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“locked up in your basement? What the hell were you thinking?”
Robert stood from his crouched position with his eyebrows knitted together. “I’m going to offer her to him in exchange for information. He’s helped us before. I know he won’t turn me down.”
“What?” Mitchell exclaimed. He fought against the ropes restraining him. “You can’t do that!”
“You’re going to offer her to him?” Mr. Callahan’s eyes went wide. He looked terrified. “That’s your plan? You’re a goddamn, fucking idiot. You signed your own death warrant by inviting Waylen here.”
Without waiting for Robert to respond, Mr. Callahan turned and practically sprinted to the stairs, but Elias blocked his path before he could reach the top.
“Where are you going?” Robert approached the bottom of the steps. “You can’t just leave.”
More shouting and grunting came from the floor above us. Whatever was happening up there was getting heated.
“Get out of my way,” Mr. Callahan ordered Elias.
Elias glanced back at his father before shaking his head. “No.”
“You can’t leave, Cormac,” Robert said. “We need you here. You have to keep up your end of the bargain.”
I had to suppress my scoff. What a hypocrite.
“My end of the bargain?” Mr. Callahan let out a humorless laugh. “There is no more bargain. Once that alpha finds out what we did to that girl, he’s going to kill us all.
“And the moment he realizes I’m a werewolf without a wolf, betraying my kind to help torture an omega, he’ll start with me.”
“Waylen won’t do that,” Robert said. “He’s on our side. We have something he wants. Alphas can’t resist omegas, you said so yourself.
“If he tries to hurt us—any of us—I’ll threaten to kill her. He’s not going to do anything to us when her life is on the line. Waylen is a decent man.”
I tried to swallow the panic at the back of my mouth. They talked about killing me so casually. My life really meant nothing to them.
Mr. Callahan still didn’t look convinced, but it was too late. They were out of time.
The door to the basement slammed open and a shadow dominated the stairs, causing all of us to jump.
A second later, one of the biggest men I had ever seen came pounding down the steps, his heavy footsteps shaking the whole room.
I was instantly intimidated.
A dark brown beard covered the lower half of his face, and his hair was longer than the average man’s, pulled into a bun at the back of his head.
Due to his rugged looks and extremely well-defined muscles, all he needed was a plaid shirt and some well-worn jeans and I probably would have assumed he was a lumberjack or reclusive mountain man.
Instead, he was wearing dark gray dress pants, a black, cotton T-shirt, and dress shoes, giving him an air of sophistication that, given the circumstances, seemed out of place.
He looked like a werewolf. Some primal part of me could just sense that he was like Ace. And it was terrifying.
This was the man Robert wanted to “offer” me to? Shit. ?This man could break me like a toothpick. He wouldn’t even have to try.
Robert and Mr. Callahan sprang into action. Robert returned to my side, while Mr.
Callahan shrank into the shadows on the opposite end of the room from us as if doing so made him invisible.
“Not a single word from you,” Robert spat at me, keeping his tone low. He looked at Mitchell and pulled his gun out of his back pocket. “Neither of you. I mean it.”
I hunched my shoulders and pressed my face into my bent legs so I was peering over my knees. Maybe if I made myself small enough, I would eventually just disappear.
My wide eyes found my birth father. The terror on his face did little to comfort me.
“I’m so sorry, Dorothy,” he whispered. “I’m going to get you out of this, I promise.”
Yeah, I’m going to die…
The huge man, this Waylen Marshall, stopped halfway down the stairs. Elias blinked up at the enormous man, seemingly too shocked to get his feet to shift himself out of the way.
“Move,” Waylen seethed, speaking through his teeth. His body was tight, strained, and his eyes were dark.
It reminded me of how Ace looked when he was particularly upset.
Elias gaped, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. I didn’t understand why he didn’t just move. All he was doing was provoking the already very angry giant.
He glanced at his father as if to ask for permission or direction.
Waylen grabbed Elias by the collar of his shirt and lifted him into the air so his feet dangled beneath him. “Move, boy, or I will move you myself.”
He dropped him a second later, and Elias stumbled down the stairs, pressing himself against the nearest basement wall to make room for the giant to storm past him.
Waylen’s furious gaze searched the poorly lit basement, coming to an abrupt halt as soon as he saw me in the corner.
“My god,” he murmured, presumably taking in my swollen face streaked with tears and my blood-soaked pajamas and bruised body.
His eyes were pitch black. Like the devil himself.
“What”—his demon eyes snapped to Robert—“did you do to her?”
Still standing next to me, Robert raised his hands in surrender. “There’s no need to get worked up, Waylen. We don’t intend to cause the girl any more harm. Unless provoked, that is.”
Waylen’s chest rose and fell with each one of his ragged breaths. “You chained an omega to a pole. You hurt her. She’s bleeding.”
He took slow steps toward us, prowling like a predator hunting its prey. His eyes zeroed in on my hand, still holding my neck, and the blood trailing down my collarbone.
A snarl transformed his face. “Did you fucking pierce her mating gland?” he roared at Robert. “Do you have a death wish?”
Just as Waylen was about to pounce, Robert fisted the top of my hair and tugged me so I fell against his legs. He pressed his gun to my temple. “Don’t come any closer, Waylen. Don’t force my hand.”
“No!” Mitchell called out.
Waylen’s body froze while his eyes darted between me and the gun. It looked as if he was trying to solve an impossible math problem.
“I’ve always considered us friends,” Robert continued in a measured tone. “I’m hoping we can make this interaction civilized. Don’t jump to conclusions before you hear why I asked you here.”
Waylen roared again. Everyone flinched.
There was something about that noise that made my heart twist, and a loud sob escaped my throat. I was trying so hard to be strong, to not let them see how weak I was.
But Waylen’s growl sounded so much like Ace’s. It was all too much. I was breaking.
At the sound of my cry, Waylen’s attention swung to me. “Lower your gun. You’re scaring her.” When Robert still hesitated, Waylen added, “I’ll listen to what you have to say if you lower your gun.”
Robert didn’t move. “I want to take this conversation upstairs where there are fewer distractions. Elias and Cormac are going to stay here with the girl.” He nodded at his son and Mr. Callahan.
“If either of them hears anything suspicious, or if you come back down those stairs without me, they won’t hesitate to kill her.”
Waylen seemed reluctant to leave me, which I was grateful for. I knew better than to trust this random stranger, but he was the first of these men who took real issue with seeing me hurt.
“You’re going to want to hear what I have to say,” Robert insisted, his gun still digging into the side of my head.
Waylen’s jaw tightened. “Fine. But if I come back down here and find that anything more has been done to this poor girl, there will be hell to pay. Got it?”