“You’ll see.” He seized me by the arm once more and forced me into a march, not bothering to slow down for me. His lips pressed tight as my thoughts filled with images of what he’d do to me…it all revolved around some kind of torture. I felt it in my bones.
He said nothing but walked us right through the front gates, and I had a terrible sense of déjà vu from when he first brought me to his compound.
Darkness crashed into me that I wasn’t going to like what he had in store for me. I just knew it.
“Shut the gates, triple the guards,” Hendrix’s bark at the stationed men had me flinching. “How did you get out?” He turned his attention to me, his head lowered, gaze fixed on me. A low growl in his chest followed his words.
Floodlights from the house glinted in his furious stare. His face was all sharp edges and disappointment. “The rear exit. I snuck onto a pallet.” I had nothing to hide.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth before he scowled and said, “You should’ve stayed in your room.”
“Why do I have to always stay in my room? Why can’t I wander freely like you and your brothers?”
I knew I’d said the wrong thing the second he paused, turned to face me, then slipped a finger under my chin to the point of pain and tilted my head back. “Because I care for you.”
His words threw me off. I expected something dominant from him, not this.
“This compound isn’t exactly safe for someone like you. As much as I ensure everyone falls into line, there are always a few who won’t abide. And the problem is, I don’t always find out who they are until it’s too late.”
I blinked at him, and an ache curled in my gut. I had no idea who he was referring to, but I suspected I was about to find out and not like it.
Releasing my chin, he squeezed his hold on my wrist and we were off again. Instead of going into the mansion, we skirted around it, past the pool, and down a side of the mansion. There were trees on either side of us, bursting with huge, white flowers, which were pretty. It was strange to be in a place with its foundations in corruption and death, and yet the surroundings were beautiful.
It reminded me of what Eliza had said about everyone being a bit broken. The Alphas brought such darkness to a paradise, and maybe that was to balance them out. Light and dark meeting on neutral grounds… Did living in such a heavenly location help tame their beasts?
At the rear of the building, we passed by the oversized vegetable garden, along with a greenhouse. Then we followed a cobblestone path into the woods that carved through the forest.
He never slowed his march, and I lurched alongside him, my eyes wide at him dragging me into the woods at night.
Lights blinked amid the trees from the distance, and it wasn’t long before we emerged into a large clearing. Cabins were peppered along several dirt roads. It was a complete little village within the woods. With the only light from a handful of buildings, shadows swallowed up everything else and plunged that place into a nightmarish feel.
I rubbed the goosebumps out of my arms.
Mateo stood by a wooden cabin, the front door slightly open, and light peered out from inside. Near the entrance, we paused, and Hendrix glanced over to me. “There’s always a reason why I do something. Nothing is ever as it appears. What I’m about to show you is so you learn never to question me again.”
“Whose house is this?” I was captured by the sight of a flickering candle inside the room, my stomach tightening at his words, at how dark the woods were.
“The gardener’s.”
I took a deep breath, then another, and I felt lost and confused about why we were here.
“Let’s go inside,” Hendrix said, his hand on my back, nudging me forward.
I stepped inside, pushing the door wider. Smells invaded...musty and something foul flooded the room as if the house had never been aired. My wolf whimpered like she knew something I didn’t.
I sighed, taking another step forward into a simple room with a round, wooden table and two chairs. There was a clean plate and cup on it. No other furniture, but in one corner sat several open hessian sacks of soil, alongside his rake and gloves.
Dark timber covered the walls and ceiling, lit up by a light bulb overhead. The cabin had a sorrowful feel about it.
Hendrix took the lead, and I followed him down a darkened hallway where he pushed open another door. Its creaking gave me the shivers. I hugged myself and followed him downstairs to the basement.
That sickly sweet stench grew stronger down there, reminding me of rotting fruit and perspiration.
A flick of light switched on from the small lightbulb dangling from a rope in the ceiling. I blinked to take everything in. The creepy, dusty room, corners crowded with cobwebs. A study desk huddled against the wall with a chair, and around it were all kinds of boxes. The walls nearby had hooks holding ropes, axes, and blades. There were even handcuffs, which dried my throat. Why would a gardener need those… If it was for something kinky, fine, but why were they in the basement? In front of the desk was a montage of images, but I didn’t want to move from the base of the steps.
Everything in the cabin made me sick to my stomach, and I didn’t even know why.
I bit my lip while Hendrix proceeded across the basement, and I let my gaze follow him. That was when I noticed there was a closed door in front of him. He pushed it up and hit the light switch.
“Syn,” he called me, and I understood he wanted me to go to him.
I said nothing, but I also didn’t want to find out what was in the room. I skimmed my fingers nervously over my pants.
“Syn,” he repeated, louder. “Come over here.”
I dragged myself forward, and a savage snarl rolled in my gut… My wolf wanted me to leave this cabin.
I reached Hendrix, and he stepped inside, while I remained in the doorway.
I scanned everything quickly, from the worn-out mattress on the floor to the chain secured to the wall. The stink of piss and something worse. And when I noticed the dark patches I assumed were blood in the mattress… the same ones on the cement floor, I gasped.
“What is this place?” I retreated, unable to stand looking at it a second longer.
Hendrix hit the lights as he stepped out and shut the door behind him with a bang like he couldn’t wait to be out of there too.
“Joe was not a good person, Syn. He’s one of those deranged people I told you about hiding in plain sight. He had a young girl who’d gone missing from our pack a few weeks ago locked up down here. I will spare you the details of how he tortured her." He deserved so much more than a bullet.”
“Did she survive?” I gasped.
“Yes. She’s with our healers and her family.”
I stumbled backward, my stomach churning like I was going to be sick. To think, I’d spoken to him, eaten his apricot, and even thought he was a nice person.
What did that say about me?
“Shit!” I hurried across the basement.