Harry used to do the same. I know this game too well.
But I doubt I was supposed to comedownhere.
“You ready?” Jonah asks with a dorky grin, his hand on the doorknob. “The best ones are here!”
“The best what?” I ask while Jonah opens the door. The rest of my words get stuck in my throat by what is revealed to me once I step downstairs and into the room.
For a moment, all I can think of is how Jonah laughed when I saidstorage room.He found it funny. Jonah might be a bro towards me or might feel he is my friend, but in fact, he is a monster, in a row of monsters that all trail behind the biggest evil of them all.
“Now you are speechless, huh?” Jonah chuckles.
I swallow thickly. Damn right, I am. I am looking right at cells with people locked in them, and some of them look awfully young. Their eyes are wide with fear and desperation. What the fuck is this? “Who are these people?” I ask, trying to go for a light tone.
“They are here for the special night,” Jonah explains. “Some of the girls”—he points at a cell with a group of young girls in it. They can’t even be legal—“are already upstairs with our guests. You know, some guys like them young.”
Some guys… like Harry?!
“And the others?” I ask. My voice sounds flat, but fortunately for me, Jonah is drunk as fuck. “Are they all for the brothel?”
“No, the others are for the games. Tonight, a group of our most loyal customers will choose two of them. Then, they will be killed, exactly in the way the crowd wants them to die,” he explains cheerfully. “It’s always such an event. Cool, huh? You wouldn’t believe how much certain people are ready to pay just to see a girl be killed.”
“Yeah, cool,” I mutter.
Before I came here, Forest and I agreed on a sign in case something went wrong, so that he’d know if he needed to act. I was supposed to send him a short message. Obviously, I can’t do that anymore as they have my phone. However, there is no way I will let this happen. Until now, I was able to play along because I hadn’t seen the worst yet, but I am not going to leave this place and leave these innocent victims behind to be tortured and killed.
I just can’t.
My camera has recorded enough for Forest to have a case, and I am certain Harry’s camera will show them quite some awful proof, also. They don’t necessarily need me anymore.
“Jonah?” I ask.
“Hm?” He turns around to look at me with his signature goofy grin, but this time the look on his face enrages me. I don’t hesitate for a second. Before he can even utter another word, I punch him so hard it sends him flying across the room. I don’t stop there, grabbing two empty chains they have stored on the shelves; I shackle him before dragging his unconscious body toone of the side rooms. I check all of them until I find a storage room furthest down the corridor.
I toss him into it, closing the door firmly and locking it twice. The key I toss into the drain of a nearby sink.
“Alright,” I mutter, hurrying to the cells. “We don’t have much time. Where are the keys?”
“That awful alpha—” one of the guys mutters. “He has them.”
“Then I need another plan,” I say.
“They are strong,” he hurries to say. “The bars, I mean. We are not under wolfsbane, yet can’t get out of them.”
I stare at him. “You are not?”
“No, they like to kill and hurt us with our wolves on the surface.”
“Fuck!” I curse, brushing through my hair. “Then I will need a different plan. When do they usually come to pick someone up? And who comes?”
“They don’t come regularly,” one girl whispers. “But usually a guard comes.”
And the guard will have a key, definitely. I can hide somewhere and wait for the guard to come and then act. I need to wing it, which is not going to be the best of plans, not that I had many to begin with. This was far beyond anything I had imagined.
“I will—”
I sense it too late; my wolf and I are too distracted with what’s in front of us to check what’s behind us. Some of the imprisoned women scream. I spin around just to look into two black eyes, a dangerous glint in them, then someone punches me in the face.
Something pierces my neck.
