Chapter 22

" W hy didn't you save me?" Gloria asks, her neck wound gaping as she looks up at me from the ground. Betrayal and disappointment are clear in her eyes.

"You let me down. Now Jessica has to grow up without a mother because of your incompetence," she continues.

I shake my head in denial, even though every word she says is true. I did let her down. I should have acted sooner. Poor Jessica is never going to speak to her mother again, and Seb… My heart clenches. How can I ever look him in the eye again?

"Seb is going to hate you for letting me die," she says, as if she can read my mind.

"Gloria, I'm so sorry. I will take care of them for you. I'm so sorry," I repeat, my heart breaking at the glazed look in her eyes.

Chemicals burn my nose, irritating my sensitive sense of smell. My brain is foggy, and I'm struggling to make sense of where I am. Flashes of Gloria's distraught and disappointed face float through my mind as I try to comprehend what is going on. I jerk upright as a stab of panic runs through me. Gloria .

My vision swims, and I throw my arms out to steady myself, my hands connecting with cold concrete walls. My breathing picks up as I try to focus, the dream playing through my thoughts. I hiss in frustration as my memories evade me and look around the room to try and make sense of things. Think, Ari. Focus on what you do know as opposed to what you don't.

At this point, it seems obvious that I was drugged, given the foggy state of my brain and the unknown location I'm currently in. Looking around the room, I try to take stock of all the details. I'm alone in a small, undecorated room with a single bulb hanging from a fixture above me, the dim lighting not quite permeating the corners of the space. I'm on the floor with a plain blanket thrown over me. It's cold in here, and I get the feeling we're underground. My wolf agrees with my assessment, we are far from the moon. This is not Moon River property, and I can't pick up any smells over the stench of cleaning chemicals, which have undoubtedly been used to wipe away any trace of who was previously here. This tells me that whoever brought me here went through a lot of trouble to hide their tracks.

I try to keep my thoughts clear, but the dream keeps creeping back in, and I can't shake the deep sadness that's running through me. I try to run through the last thing I can remember. I was woken up in the middle of the night…screams…the sound of feet running…paws…Killian…Seb. An attack on Moon River Pack. Everything comes back to me in a flash, and blinding grief hits me and threatens to overwhelm me. Gloria is dead. Shadow Pack killed her.

I don't know how to deal with this vast feeling of loss and grief, especially as I'm in unknown territory—I assume at the hands of Shadow Pack, given the circumstances of my capture. I do the only thing I know how to do—I channel the dark anger that lurks at the centre of my being, and I let it overcome me until my thoughts are quiet, focusing purely on my hatred for Shadow Pack. Seb's face flashes in my head, and I use it to fuel my anger. I can't think about how distraught he will be over the death of his mother or the fact I couldn't stop it, as it might threaten to break me.

I push up from the cold ground with shaky limbs and pace the sparse room I've been placed in. The metal door looks solid, it would need to be to hold in a shifter. I run my hands across it and test the handle—locked. No surprise there. I run my hands along the walls and count my steps from one side of the room to the other. I need to know everything about this room if I stand a chance of escaping. Unfortunately, I've been kept in rooms like this before, so I know the drill. A flashback threatens to overcome me, but I force it back with the cold rage that has taken over.

I'm not sure how long I've been here. Time passes strangely in captivity. The sound of footsteps alerts me to someone coming my way, and the sense of déjà vu makes me want to laugh. They've done this on purpose, most likely to ‘teach' me my place. I lean against the wall in the far corner, crossing my arms as a key turns in the lock. A familiar figure fills the doorway, and I smirk in a way I know will piss him off.

"Hello, Terrance. Fancy seeing you here."

Terrance throws me a look of disdain at my smirk and greeting, probably disappointed I'm not cowering in the corner. Sorry, mate, you picked the wrong girl. I smile, a sick part of me pleased that I have, on some level, messed up his little fantasy of getting me back. A cold glint enters his eyes as he smiles back at me, but it's not a friendly smile. It's the evil kind of smile you would expect from a psychopath.

"Let's see if you're still smiling after what we have planned for you," he tells me as his eyes run over me.

I just arch my eyebrow at his comment. Other than that, I don't move a muscle. I know they killed Gloria to try and weaken me, but what they don't realise is that they've pushed aside my soft human feelings. Only anger reigns here now. If he's disappointed at my lack of reaction, he doesn't show it as he gestures, and four unknown lackeys fill the hallway behind him. Even if I weren't still feeling the effect of the drugs, I would have struggled to fight against four shifters of this size, and whatever they used on me is silencing my connection with my wolf and my shadow powers feel far away. They corner me in the small room, and I snarl at them as they reach for me. I punch at the guy closest to me and manage to throw the next guy who grabs my shoulder. Turns out my repetitive training with Killian did some good after all. However, eventually they overpower me and drag me from the room, Terrance following behind with a sick smirk on his face.

Pain racks my body as I shift positions on the hard floor, but I refuse to let out a moan of discomfort. I'm not sure how long I have been here, but I have endured five ‘questioning' sessions so far, which is their bullshit name for torturing me for information.

All of the sessions go the same. They drag me into another room where they beat me until Terrance is happy. He then takes over, asking me all about Moon River Pack, trying to work out my connection with them, who my friends are, who I care for, and his biggest question—whether I have mated with anyone. He wants to know if Killian's claim is true. My scent has changed and it's driving him crazy, but I don't smell like Killian. If we had truly mated, he would have been able to sense the bond. Once they realise physical beatings aren't going to make me talk, they move onto psychologically hurting me. Talking of how he killed Gloria, how weak she was and that she deserved to die. How her kids would be motherless because I wasn't strong enough to save her. This is nothing that I don't already know, but it's starting to get to me.

I try to keep my wall of anger strong, but the pain and lack of food is making it hard for me to keep my resolve. The fact that they keep me drugged is also not helping. It's smothering my senses, and I keep thinking I can hear Killian's voice in my head. I know it's a hallucination, as he's being nice to me, telling me it's not my fault and to stay strong. I keep getting this annoying pulling sensation deep in my chest every time I feel like giving up and just giving into the pain. It feels like a kick in the chest. Had I not been so drugged, I might have paid more attention to it, but right now, I just put it down to being in so much pain that I'm feeling things that aren't real.

The sound of footsteps alerts me to my daily wake-up call. I push up from my curled position on the floor and lean against the wall, not strong enough to stand. The door opens, and I smile up at my tormentor.

"Hey, Terry! Ready for my daily dose of torture?" I mock him.

Something I've learned is that he hates it when I talk to him like this. It drives him mad that I'm not treating him with the respect he feels he deserves from me. It makes the beatings worse, but an angry, out of control Terrance is better than the sick, calculating Terrance that I know all too well.

"Bring her," he tells the guys behind him, ignoring my comment, but I can tell it got to him by the tic in his jaw.

I smirk and try to push down the feeling of dread that's rising up in me as they drag me to the room I have affectionately started calling the torture chamber. I refuse to admit it, but the moments when I am alone in my cell, I have begun to feel numb, the pain filling my every thought, and as much as I try to push it away, grief and remorse have started to press against my wall of anger. As much as I hate Terrance and his abuse, it helps to fuel my anger, even if only while I am in this room.

I'm dumped unceremoniously onto the same chair in the middle of the room. The room is a little bigger than the cell I am kept in, but it is brightly lit and painted all white. It must be a bugger to keep clean, seeing as I keep bleeding all over it, and the sharp smell of cleaning chemicals tells me I am right. The biggest difference between this room and the one I'm kept it is that one wall is filled with a mirror I am pretty sure is a two-way mirror. I wave at the mirror, before grimacing at my appearance—not pretty. I haven't seen the alpha since I was brought here, but I'm pretty sure he has been watching from behind the mirror. Someone is controlling Terrance and stopping him from going too far.

"Morning, Terry, what's the plan for today?" I chirp, enjoying the snarl that lets me know my comment has hit its mark. He really is easy to annoy.

He looks over his shoulder and nods towards the mirror before addressing the lackeys filling the space.

"You can go," he orders them. They glance at each other before nodding and leaving the room.

Hmm. That's different. Different makes me nervous.

"Today is going to go a little differently," he tells me, echoing my thoughts as he paces up and down the room.

"Tell me about Moon River Pack," he orders. The question is the same as usual, and I ignore him.

I look back into the mirror and shake my head at my bruised face. My hair hangs dirty and unwashed, and even in my drugged state, I almost don't recognise myself. I look down at my nails and tut at the broken, dirty state I find them in.

"I need a manicure," I mutter to myself.

The blow to my face takes me by surprise since I was looking down. Oh, the punishments are starting early today. Lucky me. I look up at Terrance's face as he looms over me.

"I said things are going to be different today," he spits out as his anger overtakes him. I watch as he tries to push it away and straightens up, a worrying gleam entering his eyes.

"There is no point in fighting it anymore, Ariana. Alpha Black has given me permission to mate you. You are mine now. You just need to agree to the bond."

I snort and roll my eyes.

"You really know how to proposition a girl, Terrance. You didn't seem to understand when I said no before, but I will say it again. Hell. No," I calmly reply .

Internally, I am filled with dread, but I'm pleased that my voice doesn't betray that fact.

He has the audacity to laugh at me as he starts to pace the room again, his gaze running over me. The look in his eyes makes me feel sick, and I have to fight to hide the shudder that runs through me.

"You think you have a choice in this?" He laughs again, turning and stalking towards me. "I know you have people you care about in Moon River. I will train that out of you. You belong to me now. If you agree to play along and behave, then I promise not to go back and slaughter the rest of the pack."

I feel like I have lead in my stomach and have to fight against the urge to vomit. Visions of Shadow Pack slaughtering my friends and the pack fill my mind with fear. I can tell when he senses my internal panic, as his smirk gets wider.

"I will never submit to you," I snap at him, watching as his smirk changes to a snarl. I'll never trust his promise not to hurt them. He would probably hunt them out of spite.

"You think this is bad?" His laugh makes me want to shudder, but I try to hide the reaction. "Things can get so much worse for you."

He hits me again, and the force has me falling to the floor. He pins me in place, and I fight under him as he forces my shoulders onto the ground.

"That boy you care for, the one whose mother I killed? He will watch as I mate you and we seal the bond with our bodies. And that bear you slept with? Oh yes, I know all about him. I can smell him on you. He will be the first to die, but not before I make him watch the bonding too," Terrance threatens me, his voice thick with desire as he talks about fucking me in front of my friends before killing them.

"You really are one twisted bastard," I spit. His words have refuelled my anger as I struggle under him, causing him to refocus on keeping me in place.

He ignores me and reaches for his belt, filling me with horror .

"Let's get some practice in, shall we?" he says as he removes his belt, releasing my shoulders as he straddles me and works at his clothing.

This is a totally different type of torture I was not prepared for, and it threatens to crack my wall of anger. He's about to hurt me in the most intimate way, and panic claws its way through my body.

"Fight it, Ari! Snap the fuck out of it and fight him!" hallucination Killian orders.

He may just be a figment of my imagination, but he's right. I won't let Terrance take that piece of me without a fight.

I start thrashing with renewed vigour, clawing at his arms and biting any piece of him that comes too close to my face. Swearing, Terrance stops undressing to pin me down once more. Shouting out a name I don't recognise, he struggles with holding me down until I hear the door open and one of the lackeys from before lumbers in.

"Hold her down," he orders with a snarl.

The guy does as he's told, forcing my shoulders onto the ground as Terrance reaches forward, ripping my top open and causing buttons to fly across the room. Even the evil lackey looks disturbed.

"Um, sir? Alpha Black said not to—" he begins before he is cut off.

"Shut the fuck up and hold her down!" Terrance practically screams, and the lackey pales but nods at the order from his beta.

"Terrance, don't cross this line," I tell him, pleased that my voice doesn't show the terror that is running through me.

His hand gropes my breast as I struggle against their holds. Terrance leans over me, pressing his face against the side of mine so I can hear his rapid breathing in my ear. His erection is pressed against my stomach, and he grinds against my body.

"I will make you forget about them. Eventually, you will only think of me. I will kill anyone who dared touch you," he whispers into my ear, his breath hot against my skin.

Anger takes over my body, filling me with a deadly calm I have only experienced once before .

"Hold on, Ari, fuel that anger. We're nearly there," hallucination Killian orders me.

I do exactly as he tells me, my body stilling. I feel Terrance relax his weight over me, thinking I have given in to his sick groping of my body.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that no means no?" I whisper into his ear before rearing up and smacking my head into his.

Leaping off me, Terrance clutches his head as blood streams from his broken nose. I ignore the pain I inflicted on myself, focusing on the anger running through me. Remembering Killian's training, I twist my body, trying to get out of the lackey's hold on my shoulders, using his shock and weight against him. With him now on the floor, I straddle him and brace my weight against his shoulders before he realises what is going on. I place my hands on his neck and twist, hearing the sickening snap of his neck. His eyes go wide before his body goes limp beneath me.

I push myself up on shaky legs before turning to look at Terrance. He is staring at me in shock, his hands still on his profusely bleeding nose. I take a step towards him before I hear shouting in the distance. Terrance swears and spins on his heel, sprinting out of the room and down the corridor. I curse and try to follow him before reality hits me at what just happened. I was nearly raped, and I just killed a guy. I try to focus on my anger again, but reality is taking over. I stumble out of the room towards the sounds of fighting before pausing at the end of the corridor. I have no guarantee that whoever is fighting Shadow Pack is any more on my side than Terrance was. Thankfully, I am saved from making that decision as a furious Killian rounds the corner.

"Ari!" he shouts, his voice cracking as he runs towards me.

He goes to touch me, but I flinch away from the sudden contact. He stops in his tracks as he registers my ripped shirt and my reaction to being touched. I can see him vibrating in fury as he comes to conclusions about what happened to me .

"Killian, now is not the time. We need to get her out of here." Seb's voice fills the corridor, and I look around to see my friend.

I have never been so glad to see my guys—well, two of them anyway. Seb looks at me like he wants to embrace me, but I can tell he is trying to give me space. Besides, Killian would probably blow a gasket if he touched me right now. I'm surprised at how he is talking to Killian, though, and even more surprised when the stronger shifter nods stiffly in agreement.

"Can you walk?" Killian asks me softly.

I nod, wanting nothing more than to surround myself with my guys, but not now, not here, while I still have the impression of Terrance's hands on my body. They lead me down a series of twisting corridors until we come to a larger room, which is full of bodies. Alex is in the centre of the room, panting as he breaks one of the lackey's necks and drops the body to the ground. He looks up as we enter the room, and an emotion I don't recognise fills his face.

"Ari," is all he says before he notices how I am cradling my body. His face hardens before he and Killian nod at each other. I don't know what they're communicating to each other, but I just want to get out of here. I can hear fighting in other rooms, so I assume other members of the pack are here, which means that Moon River Pack is at risk.

"Please, can we just go home to the pack?" I request, and I see their faces soften.

"Killian, Seb, can you take her back? I'll finish up here," Alex tells them.

They both nod, and Seb offers me his hand. Killian looks like he is about to protest, but when he looks at me, his expression softens, as if he can see that I need this small act of comfort right now. I take Seb's hand, and they silently lead me out of the building. I numbly walk over to one of their cars and climb in, dimly wondering when the pack had become home.