He opens the door to leave, and I yell, “Stop torturing Anne! You got what you wanted!”
He looks at me over his shoulder. “If what you’re saying is true, we’ll talk again.”
The door closes behind him. I slump against the wall, exhausted, blood still dripping from my nose and eyes. The pain in my head is excruciating, and I can feel the conditioning trying to reassert itself, punishing me for speaking.
But it doesn’t matter.
Nothing matters other than Anne’s safety. Not even my own life.
Chapter Eighteen
Kain
The screams have stopped, but I can’t sleep. Can’t even close my eyes without imagining her in pain, hearing those screams echoing in my mind.
My wrists are raw and bleeding where the doubled chains cut into them. The poison is spreading faster now, my body burning from the inside out. Every breath hurts. Every heartbeat feels like it might be my last.
But none of it compares to the agony of not knowing whether Anne is okay.
I dream about her when exhaustion finally drags me under for brief moments. Her smile. Her laugh. The way she looked at me in the stairwell when I told her I wanted her, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
Darius’s words haunt me. “I don’t know if Anne will survive this.”
Please, let her be okay. Please.
The cell door opens with that familiar metallic groan.
I jerk awake, my body immediately tensing up. Darius enters, and I look up at him, squinting at the light that shines in from behind him.
“Have you let Anne go?” I demand instantly.
“No.”
His response is too simple, and the rage that floods through me is instant and all-consuming.
Bastard!
“Where is she?” I snarl, pulling against the doubled chains. They don’t give, and I’m snatched back like a dog on a leash. “What did you do to her?”
“Calm down,” Darius says, his tone clipped. Cold.
“Calm down?” I look at him incredulously. “You’ve been torturing my mate for two days, and you want me to calm down?”
I lunge forward as far as my restraints allow, my wolf rising to the surface. If I could just get free, get my hands on him—
“I said, calm down.” There’s no alpha command in his voice yet, but the warning is clear.
“I’ll rip your throat out,” I growl. “I’ll tear you apart for what you’ve done to her. She’s innocent! She has nothing to do with this!”
“Stop acting like a feral animal.”
“How can I not be feral when my mate is being hurt?” I am furious and desperate.
Darius’s eyes flash gold, and suddenly, the full weight of his alpha command slams into me. “How do you think I feel?” His voice is thunder, reverberating through the cell and to my very bones. “Looking at the face of the traitor who’s been trying to harm my mate?”
His words force me back against the wall, my wolf retreating under the pressure of alpha dominance. But I fight it, glaring right back at him with every ounce of defiance I have left.
“I already told you,” I snarl through gritted teeth. “This wasn’t betrayal. It was revenge. I had every right—”
