Chapter 54

Aria

My eyelids felt heavy as I tried to open them. It felt like a huge weight was pinning me down on the surface. The softness of a mattress underneath me told me that I was laying on a bed, but the silence around me was unnerving.

Where was I?

Was I in my room? Or was I somewhere else?

Suddenly I began hearing a voice of a person talking to someone. It was not clear, I could not understand or hear anything properly but all I could understand was that I was not alone in this room.

Just the moment when the panic began rising within me, my eyes flew open meeting with the plain white ceiling and unfamiliar surroundings.

I shot up to sit straight. My heart beats so loud that the sound of it buzzed in my own ears along with the sound of blood pumping in my veins.

And then I saw him. Knight.

He was talking to his beta...Ben.

It was then when all the memories of last night washed over me like a storm and everything clicked. They were in our pack disguised as victims of Knight. It was all their plan to track each of our movements and learn about our pack.

Oh no...

"Oh, so you are awake." Knight's grey eyes landed on me, "Good morning, beautiful Luna." He walked over to me whilst Ben walked out of the room.

I instinctively moved backward, pushing myself more against the headboard of the bed. I did not him anyway near me.

He looked amusement at my reaction and sat right in front of me, the distance was the bare minimum.

"Now I see the view Hunter wakes up to every day, " He eyed my body, licking his lower lip, "Honestly, it's better than I thought."

He moved to touch me but I whacked his hand away, "Don't you dare try to touch me, You bloody disgusting piece of shit." I spat.

He only chuckled in response, an evil gilt speaking through the grey of his eyes.

"This is what I actually like about you; A easy, weak, sniveling she-wolf is never interesting," He smirked, "But you are not like them, you are different. And trust me, this is what has got you stuck with me forever, little girl."

"Oh, shut up. Do you think you can keep me trapped here? You can do nothing except for taking the lives of innocent people and ruin their world with your depravity." I was fuming rage, the sight of him made my blood boil with anger, "You think you are going to win? Do you think your karma won't get back at you? You are so fucking wrong in it, Knight. You don't know, with each of your crimes you are reaching your end. You are going to have a pathetic death, crying and begging for life but you won't receive mercy."

He laughed, once again. Nothing I'd said has affected him even the slightest bit.

"You don't understand, Aria. None can harm the one with power and you see this hand of mine, I have all your lives within it. If I want, I can kill every one of your pack members within the matter of an hour and thousands more packs that are under my control," He whispered, leaning closer to my face, "Do you want to see a demo?"

Fear consumed me. I was well aware of how low and barbaric Knight was, how helpless I was right now under his captive.

Upon my silence, his lips curved upwards, "You often find your escape in silence," He tucked a piece of my hair strands behind my ear; My jaw clenched in anger and disgust crawled up my skin.

"Don't touch me!" I swatted his hand away.

"You can keep yourself in the corner and away from me for now, but in the end, after I kill all our near and dear ones it'll only be me you can lean onto. I'll destroy all ways of your escape, every path will lead you to me; Only me."

"I'd rather die than be with you. You fucking demon!"

"Keep resisting me, sweetheart. It only excites me."

"Just because you have kidnapped me and brought me over here, don't think that you are going to be able to cage me forever. I don't need anyone to save me, I know how to fight my own battles." I spoke, aloud.

"None's going to come to save you anyways. Trust me, it's going to take them forever to learn your location, you know why? Because right now you are in my mansion; In the middle of the forest that your mate won't even be able to assume and even if he figured it out, he still won't be able to save you from you because I have got plenty of things arranged for him and his pack." He smiled, purely evil and sadistic.

"Neither I need that monster to save me, nor I am afraid of you and your huge army that you are so proud of. So don't even think that by saying all these you are going to succeed in changing my mind."

"Oh, shit! I totally forgot that you are still weeping because of your mate's supposed betrayal," He laughed, seemingly unaffected by anything I had said, "I have to admit, Hunter Rodriguez really tried to save his mate and his pack, but he made only one mistake—He failed to understand my main target and because of that you are here; Under my captive."

Did Hunter try to save me? What was he talking about?

"What do you mean?" I asked, unknown dismay shrouding my insides.

He fell silent upon my question, a wicked glint dancing in his orbs.

"You still don't understand it? Do you?" He broke his silence with this question.

"Let me tell you a secret, Aria." He whispered, "Your mate did not betray you."

For a second, I stopped breathing. Frozen at the moment, unable to understand or say anything.

"What?" My voice trembled.

"You heard it right; Hunter did not betray you. Your mate is too in love with you to even care for his own himself, how could that guy possibly hurt the girl he is ready to die for?" He snickered.

"Don't try to play these dirty games on me, Knight," I unintentionally stuttered, "I am not gonna get fooled by you."

"Well, You and your mate have already been fooled by me. So keep these dialogues aside. But the funniest thing is that you still are unaware of the truth." He laughed, "Everything Hunter did was to save his pack and you but I made his own plan fall heavy on him."

"What are you talking about?"

"Okay, let's not beat around the bush and get to the point. Your mate's ex-girlfriend Ashley has been involved with us since the start and certainly, none of you could understand that in the beginning but, someone Hunter Rodriguez was a bit too observant than we'd thought, he succeed in learning that members of Knight were in his pack and Ashley was involved too."He began speaking, "However clever he was, he did not take any step against her because he knew it was not possible for Ashley to leak the security strategies alone, and thus his investigation began."

"I knew that Hunter did not want any of the members to die, or take a sudden step that could result in a risk for the lives of all the people residing in the pack including the refugees. But your mate knew one thing that could have been beneficial for him if I already didn't know his next move," My heartbeats kept racing as he spoke, I was having a hard time facing the truth and nonetheless couldn't deny it anyways.

"He knew Ashley's main desire was him. He knew, that whatever Ashley was doing was to get him and he tried to take advantage of the fact to reveal the true culprit and find out the unknown enemy sheltering in his pack. Little did he know the Drake he has thought a victim of Knight was Knight himself?" A chuckle slipped past his lips.

"Your mate knew you still did not trust him fully and sharing any sensitive news with you would be a risk, And he did not want to take that risk, that is the reason he tried to keep everything a secret but his plan failed because I got a hint of his intentions the day I first saw him talking with Ashley and turned his own plan against him," Another of his petious laughter echoed the room.

"That day when your heat began, Your mate had almost caught my gamma talking to the rouges who are now ready to attack your pack at any moment. But due to him being in his wolf form your mate could not recognize and thanks to you my gamma managed to hide himself before Hunter could catch him because you appeared out of nowhere, withering in your heat," he grinned, "How could Hunter prioritize anything else other than his mate he loves so much?"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" I covered my eyes, I couldn't hear all of these. The regret was eating me up from inside, disintegrating me every second.

"The day in the kitchen, when you saw Hunter and Ashley. It was my plan." His words began stabbing me in the heart, it was the pain that started rising.

He took advantage of my lack of trust in Hunter. He took the advantage of the flaws of our relationship and I'd unknowingly let him.

"The attack on you by the rouges and me saving you. It was my plan."

Why didn't I just try to talk to Hunter before blindly believing everything?

"The sob story I told you of my mate being killed whereas, in reality, I was the one who killed that bitch, it was also a part of my plan to earn your trust."

"It was me who planned to send Hunter for the rescue of the deadcrest pack and now, I'll write the end of both packs at once." He laughed, "Everybody is going to die.

"No they are not going to die, they won't die!" I shouted.

"Yes they are, and that too will happen all in front of eyes," He spat and stood up, "The rouges are all around your pack, Aria. It'd take only one command from me and they are going to destroy your pack within seconds. Your members don't even know what is waiting for them."

"They are not weak and pathetic creatures like you and your army, Knight. They know how to protect themselves, they know how to survive and they'll tear every one of those rouges apart into pieces."

"The rouges I have set around your pack are not one of those small unprepared groups you all have previously come across," He leaned closer to my face to look into my eyes, searching for any sign of fear or dismay, "They have no mercy. They only have one mission and that is to kill. It'll be your members who will be torn and eaten alive by them, they'll not only kill them but also they'll satisfy their hunger with the flesh and blood of your people and I think currently there are enough people residing in your pack to be a perfect meal for thousands of them who are waiting for the...... feast."

My blood went cold and rigid. Even though my face managed to hide my fear but Knight's vigilant eyes definitely caught the signs of it.

"But before that, there are more torments your tormentor needs to face and it'll start with you." He suddenly grabbed my throat, pushing my head against the board of the bed causing a stinging pain to cut through, "I have no intentions to kill you because there are so many that are left to try with you and this beautiful body of yours." He breathed in my scent; Disgust began crawling up my walls.

"I could have just kept you under a lie and earned your love with deceit using your vulnerability, but you know why I didn't do that? Because I want to see you in pain. I want you to beg for escape, I want you to fall into the pitfall of helplessness and only find me there, I want to watch you break little by little until you finally realize it's me who you have left." His malicious voice banged against my head.

"And the first step of turning you into the person I want is your mate's death." My heart stopped upon his statement.

No! I could not let anything happen to Hunter. I could not let this monster hurt him!

"First your mate will have to face the storm I have planned for him, and that'd be choosing between you or his pack." And the smirk curved on his lips.

"Don't you dare!" I tried to move but it was then I realized he had cuffed my hands behind my back.

"You bloody..." Before I could utter anything else, he shoved a gag into my mouth and tied me to the bedframe with a rope, his nimble movements left me trapped within seconds and I couldn't even figure out when it all had happened.

"Enjoy this silence, sweetheart," He smiled, "I'm sure you won't be bored." With that, he left the room,  whilst I kept pulling and straining against the restraints only to get myself free.

How was I going to be able to save my pack and mate if I can't even get out of this room?