Chapter 72 So hard for her
Eryx stepped up, smirking at Carleigh with amusement sparkling in his eyes. "Carleigh, come to make Saint's mate jealous?" Eryx folded his heavily tattooed arms over his chest. "Or did you come to ride us both again? I did enjoy our last night together before we started back to this shithole we called home."
"That depends," she purred, tracing a blood-red fingernail over my arm. "On?" Eryx asked, narrowing his stare on her finger.
Carleigh laughed, her eyes growing hooded with memories of us double tearning her on our last night together. "If you can convince Saint to play with us, or not," she said in a husky tone. "You know I want him, but he's hung up on his silly little mate. Convince him, and I'll take you both on again.” Eryx snorted, shaking his head. "They're ready for us, Saint."
I smirked, starting toward the alphas and Lucas. “Gentlemen, you're aware that we asked you here today to discuss pack matters," I started as Lucas held up his hand.
"Why isn't Braelyn here? If this is about pack business, she should here." His blue eyes scanned my face carefully.
"What we're about to show you is related to our previous conversation about Braelyn. You're here to help me determine if she was involved in her father's business or not." I held his stare until he nodded his head and dropped his gaze. "Harold was into some shady shit, and I need to know if you or anyone else was a part of his trafficking ring." "Trafficking?" one of the older alphas asked.
"Yes. Harold trafficked wolves, humans, and creatures that he or his people could easily subdue and sell into slavery," Eryx stated, watching the alphas for any sign of guilt.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" one demanded, his eyes sliding over the other men and women inside the room slowly with new interest.
"Harold was selling creatures for monetary gain. He sold me and others into slavery, where they used us for shit that would make torture look fun." I hated the tic that started in my jaw as my throat tightened with the admission of being used and helpless. "Fuck off," the alpha snapped, standing up as the lights turned off and the luminol started glowing, revealing blood splatter all over the walls, tables, and floors. "What the fuck?" The alpha sat down slowly, as if in shock.
"As I was saying, Harold was into some shady shit. You're about to watch videos that we obtained from his library. Harold worked with Carlson and other area alphas to sell orphans, misfits, and anyone else who wouldn't be missed. He fucked up, though, when he started selling humans, which caught the hunters' eye. That began their search for those taken, and it was how they found my crew and me at one of the many places Harold owned. He was profiting from porn, snuff films, and the more sinister ones that featured children raped and murdered." I stepped back, leaning against the wall, close enough to be able to scent their guilt if they so much as released a whiff of it.
Sian and Zayne started the monitors up as Carleigh leaned against the wall beside me, but her presence didn't offer comfort. Nausea pushed against the back of my throat, burning it as my gaze moved to the Jane Doe on the moni- tors, as Harold sliced away her skin in small patches.
Of all the victims Harold had, he enjoyed Jane Doe's pain the most. The look in his eyes was pure evil as he removed more of her skin, dragging the knife blade over the bloodied muscle beneath it. I knew that pain intimately since he'd done the same to me on multiple occasions. I'd escaped, though. There were nearly a hundred videos of Jane Doe, and one was already cued up in the feed. She was his favorite, having tortured her from the time she was a child. That's why I believed Jane Doe was still out there, and I wanted to save her.
My gaze met Xavier's, and a pained look filled his eyes while his hands shook with rage. He'd been trying to find and free Jane Doe since he'd started this gig, ending the trafficking of creatures. Sure, Xavier was a hunter who policed the otherworld creatures, but Jane Doe had been his focus for the last few years, and the trail had gone cold a year ago. He feared Harold had grown tired of his pet and that she'd been murdered or sold to someone who wasn't into sharing their victims.
Slowly, my attention shifted back to the monitors showing children and women tortured and mutilated by their tormentors. The entire wall was covered in monitors, showing off Harold, in all his glory, as he raped and tortured his latest victims. There was no denying it was him since he hadn't even bothered to hide his face from the camera. He'd barely left the mountain to be recog nized, and when he had, he stuck to the darker territories where those of his ill- likeness welcomed him with open arms.
I nodded to Xari, and she flicked the light on so that I could take in the al- pha's expressions. Each one looked horrified as pain filling their eyes. Swal- lowing down relief, I jutted my chin for Zayne to kill the feeds to the monitors. "This is what the alpha did to feed his people. He streamed some of the sessions live, and then the subject was auctioned off if they survived the torture. Others were filmed and then sold for purchase on the dark web. When Braelyn rejected my mating rite, Harold sold me to Bella Donna, a woman who enjoyed hurting men." Pointing my fingers to the monitors, I lowered my voice, "That is why I returned, not to claim Braelyn as my mate properly. I returned to find out how deep this shit goes. There's also a secondary place somewhere on this mountain that Harold held his victims. This feed," I nodded to Zayne, who brought up the image of children held in chains within a dimly lit room, "is a live stream of those he has available for purchase, and the numbers on their chests are current bids for their lives. They're here, on this mountain, but we haven't been able to locate them."
"You think Braelyn is a part of this?" one of the alphas asked, and Carleigh nodded, her eyes smiling as she caught mine. "Braelyn wouldn't do this. She's not like that." "Or she's good at hiding it," Carleigh offered, and my anger rose at her need to charge Braelyn with the crime.
"We don't know if she is or not. I know for Harold to do this on the level he has, it would be hard for his daughter not to have been involved. We've found no proof of guilt yet, but we also haven't found any to suggest she is innocent." I gave Carleigh a look of warning to back off.