ignoring it I struck out with my other fist to catch him again but he was done playing childish games with me. One hand of his hooked under my legs and the other capturing my arm, using my own weight to thrown me down onto the bed only a few feet away. I fell face first into the mattress and the weight of his knee pressed down into my back, a deep rumbling vibrating his body.

  Managing to turn my head a bit so I wasn’t breathing in fluff from the comforter, I cried out at the twinge in my spine. “What the hell do you people want from me?”

  There was a pause in his growling and the pressure lessened on me, giving my lungs room to expand with a gasp. Even the way his hand dug into my shoulder softened at my plea. But he didn’t answer right away.

  “Either kill me or let me go because I’m not going to play your sick games,” I yelled, my voice hoarse from the prickling of tears in the back of my eyes.

  “If I get off you, will you not fight back anymore?” he asked instead of answering, his voice calm despite the altercation that had just happened. I had no idea how to pin down Jay--on one hand he forcibly drugged me and threw me in the trunk of his car to deliver me personally to his deranged Alpha, but on the other he seemed genuinely reluctant to do anything more than what was required of him.

  Not seeing any way of being able to out-wrestle him and escape the room before he caught me, I mutely nodded my head against the mattress.

  Instantly his weight was off of me and I rolled over to alleviate the pain from my back. My ribs felt dangerously close to being cracked but remained intact for the most part. That, my broken hands, and labored breathing were all that I had accomplished from my assault on him--it made me feel utterly helpless.

  He stood over me beside the bed, his eyes unreadable. I might have said that I wouldn’t fight back but if he tried to attack me I wouldn’t sit back and let it happen. No amount of pain that racked my body would prevent me from saving myself, I would go at it tooth and nail until the end.

  But since he didn’t look aggressive anymore I relaxed the tiniest bit. Once more , I attempted my plea, “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied monotonously.

  My eyes widened in fury, “You tied me up and dragged me down here without knowing? Does your pack do this all the time just to get the jollies out of controlling someone?!”

  “No,” he huffed, obviously irritated as he backed up away from me till he was against the wall. One hand reached up to rake through his hair and my eyes trained to every movement with rage. “I’m sure there is some reason as to why Ian wanted you--I just have no part in knowing what it is. You are his project, not anyone else’s.”

  “Then why didn’t he grow a pair and come for me himself?” I seethed.

  Jay cocked an eyebrow, “Do you really think he would go as unnoticed as an unknown pack member? I wasn’t put into a position of power until we went off the grid; no one even knows who I am besides the people in the Redwood pack house.”

  Gritting my teeth, I wrenched myself into a sitting position, blown away by the pain that shot across my abdomen. All the fighting had agitated my old scar and it only added to my discomfort. What I wouldn’t give to shove a knife through Ian’s eye for doing this to me.

  “So, what--are you his lap dog or something? Bounding off happily to do his bidding?”

  His eyes flared but he didn’t move away from his position. “It’s not like I have much choice. Ian has as much control over me by being my Alpha as he does to you for being your mate.”

  I was up and in front of him before he could blink, despite the way my body screamed. He was ridiculously tall and I had to stand on my tiptoes to get in his face but I did so he could see the amplitude of my resistance. “That bastard isn’t and won’t ever be my mate.”

  Being so close to Jay brought a wave of his scent to my senses, a smell that I hadn’t previously been acclimated to. He radiated the deep smokiness of a campfire made of burning pine; rich and not entirely unpleasant. Something had changed in him since we had met, I could pick up the pheromones in his scent. He was being honest with what he said, the sincerity stuck out like a sore thumb. And that was the only reason that fell back from him and lost my temper.

  He might have been Ian’s errand boy but he was doing it under an order that couldn’t be refused. I would feel bad for the guy if I wasn’t in the same situation.

  Jay’s eyes softened at my duress, “I understand that. I know that you don’t love him, there’s not much to love. But if you want to come out of here in one piece, my best suggestion is to just go along with everything he has to say like it’s the truth. It will hurt, but your survival instinct will demand that you do so.”

  I collapsed back on the bed, actually pulling a pillow over to clutch to my chest. The bed didn’t smell like anyone, so I was getting hope that I was the only one who suffered on it. It made it not as bad to request comfort from it.

  Not wanting to talk anymore, I shut back down. Survival. It made sense. If there was no way of escape and my only chance at ever seeing anybody I loved again was cooperating, then it was a survival mode. But to what degree would I surrender myself?

  I’m not sure if I could answer that question.

  There was some shuffling and an apple was thrust in front of my face. Blinking blankly, I slowly reached for it from Jay’s hand, taking the perfect red fruit. It almost didn’t look real, but my stomach growled it’s presence and I took a bite. As delicious as it looked, my hunger emerged and the thing was gone in moments, leaving me wanting more just as it hit my hollow stomach.

  “I’m sorry, but that’s all I have,” Jay sighed, seeming to read my mind.

  He ran his hand through his hair again, increasingly turning his hair into a mohawk in stress. Not sure what else to do, he headed for the steel door, ready to leave.

  “Wait!”

  He paused.

  “When will Ian be down?” my voice shook despite what I wanted, betraying my fear for him.

  Jay fiddled with the handle, “He said he won’t come until you’re ready.”

  Without any elaboration, he opened the door, revealing the dark hallway again with a rush of warm air. I closed my eyes just as I heard the lock slide back into place with the strength of a deadbolt.

  As much as I wanted control, there wasn’t much hope in me getting it. Because as long as his mark marred my neck, Ian had an immense power over me that I couldn’t fight.