The Thunder Wolves MC - Sierra (book #11)

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***Trigger warning - s****l, physical, and mental abuse, and self-harm.***

At the age of eighteen, I thought I knew everything there was to know about life, like most eighteen-year-olds. One of those things I thought I knew was what love was. It didn't matter what my parents told me, they were wrong. I was in love and going to be with the man I loved. And the day I turned eighteen, there was nothing they could do to stop me. Oh, they tried. But in the end, I left their house with as many clothes as I could shove into my bag. Nothing in the world would stop me from being with my love. I knew how my life was going to go. The problem with that plan was life doesn't always go how you think it will, especially when the heart is involved. You can believe you are in love and have found your happily ever after, that all the stories you have been told as a little girl have come true. You have found your prince. And everything goes well for a while. Until one day, you realize you were only lying to yourself. The guy you thought was your prince and happily ever after was anything but. The day you realize the love you thought you felt for someone was nothing but lust. The prince you thought was there to save you was there for everything but. The day you realize the freedom from what you thought was hell was only the beginning of a much worse hell.

When this happens, all you can do is hope you have the strength to leave. I know I, for one, didn't have the strength to let go. I was too far into believing what he told me to believe. I couldn't do anything else. I was so far gone that I broke when I was presented with my freedom from my hell. I was lost and unsure what to do. I didn't have him there to tell me how I should feel or what I should do. He disappeared from my world, leaving me to fend for myself, lost and confused, not knowing what to do. So much so that the last little bit of sanity I had left broke.

But I think I am getting a little ahead of myself. We should start from the beginning. From the start of my fall into my hell, from the beginning. We should start with the fact Victor was four years older than me. The two of us met during my first year of high school. Every year, the high school kids have a party out by a lake on the outskirts of town. Victor, being a senior and me a freshman, made the fact he invited me to the party himself all that more exciting. A senior boy asked me, a freshman girl, to one of the year's biggest parties. How could I turn it down? That night was the start of my forever. Victor was patient and understanding with me. He understood I wasn't ready for a lot of things. I was still figuring myself out. He never pushed me to do anything I didn't want to do. Not while I was in high school, that was.

Even after he graduated, he stayed in town. The two of us got together often. He took me out on dates. We had fun. It was the best time of my life. Yet my parents didn't like him. I didn't understand. He was nothing but a gentleman. He loved me, and I loved him. That didn't stop them from hating him. That didn't stop them from trying to keep the two of us apart. They tried having him arrested for statutory rape at one point, which only angered me more. But after an investigation, he was allowed to go free. There was no proof of my parents' claims, especially since Victor and I hadn't had s*x yet. I was still a virgin. This and we had witnesses to prove nothing had gone on between the two of us. Victor never allowed us to be alone while I was underage. His parents or friends were always around when we were together. If they were not, we were always in a public place. The ordeal had me hating my parents and believing they wanted nothing but to ruin my life.

The first change in Victor and my relationship happened when I turned sixteen, and was the age of consent by law. I didn't notice the change at first. I was just excited when he kissed me for the first time. Then, slowly, kissing became making out. Then making out became us doing other things. As I said, he was patient with me. Introducing and showing me all kinds of things we could do alone that I was still so naive about. Every step of the way, he told me that if my parents ever found out we were doing things alone, they would try to keep us apart again. They didn't want me to be happy. They didn't really love me. Not like he did. He was the only person that truly loved me. But we had to wait until I turned eighteen before I could escape my parents. Then they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. They wouldn't have a say in what I did or where I went. They couldn't keep the two of us apart anymore. I wouldn't have to sneak around just to be with him.

Still, my parents tried everything they could think of to keep the two of us apart. But I was young and thought I knew how the world worked. Oh, how young I was and how little I actually knew of the world. I was young and stupid. But you couldn't tell me that. God knows my parents tried a thousand times. They also tried to warn me that my boyfriend was not a good person. They tried splitting the two of us up, even going as far as grounding me to the house, except while I was in school. I wasn't allowed to see him, talk to him, nothing. This, of course, didn't stop me from seeing him or talking to him. Skipping school became pretty easy to do. My mom would drive me to school. Drop me off right in front of the school. She would wait and watch until I walked inside the school before leaving. I would remain inside the doors for her to leave the parking lot. Then, I would walk right back outside and walk to the back of the parking lot where Victor was waiting.

And then came the morning of my eighteenth birthday. On that morning, instead of packing my school bag and going to school. I packed my clothes into a bag and left the house. My mother tried to stop me. She tried to talk me out of it. She even called the cops trying to get them to stop me from leaving. But there was nothing they could do. I was eighteen, and by law, I was free to go. I was free to decide to drop out of school and leave. And that is what I did. I climbed into Victor's car, and we left. I knew what was best for me, not my parents. Or so I thought anyway. I was young and knew nothing of the world. Besides, life was amazing. I was with the man I loved, and there was no turning back. We moved into a cabin his parents owned out in the woods. It was magical and peaceful. It was just the two of us. A few weeks after my birthday, we snuck off and got married. That's how much in love we were. Everything was just as I imagined life would be with Victor. Oh, how young I was.