CHAPTER 74

Kidnapped and alone in a dark, cold and dirty room was nothing like Shana had ever imagine.
Not that her imagination ever veered in such direction anyway.
She had blacked out after the beating she took from Elise and now, she had a throbbing headache coupled with her dehydration.
She sat up gingerly, seeing nothing in the dark. Her hands went to her tummy and she prayed that if she ever got out of the situation she found herself alive, her baby should still be fine.
Her baby. Asher's baby.
Tears welled up in her eyes just thinking about him. She had never gotten the chance to tell him about the baby, not to talk of reconciling with him.
She regretted how things had turned out between them. She had lost what mattered most to her; his love, even before she had it.
What was he thinking? Was he even looking for her?
She doubted it though. She remembered she had told Rose she was going up to her room to sleep. The sudden weakness and drowsiness made sense now, Elise had definitely been the culprit. She had been taken without the slightest fuss and it would have been a long time before anyone found out she was gone.
And when that happened, Asher was going to assume she had run out on him. She couldn't begin to imagine the angry and crazy thoughts he was having about her right now. If he was even looking for her, it would be to detach her head from her neck.
Shana blinked her eyes rapidly as the room was suddenly suffused in bright, white light. It took a while to adjust to the light and when she finally did, she was able to see the room she was in for the first time.
It was more like a long and large storagehouse with really high ceiling and windows. She didn't know if it was just the bright lights or her eyes playing tricks on her due to her dehydration, but the room looked like it was washed in white. Even the rows of boxes on the tall racks were all in white. The only dirts that seemed to be in the room was on the unpaved floor, which was what made the room seem so wet and dampy. She could not wrap her head around the reason for that but then, the architecture of her prison was no concern of hers. Unless it was going to help with her escape.
"You are awake," the voice she heard earlier stated.
Shana looked straight up into the most beautiful face she had ever seen on a man, save for Asher's of course. Her husband was the only perfect creature in the universe. But the one before her was not there to play in the looks department.
If his eyes weren't so cold and vacant, he would have been the next perfect man to her mate.
He was looking her up and down with a sly, knowing look in his eyes. Reflexively, her hands went to her abdomen and a wicked smile spread across his face at the action.
"I see it's true," he said throwing a satisfied look at Elise. Shana looked at the other occupants of the room, from an angry looking Thomas to a smug looking Adele. They all repulsed her.
"How many months along?," the man asked.
"About two months," Elise replied.
"Does he know?"
"He doesn't. He was not there long enough to find out."
"He should already know by now," he answered with a smug smile.
Shana recoiled at that. She knew exactly what he was implying and it sent cold sweat down her spine.
It was not the way she had planned for Asher to find out about their baby. From the look of things, the wolves were going to use their unborn child to blackmail him since she was of no use to him.
For whatever reason they were doing this, Asher didn't deserve to have the baby as a weakness.
"I wonder why no one deemed it fit to tell me that he already knows what she is," he said with a pointed look in the general direction of Thomas and Adele.
Before her eyes, both father and daughter seemed to shrink in size, both avoiding to even make eye contact with the other man, who Shana had guess from his bearing, was a wolf. And like that, they continued to talk about her like she was not right there in there with them.
"It never came up My Alpha," he replied weakly, sounding like his cowardly self.
"Just like you to give an excuse. It seems to me you were trying to protect your son. I forgive you this time around because Elise was smart enough to salvage the situation."
"Now Collins, I won't stand for all I've done being compared to this chit's lucky chance," Thomas replied angrily, finally speaking with a definitive voice.
So her captor's name was Collins? But what did he want with her? She was yet to get that answer. "What do you want from me?," she asked.
But no one was paying her any attention. They were all engaged in an argument about what they had done right and wrong.
"It wasn't chance coward. I paid attention unlike you. You are just too scared to get your head straight in the game," Elise shot back at Thomas, who had no fitting comeback for her.
Until Adele piped up and spoke for the first time. "We should be scared," she stated in a crystal clear voice.
All eyes turned on her, including Collins'. His were spitting fire at her but for some reason, Adele was not as scared of the wolf as her father obviously was. "What?," she asked with a shrug. "I'm only speaking the truth on everyone's mind. But no one is bold enough to admit what would happen when Asher catches up with us and trust me, he would." When everyone continued to stare her down angrily, she continued. "You all should know I want her gone more than anyone else but not like this. This is an obvious crime and I do not want to spend the rest of my life on the run."
Collins was before her and strangling her before Shana saw him move from his position.
"You would refrain from using words like those around me," he commanded as his fingers tightened around her neck. Adele gasped and beat against his hand continuously, until she became weak and deathly pale.
Through it, Thomas was shaking like a leaf were he stood but when he saw that Collins was going to strangle her to death, he rushed to them to try and rescue his daughter.
But his move was met with a violent strike from Collins, whose hand shot out and hooked the wolf in the chest.
Thomas went flying into the opposite wall, his body making a solid thud as it hit the wall then slide to the ground quickly.
Shana felt her stomach contents rise to her throat when she saw the trail of blood that followed the man's descent to the floor. She looked down to see the silver dagger embedded in his chest.
Her hands covered her mouth to hold back the scream. The man was bleeding to death but no one was doing anything. She tried to rise to her feet as fast as she could and ran to his side. His eyes were opened wide in panic and pain as the blood continued to seep out of the wound on his chest.
She tried applying pressure to the wound but the bleeding just wouldn't stop. Then she was roughly pulled away from him by Elise.
"He's dying! Do something!," she screamed at the smiling woman.
"He's dead. Nothing you could do would save him now. His cowardly ass deserved to die," she said spitting in the blood pooling around the gasping man.
When Shana looked at him lying there and dying, she remembered the first time she had met him. He had seemed formidable and larger than life. That was before she knew what he truly was though. And in his last moments, she couldn't help but pity him despite his role in all that was happening to her.
Adele laid on the floor not too far from her father, coughing and gasping for breath with Collins towering over her. Shana could see his claws showing and she was certain he had left marks on Adele's skin.
"If you weren't my mate, I would have taken your life already," he said angrily. "I would leave you to ruminate over what you truly want to do."
Then he was gone.
Elise soon followed suit.
Shana was left alone with Adele and a dead Thomas.
When she finally saw her father's body, she went into a frenzy and rushed to him.
Adele tried to resuscitate him but it was too late. She shed bitter tears as she closed his blank eyes with her trembling hand.
He had not been her favourite person but he had been her father and even though his priorities for her had been misplaced; like trying to marry her off to a wolf like Collins, he had still been her parent.