ANASTASIA MULBERRY

"So, what does the fact that you're a rogue have anything to do with the reason that you kidnapped me?"

His eyes glinted in excitement, almost as if he had been waiting for her to ask this very question.

"While most wolves belong to a pack, I belong to an organisation." Harvey stated firmly as his voice trailed off, a distant look in his eyes which suggested that he was thinking hard. If Anastasia didn't know that he was a rogue, she would have assumed that he was mind linking.

"What kind of organisation?" She asked after a few moments after having waited several minutes for him to continue but instead, was met with a bout of silence.

"The kind that partakes in the exchange of goods." Harvey went on to explain, rubbing a hand under his chin as he struggled to come with the best wording. When he couldn't come up with this best way, he sighed and decided that it was probably best to just bite the bullet and tell her the truth, especially since she was going to be in the centre of it all.

"To be more specific, in the exchange of wolf pups."

"What did you just say?" Anastasia echoed after a few moments of silence, unbelieving of what she had just heard. "Did you just say that you sell children?"

"No. I said that we exchange wolf pups." Harvey shook his head. "But I think the term that the both of us are looking for is child trafficking."

"Child trafficking?" She couldn't help but repeat, her eyes wide and her jaw dropped in complete and utter shock. When he nodded, the empty contents of her stomach threatened to rise up to the surface but she was quick to push another question out of her mouth before that could happen. "How can you be so heartless that you partake in child trafficking? What kind of organisation is this?"

"The kind that traffics children, but we already discussed this." He snickered, almost as if there was even a small part of this scenario that was remotely amusing. "I'll have you know, it's a very profitable business and I'm lucky to be a part of it."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing right now." The whisper barely passed her lips, unable to look away from him. "How can any part of you think that this is good?"

"Well, you better believe it because we haven't even started yet."

"If you're trafficking children, then how do I come into this?" She asked quietly, unable to hold back the evident fear and worry in her tone.

Anastasia hated to admit it, especially when the safety of many, many children was currently hanging in the balance after the horrible news that she had just heard, but she couldn't help but worry for herself. With the way that they had managed to drug and restrain her, rendering her absolutely helpless, she doubted that there was much she could do if they decided to branch out from child trafficking to human trafficking.

"What? You thought we were going to sell you?" He laughed, his shoulders shaking slightly at the bizarre and bewildered look on her face.

When her silence answered for her, Harvey laughed harder.

"Fortunately for you, our clients are more interested in babies. Werewolf pups, to be specific. So, you have nothing to be worried about."

Anastasia wanted to voice aloud that after learning such despicable news, she had a whole lot of worries and concerns now swirling through her mind but she forced herself to bite her tongue; fearful of getting rebuked for such a statement.

"Regardless of that, you're actually very important in this whole operation."

"How?"

Instead of answering her question, Harvey whistled lowly as he glanced around the room, as if it wasn't dark. However, she was sure that he was able to see perfectly with his supernaturally enhanced eyesight.

"I'm not going to go into it too much, but recently we've had to relocate this whole operation. Just a few months ago, actually."

"Let me guess. Around the time I met you?"

"Yes! How did you know?" He chuckled and reached a hand up to smooth down his hair, not the least bit bothered by the fear-stricken expression on her face. "Okay, let's get back on track. While child trafficking has worked for us in the past, we ran into some issues which turned out to be operation blockers for us hence, the need for the relocation. Anyway, regardless of the change of location, we're still facing some of the same issues as we had before but running into you for the first time, I got an idea."

Anastasia held her breath and bit her tongue as she blinked back at him, her mind reeling from all of this confusing information that he was unloading on her.

"Long story short, people seem to notice and make a big deal when their pups go missing and while there's still some fuss when a grown adult goes missing, not nearly as much."

"I thought you just said you didn't do human trafficking."

"Well, let me finish and then maybe you'll understand where I'm going with this." A deep, gruff growl slipped into his voice as he stared daggers at her, not the least bit appreciative of the way that she had just disrupted him.

"Since you're so impatient, I'll make things easier for you." He paused to purposely roll his eyes. "We make a lot of money selling werewolf pups. Much more than we used to make while selling human babies but like I mentioned before, stealing new borns is far too messy and always leave a trail behind." He paused and sent her a pointed look, almost as if making sure that she was following him.

"The first time that we met wasn't in the diner but rather, I had saw you walking around town with those werewolf friends of yours. While everything about you screamed human, you got a paper cut but unlike a normal human, you healed nearly instantly. It was only then that this whole thing started." Harvey announced, a proud glint in his eyes.

While Harvey had received many praises and recognition for his idea which would essentially revolutionise everything about the way they work and function, Anastasia couldn't help but shiver in a mixture of sorrow, fear and disgust, unable to believe that all of this had stemmed from something as simple as papercut; something which she couldn't even remember happening even though it was only a few months ago now.

"I started following you for the next few weeks and very quickly I was able to pick up on two things. One, that you were playing the part as surrogate for your werewolf friends and two, you were one quarter werewolf. The thing is, usually part wolves, similar to humans, aren't able to carry werewolf pups but not you, apparently."

Anastasia's breath hitched in her throat as she stared back at him, her mind reeling from all the information that he was dumping on her while struggling to believe that all of this was in fact a reality.

"It didn't make sense to me. At first, I couldn't wrap my mind around how you were able to carry a werewolf pup while not being a full werewolf yourself but only a few weeks ago it all made sense to me." Harvey paused as his lips stretched a grin, clearly proud of himself for having cracked the puzzle. "While we were interested in you already, finding out you're somehow managed to land yourself an Alpha wolf as a mate just sweetens the deal. On top of that, everything now makes sense."

"What makes sense?" Anastasia frowned deeply, the frustration evident in her voice, not even trying to conceal it anymore. "None of this fucking makes sense!"

Harvey's body stilled as he stared back at her, unblinking.

"I already told you I don't like being interrupted." He muttered in a quiet, dangerously low voice, his gaze both unblinking and unwavering as he stared at her. "So, why do you keep fucking interrupting me?"

Instead of apologising which she knew would only land herself in even more trouble with him – as if she wasn't buried in deep shit already – Anastasia bowed her head and forced herself to stare down at the ground.

Harvey remained silent for a few more silently as he appraised her, appreciative of the submission, even if it was feigned on her part. It was only when he was satisfied with the fact that she wouldn't interrupt him anymore, that he continued.

"By having a store of surrogates that are able to carry and bring werewolf pups to full term, we'll be able to make more money, more constantly and while raising less eyebrows. Obviously, things are going to be slow at first and we'll have to mix both plans until we're able to have enough surrogates pushing out pups all year round." He paused with a curious expression on his face. "You look like you want to say something." He stated simply but when she still refused to speak up, he sighed. "You can talk now."

Instead of rolling her eyes like she was very tempted to do, Anastasia forced herself to ask while she still had the chance, unsure if Harvey's mood swings would allow her another opportunity later.

"Why me? Why not a full werewolf?"

"Because full werewolves usually have mates and we all know that if their mate goes missing, they won't stop at finding them so that's a terrible idea. The next best thing for us are females that are part-wolves as in most cases, they don't have mates."

"But I have a mate."

"Yes, but we didn't know that at the time." Harvey explained, having the luxury to move around his spot on the cold, hard ground so as to be more comfortable, something which she wasn't warranted to. "But that just makes things even more interesting."

"How so?" Anastasia dared to ask in a quiet voice, unable to understand who things could get even more messier than they already were.

"We didn't know at the time that you had a mate. Hell, even you didn't know then that you had a mate but with all these issues going on between you both right now, well, it's just made things easier for us." He laughed at her pain and difficult mate situation, not even trying to hide it. "Regardless of that, you're just the starting point of all of this. A catalyst even and believe it or not, we've been able to find one more just like you."

Anastasia couldn't help but gasp at his admission but before she was able to come to grip with everything so far, Harvey continued pushing forward with even more distressing news. "We were actually able to find her in our latest poaching run."

"Pouching?" She asked in an inquisitive tone, her eyebrows furrowing together.

"Kidnapping. Poaching. Same thing." Harvey shrugged, as if he hadn't just admitted being guilty of kidnapping now as well as child trafficking.

"What kidnappings?"

Harvey threw his head back and laughed, the sound so carefree, light and soft, almost as if he wasn't deeply rooted in a sick child trafficking scheme.

"You really weren't joking when you said things weren't good between you both." His shoulders shook slightly as he continued to find amusement in her less than pleasant predicament. "Since it seems like your mate has decided to keep you in the dark, I'll just have to be the one to bring you up to speed on everything."

"You see, we've been keeping track of part she-wolves around the country but like I mentioned before, not many are able to carry werewolf pups to full terms. Like humans, the pup would end up tearing up the mother or surrogate, whatever term you prefer, from the inside. Essentially killing the both of them. It was only when we found out that you were mated to a werewolf that it all started to make sense."

"None of this makes any sense to me."

Harvey merely laughed quietly in response before he continued explaining.

"It appears that if a part wolf is mated to a werewolf, they're able to carry a pup to full term and you've basically just proved that theory to use. Unfortunately, we need more than just one surrogate for this whole operation to be so we've been poaching part she-wolves to see if they're compatible. Since there's no way of us knowing if these she-wolves have wolf mates or not, we've been doing some blood tests to see if they're compatible. Other than you and one other, we haven't been able to find any other compatible she-wolves and hence, we've just returned them. When this continued, well, I'm sure you can imagine that it's nothing short of immensely frustrating so we decided to try our luck with a she-wolf anyway. Too bad for her, the pup ended up tearing her from the inside so I guess we won't be trying that again."

"You killed her?"

"No. The pup she was carrying killed her. Poor thing didn't even make it to six weeks but it's for the best, really. At least we know now so we won't be trying that again."

"How can you say that?"

Harvey merely pulled a face and shrugged, as if the situation didn't bother him at all.

"How can you live with yourself?"

"Pretty easily, actually."

Anastasia scowled deeply as she glared up at him from under her lashes, this time uncaring if the fact that she probably provoked him.

"What's in it for you?"

"Money." Harvey shrugged, seemingly unbothered by how cruel and unethical his job was. "Well, that's all I have time for right now, but I'll drop by soon with your dinner."

There were so many things on the tip of her tongue that she wanted to voice aloud, so many things that she needed to say but struggle to formulate properly, especially since she felt like she could barely think straight after their grand master plan had been revealed to her.

It was only when she heard the door close and the lock slide into place that she realised that Harvey had already left.

As much as she tried to stay positive, she couldn't stop thinking about all the information that Harvey had just dropped on her; her mind absolutely reeling. When she started to feel sick to her stomach despite not being able to remember the last time that she had eaten, she was forced to focus on that instead of the despicable situation that she had been forcefully propelled into; a blessing in disguise.

Looking back now, with absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel to keep her going, Anastasia closed her eyes and allowed the darkness to consume her; wishing that she had had the chance to patch things up with her mate.

-

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Layla Knight

19.11.2020