CHAPTER 12

Brent POV

The first thing I noticed was the woodsmoke and smell of wet earth and something that smelled like an animal underneath it.

The second thing I noticed was the pain in my wrists. The cuffs they had on me weren’t metal, it was a rope but it burned like metal. Every time I moved, they tightened.

When I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn't back in the van, or anywhere in the city.

I was in a room made of stone and timber, with one barred window high up and no door I could see. The air was cold and my shirt was gone. My jeans were torn and my confidence? That was gone too.

I’m Brent Carter. I run three clubs. I know people. I have money. I don’t get scared but at this moment, I was scared because this man standing over me didn't look human.

The one in front had his chest covered in old marks that looked like claw marks. He watched me the way you watch a dog that might bite.

“Brent Carter,” he said in a sharp tone that didn't sound like human cadence. “You’ve been looking for Helena.”

My mouth was dry. “Who are you?”

He didn’t answer. He just crouched, so we were eye level.

“We are not human,” he said, like he was telling me the weather. “And you will tell us everything you know about The Marked One.”

The Marked One. That’s what the guys at the warehouse called her.

I laughed, my voice coming out shaky. “You’re crazy. She’s just a girl. She works at—”

The wolf moved instantly, one second he was crouching. The next his hand was around my throat, lifting me off the cot. My feet kicked the air, the rope on my wrists searing.

“Do not lie to me,” he said. “We smelled you on her. In her car. At the crash. You were there.”

I choked. “Jarrett— Jarrett did it. He’s a freak. Not her.”

“Jarrett,” the wolf repeated. Like he was tasting the name. “And Helena. What do you know about her?”

Everything. I knew everything about her so I told him everything I knew including the scar she had on her wrist.

The moment I said “scar,” the wolf’s grip loosened.

“A scar,” he said. “On her wrist.”

“Yeah her left wrist. Why—”

He dropped me. I hit the floor hard, gasping.

The wolf stood and turned to the shadows in the corner of the room, where two other wolves had been standing silently the whole time.

“She’s marked,” he said. “It’s her.”

One of them bowed his head. “Alpha.”

Alpha. Oh my god!

I started shaking. I couldn’t stop. “Please. I don’t know anything else. Jarrett’s protecting her. He’s— he’s one of you, isn’t he? That’s why he—”

The Alpha didn’t look at me again. “Put him in the lower cells. Feed him. He may be useful later.”

Two wolves grabbed me. I tried to fight. I’m 6’1. I go to the gym three times a week but it doesn't matter here. They moved me like I weighed nothing.

As they dragged me out, I heard the Alpha say one last thing.

“Find out who’s forcing the awakening. And find the other one. Jarrett.”

The door — a slab of iron I hadn’t seen before — slid shut and everywhere was covered with darkness.

Helena POV

“I saw your claws.”

The words came out flat. Because if I let any emotion into them I’d scream.

Jarrett was standing by the broken window with his back to me.

The penthouse was still a huge mess with broken glass scattered across the floor and blood spilling from two dead men on the floor.

“Helena—”

“Don’t.” I cut him off. “Don’t lie. Don’t ‘it’s not what it looks like.’ I saw your eyes. I saw your hands. I saw what happened when that man touched me.”

He turned slowly. His eyes were still glowing gold faintly like the light hadn’t fully left them.

“I’m a werewolf,” he said.

Just like that. Not even a preamble or softening it.

The air left my lungs.

“A werewolf,” I repeated. “Like in movies. Full moon. Howling and people dying!.”

“Not like that,” he said quickly. “Not all of it. We don’t lose control if we’re trained. Not if we—”

“Stop.” I held up my hand. The one with the mark. It was still tender, and still warm. “You let me think you were human. You let me ride in your car. You let me sleep in your apartment.”

“I was trying to protect you,” he said. “From them. From this.”

“Protect me?” My voice broke. “By lying?”

“By keeping you safe until the time was right.”

“And when was the right time, Jarrett? When I’m 30? When I’m dead?”

He flinched.

I walked to the door. My legs felt like water but I made them move. I couldn’t stay here. Not with him. Not with the smell of blood and the way my wrist was buzzing under my sleeve.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Away from you.”

“You can’t. They know you’re awake now. The rogues. The Alpha. If you leave, they’ll take you.”

I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. “Then let them. Because right now you’re the scariest thing in this room.”

I didn’t look back when I walked out. He called after me but I paid him no mind as I walked out quickly, fighting back the tears that threatened to cascade down my cheeks.