Page 29 of Hunted by the Headless Horseman (Roars and Romances #5)

“You’ll carry my child, or I’ll make sure you wish you had.”

BELLE

Something in me cracks at the sound of my old name—his name—sinking into my ears like poison. He’s crawling under my skin, infecting my blood. I’ll be damned if I let him get to my heart.

Thaddeus slides his hands along the side of my body, fingers digging into the fabric of my dress. When he touches the base of my corset bodice, I snap. Because I know exactly how to deal with Thaddeus Thorne. A fire sparks in me, melting the solidified ice in my veins.

He needs the hunt. No, Jack is not the only one.

Thaddeus hunted me first. This time, it’s worse. But I am not that girl anymore. And Thaddeus could never hunt me like my Headless Horseman.

Give him the chase. I calculate my next moves and words, forming a strategy. You can’t fight him. Heart lurching in my chest, I dodge to the side, knowing how it will play out. He will catch me. But I let the motion propel me forward anyway, using the momentary burst of control and freedom to grow the spark in me.

I dash toward the counter, rushing for the taser hidden beneath it.

Thaddeus’s laughter echoes like a dark promise, a predator reveling in the chase.

“Still running, wife?”

Just as I expected, he lunges, his hand striking the taser from my grip as easily as knocking aside a toy. The sting of failure burns, but I don’t falter. Because Thaddeus does not fucking own me. He’s not in my mind. He’s not inside my heart. I’ll never let him in again.

He’s still playing his game. The hunt must come first.

My breath heaves and cleaves as Thaddeus seizes me, dragging me back to him with a grip like iron. He slams me against the counter, pinning me with his body, pressing me down. Chest to chest. His hands chain my wrists on either side of me. My steel cage.

One strong hand binds my wrists together, and the other comes around my throat. Firm, unyielding, but not strangling. Not yet. Ripping the scarf away, he exposes my skin. He’s just showing his power. But I remember the shape of his fingerprints on my flesh.

“I look forward to finishing our honeymoon, my Belle,”

he purrs darkly, the heat of his damning words ready to drown me.

I choke, swallowing hard and battling the sting of tears as his lips hover above mine—the sickly, seductive heat of his breath curling across my face. Thaddeus was always seductive. He still is. Down to the scar fracturing his face.

In seconds, I take in the sight of him—almost wanting to spit at how good the years have been to him. Maybe he’s been drinking the blood of demon babies. I try to hold onto that dark humor, but it’s too raw, and he’s too real. All the arousing but unnerving sensations creep across my skin.

I want to fight him with every breath in my body. My muscles scream to attack him. Bile swirls in my stomach because I know I can’t. If I spit, snarl, and bang my fists, it will only give him what he wants.

Thaddeus is a double-edged sword. One side is the battle, which he will win. The other is the king sitting on his throne, knowing he has won. He is one side and the other—always both—never in between.

I am his prey. Or his trophy queen. I’m staring down the barrel of the loaded gun of my own helplessness. So, I must become the thinnest edge between those sides.

My ex-husband twists his smile to one side, leaning in more, nuzzling my neck, inhaling deeply. Oh, god, he’s smelling me. A lock of his perfectly polished dark hair falls upon my cheek. My heaving breath turns to ragged gasps, my pulse rioting, threatening to shut my heart down. But I can’t let that happen. Thaddeus will have no hesitation. He will carry me if I am kicking and screaming, surrendering, or passed out.

Dominating tenderness is one of many weapons in his arsenal. “Breathe,”

he commands, and I steady my breath. Not because of him.

“Your heart is my heart.”

Jack. His voice hunts my mind, overthrowing the deep timbre of my former husband.

Thaddeus brushes his perfect nose along my cheek, and I shiver, clenching my eyes, wishing I could sink somewhere deep in my mind—but I tried and failed so many times during those brief days with him. I can’t fade away. Or protect myself from the pain.

Thaddeus’s grip tightens, and I feel his energy, dark and threatening. His eyes, wild with fury and something more dangerous, lock onto mine as his hand trails downward, fingers pressing on my stomach with a chilling possessiveness.

“You think I don’t know the truth, Belle?”

His voice is like pure venom, dripping with accusation.

“You think I didn’t find out what you did to me?”

His fingers tunnel into my skin just enough to make me wince, but I refuse to flinch. Focus on my breath. Steady my heart, my racing pulse.

“You stole life from me. Our child. My child.”

The words hit me like a slap, a reminder of the one secret I’d buried so deep, the one I’d hoped he would never uncover. But the hate in his eyes tells me this is something more than possession—it’s revenge.

“You ran,”

he continues, his voice cold and full of disgust.

“Left me alone for years, like you could escape what we were. What you are to me. But you couldn’t hide everything, could you?”

He presses harder against my belly, his expression twisted and triumphant.

“The irony. All those books you read that led you to betray me and run away like a thief with my heart…how fitting when it was a book that betrayed you. You robbed me of my child, Belle. My heir. But you will give me your life and more now, Mrs. Thaddeus Thorne.”

Dread eats at my stomach lining. I shed that name the moment I escaped. Like a butterfly leaving her cocoon and flying free for the first time. Now, it feels like a noose tightening around my neck, prepared to rip my wings and put me in a cage all over again.

“You think you can just… take me back? After everything? You’re out of your mind, Thad,”

I spit, sharpening my voice with the nickname he loathed. A furious muscle throbs in his stony jaw.

“I took control of my life because I had to. You think I would ever let a child be raised by a monster like you?”

Thaddeus’s face twists in anger, his lips pulling back in a cruel smile.

“You never had a choice. And you still don’t.”

He leans in, his breath hot against my ear as he growls, “You were mine the moment we were married. You still are. An ever-binding circle that goes on for infinity,”

he recites the sick laws of the Covenant.

“And you will pay for what you did.”

His hand tightens on my stomach again, and horror thickens inside me.

“I won’t let you slip away again. You’ll give me what you owe me. You’ll carry my child, or I’ll make sure you wish you had.”

My skin prickles with disgust, but I stay calm. I can’t show him too much fear—only a sliver for him to drop his guard. Because he won’t trust my ultimate defeat without a fight first. I can’t let him know that every fiber of my being is plotting my escape.

I tilt my head slightly, meeting his gaze with a cold, calculated look.

“And if I don’t?”

I challenge, baring my teeth.

“What happens when I decide I’d rather have bloody wrists than the blood that comes from giving you a child? What happens when I leave you with nothing…again?”

His eyes darken, a sinister chuckle rumbling from his chest, penetrating mine with its callous resolve.

“You do not know who I truly am. My bloodline isn’t like yours, Belle. You were so young when we married, too young and childish to understand the truth.”

Because I was a child, asshole, I don’t speak the words. They would tip him over the edge.

“My family—men like me—we don’t live past forty. We’re born to burn bright and die fast. And I am already running out of time.”

He tightens his grip.

“You are my last chance. My only chance. And I will stop at nothing to take what’s mine. To breed you like the wife you vowed to be.”

His words sink in, and my mind reels with the weight of his revelation. Forty years old. Every man in his bloodline, dead before then. It’s like a cold fist to my chest, connecting the dots. Thorne.

The curse. Edmund Thorne, the man who destroyed Jack’s life, who was responsible for the deaths of Jack’s family. And Jack’s revenge as the Headless Horseman. And double revenge on the Thorne bloodline, burning bright and dying fast—just like Thaddeus.

Such a common name. Thorne vs Thorn. I’m such an idiot.

The truth is like a wave slamming into me with the understanding: our fates are all bound. Inescapable.

“You’ll fail,”

I say.

“You’ll fail because you always underestimate me. I escaped you once, and I’ll do it again.”

My voice lacks conviction. My heart does not.

Thaddeus sneers, his anger barely contained.

“I have nothing to lose, Belle. You? You’re alone. You have no one.”

I am married.

My fingers twitch, and my heart clenches at the thought of Jack. Whatever happens, I can’t let Thaddeus know. Jack is my one hope. He will protect me—the only one standing between me and Thaddeus.

“You’ll give me what I want, Belle,”

Thaddeus reinforces while scraping his teeth along my jaw.

“And you’ll do it willingly. If you don’t, I’ll take it by force. You owe me.”

I don’t resist as his mouth crashes onto mine, crushing me into submission, tasting the twisted satisfaction of domination. I’m not just fighting for myself—I’m fighting for my freedom, my future, and my life with Jack. I won’t let Thaddeus take that away.

Play along.

Inside, I’m shaking, but my mind remains sharp and aware. I kiss him back, letting him believe he’s conquered me. My lips tremble, not with desire but because I’m suppressing my terror.

“Mine,”

he whispers the low growl upon my lips. His hands slide to my waist, lifting me onto the counter, spreading my legs, and forcing his body between them.

“Where you belong.”

I steel myself, keeping my breathing even despite the dread choking me. I embrace the smallest splinter of heat he gives me because he was always good at making me believe I wanted it. I still do in some ways because the body can’t forget what the mind trained it to do…for years.

One hand poises at the small of my back, fingers nearly hovering. Because Thaddeus doesn’t steal. He forces. He doesn’t need to grip the back of my neck. He commands with the power of his steel jaw. Authoritative, controlled, he plunders my lips. His power is supreme, unwilling to be denied as it triggers my darkest shame from all the times I bought his charming lies.

Pausing, he laughs deeply against my swollen lips.

“Rest assured, Mrs. Thorne, I still know how to pleasure a woman.”

He vows to hurt me when he forces my skirt up, rips my stockings, and stabs his fingers inside me, forcing my arousal. He slams his mouth down on mine—stealing my moan.

Thaddeus wants my hatred. He wants every emotion because…he’s hunting me. A sick promise to break me down and rebuild me. He’ll seal me to him in a fog of lust and nightmares. A superficial, primal lust.

Thaddeus tries to master me. But I have a new master. I trade every damn moment with Thaddeus—including these— for every moment with Jack. Thaddeus moves in to claim me—to dominate me and own me. But Jack sealed himself to me first. I gave him everything.

Thaddeus gets nothing.

My ex-husband pulls me forward, grinding his hardness against the vulnerable parts between my thighs. Wet and soft. But not for him. Because I’m stronger. I’m ready. My mind races through the options as my fingers brush the counter’s edge, searching, calculating.

The scissors.

My fingers find them. Small, sharp, hidden near the register.

Thaddeus tilts his head, deepening the kiss with the new angle. When he rubs my folds, I whimper for good effect. Those fingertips still poise, not quite touching.

My heart pounds so loud, it roars in my ears, but I stay calm. He doesn’t expect it.

I play soft in his arms for a moment longer, luring him to drop his guard. My breath matches his, my lips parting beneath his with just enough submission to make him believe. He tugs down my dress strap.

And then?—

—I grab the scissors and plunge them deep into his shoulder.

Thaddeus recoils, his grip loosening for the precious moment I need as shock registers in his eyes—anger and disbelief mingling.

I don’t wait. I shove him with all my strength, pushing him back enough so I can scramble off the other side of the counter. My legs move on instinct as I bolt toward the back door, fear and adrenaline driving me forward.

Behind me, I hear the roar of rage as Thaddeus clutches his shoulder, his voice thundering, “You won’t escape me, Belle! I’ll destroy everything you love! Then hunt you down!”

I don’t look back.

I am Belle. I am Belladonna. Find Jack. I am Jack, Jackson Elias Moore. My own being.

I won’t stop. Thaddeus wants the hunt? I grin as I open the door and fly into the night. Because my headless horseman is the best hunter I’ve ever known. And he’s already won me.