Chapter 30 Untitled Chapter

Chapter 30 Untitled Chapter
CLAIRE 

At the sound of Freya’s voice, we both turned to look as she approached us. But anyone could get a word in edgewise, Trisha hurried past us, indicating how much of an emergency Sophie losing her mind probably is.

As both Hunter and Freya hurried after her, I lingered outside the training room, realizing I didn’t care as much. Sophie could lose her mind and drop dead for all I care, but since everyone was heading there and not to arouse any suspicion on me, I trailed after them. 

Getting to the dungeon, nothing prepared me for the scene unfolding in front of me. Losing her mind was putting it lightly, Sophie was clutching her head— as far as the chains let her. She was screaming, crying, and begging someone to release her. 

For a few minutes, no one moved, which was how I would have preferred it. Jet motioned to one of the dungeon guards, who came forward to hand him the keys. When he looked briefly in his mate’s direction, my eyes followed the movement. 

She had her eyes glued to Sophie, almost in shock. Trisha nodded for Jet to go ahead while she stepped forward to place a comforting hand on Freya’s shoulder. Watching the exchange between the three of them, what was going on finally dawned on me. 

A similar situation happened to Freya a couple of months back, Sophie had tried to fry her brain basically. Witnessing the same thing happening to Sophie, just brought flashbacks of those moments. 

This raised a question, I thought watching Jet walk into the dungeon. Someone must be performing the same ritual on her, perhaps the council feared she would talk, so they decided to implode her brains? 

“Jet!” Sophie cried, half-falling into his arms, “help” 

I found it surprising that she still manages to recognize him in her erratic state. Looking at her cry helplessly, reminded me of the first day I saw her. Of course she looked and seemed nothing like she is now. 

Sophie then was vibrant, happy—perhaps too happy. Lady Muna and Alpha Jordan had recently died in a rogue attack, carried out by the council. Jet was still mourning their death—we all were, they might not have been our birth parents, but they took us in and treated us like theirs. 

Their death hit the Pack, sending everyone into a state of coma like confusion. They died protecting the Pack, so Sophie's entrance into our lives was a welcome one. 

She fooled us all, played in our face while feeding information to the council. The betrayal stings more, especially for Jet, who recently became an Alpha and felt like he betrayed his parent enemy by almost mating with the enemy. 

“Jet, please… I… help me.” Sophie’s desperate plea snapped me out of my thoughts. 

“Please?” Jet bit out, like he couldn’t believe she was asking him for help. “How long have you been down here? How long since you refused to help me track down my sister? You think I kept you alive because I have some kind of mercy on you?” 

Sister? The word hit me, knocking the air out of my lungs. Jet never referred to me as his sister— not since after the death of his parents and he took over being the Alpha. Our relationship kind of suffered after that, I recall in the early years how I hated Hunter and how close he was to Jet. 

Due to the fact that they were closer in age, and he was training to be his Beta, they were seen as brothers. Jealousy plunged at my gut and I, of course, took it out on Hunter, I lost Lady Muna and Alpha Jordan, it felt like I lost a brother too. 

“I never meant any of it, I would never purposely hurt you Jet…” Sophie was saying, in a distorted voice now. 

The affection in her statement made me look at Freya, naturally, she was scowling at Sophie. What a demented woman! She haunted us for years! I had nightmares for days, we could have died! We almost died. 

I didn’t realize my claws were out and digging into the palms until I felt Hunter’s hand on my shoulder. Taking a deep breath, I retracted them, forcing myself to calm the hell down. 

“You didn’t mean to betray the coven I suppose?” Trisha hissed, stepping closer to the dungeon. 

Sophie screamed again, twisting her head to look at Trisha like she couldn’t understand a word she was saying. To confirm exactly that, she didn’t acknowledge the statement and turn back to Jet. 

Hunter left my side, going into the dungeon. “Jet, before she completely loses her mind, you need to reach out to her.” 

Jet went still for a second, before pushing her away. “Fuck no!” 

“I know you hate her, we all do Jet. But if we want to get a fraction of knowledge about what the councils are up to then we must set outside our feelings.” Insisted Hunter, trying to convince Jet to emotionally reach into the cold, and dark bottomless pit that is Sophie’s heart. 

At least, Freya had stopped scowling long enough to address Trisha next.

“Do you think it will work? I mean, it should. When it happened to me, it took Jet emotionally reaching to calm me down. If Sophie still cares about Jet, then he could reach her long enough to attract some information out of her. Think about how that could help us in our research.” 

What research? I wondered, recalling that Camille mentioned something about it. 

“Sophie? Caring about someone? That will be the first.” Sneered Trisha, turning her back against the dungeon. 

Patting her shoulder, Freya went into the dungeon, pulling Jet aside as Sophie continued to scream in pain. As much as I wanted information on what the council were planning, it wasn't worth keeping Sophie alive, I wanted her to die a slow painful death. 

“Jet…” 

The minute she called his name, he started to shake his head, looking away from her. Freya turned along with him, refusing to let him turn his back on her. Looking away from them, I looked at Hunter as he observed Sophie as if she were a piece on a chess board. 

“Why are you trying to convince Jet to keep that evil alive? If someone is slowly killing her then let the person do their job!” I chided, unable to keep quiet any longer. 

Hunter shot me a look. “Jet should decide, I will accept any choice he makes.” 

“Trust me, I know how much you hate to do this, I can feel it too. You knew her once, at least reach out to the fake version of her you knew, let her open up to you…” 

Pushing his head back from his face, Jet glared at her. “You should be talking me out of this!” 

“I know right!” I shouted from the sideline, returning the death stare Hunter gave me. 

Only he and Freya are on ‘team keep the evil alive’ to do more evil. Wasn’t it a few days ago she was conjuring shadows to terrorized the refugees? 

Back to the matters at hand, Jet seemed to have given in to his mate unreasonable demands because he was pressing a kiss to her mouth, then stepping toward Sophie. The minute he touched her, helping her back up, Hunter stepped away. 

Even though she stopped screaming, her face was still haunted by pain, her body quivering at an alarming rate. As he pushed her overgrown hair out of her face, Sophie tilted her head, like she was seeing him for the first time. 

“Jet, I’m so… so… sorry. I didn’t have a choice, I never meant to hurt you… especially after seeing how much you care about your people. I had no choice…” 

“I understand…” Jet responded, his voice tight and void. “Tell me everything, who is doing this to you? And why?” 

“Elena…” She whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. “The council ordered her to, they think I will betray them. After all, I did betray you…” 

“And the freaking coven! Remember? The household we grew up in?” Trisha interrupted, her fist clenching like she’s one statement away from hitting her. 

Freya left Jet’s side to comfort her. Sophie had taken too much from everyone of course, if Jet doesn’t kill her right now, I’m sneaking back into the dungeon tonight and finishing the job myself! 

“The council…” Jet whispered, running a finger down the side of her face. “Tell me about them…” 

“They want it all, they made a deal with the coven, they want the island and everything in it. They think the werewolves are too powerful, especially you Jet. They are afraid of you, after all you’re still evolving, the test Xavier ran on you while you were captured shows that you’re still evolving…” 

“Into what? Sophie…” Jet impatiently slapped the side of her face, attempting to wake her up when she started to fall off. 

“Arrrrgh!” She screamed instead, reaching back to clench her head. “The council wants you both, protect Claire…” 

That was the last thing she said before her head exploded—like literally exploded. Blood, flesh, brains and everything in between splattered on us, Jet, being in there, caught most of it. 

“Ewwwwwwwww!” I dragged out the word, crying out with absolute disgust at the content of what was splashed on my dress. 

Uncaring about the state she was in, Freya hurried to Jet side as he let go of the rest of her body. 

“Why did you stop?” Her voice cut through my disgust, making everyone pause. 

“Because I couldn’t pretend to care about her, even now that she is dead, I’m more saddened by the fact that I was not the one to kill her. I will track down Elena, and kill her twice.” Jet vowed, stalking out of the dungeon. 

Freya hurried after him, swearing under her breath. Finally! Jet is in a state of rage, exactly the state he needs to be in for me to ask his help. Since he’s still unable to control his lycan state, if anything sets him off, that will be enough to send him after the council…!