HER: Novel by Nicole Maria Navarro

Red 18

I curled up into a ball but it hurt to move. To breath. My hands could no longer clutch the sheets from the amount of pain that went through my body. I knew I was on a bed. The scent of an old aroma was everywhere. Stale. Unwashed. The yellowish bedsheets were rolled in a bundle at the end of the bed and every time I inhaled, it was a remembrance of my past. The past that brought me where I am today.

The door to the room opened. My eyes gazed in the direction of his presence. A chair was being dragged as we didn't bother to break eye contact. The metal chair screeched across the cement floor, settling in front of my view. His calmness was alarming yet I wasn't scared. I was petrified.  Useless and vulnerable. My mouth couldn't form words as I looked at him up and down. Speculating what his life had been like since I ran away

The silence was eerie and I couldn't help but think to myself that this would be my end. The abuse would come first and eventually I wouldn't be able to take the pain. I had been through enough of it over the years to know that this would finally be it. I could sense it as he just stared at me, not saying a single word. 

He was a monster. The type that wouldn't let his prey go because he had came this far to claim it back. The monster had plans and I knew that I would only live long enough to please his demand. 

Cole had her. Thalia was what he was after. He knew that if he had her it would be the end of me. 

"Watching you play house was interesting."  I gripped the white bedsheets. My nails tearing through the fabric as he spoke. "Who would have thought, you'd be mated to an Alpha." A rip tore through the sheets, cutting them entirely. I threw the pillows and they crashed beside me hitting the lamp and breaking the bulb inside. He had been watching. This entire time I was being taunted as he watched and laughed from a distance.

The door opened and in came Mia. Cradled in her arms was a bundle of blankets. My eyes grew big as I watched her enter the room with my daughter in her arms. Mia's face was bruised and faint little scratches of glass appeared on the center of her face. I stared at her injuries and couldn't help but think that she deserved it, she deserved every bit of it.

Cole looked at her differently when she walked in. Like the way Sebastian looked at me. There was that glint in her eyes and aura in the air that clearly stated them as mates.

She went up to him and kissed his cheek. It was a simple kiss that entitled the slightest hint of devotion. I couldn't tear my eyes from both of them. How could he possibly have a second-mate?

"I don't understand." I say, confused at the thought of both them yet curious as to why he was given two mates.

"Me neither." He says not looking at me.

Mia handed Thalia over to him. There was no harm in his eyes or vengeance. He held her gently in his arms as if he had been doing it for months. "What is it that you want from us?" I say looking at him as Mia stood behind him.

"Its not you that I want, its her. You're just the bait." He stares down at Thalia. Her sleeping figure cradled in his arms as her little lashes lay across her cheeks. I couldn't help but feel anxious. The thought of him raising her scared me. She was only a child. She deserved to grow up in a vibrant place where pines grew above her head and dirt stayed embedded in-between her little toes. Cole stood up and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. He made his way towards the door only stopping right before opening it, "It wont be long Isabella, you'll have your dying wish that you've  dreamed of having years ago." I hear locks on the other side and from there footsteps drown into the hall where it goes silent.

I lay there on the bed. A gut wrenching feelings growing in my stomach as I saw that same look in his eyes years ago. He wouldn't stop, not until he knew he won.