18

Emma

Oh... my... god... What the hell happened? My head aches, my leg aches, my body aches, it's cold, there's a bit of a draft, I feel exposed, I-

My eyes flew open, quickly adjusting to the blackness around me. I was in a room with no lights and no windows. It's so dark that even with my advanced sight, I can't see into the black ink of darkness before me. Where am I? What happened to me? How did I get here?

... How did I get into a super thin gown...?

I swear if anyone dressed me and saw me naked, I don't care what gender they were, I'm going to kill them. Slowly and painfully. No one is to see me like that.

At least I can tell that nothing happened to me while I was knocked out.

I sighed heavily and went to shift into a more comfy position. I suddenly hissed in pain and grabbed at my ankle. Instead of touching skin, I touched cold metal. I traced the inside of the shackle, biting my lip to keep from crying out in pain. There's some sort of ridge hitting right where the trap got me.

Damn... even if I did try to escape, I wouldn't get very far with this injury. Even with my healing abilities, I wouldn't even get out of the building before getting caught again. My healing ability might be fast, but because I'm half human, it takes a bit longer for me to heal completely.

I sighed heavily and tried so hard to not bring myself anymore pain as I tried to make myself a bit more comfy in my spot. Once I was somewhat comfy, I found the chain and followed it up to the wall, seeing how long it actually is.

When I found the place where it connected to the wall, I had calculated roughly three feet of space to move in. Well, damn. That's not a lot of space at all. Well..... damn. Now what?

My head snapped up just as what sounded like a heavy door opening echoed around the room. "Stand up," A voice said as the light washed over me.

I squinted as I adjusted slowly to the sudden light. "Um, chained to the wall. Also, I have a huge gash in my leg. Kinda can't do much at the moment."

"Then lay down and stick your leg out." He commanded as he started walking towards me.

I covered myself. "Like hell I will! Where am I? Who are you? What's going on?! What're you going to do to me! I swear to god if you try to rape me, I will kill you and you're little friend!"

He stopped a little ways from me. "Easy there. I'm not doing anything like that to you. We need to keep you alive, so I have to clean your wound."

I growled at him. "I'd rather die than let you touch me!"

"Well, tough." He walked completely over to me and grabbed my ankle, making me hiss and cry in pain as my nails dug into the floor.

"Let go of me!" I swiped for him, just barely missing his nose as he pulled away.

"I didn't think it would come to this," Before I even had time to react, he overpowered me and shackled my hands into cuffs that I didn't even know were above my head.

"Stop it, no!" I shouted at him as I struggled against the cuffs. "Just let me go! I swear I won't hurt you too bad! Just let me go!"

"Shut up!" He growled at me as he pulled a large bottle from a bag that I didn't realize he had until now. "If you stay still, we can get this over with sooner. This will hurt."

"Wha-" I couldn't help the scream that pushed out from my throat the second the hot liquid trickled into the wound. Just in case he actually wanted me to scream in pain, I quickly shut my mouth and sucked in as much air as I could.

I have no idea what this liquid is, but it's bubbling and burning my leg. It's real hot and it's not stopping. He said it would sting, but he didn't say it would burn!

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the burning started to fade. "There. That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

I glared at him and spoke through a clenched jaw. "I swear, the second I'm free, injury or no injury, I will kill you with nothing but my nose! You will regret the day you brought me in here! I will kill you and all those who stand against me! I will start with you and end every miserable life in this organization!"

"I'd like to see you try." He then stood, closed the container of whatever that liquid was, then left the room, locking me in the darkness.

To keep myself from screaming, I held in my breath a little longer, counted to ten, then slowly let it out as I counted down from fifteen. Once I reached zero, I was calm enough to assess my situation.

I am now shackled to the wall by my hands and my injured leg. That man, whoever he was, poured some sort of liquid on my leg that burned me. I'm going to kill every last person in this damn building, starting with him. As far as I know, I'm alone in the room.

But they want to keep me alive. I don't know why, but I'm guessing it has to do with taking those in power, just like they did sixteen years ago.

Well, they just made one big mistake. We're more prepared than we ever were. We'll see everything they're planning. We know their patterns and how they attack.

I just hope Gaven can see what I saw on the map.

Whoever is organizing the attacks is very stupid.

They're following the map to where the attacks are near exactly. Sure, it's different months, but the days are exactly the same, how they attacked is the same, and where they attacked is the same.

I chuckled to myself as I shook my head.

Idiots.

------------------

Soran

It's been almost a month since Emma was taken, and we still don't know where she is. If it wasn't for her shirt, I would literally be going insane and killing everything in my path to find her.

I looked over to Gaven who has been staring at the map. "Why haven't we found her yet? I thought you said you had great trackers looking for her!"

"We do." He snapped as he looked up from the map. "But it's taking longer than it should and we don't know why. We're trying to figure that out as well as what this map could mean." He gestured to it and thunked his head on the table.

I stared down at it and the notes beside it. My eyes narrowed a bit. "Hang on a second. Do you see what I see?"

"No..." He mumbled into the table. "I don't see anything but numbers and stupid shit..."

"Gaven, look." He groaned and sat up. "Look at this. You see this day? Compare it to this one. Then these two days. And these two."

"Holy shit..." He stood from the chair, knocking it over. "They match up. And so do these days! Everything matches to the time to the number of people who attacked! Which means..." We scanned over the notes and the map.

"They'll attack next here!" We both pointed to the exact spot we knew the Rogues would be attacking on, and what day.

I rubbed my hands together. "These Rogues will wish they had never messed with us. We will destroy them!"

"Patience," Gaven said as he picked the chair up and sat. "We must bide our time; make them think we're not on to them. We'd have the element of surprise with that. They'd never think that we'd be so prepared for their attack."

A knock suddenly sounded at the door. We looked up to see Emma's parents walk in. "We couldn't help but overhear that you have a lead on something. Do you?"

I nodded to Reece. "Yes. We found out that whoever took her made a huge mistake. They are attacking on pretty much the same days as they did sixteen years ago. Just about everything is the same."

Asher chuckled darkly. "Give me a map. If what you're saying is true, I can show you when, where, and how they'll be attacking." I gave him the notes we have for the previous attacks and a clean map. He copied down what has already happened then began circling different spots on the map.

"Alright," He stepped back after a few moments. "I have a basic outline of where everything has happened. Of course, they also attacked the other lands. I only marked when they attacked here. I can ask around and find out when the other lands were attacked and we can piece together everything. Then, we can hopefully follow the trail and it'll lead us to Emma."

"Poor girl..." Reece muttered. "She must be so scared wherever she is."

"She's a strong girl." Asher assured her. "She knows what she's doing."

"But what if she's not okay?" My heart tightened a bit. "What if she's being tortured? Not being fed? Beaten? Used as an experiment? What if-"

"Reece, she's fine." Asher grabbed her shoulders and she almost instantly calmed down. "Besides, I don't think you should be talking like that with Soran here." I am literally holding on to the table as if my life depended on it. I had felt all the blood drain from my face at what she said. Everything started to grow numb and I almost fell.

"Are you sure she's going to be okay?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Positive." Asher stated. "She's strong. She's probably cussing them out as we speak. She's gotta be annoying them so much, they'll wish they never took her."

"But there's still the chance they could be hurting her..." My Wolf nearly went ballistic at that, almost surfacing at the thought of our mate being hurt.

It was silent for a few seconds before Asher spoke again. "Yes. Because she isn't pregnant, the Rogues are capable of doing whatever they want to her."

"Let's just hope they're not." I was finally able to straighten up a bit before flopping into a chair. "Damn it... I just hope she's okay and not getting hurt."

----------------

Unknown

"I swear to fucking god if you guys don't let me out of these fucking restraints right fucking now I will gut each and every fucking one of you! You will beg for the day you had never fucking met me! I will bathe in your blood as I dance on your fucking corpses for what you've done to me you fucking bastards!"

"She's been screaming like that for days," A man sighed heavily as he watched the camera showing Emma struggling and yanking at the chains holding her hands and leg to the wall.

"I'm surprised she hasn't tried to chew her arms off yet." Another groaned. "Man, I hate having to watch her. She's so annoying and she sounds like a banshee when she screams like this."

"She has to stop some time." The two men glanced to each other.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The second one asked.

"Yes," The first one grinned mischievously. "With permission from the Leader, we can maybe put a gag in her mouth so she can't speak. That would make our job a lot easier."

They bumped knuckles. "Wait here. I'm going to ask." The second man stood from his chair and left the small audio room.

The first man looked back to the screen to see Emma still pulling on the chains. "You're all a bunch of fucking cowards for not facing me yourselves! And they call you Rogues! The second I get free, I will show you how a real person fights, injured or not! I will take down every fucking one of you with one hand behind my back and hopping on one foot! I don't need a mate to come rescue me! I don't need my Alpha to come for me! I will skin you all alive half way between your human and Wolf form and make you guys into rugs so I can wipe my feet on your fucking bodies!"

"Damn..." He leaned back into the chair and ran a hand through my hair. "She's brutal... Ah, there he is."

"What the fuck do you want?" Emma hissed at him. "Not gonna speak? That's a first. Wait, what the hell is that? No. No! Get the fuck away from me! Get that away from me! If you put that in my mouth I'll bite your-" The gag was suddenly thrust into her mouth. She bit down hard on it as he fastened it tightly on her. She screamed and thrashed about in her place, the sounds muffled greatly.

The first man grinned and watched as his partner left the room without a word.

"There," The second man sat back down in his chair. "That should save our ears until our Leader decides to deal with her."

"Amen to that." With that, the two men focused back on the screen, watching as Emma fought to break the gag, but only succeeded in hurting herself.

"What did you use?" The first man asked.

"A silver ball gag," He laughed to himself. "She may not have the same affects we do to it, but it'll shut her up as well as irritate her mouth."

"Smart."

In the room, unbeknownst to the people watching her, Emma bit down as hard as she could into the gag, only to have unpleasant shivers be sent down her spine. Her jaw locked several times and it felt as if her mouth was on fire.

Emma tried her hardest to not let the pain show. It was hard for her with the fact that her leg was on fire, her arms had grown numb from being shackled above her head, and the metal gag in her mouth preventing her from closing her mouth.

A single tear fell from her cheek.