Moonstruck ✔️

chapter 28

Shay Kingsley

I screamed out in pain when the whip slashed against my back once more, sending a searing pain throughout my entire back. It felt like a million knives were stabbing me in the back all at the same time. His whips were getting harder with each smack.

I tried to stand up onto all fours since my hands were now tied in front of me rather than behind me like Jasper usually did. As I shakily tried to get up another whip sent me screaming and crashing right back against the floor.

"Come on, Shay, we're not done here just yet," Jasper smirked down at me.

Another whip.

And another.

And another.

Eventually, my screams died down. Not because I could no longer feel the pain. No, I felt everything. My screams died down because my voice gave up on me so now the only thing I could do was sob. I couldn't even try to get away, I mean how could I? Not only were my hands tied but my body was violently shaking from the agonising pain I was in. I urged my body to move, to get away, to do something. Anything. But my body had given up on me too.

"Hey," Jasper kneeled beside me, his whips coming to an end for now. "Don't give up on me just yet, we need to make this entertaining for our audience. Hopefully he watches these in full or you'd be enduring all of this for nothing."

He chuckled at his own words, standing up and bringing a foot down onto my back. I squirmed, groaned and grunted under his foot that pressed down heavily. My back felt like it was sizzling under his weight, my shirt sticking to my open wounds and yet still, all I could do was squirm and groan in the hopes that it would all eventually stop.

"Zoom in on his face," Jasper ordered to one of his buddies behind the phone that was yet again recording us. "I want him to watch helplessly knowing that there's nothing he can do and no way to reach his mate."

Something in my mind clicked. A reaction, that's all he wanted. The more I reacted the longer he'd go on. I could be wrong about this and I could actually send him into delivering more heavy blows rather than stopping, but maybe, just maybe, if I gave little to no reaction he'd stop. At least for today. It's like in school when you're being picked on, the more you react the more they teased you. Of course, that was not always the case but it was worth a shot.

The next whip that came, when he had finally stepped off me, I bit my cheek to hide my reaction. I stopped my sobbing and tried not to show the fresh set of tears pooling in my eyes and threatening to fall.

A few more whips passed by and now it was getting increasingly difficult to keep my emotions under control. He realised my lack of reaction and seemed to hit harder but I didn't falter. My body still flinched and shook but I let my facial expression, tears and sobbing at bay.

Jasper sighed. "Guess you can't take any more, can you?"

He motioned to the guy behind the camera to then it off and I heard a faint ping soon after, signalling that the video had been sent over to Dom. The two left the room, not bothering to say a single word.

I sighed, finally letting the tears flow down my face but quickly wiping them away on my shoulder. I tried to move my body, maybe move towards a wall so that I could get into a more comfortable position where my neck didn't feel like it would break. But the realisation hit that my body had fully given up on me, the pain, lack of energy and food clearly being a massive factor of this.

Well, guess I was stuck down here for a while.

* * * * *

I had no idea how long had passed since I was down on the floor, I didn't even know what time of day it was. The lighting in the room never changed because there were no windows, so I had no way of knowing.

What I did know was that when the door handle started moving my heart sank. What did he have in store for me next? Honestly, I'd prefer if he killed me by now rather than having to endure all this pain. When the door finally opened up, Trinity walked in with a tray of food.

My body immediately sunk in relief, the adrenaline dying down. She walked over to me, putting the tray on the floor beside me and helping me up to sit up against a wall. I hissed as my back pressed against the cold, uncomfortable brick.

"Sorry," she smiled gently.

I glared at her.

Her smile dropped and she sunk a little, bringing the tray of food closer to us and scooping up some of the very watery soup onto a spoon.

"Why?" I asked croakily. My voice was still recovering from how much I screamed but it was slowly coming back.

She paused in her movements, contemplating whether or not she should tell me. But she knew exactly what I meant. Why did she betray me? Betray the pack?

"He's my mate, I didn't have a choice," she glanced up at me. "When he told me he wanted to take over Dominic's pack he told me I had two choices; either not go through the plan with him and be left mateless or be guaranteed that he would stay as long as I did exactly what he said."

She lifted the spoon to my mouth and I hesitantly complied, realising that I wouldn't be able to feed myself anyway. After swallowing a few mouthfuls of the disgusting, tasteless soup that she fed me before continuing.

"Of course you had a fucking choice," I snarled, making her jump. "Just because he's your mate doesn't mean you have to go along with his plans. If Dom came to me and told me we were going to kidnap someone just for the pure pleasure of seeing someone else suffer I'd have left him. It's sadistic and evil."

"Shay, realistically who wants to willingly be left mateless?" She snapped. "Do you really think I could go through that pain? Almost everyone who becomes mateless ends up doing something horrible to themselves because they can't handle the pain."

"But still, choosing a manipulative, evil bastard like Jasper over your own brother, your family? Do you not think that's a little messed up?"

Guilt flooded her eyes. She stayed silent from then on, continuing to feed me until the bowl of soup was empty.

"Listen, I really mean it when I say I'm sorry."

"Yeah," I scoffed. "Well, actions speak louder than words and the fact that you're the one who knocked me out in the first place says a lot."

"Shay, Jasper has something really messed up planned."

"For real? Ya could've fooled me." I glared once again.

"I'm serious." She sighed. "I can't handle the guilt anymore knowing that he's constantly hurting you. So, I'm willing to help you out a little."

"Wow, you're only helping 'cause you're feeling guilty? Must have guts to admit that."

"That's not how I meant to say it, I just mean I feel terrible about this. He promised me at the start that he wouldn't hurt you, he only wanted to catch Dom off-guard so they could take over the pack."

"You're so against him hurting me yet you willingly hit me over the head with a brick," I chuckled darkly.

She sighed frustrated by, going to speak again until we heard voices coming near outside the door.

"Listen to me," she turned to me in a panic. "I'm going to untie and retie your hands behind your back. But I'll leave enough room so you can easily squeeze your hands out."

My eyes widened but I nodded nonetheless, letting her tie my hands again with the rope behind my back. Like promised, the rope felt a lot looser than what it was before, I could move my wrists around better.

"Trinity!" Jasper stood against the door. "What the hell are you doing?"

"His rope was lose," she replied. "I was just tightening it behind his back."

Jasper visibly sagged in relief. "Sorry, babe didn't mean to snap."

Trinity stood up, strolling over and kissing him on the cheek before walking out of the room and out of sight.

"You have a visitor, Shay," Jasper announced, stepping aside and revealing a slightly shorter figure from behind him in the shadows.

My eyes snapped open in looking at the very familiar man.

"Dad?"