The Beta's Broken Mate (Book 3 Of The Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 39

"...and that's when I decided to go ahead and leave. I didn't want Alpha Robert to get any bright ideas about attacking Lone Star." Ragnar finished.

Cora sat listening to the entire story and frowned, wracking her brain for information. She felt the King's eyes on her and glanced up, meeting his gaze briefly before looking back down. She knew she needed to tell them what she knew, but it was embarrassing. She had no desire to talk about any of it with a bunch of strangers, most of whom were men.

Elijah hadn't let go of her hand and he gently squeezed it. She realized almost every eye in the room was on her. She could feel her cheeks growing hot from the attention.

"Cora, will you speak to the women?" The king asked her.

"Don't you all need to know?" She didn't want to tell them all, but she knew it was important.

The King looked at his Queen for a moment and she nodded. He turned back to Cora. "The men will all go next door. Jenna will relay whatever you tell her to me through mind link, and I will tell the men."

She breathed a small sigh of relief. "That's fine."

The men all stood and Cora looked at Elijah. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. "I'll be right next door."

Cora smiled at him and nodded. Elijah was so much more than she thought he would be. Even though she'd just met him an hour ago, he had been kind and patient with her.

Once the men had left, the women moved closer to her. The Queen sat directly in front of her, while Charlotte and Talia sat on either side of her, both taking a hand to offer comfort.

She took a deep breath, debating where to start. "I left my parent's home the day I was supposed to be mated to Jasper. They had been planning a mating ceremony for months, and even though I had repeatedly told them I wasn't going to mate him, they just laughed it off and ignored me. When I found out for sure that he wasn't my mate on my birthday, they told me I would mate him anyway or they would disown me. So that night, I snuck out.

I had to take a car because we were up in the Rockies and so I took my own for a bit to get me out of the mountains. I headed South for a while, then started East but once I was on more friendly terrain, I dumped my car and my phone because I wouldn't put it past any of them to track me. Probably a dumb decision, but I was afraid of being found and dragged back. I wanted to get as far away as I could.

I traveled for a while by wolf and by foot, and eventually one evening when I stopped, I was surrounded by the rogues. There were five or six of them, and when I tried to run, they tackled me and one of them hit me over the head and knocked me out.

When I came to, I was in the room where Ragnar found me, chained to the wall. The rogues were in and out of the underground shelter frequently. I could hear the children, but I never saw them.

The first day I was awake, two of them were discussing raping me." Cora stopped and took a shuddering breath. Charlotte slipped an arm around her, and she drew comfort from the other woman. "I could hear them talking about how much fun they were going to have with me. But then, someone else spoke up and told them they weren't allowed, and if they did, he'd kill them. He told them they could only..." she swallowed hard, feeling the tears come. "..could only use my mouth. They could beat me, but no permanent damage. No broken bones, and no mutilation." She shivered. "I never saw his face, the one who gave out the rules, but I could feel his aura, and his voice sounded familiar. It was the only time I heard him speak, but at the time, I was so afraid, I didn't really think about it too much then."

She sighed and leaned against Charlotte, who still had her arm around her. "After that, the two would come in periodically and force me to perform oral sex on them. They really didn't beat me unless I didn't comply, and I learned early on to just comply so I'd be left relatively unscathed. Though one of them was much rougher than the other and he would always bruise the back of my throat, and cut off my air so most of the time he was in there, I was so light headed, it was almost like I was drugged." She stopped not wanting to say much more.