Chapter 400
Four hundred and two
Euma POV
Anita pulled me into the corner as soon as the bedroom door closed.
“What did he say? Did he beg you to stay p>
I shook my head. Anita scowled. “Proud bastard p>
We stopped talking and waited for Haley to fall asleep. She was a stranger, and I didn’t want her hearing about my private life. Once she was out, I sat on the edge of the mattress and opened a bag of chips. An elderly woman had brought us dinner earlier, but I hadn’t eaten much. I wondered why Cherry hadn’t brought the food herself. Maybe she was fully taking her brother’s side. It didn’t matter. I had bigger problems.
Anita leaned over. “Look, if there’s a way to keep this a secret, maybe you should think about it. You don’t have to throw everything away p>
“Stop romanticizing this,” I whispered back. “There’s nothing to save p>
“I’m not romanticizing it,” Anita insisted. “I just want you to be okay. Be realistic for a second. A man like Alexander isn’t going to grovel or show you his soft side. He’s too hardened for that. But look at what he actually did. He brought us to a house with clean beds. If he wanted to force the bond or mark you right there in the room, he could have. Rogues only know fighting and weapons, yet he didn’t touch you p>
“He’s still a criminal, Anita, with crazy political ambitions. He thinks he can force his way into the alpha council by taking us as hostages and starting trouble p>
Anita went quiet for a moment. “He isn’t as cold as he pretends to be, Emma, He’s just guarded. Beneath all that arrogance, he looks like a scared little boy p>
“Don’t call him that again,” I warned her. “You needed to see the look on his face out there. That glare was terrifying. He looked ready to kill you p>
“He’s hiding his fear behind that hard shell p>
“He doesn’t have feelings,” I said flatly. “I just want this whole nightmare to be over p>
“Then don’t rush into a severance the minute we get out,” Anita said. “Wait until we’re safe at home and your head is clear. It isn’t written on your face that you met your mate. Nobody will know unless you tell them p>
I didn’t answer.
“What about his sister?” Anita asked. “Can we talk to her? The poor thing was probably forced into this life p>
“She isn’t so harmless,” I said. “She refused to lend me a phone charger p>
“Try talking to her anyway,” Anita said. “We need information p>
I closed my eyes and tried to rest, but sleep wouldn’t come. /
The sound of iron gates rattling woke me. Metal locks turned down the hallway, echoing through the quiet. I sat up as the bedroom door clicked open.
Cherry rushed in and flipped on the wall light. She raised her hands, signing frantically for me to wake the other girls.
My heart pounded. I reached over and shook Anita’s shoulder. She was a deep sleeper and groaned, blinking
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around the room in confusion.
Haley woke on her own, her eyes wide with sudden hope. “Did they find us p>
Cherry grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door.
“What’s happening?” I asked her as we rushed down the hallway. “Where are you taking us p>
Cherry didn’t sign back. She pushed us into a smaller room hidden behind another one. Two armed guards stood. outside the frame. Cherry grabbed a stack of blankets from a corner shelf and tossed them onto an inflatable
mattress. Then, instead of leaving, she stepped inside and closed the door behind us.
“Why aren’t you answering me?” I demanded. “Are you hiding us from our rescue teams p>
Cherry lifted her hands and signed back: I am hiding you from Lucas.
“Lucas p>
Anita frowned, stepping beside me. “Who is Lucas p>
“The guy with the colored hair,” I told her.
Anita spat. “That demon? What does he want with us p>
Cherry raised her hands: They took his grandmother.
A laugh escaped my throat before I could stop it. Cherry’s brows drew together.
Anita looked between us. “What did she say p>
“Our people took his grandmother,” I told Anita. Then I looked at Cherry. “What did you expect? Did you think our fathers would just sit back and let rogues keep us hostage p>
Cherry’s fingers moved fast: She is an old, sick woman. They took her straight from her hospital bed. Lucas swore that if she dies in their hands, he is going to kill all the captives.
I stopped laughing.
“Isn’t Lucas supposed to be Alexander’s Beta?” I asked, watching Cherry. “Is Alexander such a weak leader that he can’t even keep his own man in line p>
Cherry dropped her hands and looked at the floor. She didn’t answer.
A small part of me felt bad for the sick old woman dragged out of a hospital bed. But I swallowed the feeling down. My own parents were sick with worry back home, suffering every second I was kept in this house. The rogues were finally getting a taste of their own medicine.
Sleep was impossible. The air in the room felt heavy, and every sound outside made my skin prickle.
Across from me, Cherry sat against the wall. She was trying to hide it, but I caught her hand swiping fast across her cheeks and wiping away tears.
Part of me wanted to feel smug. The rogues had been checkmated at their own game. But watching Cherry silently fall apart soured the satisfaction in my mouth.
“Now you know what it feels like,” I said quietly, keeping my voice low so I wouldn’t wake Anita or Haley. “It’s terrifying when someone takes the people you love p>
Cherry raised her hands to sign. She is old and sick. None of you are in a hospital bed. If something happens to her,
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I don’t know what I will do. She is family to us.
orced a shrug, shielding my heart against the pity creeping in. “If your brother planned to target Alpha families, he should have protected his own people first. You don’t start a war without securing your back p>
Cherry shook her head hard before signing back. Alexander didn’t abduct you. He didn’t even know Lucas was going to take you.
I scoffed. “Right p>
The plan was to negotiate with the Alphas, Cherry signed, her fingers moving in sharp jerks. Taking hostages was just an idea Lucas kept pushing. Alexander told him no. But Lucas went behind his back and did it anyway.
My mind raced to connect the pieces. If Alexander hadn’t ordered the kidnapping, he’d had no idea I was in that holding room until he walked in that night. It didn’t excuse the fact that he kept us trapped here afterward, but it changed things.
I thought back to the resort on Ruin Island. I remembered waking up alone in that bed, finding the short note he’d left on the nightstand, saying he had an urgent matter to handle.
“When was the old woman taken to the hospital?” I asked.
That exact night Alexander met you. Her heart almost gave out.
“Why didn’t Lucas handle it?” I asked. “It was his grandmother p>
Lucas turned his phone off, Cherry signed, looking straight into my eyes. Nobody could reach him. Alexander was the one who rushed her to the clinic and paid the doctors. My brother is a lot of bad things, Emma, but he is not a
liar.
I sat in silence, the weight of her words settling over me.
If Alexander was telling the truth about the emergency, then he hadn’t abandoned me on the island to plan a raid. He had gone to save an old woman’s life.
I didn’t know what to do with that. It didn’t fix the fact that we were prisoners, and it didn’t change the mess we were in. But it poked a hole in the villain image I had built around him.
Cherry pulled a blanket over her shoulders and leaned her head against the wall. I pulled another over myself and lay down, staring at the ceiling until my eyes grew heavy and I drifted into a restless sleep.
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Lucia Morh
Lucia Morh is a passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.