Darius walks in. There’s no explosive anger, just cold, calculated fury wrapped around him like armor. He’s flipping through a manila folder in his hands.
“Kain Ashford, 27, five years’ special security training in Oak Shadow Pack.” The words could be conversational, but his voice is like ice. “Solid track record, great resume.”
He turns a page, still not looking at me.
“I did have people look into Oak Shadow. I thought I had covered all my bases. I had no reason to doubt their word, but now I wonder how deep your organization goes.” His eyes lift to meet mine, and there’s nothing casual about the look in them. “They were quite thorough in creating your new identity, but nothing is flawless if you dig deep enough. It seems the people you claimed to have worked alongside in Oak Shadow Pack have never seen you before. All I had to do was circulate your photograph.”
He closes the folder with a soft snap that sounds too loud in the concrete cell.
“Who are the people you work for?” His voice is still calm, still controlled. “And what do they want with my mate?”
I say nothing. Keep my expression blank, my breathing even. Standard protocol for interrogation: give them nothing.
Darius nods slightly, like he expected this response.
“It’s pretty brutal of you,” Darius says, his voice deliberately cruel, “to use your own mate as a tool to capture someone.” He pauses, letting the words sink in. “I don’t know if Anne will survive this.”
My blood runs cold, and the word rips out of me before I can stop it. “What?” There is no training that could stop my natural reaction to hearing that my mate is in danger. “What do you mean, she won’t survive? What’s happened to her?”
Darius tilts his head at me coldly. “What did you think would happen to your only known accomplice?”
“Let me see her,” I demand, pulling against the chains hard enough that fresh blood runs down my wrists as the silver cuts deeper. “Anne is not an accomplice!”
“Isn’t she?” Darius closes the file. “She’s the only person you’ve interacted with outside of work, and her status as one of my wife’s best friends makes her quite a suspect. I always did find it odd that she befriended Violet so quickly. Maybe you two have been working together all this time.”
“It wasn’t like that.” I glare at Darius. “She is not involved in this.”
“That is for me to decide.” Darius’s expression doesn’t change. “One of you will break. My bets are on Anne.”
“Don’t you dare!” I lunge toward him with all my strength, but the chains don’t give. “Don’t you fucking touch her! She has nothing to do with this!”
My wolf surges to the surface, and a feral howl tears from my throat. The sound echoes off the concrete walls, primal and desperate.
Darius remains unbothered, watching me writhe and thrash.
“We’re about to get started with her in another cell,” he says evenly. “If you don’t want us to do anything to her, why don’t you volunteer the information yourself?”
I open my mouth to tell him everything, anything to save Anne, but as soon as my decision is formed and the words are on the tip of my tongue, sharp and excruciating pain explodes behind my eyes. It’s as if someone is driving nails through my skull from the inside. I gasp, the agony making my vision blur.
It’s the conditioning. They built fail-safes into us. Attempt to betray the organization, and your own body fights you.
I force myself to try again, pushing through the pain. “They’re—”
The pain intensifies, a white-hot spike through my brain. I bite down on my tongue hard enough to taste blood.
I can’t. I can’t say it.
Darius watches me with a disgusted expression. “You won’t even protect your mate? That’s how little she means to you?”
“Shut up, you bastard!” I snarl through gritted teeth, sweat clinging to my skin. “You don’t know shit. I—”
“No problem.” Darius turns toward the cell door. “I’ll see what I can get out of her.”
“Leave her alone!” I roar, pulling so hard that I feel a muscle in my shoulder tear. “Don’t you dare!”
But he’s already gone.
Silence.
