Chapter 20

Mason:

The wolf didn't say anything. He also didn't seem worried in the least. If anything, he seemed smug.

"Why did you come here? How many wolves were in your party?" Avery asked, but the wolf just scoffed at him.

Avery looked at him with a raised eyebrow in confusion. The wolf seemed to have noticed and decided to explain himself.

"You aren't fit to be Alpha. You're a child barely wet behind the ears. You have no control. Then you have a gym teacher to do interrogations. Ha! This is a joke! You're all a—" His ramblings were cut off by Avery dropping the chain.

He grabbed the chain again once his head was fully submerged into the water. He looked up at us as the wolf thrashed about, trying to get out of the water.

"This seems like a good teaching moment. You play nice at first. Some will outright tell you what you want. Some," he paused to look at the wolf in the basin. "Will challenge you."

I honestly was getting a little worried about how long Avery was going to keep him under the water. I didn't want anyone to die. I certainly didn't want Caleb to watch that either.

"A nice dunk reminds them who is in charge. Now, when I pull him up, he's probably still going to be difficult, but his whole demeanor will change. That will dictate our next step." He looks over the basin at the wolf. "Almost ready."

What does he mean almost? Is he actually trying to kill the guy? "Excuse me, sir."

"Yes, Paul?" Avery gives Paul his full attention. "You said he's almost ready? How do you know?"

I would like to know the same thing, but it kind of bothers me that Paul isn't freaked out about this. Instead, it's just another lesson for him.

"I will explain on the next one. It's time for him to come up now." Paul nodded in response as Avery pulled onto the chain until the wolf was back in his original position.

He coughed roughly, water spilling out of his mouth with every cough. I'm pretty sure he was close to drowning.

Avery wasn't phased and only looked at him for a moment. Still holding on with only his left hand, Avery pushed his hair back with his right hand and walked up to stand face to face with the wolf.

"We meet again. Do you have any answers for us this time?" Avery asks in a very monotone voice.

The wolf says nothing at all. He seems to have lost the confidence that he had before but is still trying to remain loyal and silent.

"Let's start easier. What is your name?" Avery asked. Still monotone and just as uninterested as he sounded before.

The wolf pauses. He seems unsure if he wants to answer or not. He didn't get much time to ponder since Avery let go of the chain again. Before his head could hit the water, he yelled. "Wait!"

Avery stops him immediately with just his hair in the water. "Yes?"

"Lincoln. My name is Lincoln," he says frantically, but his voice is too shaky to shout.

"How do I know you aren't lying?" Avery asks, and the wolf's eyes frantically dart around the room. His eyes land on the table, and he tries to motion with his head.

"There, in my pocket. My wallet has my ID." Avery just nods before he looks at us.

"Who would like to go get his wallet?" Without a word, Paul walks over to get the wallet.

I was having a hard time understanding why we had access to his things and yet no one had looked at them before. We could have found clues before we even began the interrogation. I didn't want to interrupt Avery and decided to wait to ask about it.

"Oh, look at that. This is Lincoln Bauer. 26 years old. Huh, says you're from Washington Lincoln. What are you doing here?"

Lincoln didn't say anything. Avery rolled his eyes before roughly exhaling his breath and letting his head dunk below the water again.

"See, this is more like a chess match than a card game. You need to see several moves ahead if you want to get to the information you want." We all just watch. Not really knowing what to say.

"Oh, and Paul." Paul looks up at Avery, no doubt a little worried about what he is going to say. "You can tell they are ready when you start to see bubbles. That means he is starting to struggle not to breathe. We don't want to drown him. Just make it feel like he is."

"We had his wallet this whole time. Why didn't we just look at his stuff and try to find things out ourselves?" I asked, not liking the methods used so far.

Avery scoffs at what I said. "And how much closer would we be to the information we really want? I don't care about who he is or where he's from. I want to know who he works for and what was their reason for coming. If we are lucky, he might even have information pertaining to other plans."

I think he noticed that I wasn't convinced of what was going on here. He pushed the chain towards me, making sure to keep Lincoln's mouth and nose under the water. "You think you can do better? Here."

It felt like he was baiting me. The problem was I didn't know how to interrogate someone, but I knew there were less cruel methods than this. I didn't want my pack to have V's reputation.

"This is how you interrogate a warrior. You have to psychologically twist until they break. They are strong physically and can take pain well. That's why you have to attack the mind."

Everything Avery said made perfect sense, but it didn't make my stomach turn any less. I could already tell I would never be in charge of interrogations. Avery didn't explain anything else to me. Instead, Paul spoke up.

"I see bubbles. I think it's time," he states, a little less sure than he usually sounds.

Avery just nods with a chuckle as he pulls the wolf out again. He spits out the bit of water he accidentally inhaled as he struggled to take in the oxygen his lungs were deprived of. Avery grabbed him by his left forearm and pulled, making him twist slowly in a circle.

"Lincoln," Avery says in a hushed voice. Almost like he's trying to whisper. "I'm trying to be your friend, but you keep acting like you're too good for that. Can we try to be friends again?"

Lincoln's eyes are darting around the room. I'm sure he's looking, hoping, praying that one of us will help him. I would be lying if I said I wasn't thinking of doing it. My problem is that as the alpha, I'm supposed to stay strong. No one else in this room seemed to be struggling like I was.

Avery sighed. "Okay, Lincoln. You can't say I didn't try." He let go of the chain and dunked Lincoln's head in the water once again.

"Hey—" I start to stay but stop when I hear the door to the basement open. Coming down the stairs is Alexandra. She scratches the top of her head as she slowly descends down the stairs.

"Did you get him to talk yet?" She asks as she gets to the bottom stair and pulls her hand off her head. She looks at Avery and then looks at me. "Is someone going to answer?"

None of us spoke, but we all shook our heads no in unison. Alexandra rolled her eyes as she stalked over to Avery. "How long has he been under?"

"About a minute now," Avery answered her shortly.

"How long is his average time?" Alexandra questions again. "About two and a half."

"Huh. Not bad. However, we don't have time. Cook the crustacean and see if that gets him talking." I'm sure my mouth hit the floor when I heard her say to cook him. What the hell did she mean by that?

True to the way this day had been going, I didn't get a chance to ask. Instead, Avery pulled Lincoln up out of the water and Alexandra walked up to him, standing just a millimeter away from his face. "Avery was nice. I will not be. What are you doing here, and who are you working with?"

Lincoln's earlier confidence had completely left his eyes, and he seemed to be panicking, but he still didn't talk. Alexandra held out her hand, and Avery handed the chain to her.

Without any hesitation, she walked over to another basin. She didn't say another word, but the look she gave him told him she was allowing him time to talk. However, Lincoln wasn't going to break that easily.

Alexandra just scoffed. "Let's see how tough you'll be after this."

Alexandra let go of the chain, and there was a scream before he was completely submerged in the water. Looking closer, I realized steam was coming up from the top of the water.

"Is the water hot?" I asked, hoping that I was wrong.

Alexandra just nodded her head as Lincoln came back up and tried to get out of the basin. Alexandra grabbed his shoulders and held him down as he screamed. "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll let you out. Or you can slowly cook to death. Your choice."

I believed everything Alexandra had just said, and I think Lincoln did too.

"I'll tell you anything you want! Just get me out of here!" Lincoln screamed in pain, and Alexandra let go of his shoulders, allowing him to crawl out.

His entire body was red, many spots already starting to blister. I wouldn't be surprised if some areas developed third-degree burns.

Alexandra stepped over him and looked down with a face I'd never seen from her before. "Talk now, or you get thrown back in."

"Look, I literally only came because my cousin asked me to help him. I was only supposed to come and watch what was going on for a week. Then some other wolf we came with wanted to test it out. That's all I know," Lincoln said frantically, not wanting to go back in.

"Which one was your cousin?" Avery asked.

"He got away."

Avery and Alexandra rolled their eyes in unison. "We know. Give more detail to my friend here. I'll check in later, Avery." Avery nodded in response, and Alexandra walked towards me.

"Let's go. We have things to discuss," she motioned her head towards the stairs.

I followed after her, still at a loss over what had just happened. She stopped halfway up the stairs before turning around to yell back. "That means you too, Caleb!"

Caleb quickly sprinted towards the stairs and followed us up. Once at the top, Alexandra took a deep breath and then slumped down. "Ugh, thank God that's over. I hate playing the bad guy," she whined and my heart felt lighter. I had been scared that that was what she was really like.

"Okay. He's talking now, so there is no need for us to be there. Avery will tell us the rest of the details. But, for future reference, I need someone else to play the bad guy, so I hope Blaine or Paul is willing to do it." She shuddered, thinking about what she just did.

"Hopefully, we won't have to deal with this again," I stated out loud, not to anyone in particular.

"Yes, hopefully we won't. But it's better to be prepared just in case." She looked between Caleb and the door. "Did you learn a lot?"

Caleb nodded his head but didn't say anything. I didn't know if he was scared to say something or just didn't know what to say. Alexandra seemed to think it was the latter. "What did you learn?"

"That he's not loyal to Austin, which means that he might not have that many supporters after all. He seems to just be getting a group of mercenaries together." I'll admit, I was shocked at what Caleb said.

Lincoln said he was helping his cousin. How many of the wolves were there as a favor and not out of loyalty? It was still a good idea because they would be loyal to those they were helping and would try not to divulge information if caught, as witnessed with Lincoln.

I was wondering how far this went when Alexandra brought me back with a soft peck on the lips. "So, Alpha, what's our next move?"

"We prepare for war."