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“heat,” but that didn’t matter so long as it convinced Robert that I was alone and not to hurt my brother.
“My parents left me in charge.” I looked at his gun, which he was still pointing at Thomas’s head. “Please. ?Please don’t hurt my brothers.”
Robert’s nostrils flared. An icy manacle wrapped itself around my throat as he pressed his gun harder into Thomas’s temple.
“I won’t hurt your brothers if you stop fucking lying to me. Ace Stoll wouldn’t fly across the world unless he knew his mate was protected, especially when she’s so close to going into heat.”
His lip curled in disgust. “Where’s his beta?” he asked the three men behind him.
One of them stepped forward, looking confused. “She went with him—”
“His true beta,” Robert snapped. “Madoc Gannon. Where is ~he~? Do we have eyes on him?”
It was Mr. Callahan who spoke this time. “He scented his mate earlier today. He left the pack to look after Dorothy while she was at school. I doubt anyone knew she’d be by herself when she got home.
“Her father wouldn’t tell anyone about his mate’s situation. An omega in heat is kept under wraps, for obvious reasons.”
He glanced at me and at the blood dripping down my face. “I think she’s telling the truth. I don’t think anyone is protecting her.”
“And here I was thinking we were going to have to threaten your darling brothers to get you out before your mate got back.” Robert laughed. “This is much more convenient. We can take our time.”
Everything they said added to my panic and confusion. My thoughts felt fuzzy, and my head pounded where Robert had hit me with his gun.
I blinked through the pain. I needed to get my act together if I wanted to help my brothers. I wouldn’t let anything happen to them.
“What did you do to them?” I asked, looking at my siblings. I kept one hand on Thomas and the other on Felix. I could feel their even breaths beneath my palms.
“Will they be okay?”
“Don’t worry, my dear. I’m counting on your cooperation during our time together.
So, although it is tempting, it is not my plan to harm any members of your family.
“They will be fine. They should wake up sometime tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. It really depends on how much they ate.
“Wolfsbane is a tricky poison; one I’ve never had to use before. Hard to come by too. Thankfully, though, your mate kept plenty at his house. Seems he has a bit of a problem controlling his wolf.
“But you would know that better than anybody, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied. I bit back a groan when my headache flared. It felt like a hot knife was being driven straight through my skull. I definitely had a concussion.
“Hmm,” Robert hummed in contemplation. His eyes fell onto my neck, where part of Ace’s bite mark was visible beneath the collar of my shirt.
I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t like him looking there, so I covered it with my hand, causing his gaze to return to my face.
“You’re a good liar,” he told me.
The blond man kicked Griffin’s shoulder, jostling him. He glared down at my brother. I knew he was just checking to make sure he was asleep, but it still made my chest squeeze like a vice.
Noticing my reaction, Robert followed my gaze. “Step back, Elias.”
Elias followed his orders, and I let out a breath of relief.
“Like I said,” Robert said, pulling my attention back to him, “I don’t intend to harm your brothers. I don’t even plan on taking them with us.
“If I’m honest, we don’t have chains strong enough to hold them, even if the youngest is only three.”
That fact seemed to upset him. He sneered in disgust.
“You, however, you are an omega—a human omega. You are nothing without your alpha.” His lips curled. “And, thankfully, your alpha is nothing without you.”
The next thing I knew, his fist was flying toward me, hitting me straight in the nose.
I was out like a light.
“Wake up, little werewolf lover,” a man whispered next to my ear.
I could feel his breath fanning over the side of my face, stirring my hair.
“Don’t call her that.” Another voice—further away but also more familiar than the last.
The breathing beside me stopped.
I tried to make sense of what was happening around me but the world was too foggy. It was like I was sifting through a haze, unable to see five feet ahead of me.
Even the voices of the two men nearby sounded muffled and warped.
Where am I? Why does my body feel full of lead?
“Can’t we put her somewhere a little more comfortable? Is keeping her chained to a chair really necessary?”
Why did I know that voice? I felt a distant familiarity, memories I wasn’t quite yet able to muster.
“I’m not taking any chances,” the other man grunted. This voice I didn’t know as well. It was cold and abhorrent.
Everything hurt. Everything. ?The pain stemmed from my head and coursed down my body, leaving me sore and weak.
Why can’t I open my eyes?
The last time I felt this way was after my car accident when I was fifteen. Fear gripped me, wrapping around my lungs like barbed wire, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
“She’s human, not a werewolf. Silver chains aren’t going to accomplish anything that rope couldn’t.”
“She’s mated to Ace Stoll. Who knows what kind of power that gives her? If nothing else, the silver will suppress their mate bond and make it harder for him to mind-link with her.”
“I thought you wanted her cooperation. She’s going to be terrified when she wakes up.”
“That’s why you’re here. You’re going to calm her down and get her to talk. She’ll trust her father.”
My father.
My eyes fluttered open. “D-Dad?” I could just barely make my lips move.
It wasn’t my real Dad—I already knew that just from the sound of his voice. It wasn’t the man who took me in and cared for me since the age of six. It wasn’t Joe Kennicott.
No, it was my biological father, Mitchell Cooper. The man who abandoned me and my mother when things didn’t go his way and who moved across the country.
As my vision came into focus, I saw Mitchell standing several paces away. He was wearing khaki pants, a polo shirt, and a pair of dark brown dress shoes.
His head was bowed, but it snapped up the moment I said his name. “Dorothy!”
Mitchell ran to me, crouching down so that his face was level with mine. I winced when he tried to put a hand on my cheek. He dropped it.
“What…?” I searched for the other person who I had heard speaking but found no one but my father. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”
I seemed to be in an unfinished basement: cinder block walls, a concrete floor, and wooden joists along the ceiling.
There was a laundry machine and dryer in the corner and storage bins stacked under the stairs. Pull-string lights hung loosely above me.