Ash's eyes glowed as his wolf stepped up, his canines extended and his growl shook the walls of the house when he pulled the knife out of his side and he flung it at his cousin's hands. They all turned their heads and watched as the knife cut through the air and went clean through the chains that bound Jax's hands. Jax fell into a pool of his blood, his heart barely beating and his body weakened from the poison in his wounds.
"What the fuck?" One of the vampires spat and tried to overrun Ash. Ash grabbed the vampire's arm and spared no time as he ripped his head clean of his body and through against one of the windows, shattering the glass.
"Let go of her." He growled and walked towards Lucien. Whatever they had laced the blade with was eating at his insides, burning his flesh like acid but Ash refused to fall, not until he knew that she was safe.
Lucien pulled out his fangs and lifted his head, looking toward the ceiling in a euphoric high.
Three of his men jumped on Ash who was already weakened and Lola fell back into Lucien's arms.
"Don't worry," he said and met Ash's intense anger, "Once I'm done with her she won't remember what it was like to be with a mutt. She'll beg me to take her, and I will be a gracious master granting her salvation." He licked the blood around the wound on her neck and watched in wonderment as the wound sealed itself up.
"I'm going to keep her in my special collection of valuable artifacts that I've gathered through the centuries. Fear not Mr. Blackwood, I take good care of my toys." He said and dropped her body, letting her fall with a thud to the floor with nothing to ease the fall.
"I will kill you." Ash seethed whilst being held down on his knees with a knife to his throat.
"Yes, I see that," Lucien raised a brow and gazed with boredom at his guests.
He watched Lola's unconscious body on the white floor and waited.
Jax was breaking his fingers to get out of the chains around his wrists and then resetting them. He grabbed the wire, his hands bleeding as he pulled with all his might and heard the lock click and they came off.
He tossed them aside, drenched in his blood with broken bones and unhealed wounds but all he saw was the girl lying bloody on the floor.
"That was gruesome," Lucien grimaced watching Jax fight to stand.
They all turned to Lola when she stirred awake on the floor. She held her head where it had hit the tiles and the wince as she lifted her neck.
"Get the Alpha a chair." He said without removing his gaze from Lola.
One of his men brought a chair and two others dragged Jax across the floor by lifting under each arm and sat him down next to Ash who was kneeling on the floor.
Lucien squatted down next to her, he dragged his thumb over her cheek and tugged on her lip.
"I have a question for you love, but I feel it won't be as fun to ask it while your husband is still this shell of himself. We want him fully present and clear-minded,"
Lola's brows furrowed and her jaw dropped as her eyes narrowed on Luciens mischievously glinting eyes.
"Come in sweetheart!" He called.
From around the corner came Elwina, wearing a long coat with a hood in shimmery black with a compass on the hood. Lola gasped and leaned back.
"Lola, I'm sorry for the lies but I'm sure you understand why it had to be this way."
Lola scoffed.
"No I do not," she said.
"You are the Doe, the Doe can't be allowed to roam freely, it was never your faith to be free or loved."
She was at a loss for words, looking at the coated woman who seemed like a different person now than the one they met before.
"But you shouldn't lose your freedom on false pretense. Therefore we're going to give you a gift, the gift of an honest mind." Elwina said. She went up to Jax, her hand sticking out from under the coat and she grabbed each side of his head.
"I smelt the magic on him the second we met. It was clear from the very beginning that someone is toying with his mind." She said softly while staying focused on Jax.
The wounds began to come together, his skin healed itself and the blood stopped oozing. But more so than that, when Jax opened his eyes, she saw him, for the first time in a long time- Lola saw the man she married.
The second he laid eyes on her he sprung from the chair but golden wires appeared as if from thin air and circled his writs, forcing him back and tying him to the chair.
"Lola? Lola! I don't- what the fuck happened- what happened to my head..." he looked around, the vein in his forehead throbbing from the pain of having been cleared from the blockage put on him.
"What did you do to him?" Lola wheezed.
"I undid the doing of someone else," Elwina answered.
"Surely you must have found it weird when his feelings just suddenly disappeared? You've heard about the mate bond, it is too strong to vanish on its own. But magic is a powerful tool and when used by a scorned lover, oh the things it can do. a black was put up in his mind making it easy for the puppeteer to erase Jax's memories of you- well, not you per se but his love for you. He couldn't remember what it was like to love you because he had no memories of it. To him you were just a girl he married to further a cause within the business," she looked back at Jax. "but no he members...everything." She explained.
"Why- who would do that?" Lola asked, the tears building up in her eyes.
"Can you think of no one?" Elwina squinted with her eyes, narrowing her gaze on Lola's doll-like expression. "I think you can," she continued.
"She wouldn't," Lola said and shook her head.
"She would and she did, she played you all marvelously, I must give her that. With the visit at the ball where you first met, she knew who would be there, she knew who she was there to meet. She knew who would follow her if she just put your scent out." Elwina continued, her eyes gleaming like she was telling a story of immense joy.
"The visit to the Blackwood mansion where she met with the brain needed behind such a diabolic plan..." she shook her head and Jax muttered under his breath, "My mother,"
"...yes, Margret Blackwood. Teaming up with your ex-girlfriend to bring you two together. Telling you that she lost her mate,"
"What, he didn't die?" Lola asked.
"Die? Heavens no, she rejected him after she met with Mrs. Blackwood. Saying he was dead was the only way she could gain sympathy enough to be allowed back, especially into the mansion under the same roof as Jax his newly wedded wife. After that, all she had to do was stay close and wait for the spell to take effect, and slowly but surely Jax began to push you away like you were nothing more than filth under his shoe that he scraped on the curb."
Jax growled, he had his strength back though he was confined to the chair.
"Easy doggy, I haven't even gotten to the best part. See, she couldn't do this alone, she needed a witch, someone to perform the heavy magic required. Now where would she find one that not only had the trust of the great Alpha Jax but also the strength that comes only from a pure bloodline?"
Jax's eyes turned back to their dark brown and glistened from the pain of his soul when he heard.
"Nash," Lola whispered.
"You shouldn't beat yourselves up about any of this, they were very good at hiding everything, Golden Globes and Oscars all around for their performances. They just made the mistake of not knowing their surroundings. I've had my own little spy in there for months now, two actually. My granddaughter, Melissa, has been my eyes and ears, though not willingly of course. She had no idea about anything that she relied back to me. The other little spy was the St'Cloud pendant, it works as a one-way portal where I can hear anything that is being said when it's in the room."
Lola grabbed her head and pulled her knees up to her chest.
Her face fell as she dragged her hands down her cheeks and leaned back.
"But how could Nash have done those things? He was always drunk and barely ever alone with Jax?" Lola said.
Elwina's eyes lit up. she raised her hands and folded them over each other.
"Exactly, they were never alone. Why? Why were they never alone?" She asked in haste.
"I don't-"
"Why were they never alone, Lola? You know why. Who else has been present for the meetings, the trips, and the family events? Who else inserted themselves early on and held Jax's back through it all? Who else would have something to gain from Jax moving on to another woman? Who would ever want your mate to break your heart in such a ruthless fashion- to then pick up the pieces when they crumbled at your feet?" Her voice was low and her words were well thought out. She knew that Lola knew and now reality would come crashing down on them.
Lola turned her head, she begged to be wrong and to see that it wasn't so. For him to deny having any involvement.
"Who loves you enough to watch you break because they know they will be there to put you back?"
Her eyes locked with Ash. His lips parted and pools formed in his eyes from tears that had yet to fall.
"No," she breathed.
The air thickened around them. Heavy-hearted and broken, she fell back in silence.
"Yes," Elwina said glumly, her shoulders rolling back in a prideful stance.