“Sebastian, please wake up.”
My head pounded and all I could smell was burnt flesh. I opened my eyes and saw Amelie, her tear streaked face wild and desperate.
“Oh my God, I thought you were dead,” she cried.
Groaning, I sat up and hissed when I looked at my hands. The skin was peeled back and they reeked of wolfsbane. “What happened?” It was all a blur, until I looked at the bars and everything came crashing down. “Tyla!” Closing my eyes, I concentrated on her, but it was like she wasn’t even there. “No!” I shouted.
“Where is she?” Amelie demanded, getting to her feet.
I looked up at her. “I don’t know. I can’t feel her in my mind. All I remember is trying to get out and then everything going blank. What happened?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure. You were doing that mind to mind stuff with Tyla, then you went crazy. The next thing I knew, you’d wrapped your hands around the bars and started prying them apart. I screamed for you to stop, but you didn’t listen. Your hands kept burning. Then suddenly, you stopped and fell to the floor.”
“How long was I out?”
“I’m not sure exactly, but it felt like forever.”
My stomach clenched. Tyla had been alone with Jaret for who knew how long. If anything happened to her, I’d never forgive myself. Kneeling down on the floor, I covered my face with my mangled hands. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why isn’t she answering me?”
As if on cue, Jaret and three of his men walked in. When he got sight of the cage and my damaged hands, he barked out a laugh. “Not too happy this morning, I take it?”
“Where’s Tyla?” I growled. The wolfsbane had definitely taken its toll on my body. I felt the poison eating its way through my hands. Stefan opened the cage door while the other two pulled me out and slammed me into a chair. Before I could go on the attack, they wrapped a large rope around me, tying me to the hard, wooden chair. As bad as I wanted to shift, I couldn’t. There was too much wolfsbane on my body, weakening me.
Leaning against the wall, Jaret smiled. “Tyla’s still sleeping soundly in my bed.” Then his gaze met Amelie’s. “I made a mistake in choosing you. Your cousin knew exactly what to do to please me.” He licked his lips. “I can still taste her.”
My whole body shook with rage, my insides on fire. “You son of a bitch,” I growled. “If you’ve touched her in any way, I’ll rip off your goddamned head.”
“Oh, I did more than touch her,” he claimed, grabbing his crotch. “Many times actually. Can’t you smell her on me?”
Amelie’s screamed, “No! How could you do that?” I could smell her scent on him and it only fueled the fire more.
Jaret walked over to her and grinned. “Simple. I spread her wide and fucked her. She was begging for more by the time I got done.”
Even though it burnt her skin, Amelie reached through the bars and smacked him. “I hope you rot in Hell.”
He rubbed his cheek and winked at her before coming back to me. “Once tonight’s over, I’ll kill you both and not have to worry about you getting in the way. Then, when I’ve gotten what I want from Tyla, you can reunite in the afterlife. But first,” he nodded at his men, “it’s time for a little fun. Some would call it payback.”
Amelie gasped, her eyes wide. “Jaret, stop! Don’t do this.”
His men surrounded me, two of them holding me to the chair. Jaret reared back and punched me in the jaw, the sting of it burning like fire. My head snapped to the side, but it wasn’t enough to deter me. Jaret cracked his neck and approached me, his eyes and claws shifting.
“That was for me.” He cracked his knuckles. “This is for my father.” He punched me again, then slashed his claws across my chest. Blood oozed through my shirt as my skin split open. Before he could hit me again, his attention was drawn to the door opening. “What the hell are you doing in here?” he growled.
“Just checking on you, dear brother.” The voice sounded like music. I couldn’t see her, but judging by the look on Amelie’s face it had to be Laila. “I thought you could use some help. You need to conserve your energy for tonight. Besides, you have a lot to get prepared.”
Clenching his teeth, Jaret huffed and backed away. “Be sure to make it exponentially painful.”
She laughed and it sounded exactly like her mother’s. It pained me to think of Alina’s child as being evil. “Don’t worry about me. I know what to do.”
Jaret walked out of the room and so did the other wolves, their footsteps hard and determined as they left the house. I couldn’t hear anyone else moving around, not even Tyla.
“You are such a conniving bitch,” Amelie hissed. “I trusted you.”
“I’m not your enemy,” Laila replied softly.
Amelie scoffed. “Liar. You better hope I don’t get out of here. You’ll be one of the first ones I kill.”
I heard Laila’s steps edging closer. I saw the wolfsbane plant in her hand before I looked up at her face. She looked exactly like her mother, the same red hair and slender body . . . but her eyes were different; they were blue instead of green. I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. I recognized them. They weren’t Vincent’s, but another’s. I wondered if she knew the truth.
“Plan on using that on me?” I asked, hooking a glance at the plant. How was she even able to hold it?
She tossed it to the floor. “Looks like you’ve had enough already.”
“Like you care,” Amelie grumbled.
Laila rolled her eyes and freed me from the rope. “I wouldn’t be down here risking my life if I didn’t.”
“Where’s Tyla?” I demanded. “What’s happened to her?”
She pulled out a vial. It smelled like Tyla’s blood. “Hold out your hands.” I did as she said and she dropped a few drops of the blood on each open wound. My burns healed up as if nothing had ever happened. “Tyla’s fine. She’s upstairs sleeping.”
I jumped up, the chair slamming down on the floor. “What did he do to her?”
Laila backed away, holding her hands up in the air. “He didn’t violate her, I promise. I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“Then why does he smell like her?”
She sighed. “He got in bed with her this morning so her scent would be on him. It was just to get a rise out of you. When I got back into town last night and found out he’d switched plans, I had to do something. My only option was to give her a tonic to put both of you to sleep.”
“How did it work on me?”
“I have a way of linking things. I knew you’d go crazy if you could see what was happening in her mind. That’s why I made sure you passed out along with her. Jaret doesn’t like sleeping with women if they aren’t coherent. He likes the fight. If she’d fought him, he would’ve killed her, and then you would’ve died seeking retribution.”
“Fucking cocksucker,” I growled low.
She pointed to Amelie. “I was also the one who linked the moonstone to Amelie’s mind. I knew you and Tyla would find it. It was the only thing I could think of to keep you informed and also keep my distance.”
I pulled the moonstone out of my pocket. “What’s the purpose of all of this? Are you with your brother, or against him?”
“You should know the answer to that, Sebastian. My mother loved you and your brothers.”
We loved her too, but my affections weren’t that of a lover. She had captured Zayne’s heart when we were kids. I didn’t tell my brother what’d happened to her until after I’d killed Vincent. Ever since then, he hadn’t fully forgiven me for not telling him sooner. I also never told him she’d given birth to a child—a child I didn’t believe to be his, until now.
“She died when you were an infant. How do you know that?”
She cringed at my words, her pain filling the room. “I’ll tell you everything when time allows. Right now, you have to trust me.”
“Don’t believe anything she says,” Amelie snapped. “She’s no better than her brother. Can’t you see it’s just a scheme? Jaret probably put her up to it.”
Tears filled Laila’s eyes and she turned to Amelie. “I know you don’t believe anything I’m saying, and I don’t blame you. Just know, I’ve lost more than you could ever imagine. But your forgiveness is what I’ll seek when all of this is over.”
She paused and her gaze flitted down to her clasped hands before addressing her again. “And there is something you should know.” She glanced at me and then back to Amelie, ashamed. “You’re not pregnant.”
Amelie gasped and clutched her stomach. “What are you saying?”
Releasing a shaky breath, Laila closed her eyes. “I originally told you and Jaret that because I knew it would keep you alive. It was the only thing I could think of at the time. The tea I gave you to drink each week had an herb in it to keep you from conceiving. I couldn’t let him have that kind of hold over you.”
Amelie dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’ll be free of him then?”
Laila nodded. “As long as my plan works.”
“Which is?” I asked.
“Getting us all out of here alive. I’ll do everything I can to keep Tyla and the baby safe. But when the time comes, I’ll need your—”
“Stop,” I shouted, my heart racing. I looked over at Amelie and judging by her wide eyes she had to have heard what I did. “What baby?”
Brows furrowed, Laila glanced back and forth at us and then sighed. “I didn’t realize you didn’t know. But then again, I guess it is a little soon for that.”
“Tyla’s pregnant?” I asked, hardly believing the words coming out of my mouth.
Laila smiled and nodded. “It’s not every day the father finds out before the mother.”
Footsteps sounded from above and she gasped. “Dammit, they’re back. I don’t have time to explain the rest. Whatever I do, you need to play along, both of you.” She tossed a quick glance at Amelie, before focusing on me. “This is probably going to be worse for you. Can you handle it?”
“You don’t even have to ask.” I would give up my life in an instant to save Tyla and my unborn child. They needed me and I wasn’t going to let them down.
Laila nodded, her gaze sad. “Here we go.” She closed her eyes and whispered words under her breath. The last thing I heard before the darkness took over was Amelie’s scream.