Jalin's POV
I love my job of being a Lycan's Beta.
But there are times in my life that make me hate being a werewolf in general.
If I were a human being, I could easily bash someone's head against the wall and torture him the way I like it until that motherfucker decides to cooperate with me, because, well, human beings were born with the right to be unapologetically ruthless and mean to their own kinds.
But no. I am a werewolf and I wasn't born with an innate need of killing my own kind. Plus, I work for a Lycan Prince. So I have to handle technicalities very carefully when it comes to torturing someone for confession.
"I'll give you one more chance to tell me who you really are." I stared at Finn, who was curling up on the floor in front of me. He was covered in blood and there wasn't a single part of his skin that was still intact.
I know now it's too late to say something like I have absolutely nothing to do with it, but the truth is, when I arrived at Sheridan Club 20 minutes earlier, I found him rolling on the floor like this.
His so-called brother Sak Doyle just couldn't wait to beat the crap out of him with a hot rod. I despised and condemned what he had done. Just like what they taught me in the Academy, if you want to torture someone or make them suffer, at least do it with class and taste.
I pulled out the dagger from my belt.
Sak Doyle, who was under the capture of the Royal Guards, flinched immediately when he saw the dagger.
"No! No! Please, Sir! I've already told you everything!" He shouted in a dry voice. "I have absolutely no fucking bloody connection with this man! I found him in the slave market in Limber Creek! Those fucking rednecks were about to run a train on him! I saved him from them..."
"By sexually exploiting him and mentally brainwashing him?" I flipped the dagger in my hand.
Sak yelled with all his strength, "I'm not his biological brother! I swear! I'm just telling him that I am his brother because he was trying to run away from me! I mean, he's fucking dumb and he believes whatever bullshit I tell him. I've been mean to him and I'm not proud of it, but you can't kill me for being an asshole! I mean, if you really want to know who he really is, you should go back to Limber Creek and ask those motherfuckers in the slave market! They must have known something about it!"
I ignored Sak's implore and stared at Finn, who was struggling and crawling toward Sak.
I cleared my voice and said, "Finn, I know this isn't your real name. If you keep playing dumb in this way and refuse to remember anything from your past, your so-called brother's chest will be sliced open. His ribs will be pulled out one after another. Every single of his internal organs will be removed while he's still conscious and I will glue your eyelids to make you witness every single step of it. Do you understand what I mean?"
Finn looked panicked and shook his head violently from side to side, stretching out his hand toward Sak.
"Brother..." Finn mumbled in a blurry voice.
"For fuck's sake, Finn! For the last time! I'm not your fucking brother! Tell this gentleman something about your past! Anything! Tell him about the men who were trying to cut you open when you ran away last time! They tried to cut you open. That's why you've got scars on your chest! Don't you fucking remember?" Sak barked at Finn in despair.
Fin grabbed his hair with both of his hands as if he was trying to rack his brains to come up with something about his past, but he failed.
"No... No... My head is... It hurts... Please stop it... Make it stop!" Finn held his head with his hands, kicking and rolling on the floor. I could tell that he wasn't faking it.
If I were a human being, I would have held him up and sent him to the hospital right away, because, well, human beings were born with compassion and they simply don't like seeing irrelevant people rolling in pain on the floor like a dog, begging for help.
But I'm a werewolf. I wasn't preprogrammed with compassion, just like that I wasn't born with the need of killing my own kind. You can't blame me, because I'm half this and half that, being absolutely the abysmal of both worlds.
The only thing I was born with, however, is the right to be half-ass about everything and being cynical about it.
So, I didn't do anything to help Finn. I just looked down at him while he was being eaten alive by his headache.
"Who are you, Finn? Tell me who you really are and I'll find a way to make your headache stop," I said. "Who are those men who were trying to cut you open?"
Finn screamed in pain and slurred, "Bad... They're bad..."
"Who's bad, Finn? Answer me right now or I'll slice your brother open." I pressed the dagger against Sak's chest.
"I... I don't know!" Finn placed his hand around his neck as if he was being choked by a pair of invisible hands.
"Who are those bad people? Tell me now! This is your last chance!" I dragged the dagger against Sak's bare chest and it left a long, deep-cut wound. It took a while for the blood to surface.
"Ahhhh!" Sak screeched in pain.
Sak's pain seemed to wake Finn up.
All of a sudden, I saw a flash of light in Finn's eyes as if he remembered something. Then, he looked around as if he was confused as to why he was in a place like this.
Desperately, he raised his hands above his head. I thought he was about to grab the knife in my hands, but he didn't.
Instead, he looked around the room, glancing over the soldiers with tremendous fear in his eyes. Eventually, he laid his eyes on me as if he found the last straw of hope.
He immediately wrapped his arms around my legs and said in a low voice, "Sir, please take me away... Please don't let them hurt me... I... I'll do everything for you..."
I found his behavior rather odd, considering that I was the only one who was holding a dagger in this room and hence had the highest possibility of hurting him. But it seemed that something was preventing him from asking for help from anyone else in this room other than me.
"He's going to kill me, Finn! And you'd better tell him something right now before these soldiers rip me open!" Sak shouted.
As I heard the word "soldiers", I immediately realized one thing -
Other than Sak, who was restrained, I was the only one in this room who wasn't wearing a uniform.
So, I looked down at Finn and asked with my fingers pointing at the soldiers, "Finn, those people who were trying to hurt you... Are they wearing uniforms just like these?"
At that time, my phone buzzed. It was Dr. Monk, the private physician of Alpha Lucian. I asked him to conduct a thorough investigation on Finn's blood sample.
I picked it up.
"The result came out, Beta. But I'm not sure if it was accurate." Dr. Aspen Monk's voice sounded trembling. "I need you to bring Finn back, so I can draw more blood out of him and send it to the lab."
"OK." I said and wanted to hang up, but Dr. Monk stopped me. "Beta, are you escorted by the His Majesty's Royal Guards right now?"
"No. It's my private security team," I replied.
"Good. Before I get more concrete lab results, please keep Finn in captivity. His Majesty doesn't have to be disturbed by Finn's existence." Dr. Monk's voice was determined.
"Dr. Monk, what are you talking about?" I frowned and asked.
"Take him back first and then we'll talk. Also, I need a reclusive place to do my test on Finn. It has to be big, so I can put all my lab equipment in."
A spacious place that can't be found. I know a place like that.
"Meet me at the lake house in 25 minutes. Finn will be there." I said and hung up.
Sak Doyle was trying to sneak away while I was on the phone. I kicked him. He whimpered and curled up like a dog.
Finn was instinctively trying to protect him, but he was pressed on the ground by the soldiers.
"Please, Sir... Please don't let them hurt my brother..." Finn struggled to stretch out his hand to grab my leg. "I can do everything for you... I'll do everything..."
I couldn't watch him begging me like this anymore.
"Take both of them into the car and send them to the lake house." I said to the soldiers and walked off.