Chapter 48
**ELENA**
I have the biggest headache of my life. I've never been much of a party girl, but I guess this is what it must feel like the day after a big night out.
I'm lying on what looks like a bed... not the most comfortable, but a bed. As I try to bring my right hand to my head, I can't, I'm handcuffed to the radiator beside the bed. I pull harder to try and free myself, without success. I look around and I'm in what looks like a very rustic hunting or fishing cabin. I try to sit up and the door opens slowly.
"Ah, I see you're awake. I suspected the effects of the drug would have worn off."
I feel like throwing up when I see him, standing in the doorway.
"You're so pretty when you sleep... just like her." He tells me a hint of nostalgia in his voice, which makes me want to vomit even more. "I used to climb the back facade of her parents' house and climb through the window. She used to leave it ajar in the summer to freshen up her room, but I liked to think she did it for me." I grit my teeth to keep from speaking. "And suddenly, from one day to the next, she wasn't doing it anymore. One day I climbed up the facade because she hadn't come to one of our appointments and I saw them... both of them... in bed. Fucking James Romano had marked her. My Moira." He said disgustedly, shaking his head. "I had it all planned, I wanted us to finalize the mating process and have her become Luna by my side, but your FUCKING FATHER had to ruin everything!" There's nothing but rage in his words, his hair is disheveled, his shirt wrinkled, he looks nothing like the man who was once Alpha, he looks like a man who's lost his mind.
He slowly approaches me, and I step back until my back is pressed against the wooden headboard. He kneels beside me and looks at me intensely.
"You look so much like him. I knew once you found your wolf and got older you'd become just like her." Then he sighs, shaking his head. "Why did you have to come back?"
Without waiting for an answer (not that I'd have given him one), he gets up quickly and leaves the room, slamming the door behind him. I try again to pull on the handcuffs, but the harder I pull, the more red marks they leave on my wrists so that I start bleeding slightly. There are no windows in this room and only one door, apart from the one Eric has just left through.
I have no idea how much time has passed when he returns with a sandwich and a bottle of water. He puts them on the bed and steps back, but without taking his eyes off me. Has he drugged the food or the water? No idea, but I can't afford not to eat anything, especially in my condition. I pick up the water bottle and am relieved when I see that it's closed. I take a few sips before attacking the sandwich, of which there's nothing left in three bites.
"I've always been a believer but..." He shakes his head. "When I see the Moon Goddess's choices I'm not anymore." He snorts. "She gave you three goddamn mates and it had to be those three little fuckers."
"Why am I here?" I ask him the question that's been nagging at me since he kidnapped me from my home.
He runs his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth. "Because you came back." He answers by looking me straight in the eye and at that moment I'm sure... he's lost his fucking mind. "Victoria left after Arthur picked you up because she knew... deep down she knew without me having to say anything." He shakes his head. "You're so much like her but also so much like HIM!" He shouts the end of his sentence, which startles me. "They had to get you away because I didn't know how long I could contain myself. You were so innocent... like her before your father soiled her with his corn. It had to be them because I could see the way Caleb and Theodore looked at you. They wanted you but it was out of the question. You want to know why?" My lower lip trembles because I'm afraid I know her. This conversation is going in a direction that is inevitable and I'm scared and I pray to the goddess that my three loves find me soon. "Because you were mine. If I couldn't have Moira... you had to take her place."
I sob softly and he puts his hand on my cheek. The contact disgusts me and I turn my head violently to avoid it.
"I won't hurt you, my sweet Moira."
"Why did you kill her if you loved her so much?" I grit my teeth as I ask this question, courage returning to me upon hearing her name.
"I didn't kill him. I could never have killed her." He holds my chin and forcibly turns my head to look at him. "But I killed your father and I have no fucking regrets. This pain in the ass had already taken the affections of my father and my girlfriend, and I knew he'd end up taking my place. He was worse than fucking gum stuck to my shoe. I'd do it again without a moment's hesitation."
As he says these words, he looks at me like a madman. He seems to have lost all humanity, but I don't understand why? Unless he knows that we know the whole truth. But I can't help believing what he says, but if he didn't kill my mother, then who did?