Chapter Ten - The Truth

Shane’s POV.

I paced in my office, pondering over my conversation with Anna and how strangely she’d acted to my presence, while I waited for Chase’s arrival. I sent for him as soon as I left her room. He was supposed to be heading to the school to supervise the ongoing work but I needed to confide in someone.

The office door opened and Chase stepped in, his eyes bearing a worried expression.

“How’s she?”

A deep sigh expelled from my lips as I stopped pacing and stared at him before rounding the desk to take my seat in one of the plush leather office chairs.

“She’s awake now, but she’s still in pain.”

“And Dr. Mark has confirmed that she’ll be fine, right?”

His words made me remember all that the pack doctor told me after examining her the previous day. It appeared the bastard in the dungeon had been abusing her for long and from some of the research I’d done, he was meant to be her father, to protect her and keep her safe but the pervert chose to use her to fulfill his sick fantasies.

My jaw clenched and I gritted my teeth as anger surged through me. From my peripheral vision, I saw Chase stepping closer and taking the chair opposite mine.

“Say something, Shane. Will she be alright?”

I drew in a deep breath to calm my anger and my eyes stared into his concerned ones.

“She’ll heal, but Dr Mark examined her alot and he noticed she’d been continuously abused and it’ll take a while for all of the injuries to properly heal and even after that, she may need therapy for the mental scars, Chase. It’s so terrible that she stays away from all men, even me.” My voice broke at the last part and my jaw clenched harder as I averted my gaze from him. “He was meant to be her father,” I roared, forcefully hitting the hardwood desk.

“What?” Chase barked out, a look of disgust slipping into his face, and I watched as it gradually morphed to one of rage and fury. “The lunatic had been forcing himself on his own child.”

Hearing someone else say the words left a bitter taste in my mouth and it fueled my rage, making me gnash my teeth just to contain my anger.

“I saw her this morning and she wouldn’t let me get close. When I tried to, she told me she was cursed and it affected all men, and she sounded like it was the reason he…”

Chase’s hard eyes glared into mine and I knew what he was thinking. He didn’t have to say the words because I thought the same way too.

“Let’s go.”

Together, we left my office and headed to the dungeons that were located at the far end of the property. We passed the cells of the other prisoners and I heard them begging for mercy but I was deaf to their pleas and the noise around as my main focus was to see the man that had laid his hands on my girl. Chase led me to his cell and he pulled the gate open. As soon as he heard the rattling of the door lock and the chains, the lunatic’s head that had been buried between his legs snapped up and he instantly fell to his knees.

I stared at him with deep feelings of satisfaction when I noticed Chase had shown him a tip of the iceberg. His entire face was swollen and more than a few teeth were out of his mouth. One of his limbs was twisted in an awkward angle that I had no doubt was very painful.

“Please, Alpha, forgive me,” he slurred, falling to his knees and bowing his head. “I was only possessed,”

Without thinking, I slammed my fist into his skull and he fell to the floor, a groan of pain slipping from his lips and reverberating in the small cell space. I wanted to do more to him but Chase held me back, wordlessly reminding me of the reason for our visit. He pushed me aside and leaned down to grab the man by his tattered shirt, yanking him up until he could stare into his eyes.

“Have you been feeding her with lies that she’s cursed just so you could feel less guilty for your crimes?” he barked at him and the man vigorously shook his head in denial. It angered me and I tried slamming my fist into his skull again but his next words stopped my arm mid-way.

“I-I… I didn’t feed her with lies, Alpha,” he slurred incoherently but we strained our ears to hear.

“Speak out,” Chase barked at him.

“She-she’s cursed.”

Axel let out a malicious growl and I tried reaching for him again but Chase grabbed my arm.

“She was born a sigma wolf, and since then, I’ve struggled to keep her away from the male population but my continuous contact with her affected me and I’m always powerless to it. I was possessed, Alpha. I…”

“Liar!” I roared, proceeding to pounce on him with the intention of tearing him to pieces but Chase was quick to pull me off him and push me outside the cell, quickly and efficiently locking the gates.

“Please Alpha, have mercy on me. I’ll stay far…”

But I didn’t hear the rest of his words as Chase pulled me outside.

“Calm the fuck down, Shane,” he snapped, tapping my chest but I glared at him, still gnashing my teeth as I struggled to calm the rage that was coursing through me. “You need to confirm if he’s actually saying the truth,”

“He fucking lied!” I yelled at him.

It was common knowledge that all sigma wolves had gone into extinction after the war that broke out between the wolves and the witches, about two decades ago and Anna was barely eighteen. She couldn’t have been born then.

“May be the case, but have you thought that maybe they’re not from BlackMane? Remember she lied about her home address? You need to dig deeper to find the answers you’re searching for and until then, we’ll keep him alive. Understood?”

His words offended me and my jaw clenched harder. Instead of responding, I stormed away because deep down, I knew he was right but I was too blinded by my anger to agree with him.