The underground warehouse above

Noah POV

It's been late, very late, and yet I can't sleep. I've been locked here barely two days, yet it feels like an eternity. Hayden Blackwood hasn't visited me again, and I'm unhappy with that. Sam has visited me today, and I'm not happy with that either.

Hayden Blackwood listened to everything I had to say; I didn't feel judged by him, although I for sure deserved judging. He has just heard me out, so maybe that's why I couldn't stop talking. Since my parents died, I have never been heard. Since they died, no one has ever been interested in my side of the story or my point of view. Even Tonya...

I bit my lips hard, knowing perfectly well that I'm not fair. She was honest with me from the beginning. I can doubt her intentions, but she has always been honest with me since we came here. My fist clenches as I think about Sam's visit.

Fucking, slick bastard! That smirk of satisfaction on his face was disgusting. I should have known that my asking about the place where Damon had wanted to meet would reach Head Warrior's ears. I should have known he would follow me to sell me later. What I didn't calculate is that the Head Warrior would endanger his own pack.

He admitted to following me the first time I met Damon and the next time, yet he has never reported it. If I had been a traitor, I could have brought a lot of harm to the pack, so Sam should have reported me the moment he started suspecting me, yet he didn't. He waited; he allowed me to walk freely everywhere and maybe hurt someone, only to make sure to set me up at the right moment.

He even waited to help me against rogues when they attacked Rosie and the kids, only to make sure I would be as good as guilty in the eyes of everyone. He told me that and, of course, managed to fool me once more. I lost my cool and charge of him, and of course, Troy, who was outside of the room, came lured by all the commotion and pulled me away from Sam, who, of course, hadn't protected himself so my attack would look more vicious.

It doesn't look good for me. If Charlie has also opened his mouth and told Tonya everything... that's it, I'm done. Whatever I did with Charlie back in Shadow Pack was a fault of circumstances, not mine. Linus is howling in agony inside me, making me angry because he wants both of them. I should have never put myself in this mess because of one omega who had it rough his whole life and the Alpha who didn't have everything handed to her like most of the Alphas.

The door opens, and Tonya enters; I sit instantly and try not to show how much I am happy and scared at the same time that she is here. She wears jeans and a casual top, and her hair is loose, yet her stern look and dominance are far from calm. I clench my teeth. I can't show her I'm scared; I will take her head on if I have to. I will never bend my neck to her, no matter what.

She sits in front of me, her canines slightly out; she must be agitated. I hate it; honestly, I hate that the proximity of her body makes me so weak, makes me want to beg her not to toss me away. But I will not beg; I will not beg no matter what.

"How is Sammy? Will you whip me again for the second brawl?" I say mockingly; if she is irritated by my attitude, she hides it well.

"Charlie told me everything about Shane and what the Shadow Pack has done to him."

"Oh really?" I spit. "Any juicy details? I wasn't interested much in him, so I don't know everything."

"Explain what you understand by "juicy details": almost gang raped at the age of 14, or maybe killing his father in front of him, or maybe the special interest your Beta had in him?"

Fuck, how the hell she manages to keep herself calm and sound so indifferent being so angry. I can sense her fury; if I play this nicely, maybe she will snap again and break my neck, and finally, all of it will be over. No more fear of rejection and banishment, no more fear of solitude and life in constant longing for her and Charlie.

"True, Drew liked him very much; Charlie used to spend hours in his room and was always limping when leaving it. But at least he had never taken him publicly; most warriors had fucked him where they grabbed him. It didn't matter if it was training grounds or packhouse corridor."

Her eyes shift; Silver is close. I feel it as Linus whimpers because her dominance is powerful and intimidating...

"You know, you remind me of a dog caught in the fox trap. The fox would bite his leg out to set himself free, but the dog can only whine, hoping that someone will come and save him. Why are you so set up to blame Charlie for everything?" She says in a cold voice as her eyes go back to normal.

I would launch at her if I weren't wearing the rogue collar, feeling my anger growing.

"You don't fucking know a thing! You judge me because of what Charlie told you, but truth be told, I didn't do anything wrong! I fucked up my life to protect him, although if it weren't my wolf or the bond, I wouldn't care! You are right about that one. I've never cared about any weaklings in my pack!" I yell.

"You hurt our mate," she starts one more time in this disgustingly calm voice so interrupt her:

"No, I've never hurt him. I may not be gentle with him, but I have never hurt him after I found him despite the rejection! But rejection was my right; you can't judge me for that!"

"And before? Before you found out that Charlie was your mate, how many times you raped him or touched him in another way? Before you found him, how many times you had abused him?"

"I have never abused him or raped him! He meant nothing to me; I didn't care about him!" I spit, standing up as she stays motionless.

"And how many times have you watched him harmed and chose to look the other way?"

I snap; I don't care anymore, as I yell at her:

"Why the fuck do you care so much about that whore! You are so naïve; you believe every teary story somebody has told you. Poor Charlie, so used and broken. He didn't have to endure broken bones or risk his life in protecting the pack; he was never left mutilated by rogues without any medical help because his patrol leader decided it was up to him to be strong enough not to die! Do you want to know why I rejected him? Because he is a disgusting weakling! He has never stood up for himself and just obediently took all the crap. He should have done something! Anything at all!"

She has me pinned down to the bed in a flash, straddling me. I trash under her as she grips my neck. Linus is crawling in my mind, scared of his mate totally. I try to push her away, but she is too strong, and her grip on my neck is getting stronger. I dig nails into her hand and try to reach her face in vain. 

She looks at me with the same stone-cold face; her eyes are normal. Silver isn't in charge; Tonya is. I have a problem catching my breath as clutches of fear sink into my heart. I'm powerless in the presence of the Alpha; the tears are ready to be spilled. 

She smirks; her eyes are cold and angry as she reaches with her hand to the waistband of my trousers, making me scream:

"Tonya, please, stop it!"

"Quiet, rogue, know your place," her Alpha's voice forces me to stay still. I don't want to, yet I can't move, and I hate myself for that. My hands are free, yet I can't do anything, painfully aware that she will do whatever she wants, and I can't stop her, no matter what.

I'm desperate, I'm vulnerable,   I'm scared...

"I could do whatever I want with you," she leans closer and whispers to my ear, digging her nails more into my neck. "I could call here whoever I want and make them fuck you, beat you, kill you."

She lets me go roughly, stepping away from me as I bite my lips hard not to start sobbing.

"Next time, you should do something, anything at all," she says as she leaves the room.

I wrap my arms around myself as I lie curled on the bed, totally numb. It's been years since I have been so much on somebody's mercy; it's been years since I've felt that weak and insignificant; it's been years since I've cried so much. 

Chandler POV

After a long conversation with my mother and checking all the information again, I'm sure I caught the right trail.

John Witt, who owned the land where the warehouse is located and 20 years ago helped destroy the rogues' hideout, turned out to be the same man. He also turned out to be a professor of Biochemistry at one of the top universities in the country.

My mother claimed that 20 years ago, he convinced the hunters that he was a local freak, not understanding what he had taken himself into, and my mother doesn't get fooled easily. After the hunting, the Murrow Clan has forgotten about John Witt, who coincidentally abandoned his retirement and returned to work at the University. Ten years later, soon before his death, he sold some of his research to a pharmaceutical company, which helped it reach the top.

This company, known now as FuturaHW, is coincidentally also the one with a patent over the special silver alloy with over metals, which was used to build the torture chambers we found. The president and the main shareholder of the company name is Max Brown, who very suddenly, at the age of forty, moved on with his career and rearranged the company at the edge of bankruptcy into the monster giant it is now, and everything in less than ten years. To add more, one of the FuturaHW subcontractor factories is also located within 60 miles of Prescot. And their logo matches the one Rosie saw in her vision.

I went through the report of hunting the rogues from 20 years ago. Nothing extraordinary except one thing: the rogues' camp was here for at least a year, very close to the three packs also located here. The rogues wouldn't be able to establish and maintain the camp unless they had some deal with these three packs. Plus, except for 14 males and five women who were part of the rogue group, my mother also reported finding the mutilated corpse of a werewolf child, who had been dead for at least some time before.

I sigh as Terry, Rosie, and I stand in front of a ruined cabin in the forests where, according to my mother, John Witt was living 20 years ago. Rosie has already visited the three packs and Prescot but didn't get any visions there, mostly because everything had already been cleaned to hide the incidents from humans.

Rosie has shifted and sniffs around, trying to find something as Terry and I talk.

"According to what you told me, I noticed something. Amaria stated in her report that she also found a lot of cash among the rogues' things, meaning they were selling something because it was too much to be stolen without anybody noticing." Terry says.

"What rogues could be possibly selling except his services occasionally?"

"Well, since they settled here, it seems like they must have had a stable source of income and a stable deal with the three packs. I really think that the three packs were attacked and wiped out on purpose. Maybe it was a retribution for helping those rogues, but Prescot was an accident. I think that Jake's brother managed to run away and was hiding in this forest, and Prescot was destroyed to lure him."

"Lure him?" I ask.

"The place where you and Mikkeli confronted him was where dead bodies of Prescot citizens were gathered. It must've reeked with fresh human blood and meat; maybe that was the stage to lure him from wherever he was hiding. But because you and your clan and Mikkeli Blackwood showed up first, the ones hunting him decided to step away?"

"But why not get rid of all of us?" I ask; I'm sure they could have also killed us since they were hunting the creature.

"I think their goal is to stay in shadow as long as possible. They didn't attack because they were sure that Mikkeli and you would kill each other, and the disappearance of the member of the Council would only attract more attention. They used human bandits to take away the creature from us; they clearly know where we operate, but they don't attack us openly  That's why I think we still have time because whatever our enemy is preparing, they are still not ready to do it."

Zoya, Rosie's wolf, starts whimpering and trembling, so we instantly go close to her. She shifts, and Terry wraps a blanket around her naked form; her face is empty as she whispers:

"The wolf and the boy were surrounded in the forest by rogues; the wolf was protecting the boy but was too weak; one of the rogues sank claws into the wolf, cutting him open ... they left the wolf bleeding, nearly dead on the ground, and took the boy with them  The boy was screaming a name: Henry... he was screaming so much  The wolf should have died, but he didn't; he crawled... he crawled to here."

I gulp; the child they have caught must be the mutilated corpse my mother found.

"Anything else?" I ask, and she nods and continues:

"The old man came from the cabin and noticed the wounded wolf, and he saw him shifting into... into another boy."

If that boy had run away from the rogues' camp and met John Witt here, he could've given him details Witt later gave my mother to help her destroy those rogues.

"Do you know what happened with the boy later?" asks Terry,  and Rosie shakes her head. 

But I'm sure of one thing: two boys had run from the rogues' camp, and only one survived. The boy who died was killed by the rogues. The boy, who survived, got rid of those rogues with the help of John Witt using my clan.  And now, almost twenty years later, the boy came back to get rid of three packs who had been helping those rogues.