Chapter 62

Amanda started to stir. She didn’t remember going to sleep. Her arms felt heavy above her head; she tried to pull them down but they resisted. She opened her eyes and didn’t recognize anything around her. She was standing with her hands in iron manacles raised above her head. Her heart raced.

What happened?

She tried to think about the last thing she remembered. She was by the cafe, she had run into that guy Tristan and then Ophelia showed up. And then …

Amanda pulled vigorously at the manacles that were wrapped around her wrists. The pulling inflicted pain on her wrists.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she heard a voice say to her in the darkness.

An older man came out of the dark corner that he’d been lurking in. He was tall and his hair was dark with flecks of grey on the side. His eyes were a dark rich brown, there was a familiarity to his face but she couldn’t place where she could have seen him before.

“Where am I?” she asked as she tried to control the quiver in her voice.

“Somewhere where they’ll never find you, darlin’,” he told her.

Amanda swallowed the fear that was rising inside her. She didn’t want him to know that she was terrified. It would do her no good. She stared back into his eyes not willing to give him what he wanted.

He chuckled at her.

“You may think you can fool me, little girl. I’m a lot older than you. I can smell fear a mile away.”

Amanda still didn’t allow herself to flinch. If she could put up with Hudson and his constant bullying and harassment, she could handle this guy.

“What do you want from me?” she questioned.

“There’s nothing I want from you, except to make my little girl happy,” he told her.

Amanda closed her eyes when she realized why he looked so familiar. Colson and Ophelia.

He laughed callously at her.

“Did it finally click in that small brain of yours?” he said to her as he reached up and ran his finger down the side of her face.

Amanda tried to pull away from his touch but the restraints wouldn’t allow her to go far. “Why don’t you let her find her own mate?”

He sneered at her. “Her mate was a pathetic little human, he wasn’t going to be able to protect my little girl. She needs someone strong who can keep her protected at all costs. She’s my little princess, she needs to be mated to an Alpha, whose pack will treat her like the queen she is.”

Amanda shook her head. “There’s so much more to being a Luna than just being treated like a queen. Didn’t your mate—”

He turned and got right in her face, “Don’t you dare talk about mates. My wife wasn’t my mate but she did her best to be the best Luna for my pack before she was taken away from my kids.”

He turned and walked away from her, he was losing his patience and didn’t want to hurt the girl. She wasn’t his problem. He promised that he would leave her in pristine condition until they were done with her and then he would allow Ophelia to do whatever she pleased to her.

Samuel lifted his nose into the air, he closed his eyes as he inhaled. His wolf Vilkas hummed as he took in her scent. She was close by. He heard footsteps coming down the hall in the basement dungeon. There were only a few of his trusted wolves that knew about this place. He figured it was the safest place for them to keep her.

Persephone walked into the cold, dark room. Her eyes lit up with excitement when she saw the girl chained across the room.

“Is this her?” she asked.

“Just as you asked,” he whispered from behind her.

Persephone shivered as she felt him whisper against her skin. She shook her head as she pushed away any happy thoughts of them being together.

“Thank you, I’ll take it from here,” she told him.

Samuel just stared at her from the back. He slowly reached out his hand, wanting to touch her. His hand froze there for a moment before he clenched it into a fist, lowered his hand, and walked out of the room.

Persephone continued to stare at the girl. “Let’s get to know each other shall we?” she said with a devilish smile.

****

Vita stared at the empty spot where Amanda had been just a moment before. She couldn’t believe she'd just frozen and allowed him to take Amanda away.

“This is my fault,” she whispered.

Deak looked at her with concern and confusion. “What?”

“I could have stopped him, but I was so afraid. I was weak and I let him take her.” Her chest felt heavy as it filled with guilt.

Deak turned her so that she was facing him. He lifted her chin with his finger and cupped her face with his hand. “This was not your fault. You didn’t know what he was capable of doing.”

Deak’s hand was warm and calming against her skin. She could feel her anxiety slowly wash away as he continued to touch her. Is this what it was like? Someone who truly cared for you. Was their love magical and could help you feel better just by a simple touch? She couldn’t believe it. Vita had never been with someone that made her feel this way. It almost seemed foreign to her.

“Where did he take her?” Hudson roared as he got up and stormed over to Vita.

Deak stepped in front of Vita before Hudson attempted to intimidate his mate.

“You need to calm down little wolf. You are only making it worse for yourself,” he informed him as he looked down and watched Hudson scratch harder against the bracelet.

Hudson followed Deak’s eyes and looked down at what he was looking at. He was scratching so hard he was beginning to draw blood; he needed to get this off of him before he did something that he would truly regret.

Deak pulled out his phone and dialed Ruby.

“Deak, what’s wrong?” Ruby asked when she answered the phone.

“They took small girl. We are heading your way back to Vita’s house. We need to make a plan to get her back.”

“I’ll let Madeline and Zachary know you’re on your way,” Ruby said.

He could hear the uneasiness in her tone.

“Ruby, we’ll get her back,” he assured her.

Ruby breathed out a sigh. “We’ll see you soon,” was all she said before she ended the call.

Gretchen opened her bag and pulled out a small container. She started to open it as she walked over to Hudson.

“Here, this might help with the itch and the pain,” she said softly. She was about to apply a small amount to Hudson’s wrist when she heard a growl coming from behind him.

Gretchen looked up to see Colson glaring at her. He was not happy.