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Fueled by the bout of misplaced confidence taking over my body, I called out, “Why are you doing this?”
Mr. Callahan turned, his gaze pinning me sharply. His expression held some animosity—animosity I didn’t think I deserved.
I swallowed my nerves. “What did I do to make you hate me so much?”
“Where are you?”
Mr. Callahan’s upper lip curled. “You didn’t have to do anything. You’re human.
You’re weak . ?You don’t deserve to lead our pack alongside one of the strongest alphas in existence.
“Ace may be too blinded by the mate bond to see how much you drag him down, but I saw it every time you walked into my classroom, wide-eyed and clinging to his arm like the pathetic omega you are.
“As soon as you’re gone, his eyes will be opened to the truth, and he will return the Embermoon Pack to its former glory with a luna truly worthy of the title.”
That was a lot to process. I recognized a lot of the language from conversations I’d overheard over the years, but that didn’t mean I understood any of it.
“As soon as I’m gone?” I parroted. Those threatening words made me shudder. “Y-you mean, you plan on k-killing me?”
Elias stepped forward, shaking his head. “That’s not—”
Mr. Callahan sneered and bared his teeth like some rabid animal. “Luckily for you, it’s not up to me. If it were, you would already be dead.
“But know this, I will kill you myself before I allow you to go near Ace Stoll or anyone from the Embermoon Pack ever again.”
Sensing this was going too far, Elias swiftly put himself between us, facing Mr.
Callahan. “What the fuck is your problem, dude? Do you get off on scaring her or something?”
He shoved the older man, forcing him to step away from me. “It’s not our goal to fucking traumatize her.”
“She should be scared,” Mr. Callahan shot back. “She obviously doesn’t understand.”
The blood rushing in my ears drowned out the rest of their conversation.
For the first time since coming to, I realized just how likely it was that I wouldn’t be making it out of the basement alive.
I’m not going to leave this basement alive, I realized. ~They would be idiots to keep me alive.~
Ace would find me eventually. No matter where I was or how far they took me, Ace would track me down and make anyone who hurt me pay.
They couldn’t let me go for the same reason. I would go running to Ace, Ace would see what they did to me, and he would make it his personal mission to make them suffer.
The only way to avoid facing Ace’s wrath was to wash their hands of me completely and make sure my disappearance could never be traced back to them.
I might never see Ace again. I might never see my family again.
“Where are you?”
“Dorothy.” Elias’s voice was muffled and far away. “Dorothy, look at me.” His hands fell on my shoulders and squeezed, forcing my eyes up. “You need to breathe.
You’re panicking.”
Am I? Huh. I hadn’t even noticed. ?All at once, I became aware of my burning lungs. I was full-on hyperventilating.
“Breathe,” Elias said again. “If Waylen hears you crying like this, he’ll come back down and murder us all. Cormac doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He just wants to get in your head.”
“We don’t want to kill you,” Elias continued. “That’s never been the plan.”
I didn’t believe him. Their treatment of me so far did nothing to convince me otherwise.
“Where are you?”
Elias’s eyes sparkled with genuine sympathy. “As soon as you give us the information we need, you can go home with your dad and this can all be over. That was the deal.
“We don’t want to kill you. You’re just as much a victim in all of this as the rest of us.”
My breathing finally slowed. I searched Elias’s face through my tears, trying to understand. “What…what do you mean?”
How is he a victim? How am I a victim?
“What did Ace do to you?”
His hands fell to his sides, and his expression darkened slightly. “His family has ties to the Mortars. The Mortars killed my sister. So, we’re going to kill them.”
***
“Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?”
About twenty minutes had passed since Mr. Callahan left, and I think the voice in my head was about to push me over the edge.
It just wouldn’t stop. It asked the same question, over and over, sounding so much like Ace, it made me want to sob.
It was getting louder too. Whereas it was barely even discernible before, now it blared in my mind as if being spoken through a megaphone. My brain felt like it was about to explode.
“Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?”
I placed my forehead against my folded knees and squeezed the sides of my skull with my hands to make it stop. It was no use.
I didn’t understand what was going on. My brain had never conjured up Ace’s voice before. How could I make it stop? It was so real . ?And incessant. And ~annoying~.
How was I supposed to figure out a way to get out of here if I couldn’t even think anymore?
It was honestly a little scary. Is this what my mind resorts to during high-stress situations? Making up voices to comfort me?
“Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?”
Fuck. I needed to distract myself before I broke down into a sobbing mess.
I looked up. The early-morning sun had started to shine through the small egress window by the stairs, making the scary basement look a tad less intimidating.
Elias had taken a spot on top of the washing machine on the other side of the room.
His gaze was glued to his phone as he scrolled through what sounded like TikTok.
“Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?”
My eyes drifted to Mitchell. He was still passed out on the concrete floor. The swelling on his forehead was getting bad.
My pulse raced with worry. Shouldn’t he be awake by now? What if something is wrong with him? What if Mr. Callahan gave him a brain bleed or a fracture in his skull?
I didn’t want Mitchell to die. I didn’t care that he abandoned me when I was a child anymore, or that he was the reason I was in this horrible situation. His death would be my breaking point.
“Cormac gave him something to make him sleep while you were in the bathroom,”
Elias said, noticing where I was looking.
“He was being difficult when we first brought you here, and my father didn’t want to deal with that again. He should wake up in a few hours.”