CHAPTER FOUR: THE WOLF'S CAPTIVE

Gwen POV

It felt like their eyes were burning through me as I held the bag tightly against my chest.

There were six of them in the room, all in the same dark suits, all standing like statues. And Alexander walked through the middle of them toward me like he was their leader.

Maybe he was.

I pushed myself up from the floor, trying to hide my fear, though they had probably already seen right through me. My hands were shaking too badly to hide anything.

"Where is my money?"

His voice was low and carved with authority, the kind of voice that never had to be raised to be obeyed.

"You were paid for a night with me. You didn't do it. Yet you took my money and ran." He paused and turned away from me for a moment, like he was deciding something. Then he turned back. "Tell me why I shouldn't punish you."

At that point, I told myself there was no use holding on to the money anymore. There was no way I was escaping this. Whatever it cost me, I had to give it back and pray he'd let me walk out alive.

"Fine," I said. "I'm sorry. I'll give you the money."

He smiled, slow and cold. "I'm waiting."

I reached into the bag I had held so tightly all day. My fingers searched for the envelope, felt along the lining, dug into the corners.

It was empty.

The hair on my arms stood up. I was kneeling in the middle of Alexander Wolf and his men, all of them waiting for the money, and I did not have it.

This didn't make sense. I turned the bag upside down, my panic rising with every second, and watched my things spill across the floor. A comb. A little mirror. A few coins. No envelope.

And then it hit me.

Only one person had held my bag. Only one person had offered to help me with it just before I entered the bus, and I had handed it to her without a second thought.

"Staci..." I whispered.

"Woman." His voice came again, harder this time, and I looked up, silently begging for this nightmare to end. "Where is my money?"

I had no answer to give him.

"I swear I had it," I stammered. "Please, believe me. Somehow it got stolen."

I knew from his face that he wasn't buying it. Why would he? It was the oldest excuse in the world.

He rolled his eyes in frustration and turned to his men.

"Get her up."

Hands closed around my arms, and I was lifted off the floor like I weighed nothing at all.

"You'll be taken elsewhere," he said, "until I know what to do with you."

That was the last thing I heard clearly before a cloth was pulled over my eyes. The world went dark. I felt myself being moved, led through corridors and down steps, and I lost track of time completely.

When the blindfold was finally removed, I was standing in a room that smelled like those scented candles they sell in expensive stores, sweet and heavy and far too comfortable for a prison.

The door banged shut behind them.

I was left all alone in a cold, lonely story.

I didn't know when the tears started. I only felt them sliding down my chin. The exhaustion made my knees weak, and I sank onto the edge of the bed and buried my face in my hands, trying to control the emotions pouring out of me. My head hurt. My heart felt like it had been shredded. Everything was going wrong, and I couldn't stop any of it.

I wasn't going to see Sten again.

My little brother was alone in the real world. Who would take care of him? I imagined him sitting by the door, waiting for me to come home from my multiple jobs with food in my hands, the way I always did. I pictured him checking the time, then checking it again.

And he would never see his big sister again.

Now I was in the hands of the man who was supposed to kill me. And the apocalypse would arrive in a month.

Why did I ever buy this stupid book?

My heart raced faster, and I forced myself to breathe. *Calm down. Think.*

The money. How could it have disappeared? Was it Staci?

My mind couldn't piece together how it had happened, but I suspected her with everything I had. And the thought of it hurt almost as much as the fear. She had been the only person in this world who felt like a friend.

If I didn't get out of here within thirty days, everything in that book would happen to me, and I would never see Sten again.

I cried until I couldn't cry anymore, and somewhere in the middle of it, I slept.

The scrape of the door woke me.

I sat up quickly. It was Alexander.

There was no pity in his eyes. His expression was unreadable, but beneath it, there was something else, something dark and hungry that I didn't want to name.

And despite everything, despite the fact that I should have hated him, Gwen's stupid heart was still drawn to him. I could feel it pulling, like a thread I couldn't cut, and I hated that I couldn't control it.

"I should punish you," he said, and the words made my skin burn.

"You don't have to do this," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "I can work. I'll pay you back. Double, if you want."

He smiled. This time, it was real. Really real, and somehow that frightened me more than the cold one.

"What is your name?"

"Gwen Gobbers."

"Gwen." He said it slowly, as if tasting it. "You won't need to pay me back. I have something else in mind."

Smoke began to fill the room, thick and sweet and strange. I tried to stand, tried to move toward the door, but my limbs wouldn't listen. That was the last thing I remembered.

When I woke up, I was in a completely different room. I was wearing new clothes that weren't mine, and when I stumbled to the window and looked out, it was an entirely different town.

Where was I?

Things had just gotten worse. In Florence City, at least, I could have traced the wizard Frey. Here, I had no clue how to find him. I didn't even know where *here* was.

The cold floor made my legs wobbly, and I felt dizzy from the smoke, whatever gas Alexander had used to sedate me. My head spun.

But the moment the door opened and Alexander walked in, my head cleared instantly, as though fear had washed everything else away.

"Where are we?" I demanded. "This has gone too far. If it's the money you need, I told you, I will..."

His cold fingers brushed across my lips, and my body reacted instantly. He didn't need to say another word. I fell silent.

"This isn't about the money anymore," he said. "It's about destiny."

"Destiny?"

He could see the confusion all over my face.

"Yes, Gwen. And your destiny is to give me a son." His eyes held mine without blinking. "Because I do not have much time left to live."

I couldn't react. I couldn't even breathe, because that was when it all started to make sense.

Just like in the book. Alexander held Gwen captive for over a year so she could give him a son, because he was going to die in seven months.

That was when it happened. That was when she fell in love with him. And when she finally gave him that son, in the middle of the apocalypse, he sacrificed her, leaving the poor child in the hands of a stranger.

This was where it all started. This was how he held her captive, and how Gwen fell in love with her own captor.

I was reliving it all over again.

*This can't happen. No. I need to get out of here.*

I looked at him.

"No!" My eyes were already filling with tears, my emotions pouring out of me as I hoped, stupidly, that he might let me go. "Please, no!"

Something flickered across his eyes. Something unreadable.

"Then you'll be my prisoner."

"No!" I screamed at him, collapsing to the floor as he slammed the door and left.

The lock clicked. His footsteps faded.

I curled up on the cold floor, my arms around my knees.

*Sten.*

My little brother.

*How do I get to you now? How do I get back to the real world?*

*You must be so cold. So lonely.*

*Please, God, protect his little soul until I can get out of here.*