Our Last Hope

Teaching me a lesson

William was being unnaturally nice to me, I guess he was still hoping that this new baby was his. I was able to keep the pregnancy a secret from Gregor for the last two weeks. With the wedding rapidly approaching, our plan was about to come to head. I couldn’t risk Gregor blowing it, by flying off the handle. I tried my best to keep my thoughts to myself as I prepared for the end. After another couple weeks, Gregor and I would be able to raise our children and bring another one into the world without the constant threat of our demise.

Gregor did sense that something was off so he was keeping his distance more than usual. I knew that he was always around, I could sense his presence constantly.

William was sitting on the couch playing his video game as I laid on the floor with the babies. They were getting stronger and growing like weeds. They were killing this tummy time thing. Henry was constantly cooing at the toys that surrounded him while Lily was more concerned with getting places. I could see the determination in her eyes as she wiggled, trying to get to the other side of the pen.

“I think that we should keep the pregnancy under wraps until after the wedding. I want to be able to enjoy the day without people fussing over you.”

When I didn’t say anything he paused his game and looked down at me.

“Am I understood?”

I looked up at him and nodded tightly. “Yes sir.”

He looked back up at the screen and went back to ignoring me. I internally rolled my eyes, I couldn’t risk him seeing my attitude. He hasn’t laid a hand on me since we found out that I was pregnant again, but I knew that wouldn’t last long.

We spent the rest of the evening in silence until the twins went down for the night. Normally, we maintain our distance when we don’t have the babies as a buffer, but tonight was something different.. Even though I didn’t feel our mate bond anymore, I was still compelled to follow William’s instructions. If I didn’t listen, I would have a black eye for my wedding.

William eventually turned off his game. I was in the kitchen cleaning the bottles when I heard him call my name.

I turned off the water and went into the living room immediately. If I didn’t go in right away, he would come find me. I stood in front of him with my eyes down at the floor. I caught myself staring at his shoes so I wasn’t focusing on what he was doing.

I heard his zipper and some slight shuffling on the couch. My eyes flicked up to his and I was caught off by the audacity. William sprang to life in front of me and stared at me, not saying anything. When I didn’t immediately sink to the floor, he whip his belt out of the loops and snapped it front of me. I jumped at the sudden sound, it was a unspoken threat.

I started to tremble, I haven’t had to do this in a while. The last time I did, I did it willingly. I slowly sunk to the ground trying to maintain my balance and sat up on my knees. William’s fingers intertwined into my bun making me yelp. William growled and shushed me.

“Open your mouth.”

I opened my mouth as wide as I could, I’ll give him one thing, William is huge. I closed my eyes and did what he asked of me. I turned my mind off and treated it like a job, I wouldn’t have to deal with this for much longer.

William wouldn’t let go of my hair as he forced my head up and down, I let my inhibitions go, the faster he finished, the sooner it would be over. I couldn’t help but gag as he repeatedly hit the back of my throat.

He kept cussing under his breath the closer he got to his climax. I closed my eyes tight and a tear snuck out under my lashes. I could taste the salty liquid of his pre-c*m, he was close. I prayed for him to just get it over with.

“Shit.”

I felt his c**k flex in my mouth and the taste of salt overwhelmed my senses. I moved my tongue, trying to catch as much as I could so I could spit it out.

“Swallow it b***h!” He barked at me when he figured out what I was trying to do. I shut my eyes tight and swallowed the load. William pulled his c**k out of my mouth suddenly, covering my face in c*m. When he was finally done, he pushed me to the ground and spit in my face.

“f*****g whore.”

He adjusted himself and walked out of the room, leaving me in the middle of the living room.

I felt disgusting, I knew that he did that to teach me a lesson. It still wasn’t the worse ‘lesson’ that he’s given me. I picked myself up off the floor and ran over to the kitchen sink to wash my face.

That mother fucker. I’m going to kill him

Gregor stop, you and I both knew that we were playing with fire. I’m fine.

I pulled myself off the floor and walked over to the kitchen sink. I washed my face gingerly, I could already feel the pain setting in just beneath my skin. I dabbed the kitchen towel on my face and dried off my skin,

I heard the shower turn on upstairs and Gregor came in through the front door. He marched right into the kitchen and cupped my face in his hands. He looked over my cheek and his face hardened into a hard line when he saw how red and puffy my face was. He lightly stroked my cheek and leaned forward to softly kiss my forehead.

I heard the twins stirring and I tried to turn in their direction. Gregor grabbed my wrist and pulled me to his chest. He kissed my hair before suddenly letting me go. He disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared. I was left alone in the kitchen, I started to get the bottles together and had just enough time before Henry started to cry.

Lily slept through the night but Henry needed some convincing. I ended up falling asleep with him wrapped in my arms on the couch. The fire had died down right around 4:30. I clutched Henry closer to my chest and tried to conserve as much heat as possible.

I was able to fall back asleep but only for a couple hours. Henry was still fast asleep when I woke for the second time, this time is was Lily that was awake. I walked over to the bassinet and swapped the babies. I made up a second bottle with Lilly safely wrapped in my arms.

The loft was quiet, William was still sleeping, I prayed that he would stay that way for a while longer. Once I got Lilly settled, I straightened up the house and made some coffee for William. I knew that he was going to wake up in a s**t mood if the house wasn’t clean when he got up for the day.

It was around 8 when I finally got time to read my book by the fire. I heard some rustling from upstairs.

And here we go.

You know what to do if you need me.

I temporarily blocked out Gregor, I didn’t need him clouding my judgement with death threats for his brother. I quickly got up from the couch headed to the kitchen. I fixed his coffee and set it on the island before turning to twins and getting them ready for the day. They were both smiling and cooing at me as I lifted them up out of the bassinet. I brought them over to the living room where I changed their diapers and got them dressed. I placed them in the playpen with their toys as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

I knew better than to be the one who spoke first.

“Where is my coffee?”

I lingered with the twins for just a moment before hurrying over to the island and presenting him his coffee. He didn’t show an ounce of appreciation as he took the steaming cup from me. He headed straight for the side door and went to sit on the patio.

I headed back over to the twins and sat in the center of the playpen with them. Lilly had been trying out her sea legs and was trying to crawl the last couple days. She had made it pretty far, I was having a proud mama moment as she army crawled towards me. Henry was just behind Lilly with his seal hopping on his belly. No matter what happened in the outside world, I knew that I would always have these beautiful babies. That was what I had to hold onto the next 13 days, we were almost there. I just couldn’t lose sight of what’s most important.

*****

We were suddenly three days away from my ‘wedding’ and I couldn’t wait to go home. I spent all of Thursday getting the twins ready for travel. I made it seem like I was being over prepared for our three day trip but I was really preparing to never step foot back in this house. I knew that I could send for my things later on. I was stacking the bags by the door as I packed them. Gregor would occasionally take a bag or two outside into the Jeep as we led up to our departure day. William had disappeared for a couple hours, giving me some much needed peace and quiet. We were planning on heading out to my parent’s place tomorrow morning, lord knew that I had plenty more to do.

I was upstairs packing my suitcase when my phone started to buzz on the beside table. I reached over and swiped my finger across the screen.

“Hi mom!”

“Hello darling, are you guys all set for the trip?”

“Yep just packing my things now. The twins are all set to go.”

“Don’t worry about packing too much darling, your father and I have plenty of things here for the three of you.”

There was some warning to her voice. She was reminding me to stay under the radar. I had a sinking feeling that William already knew what was going on. If he knew about Gregor, odds are that he had some other suspicions.

“I won’t mother, I’m just packing the necessities, I promise.”

“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow! Everything is all set here, the cake is set to be delivered tomorrow morning and the caterers are coming to set up around 1 o’clock. The party will start around 4, so make sure you are here before 2.”

My mother had a tendency of sucking the air out of the room, even if that meant we were in two separate rooms. I nodded along as she frantically went through the rest of preparations.

“I believe we are planning on leaving around 11:30. We should be there with plenty of time to spare.”

“Just make sure that you don’t let that husband of yours out of you sight!”

Again, another warning without actually saying it.

“Yes mama.”

“Oh listen darling, I have to go! I love you and I will see you all tomorrow.”

She didn’t give me a chance to respond before the other end went silent. I tossed my phone onto the bed next to my suitcase and finished packing up. Gregor was keeping a close eye on the kids while I hustled to get everything else packed up.

I brought my suitcase down and set it down next to all of the other luggage. I had taken it upon myself to pack up William’s things as well, even though he wouldn’t need them after tomorrow.

*****WILLIAM’S POV*****

Mother had picked a different location for our next meeting. She had more to tell me this time around and I guess she wanted to keep me on my toes. We had met a couple more times since her ambush in the woods a few weeks back.

I was surprised that she wanted to bring me in on her diabolical plan, after everything that happened during my childhood. Maybe it was my deep seeded guilt that kept me going along with her plan.

“Everything should be set for Saturday. We can use the wedding as a distraction while my army moves in on the perimeter. I have easily 200 men at the ready.”

“I still don’t know what this has to do with me mother. If you want the Harrington coven, you have enough man power to just take it.”

Mother rolled her eyes she was losing her patience.

“Darling, you should know this by now. If you steal something, you spend the rest of your life trying to keep it. We need to take the Harrington coven legally, we will need to be protected by the council. When you are married to Edwina, her father’s coven will then become yours. You bring me in as your advisor and we destroy it from the inside out.”

I still didn’t know why she was hell bent on seeking revenge on Mr. Harrington. I had a gut feeling that I didn’t actually want to know. I was starting to think that she was only thirsty for power, it didn’t matter the consequences. I don’t know why I cared so much, they were trying to kill me anyway. The worst part is that I would have to legally be bound to Edwina. I couldn’t stand her, she was meek and easy to manipulate. Controlling her was easier than taking candy from a baby. She may be pregnant, but that baby may not even be mine. The whole situation made me sick. The more I thought about it, the more enraged I got.

Mother snapped her fingers in front of my face, my mind had wandered off somehow.

“Excuse me, we are planning a full attack take over. Am I boring you?”

I blinked rapidly and refocused on my mother’s annoyance.

“I’m sorry mother, I am listening. Continue please.”

She crossed her arms in front of her body and tapped her foot. “Did you confront her about her pregnancy?”

“Yes, she didn’t deny it. I didn’t actually give her a chance to defend herself. You were right though, I didn’t need to know the truth before I confronted her, she hung herself with just her reaction. I had a feeling that Gregor was moving in on her, I just didn’t think that they actually had taken it that far. I can barely stand to look at her now.”

“Don’t worry dear, you will be able to put them both in their place soon enough.”

An evil grin spread across her freshly painted lips. I was surprised that she wanted to do the same thing to Edwina that had happened to her. You would think that it would have made her more of a compassionate person, it only fueled her fire. Some people just want to watch the world burn.

*****EDWINA POV*****

I slept on the couch once again last night. I just had a gut feeling to stay out of William’s way. He came home more agitated than usual last night. I kept quiet the entire night and focused solely on the babies.

I woke up early on Friday and finished getting us ready to leave, but it wasn’t soon enough. I made sure that the twins were sound asleep before taking the bags out to the Jeep. Gregor snuck over to me just as I threw the pack and play into the trunk. He placed his hand over my mouth, hiding my shriek.

“Shh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

I smiled behind his hand and nodded my head. He lifted his hand off my face and I turned around in his arms.

“Good morning.” He leaned over and kissed the tip of my nose.

“Good morning.” I buried my face into his chest and felt his chin on the top of my head. “Are you ready for today?” He asked in a hushed tone. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I think so, I still don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I know how it’ll end.”

I tilted my head up towards his face and he pressed his lips to mine. I exhaled contently as I tried to ingrain this memory into my brain forever. s**t was about to go down within the next 24 hours and I needed to hang onto the good in this world.

Gregor pulled away from me and pressed his forehead against mine.

“I’ll be heading up later this afternoon. Keep your head down and don’t give him any excuses to hurt you.” I nodded my head and he planted another kiss on my lips.

Gregor slipped into the tree line and I finished packing up the Jeep. I knew that William would be up soon. I needed to finish cleaning and brew some fresh coffee.

I froze in the doorway when I saw William rifling through his backpack at kitchen island. He didn’t make eye contact once I walked in, he kept concentrating on his packing his bag.

“There will be a lot going on this weekend. I need you to stay quiet and only speak when spoken to. We have spent months preparing for this wedding and I will not have you ruining it. If you do anything to derail this weekend, I will make your life a living hell.” He shot his gaze towards me. “Is that understood?”

I tucked my tongue behind my teeth and my jaw tightened. I nodded my head slowly as I felt his eyes burn into my skin. Suddenly, a wicked smile spread across his lips.

“After all, we both know what will happen to you when people find out that you broke the contract.” I felt my mouth go dry and the tears started to form in the out rims of my eyes. He should just kill me now. There wasn’t much that could rattle me, but this was more than a threat. He made me lose all hope and instill everlasting fear in my heart. This was going to be a long weekend.