My mind is a storm of confusion, pain, and fear. Confusion for how she got here and why, pain for what has been done to her, and fear for what she will think of me when I uncover her eyes. She will see me for what I truly am, for what I do, she will see me as the twisted soul I am. But this was my last job, the last time I was going to hurt someone. At least it was supposed to be.

Will she ever understand? I know I wouldn't.

I stare at her as she sobs uncontrollably. I hate her tears, they are destroying me inside. My gut feels like it has been stabbed by thousands of knives, it twists and turns as I watch her.

"Please let me go.." She whispers.

I hesitate to answer, knowing she will recognize my voice. All I can do is breathe, barely.

"I want to go home. My boyfriend will find us!" She snaps.

My boyfriend ...I close my eyes repeating that in my head. Right now that is who I am, but the minute I take off that blindfold, I will be nothing to her. I frantically try to fix this in my mind. There is no way out of this. Either path I take will lead to the worst pain I have ever felt.

My pain forks in two directions. If I put my mask back on and be the bad guy, they will take her and I lose her to unspeakable things. If I release her, she will know it's me who is holding her captive, and I lose her to myself, but she will be safe.

The first path grants me my freedom, but she loses hers. The second path grants her freedom, but I lose mine. One of us will lose with the decision I make. But her life will always be worth more than mine. I promised I would destroy anyone who causes her harm and tries to take her from me and that is what I'll do even if that means destroying the love between us. If it takes a thousand corpses to keep her safe then so be it. I will take down the alpha and his pack of wolves, one by one starting with Reagan.

I stand, gathering strength. I walk to Katy and kneel in front of her. She tries to pull away from my footsteps.

"Katy ... don't be scared. It's me." I say quietly.

She sits still, not moving an inch.

"What the fuck." She whispers.

I reach for her blindfold and pull it off. She looks up at me with puffy swollen eyes. The left side of her face is badly bruised and her beautiful lips have been cut open, most likely from a punch to her face. This angers me beyond anything, they will pay for this.

Her eyes fill with tears as she looks at me in disbelief.

"Ethan..What are you doing...?" As she says those last words her eyes explode with anger.

"This is what you do isn't it?" She says through clenched teeth.

I look down at the floor, tail tucked, like a beaten animal waiting for it's next hit.

"You're sick! How could you do something like this?!"

I wince, but say nothing.

"Was this your plan the whole time? Make me fall for you, then sell me off like I'm nothing!" She jerks forward as if she was going to hit me, forgetting she is chained up. I look up at her.

"I didn't know it was you. I just got here, this wasn't supposed to go like this."

"So you were going to sell a human being off like they were a piece of meat? Do you know what they do to them?"

"Yes..." I choke out.."I hate my job, I hate what I do. But I have nothing else. This was supposed to be the last time! I'm sorry Katy."

"Want to know what I hate?! I hate what you are. I hate what you've done, but what I hate the most is, how much I loved you! Now let me go! I don't ever want to see your face again!" She says struggling with her chains.

I obey and release her from the chains, unclasping the metal link from her handcuffs. As for the handcuffs, I don't have the key. She glares at me waiting for me to uncuff her.

"I wasn't given a key for those cuffs." I whisper.

"FUUUUCK!" She screams at me. I back up in reaction.

I turn away from her. There is a tool bench off in the corner that might have a metal saw, I could at least break the chain between the cuffs so she can move her hands freely.

"What are you doing!?" She snaps.

"I'm going to look for something to get those off." I reply quietly.

"Oh? So you're not going to sell me after all? You don't expect me to stay with you, do you?" She hisses.

"No, I wouldn't either. I don't deserve you, I just want you to be safe."

"I don't believe you!"

I open the top drawer of the bench and search through some old rusty screwdrivers and hammers. Nothing. The next drawer was larger, it held some socket wrenches and bits. I'm starting to get frustrated. I open the last drawer and see it, thank God, there is a small metal saw near the back. I take it out and walk back over to Katy.

"Here, stand still." I say avoiding her hateful eyes. I walk around to her back and pull her arms out, with a few swipes of the rusty blade, back and forth, her hands come free. She turns quickly towards me and swings at my face. I stop her fist in my hand before it makes contact. She looks surprised for a minute, but her hate for me quickly takes over and she pulls away.

"Good bye, asshole!" She says and storms towards the door to upstairs.

"Katy..." I cry out. "You can't leave yet!"

"Thats too fucking bad! I'm not staying here with you any longer." She reaches for the door.

"KATY! IF YOU LEAVE THEY WILL KILL YOU!" I scream, in hopes that she listens.

And she does, Katy stops at the door clenching her fists looking up at the ceiling. She turns to face me tears streaming down her bruised face.

"Who will kill me?"

"Katy, please listen...they have chosen you for some reason, you are worth over a million dollars, they won't let you go easily."

"A million? Did you help them "choose"?" She whispers.

"No! I had no idea what was going on."

"Oh ya? how much were you getting?"

"1.2 million..."

She gasps and shakes her head.

"I can protect you, but you need to stay with me for a bit longer. There's a man coming to pick you up, he will be here in the morning. We have two options..."

She crosses her arms in front and glares at me. At least she's listening.

"This guy isn't someone even I want to fuck with, if we run now he will come for us guns blazing with back up. If we stay and wait, I can take him out easily."

"Take him out? You act like you're some kind of highly trained soldier." She rolls her eyes.

"Katy! God damn it, you have no idea who I am or what I'm capable of. If I say I can take him out, I can fucking take him out!" I raise my voice again, she is frustrating me. Instead of thinking logically she's letting her anger get in the way. "It's up to you, just give me an answer so I can prepare."

She looks down at the cracks in the cement floor.
"I need some time to think." She replies.

"Well we have a few hours, whenever you're ready." I say and find a clean spot to sit on the floor.

Katy picks up her phone and tucks it back into the opening to her shirt, then does the same a fair distance away from me. She begins to break down again. It takes all of me not to run to her and hold her. But she would never let me touch her again. So we sit together in this run down building, as her cries echo through the walls.