Filed To Story: Fated is Overrated Novel Free by Brenda Minnaard
Once out of sight for the rogues, I start to pick up my pace the best I can and stumble my way back to my cabin. Once inside, I check my once again vibrating phone to some more messages “what happened?? We are worried sick! Please let us know what happened” “Lola?” “are you really okay now, or just saying it so as not to worry us?” “Lola please you are scaring us!” and one final message from Jason saying “that’s it I’m on my way over!”. I quickly reply “no don’t! I am fine I promise. Our training session may need a rain check though, I’m sorry!” and put down my phone to head into the bathroom. Looking into the mirror I am completely shocked and appalled by how badly he has beaten me this time… This is the worst I have ever looked, I can barely recognize my own face! I feel tears pricking at the back of my eyes at the sight of my own face. What have I ever done to them to deserve this? How can they be this cruel and leave me for dead in the woods? If I had woken up just a few minutes later, I would have been dead. Not that any of those *ssholes would care, but I would have to leave Nadia and Jason heartbroken and the thought of that sends a tear to spill over. I am so badly beaten I don’t even know how I should clean this properly – do I use a washcloth, do I shower, do I use alcohol? I don’t know!
Deciding on the way I am most familiar with, I close the bathroom door and get undressed. I adjust the temperature of the shower and step in. As soon as the water hits my face I hiss out in pain. F*ck that stings. Trying to cheer myself up I tell myself nobody ever got stronger from being a little baby about these things, and so there is a good reason for me to “man up” and get used to the pain. And so I do. It’s still very much stinging, but I need to man up for myself and get stronger as ever. Who knows, maybe if I could single out Ashton the day before I leave this place I could kick his ass when I catch him off guard. He is a Beta and thus the strongest in this pack beside the Alpha, but if I am able to catch him off guard it may be enough to tip the scale my way. I would have to strike hard and fast though. Oh what a beautiful day it would be if I could!
After shampooing my hair and washing my entire body I turn the water off and grab myself a towel. Looking at my reflection in the mirror now with all the blood gone, I can see I have a split and very swollen lip, a swollen eye and another swelling near my temple along with all the bruises that are appearing all across my face. Sighing to myself I comb my hair before putting the towel around my body and stepping out of the shower. “What the f*ck happened to you?!?!?!” Jason yells, startling me almost to death. “Good lord Jason, you scared the sh*t out of me! Ever heard of knocking or at least letting me know you are here?! What if I stepped out naked??”. I see a smirk appearing on his face before he composes himself and looks at me with worry and anger again. “Don’t try to turn this around. You weren’t answering and I felt something was off! Now, are you going to tell me what the hell happened?”. There is no point in hiding from Jason what happened now. They know how they have been treating me all these years and he knows there is nothing any of us can do to stop it, as the future Beta and Alpha are behind it.
I bite on my lip in hesitation before remembering that f*cking hurts and quickly pulling my lip out of my teeth. “I was walking to school when I was shoved to the ground. I fell face first and I guess I hit some rocks. At first I wasn’t sure who or what shoved me, but as I tried to get up I was shoved again and then I found out it was Ashton. And well, as you can see, he didn’t stop there…” Jason’s eyes tell me all I need to know – he is beyond furious. He closes the distance between us and cups my cheek with his hand. He gently turns my head sideways to have a look at all the cuts and bruises around without saying a word. “Jason it’s fine really. I will be out of here after this year anyway” “no it’s not okay Lola! How can they do this to you?! They are supposed to protect this pack!” “and as for the leaving part, what if you find your mate and he is tied to this place?” he looks at me with sad eyes and I know full well he is referring to himself. “You know I can’t stay here Jason, I don’t have a life here. Chris and Ashton not only do not protect me, they actually could have killed me. In fact, if I had woken up a few minutes later than I did, I would have been dead already” I mumble the last part.
Lola POV
“What? What do you mean??”. I contemplate whether or not I should be telling him this, as it will make him and Nadia both too worried to ever leave me alone again. Knowing I am hesitant on relaying what happened, he cups his other hand around my other cheek “tell me Lola, please?”. I sigh “well, a few minutes after I had gotten up and gotten a few yards from where I had laid unconscious for three hours, I saw a rogue approaching the same spot I was lying in, thoroughly sniffing the ground. Probably because of my bloodshed on the ground. And after a minute or so, another rogue joined the first one”. Jason looks at me with a horrified and sad expression, staring into my eyes and not saying anything for a while, before I hear him swallow down his saliva and answer “I am so happy you got up when you did, Lola. I wouldn’t know what I would have done if I had lost you like that”. Jason is usually a happy go lucky kind of guy, so to see him upset and sad like this tugs at my heart.
I remove one of his hands from my cheeks and sandwich it with both hands. “You didn’t, I am still here and I am okay now! It’s just one of the many reasons I can’t continue living here, Jason. They left me out to die after almost beating me to death themselves”. I know he has some more to say, but he closes his mouth and nods at me still with a sad expression before throwing me into an unexpected tight hug. I can feel he needs this at the moment, so I hug him back as we stand there in complete silence. After a few minutes it suddenly dawns on me that I am only in a towel and showing a lot of skin right now, not to mention the fact that my towels are never that secured around my body as they are a tad bit too small to wrap all the way around. With that thought, I suddenly feel a bit uneasy being this close and only 1 towel away from being naked, so I pull out of the hug. “I’ll go get dressed now if that’s okay. You have your warrior training to attend to in a bit, right?” “yes I do, but I am skipping today. No arguing with me, I am skipping it and staying with you. Watching all the lame ass horror you call movies of your choosing, until you get tired of me and ask me to go home”. “Soooo… you’re going home right now?” I say with a teasing smile. “You can be a real d*ck you know that, right? Now go get changed, I will wait for you out here”. “Let’s watch downstairs though. We have a bigger TV there. I’ll see you downstairs in a bit!” I say, trying to hide the fact that I would rather not watch a movie in my bed together.
As Jason heads out I grab some underwear to put on along with some sweatpants and a baggy sweater. I decide to leave my bra off as my chest is very sore from the impact still, and they are fully covered in my sweater anyway. I put everything on and rush downstairs to see Jason has already laid out all the horror movies he could find, ready for my picking. “Wow, I should have near death experiences more often if it will make you this willing to watch horror” I chuckle, which earns me a stern glare from him. “You better not!”. I give him a genuine smile before picking out a movie and putting it on. I could use a nice relaxing night with my best friend after the day I have had!
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.