Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

Chapter 72 - Star - In Howard’s Arms

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Star

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Howard had pulled me from the Jeep, causing pain to sear through my body and making me cry out. After that he cradled me to him, like I was something precious. I wanted to get away, but I couldn't. I wanted to shudder at his touch, but I didn't dare.

All I could do was sit there and cry silently as he held me in his arms. I didn't want to go back to them. I never wanted to see them again. Yet here I was on my way back there to all of them right now. My life was over. I might as well just die. That would be the only way for me to get peace.

Things had been going so well, so perfectly. Then I messed them up with Artem. I had gotten Chay involved in my problems which had ended up with her being hurt. And now I was ruining my own future.

I had just started to hope and be happy for the future. I was planning on being with Artem. I planned on having Chay there with me. I planned on getting to be with my cousins, the only family that ever treated me nicely.

Now all of that was going to go away, it was going to disappear in a puff of smoke. I would never again get to be happy. This was the worst.

Everything I looked at while in Howard's arms looked like it was dead and decaying. Something about him just made the world look so disgusting. Apparently it was more than just his scent that was foul and seemed to be something filled with death.

"Astraia, my dear, I am so happy you have decided to come home to me." He tilted his head down toward me then and kissed my forehead. I wanted to gag, I wanted to full on vomit actually. But most of all I wanted to hit him.

I had let myself grow softer, being at Artem's place. I was safe, happy, and spoiled. All of that had led me to being complacent and I never expected that I would be taken back like this so suddenly. Not after Artem had saved me.

He had promised me. He had promised me that he would always be there for me. He promised that he would always protect me and save me.

But I went and made him hate me. I just know he won't be coming this time. I was on my own. I would just have to accept that this was my fate. Just the thought of that made me cry even more.

"Why must you cry, Astraia? I am going to marry you. We will be together finally. This is a time to rejoice."

"I don't want to marry you." I whispered through my tears.

"What was that my dear?" He asked me and I could hear the anger rising in his voice. "I'm sorry my love, but I didn't quite hear that. Can you say it again?" There was an evil light shining in his eyes. The usual yellow irises were now shining a vivid and bright red. I had never seen that happen to his eyes before.

  "I, I said that I, I said that I don't want to marry you." I had to restart that response a few times before I could finish it. "I don't want to marry you Howard." I said this a little more firmly than when I had spoken a few moments ago. "I want to marry Artem, not you." I screamed at him this time.

"I really wish you hadn't said that." He glared at me. "Why can't you just be a good girl for once?" His eyes were now pure black as he looked at me, and I swear I could see the skin at the top of his forehead start to bulge like something was there beneath the skin. What the hell was going on here?

I watched as an array of angry emotions flitted across his face. There was rage in the front now, the most prominent of all the things that I saw. He was angry. Angrier than I had ever seen him before. 

Uncle Howard stopped then and dropped me to the ground. My already abused and pained body flared with a fresh wave of agony and I screamed out the moment I made contact with the grass and dirt.

"Ahhh!" I was sobbing now, the pain so intense and the fear getting to be even more so. "U-Uncle H-Howard. W-what are you d-doing?" I questioned, stuttering though it all. "I'm s-sorry. I'm s-so s-sorry." I was crying very hard now and my stuttering was getting worse. "I'm s-s-so-sorry I s-s-said th-th-that. I-I-I w-will m-m-m-m-marry y-y-y-ou." I was trembling now as I  sat there and looked at him.

The more I looked at him the more I thought I saw him changing. He was different somehow. Different from any other way I had seen him. This was the same Uncle Howard, I could tell by his scent, but he was different now and I didn't know how to explain it to myself.

"You are an ungrateful little bitch. I have taken care of you since you were a baby. I have seen to it that you were taken in by this family. I saw to it that you had what you needed to survive. And this is how you repay me? You run away constantly. You enlist the help of the new Alpha. You go and fall in love with another man when you know you were always meant to be mine. You ungrateful little bitch."

He lashed out then, striking me on the side of my face with his large fist. This wasn't the first time that Uncle Howard had hit me, but it was the hardest he had ever hit me. I felt like my head was going to split in two from the contact he made with it. 

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please, forgive me Uncle Howard. Please." I begged him as I saw him prepare to hit me again. But it was no good. I saw his fist as he swung out again, colliding with the side of my head. I remember that I landed on my back, sprawled out on the ground, but that was all. After the impact of the second hit my vision started to darken. Before I knew it everything was black and I could remember nothing else.