The Lycan Kingpin's Captive: A Baby For The Beast novel Chapter 48

“Kneel, dog.”

Two words spoken in my mother’s voice and the dormant memories come hurtling toward me at full speed. I can clearly feel the lick of the whip on my back, the cigarettes put out on my skin, the way her dagger separated my flesh…

And the guilt coursing through me when one of her clients brought my body to climax.

/“Get to your feet, Nikolaos! You cannot let her win!”/ Knox urges me, but his voice becomes fainter and fainter until I can see his mouth moving with no sound coming out.

Shameful thoughts keep me prisoner even as I hear Mia call to me, begging me to get to my feet. But how do I tell her these thoughts are like silver chains holding me down and forcing my submission? How do I explain that I can clearly remember - no I FEEL everything I went through at her hands?

I thought I was over the fear; I thought Mia’s love had pulled me out of the depths, but I was so, so wrong. My soul is still ruined and my mind is still trapped in the past. Right now, I am not the Alpha with the second-largest territory… Now, I am nothing but a slave to my mother’s commands.

The scent of blood is like a cigarette burn to my memories and I feel someone pulling me to my feet. “Come back to me, Alpha. I’m getting the revenge you should have gotten a long time ago.”

Her soft voice makes me blink, and when the last of my past images fade away, I am looking into the wide, determined eyes of the one person who loved me even through my shameful past.

“M-Mia?”

Her smile is like a sliver of sunlight forcing the darkness out of my mind, but then she lets go of me and turns me around. The sight I am greeted with is a bloody trail leading to the crawling figure of my mother.

I suck in an unsteady breath, not used to seeing my abuser weak and on her knees. That’s where she put me, that’s where she loved seeing me….so what’s going on?

“This ends tonight,” Mia says, then she walks over to my mother and grabs her by the hair before pulling her over to where I am standing and forcing her head down.

“Apologize to him and mean it,” Mia growls. I glance at Mia and see nothing but steely determination in her eyes as she threatens my abuser. This won’t work, though…I know her well enough.

My mother laughs unsteadily, then she peers up at me and grins. “I will not apologize for what I did,” she starts and I feel Knox stir. “Why lie about something I so thoroughly enjoyed taking part in-”

Knox takes over my consciousness and I allow our combined anger and hurt to make the decision I couldn’t make so long ago. My fist slams into the center of her chest, and I grip her heart tightly in my hand.

Her eyes are wide as she looks up at me with horror, her nails clawing at my forearm. “Nik-”

I won’t let her say my name or she’ll taint it too, so I rip out her heart from her chest and sink my claws into her neck to behead her. Seeing her in the position she has constantly put me in does nothing to quell the fury building up inside of me.

She took my son; both Lilah and my aunt need to suffer this fate.

“Nikolaos,” a soft voice akin to a summer breeze, caresses the fringes of my anger, and Knox’s snarls become low. “I am so proud of you, my love.”

Proud of me? This voice…it’s familiar, it’s warm…it’s my Mia. I blink and the anger fades away; when I glance down, I see what I have done and I suck in a breath.

“I…I killed her,” I say while my heart beats painfully in my chest and I place a hand over it, trying to level my breathing at the same time. “Mia, I-”

She touches me and I can feel the pride emanating from her. “You’re an Alpha; don’t you dare kneel to anyone again,” she scolds me, but somehow I know it’s meant out of love.

I am about to ask her what happened when I was out of my mind when the sound of an infant’s piercing cry stopped me short. Mia’s smile drops from her face and she rushes behind me; that’s when I remember Ares.

I spin around to follow her, but what I see shocks me to my core; both Lilah and my aunt are dead. There’s blood and gore everywhere and when I look at Mia again, I see the blood on her hands and forearms.

Did my little Omega do all this? Did she rampage while I was hiding behind my memories?

/“They’re all dead; scout the scene for anyone else and kill them,”/ I order over the mind link before I walk to where Mia is sitting with her eyes wide.

She’s whispering in Ares’ ear, rocking back and forth with a look of utter shock on her face. I get down on my haunches and touch her cheek, causing her to peer up at me.

“You did well, Mia,” I say with nothing but pride swelling in my chest. “You protected us when I couldn’t.”

She shakes her head and I watch as a lone tear slips down her cheek. “I killed them… Niko, I murdered someone!”

It takes me a few seconds to realize Mia is not in shock because she’s holding Ares again, but because she killed two pieces of shit who deserved it.

I sit down behind her and wrap my arms around her shaking body. “These three can’t be seen as people, Mia. If you didn’t act when I failed you both, we would be laying in their places with Ares halfway across the country to experience everything I went through.”

This makes her snap out of it and she turns her head to face me with glistening eyes. “No! No…Ares-”

“You did well, my love,” I say, kissing the side of her head. “You protected your family and pack when I was unable to. There is no reason for you to feel guilty for killing these cunts; you should be fucking proud of it. I know I am.”

Her bottom lip trembles and it pisses me off that she feels guilty for killing them. But then again, this is my Mia we’re talking about - she’ll feel bad for stepping on a bug by mistake. I get to my feet and scoop them up into my arms, just as I see Maxim walking towards the container.

He takes in our bloodied frames, then his eyes widen when he sees all three dead women.

“Three getaway vehicles were found a few yards from here with a clan of warriors and something else you need to see,” he says. “We’ll talk about it later, for now, we’ve killed the warriors and the Gammas are bringing the bodies here.”