Chapter 44

“Do you think he’ll talk?”

Vara asked as she looked at the man who was tied to a chair in front of them.

Lyle smiled, a sadistic cruel smile that sent shivers down Vara’s spine.

“With the right motivation he will.”

Lyle answered.

“Bring her in.”

He demanded and Vara glared at him before leaving the room.

Tony tried to wrench his arms free and felt narrow straps dig into his flesh. He groaned in pain and kept battering at the straps with his forearms. They sawed in deeper and drew blood, but he was too far gone to notice it.
They also weren’t just ordinary straps, woven with silver strands, they were a quite popular torture device for werewolves. The silver made it impossible to snap them and the silver getting into their blood only made it much more worse for them.

Silver in a werewolf’s bloodstream made them weaker. Tony was yet to realize that he was making his situation worse.

Lyle loved as he watched the young man squirm in pain. He had no personal vendetta against him. He just loved to watch people suffer.

Kidnapping him was no easy feat. But Lyle had help from his very own brother who he had not talked to or seen in at least three years. Elliot had unwittingly helped him by spilling information on Gabriel’s staff. It had helped him determine and narrow out who would be the weakest link.

Mr Gregory and Grace were old staff, they would rather die than reveal information that could potentially harm their alpha. They were that committed to the Alpha and his family. Besides, they didn’t have any family around that he could use. The maids, while useful, rarely left the house. They were live in staffs, Lyle would have to spend weeks tailing them before even getting anything tangible.

Besides, he wasn’t sure about where Gabriel lived and his brother didn’t drop any clues. So he couldn’t tell where he was staying. The Caine family had at least six residences in Denver alone. Gabriel could be staying anywhere.

But Tony, the chauffeur. He was perfect. He knew enough about the family and everything that went on in it, but he also had not been working in the Caine residence for that long. Not to also forget the fact that he had quite a lot to lose.

Lyle had done some digging and found out that Tony had a wife who was his mate. And a two year old daughter.

Just perfect. Perfect motivation.

They tailed Tony for a total of three days and found out where he lived, where his wife worked and his daughter’s daycare. Without Tony around most of the time, snatching up his wife was easy.

Very easy.


The doors opened again and Vara walked in dragging a woman by her hair. Tony looked up and screamed.

“Caroline! Caroline!”

“Shut up!”

Vara ordered as she pushed the woman to the floor.

Lyle watched the small woman sobbing on the floor and Tony practically twisting his arms to get to her. It was of no use, the straps only burrowed in deeper.

“Will you cooperate with us now?”

He asked calmly but Tony didn’t say a word, he just continued to struggle.

Lyle turned to Vara and gave her a signal. Vara pointed a gun to the back of the woman’s head.

Tony froze.

“They’re silver bullets.”

He said as he strutted towards Tony in his chair.

“We don’t need much. Just one bullet to the brain and she’s gone.“

“Imagine her brains splattered all over this dirty filthy concrete floor.”

“Sad way to go.”

He whispered into Tony’s ear.

“But… you know. You could save her.”

He added and Tony started sobbing.

Lyle looked and saw that the woman was crying too.

He smiled.

“I presume you’re mates.”

“That’s cute.”

He commented.

“What do you want?”

Tony finally spoke. The first words he had spoken to Lyle since he was captured.

Lyle smiled.

“Now we’re talking!”

He said as he stood straight and reached into his back pocket.

He pulled out a grainy paper and showed it to Tony.

“Do you know this woman?“

He asked and Tony froze.

While blurry, he could still make out specific details. And the woman in the picture which seemed to have been printed from a driver’s license was Lori.

Lyle grew impatient of Tony’s silence and he looked at Vara.

Vara slightly nodded. Understanding the agreement and her hands cocked the revolver.

Tony’s eyes widened in shock.

“Do you know her?”

Lyle asked again and Tony nodded.

“Her name is Lori.”

Lyle rolled his eyes.

“Of course we already know her name. We want to know who she is. What she means to your alpha.”


Lyle spat out the word alpha with barely hidden disgust.

Tony looked at his mate again and then nodded.

“From what I gather.. she is his mate.”

Lyle froze.

“Mate?”

He repeated and Tony nodded.

He turned to Vara who looked just as surprised as he was.

“And how do you know this?”

Vara asked and Tony shrugged.

“I see the way she is with the alpha. The way he protects her… he hasn’t officially confirmed it but it’s pretty obvious.”

“And why hasn’t he?’ What is she?”

Lyle asked.

Tony shrugged.

“She’s just a human girl. I think that’s why.. I don’t know.”

Lyle smirked. A human mate? Oh his cousin was in trouble. Deep trouble.

Not just any ordinary human mate. One that he hasn’t rejected yet.

“Tell us more. About this Lori. Tell us more and we’ll let you and your mate go.”

Lyle promised.

It was a lie. A good one because he himself had almost sounded sure of it. But he knew very well that he would never let Tony or his mate walk out that door.

Not with everything going on. Not with everything that could happen.

He had no choice but to kill them.




Pack. Mate. Alpha.

All those words, they had one thing in common. Werewolf. But that wasn’t possible. As far as Lori was concerned it didn’t make much sense to her. But it kept her awake, made her nights restless.

She did once read that Gabriel was part of an elite secret group. Could that be what Sylvia meant?

But even if it was what Sylvia meant, what did the group have to do with her?

Or their relationship?

Why would the group interfere with that?
Or influence his decision to be with her?!

It really didn’t make any sense to her and as much as she didn’t want it to bother her, it bothered her. Deeply.

Even Gabriel could tell something was different about her.

After days of pondering and wondering on end, she decided to ask Elliot.

“Elliot. Do you know if Gabriel is in some kind of secret society stuff?”

She asked while they were playing Call of Duty. They played games almost everyday now, only difference was that Lori couldn’t stomach playing games for so long so they only played for about an hour or less and only when Emilia was taking a nap.

Elliot briefly glanced at her before looking back at the screen.

“Secret society?! What are you talking about?”

He asked and Lori rolled her eyes.

“Just answer the question.”

Elliot chuckled.

“Now, if you really think he is, what makes you think I’ll know?”

“A secret society isn’t very secret when many people know about it. Is it?”

“I’m just asking. He’s your cousin. You should know..”

Elliot scoffed.

“I don’t. And if he was, you know I’d be the last person to know because Gabriel doesn’t tell me shit.”

Lori frowned deeply, but still continued.

“I overheard Sylvia and Jenny and they kept mentioning strange words.”

“Strange words like what?”

Elliot asked and Lori shrugged.

“They mentioned something about a pack, then they mentioned the word alpha and then the word mate.”

Elliot looked at Lori, masking his shock with a loud laughter.

“That sounds ridiculous Lori.”

He said and Lori sighed.

“I know it is! But it must mean something, especially with the way Sylvia and Jenny talked about it.”

Elliot groaned.

“Pay little attention to stuff like that. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“It sounded like it does.”

“I can promise you it’s nothing Lori. You’re just overthinking.”

“I’m not overthinking.”

Elliot sighed as he rubbed his temple.

“You are.”

“We’re supposed to be playing a game right now and you’re worried about nonsense.”

It was of no use, Elliot didn’t understand what she was talking about. Or wanted to either.

She dropped her controller and started walking towards the exit of the lounge.

“Where are you going?”

“To check on the baby.”

She lied as she stormed out.

On her way back upstairs, she found Sylvia standing in front of the door talking to someone.

Who was that?

Lori thought as she peeped.

They’ve never had guests over and Draco came over often enough so Sylvia would never keep him held up at the door.

“Who’s that?”

Lori asked as she walked towards them.

Sylvia laughed nervously as she turned to look at Lori.

“Oh. She says she’s a friend of Mr Gabriel.”

“Friend?“

Lori asked as she peeped out of curiosity.

There was a woman at the door. Lori didn’t know her and she had never seen her before.

The woman stared at Lori intensely. She was tall, taller than Lori, with long golden tresses framing her perfect heart shaped face and light brown eyes.

She was pretty.

Lori didn’t know why she instantly felt jealous that she was Gabriel’s friend.

“Hello.”

The woman said softly.

“Hi.”

Lori answered.

The woman turned to Sylvia.

“Does she work here too? Is she the housekeeper?”

She asked and Lori’s eyes widened.

Housekeeper?!

Sylvia looked torn on what to answer as she glanced at Lori then back at the woman.

“Yes. I work here.”

Lori answered.

The woman smiled.

“Oh okay. I’m Kate Caddel. A dear dear friend of Gabriel’s.”

Lori nodded.

“I’m Lori.”

She answered.

The woman walked into the house, without any invitation.

“Gabriel’s not home.”

Lori said and the woman smiled.

“Oh I know. I was hoping to surprise him. It’s been a while you know… we used to be very close.”

She said as she strutted into the house, leaving Sylvia and Lori staring at themselves.

“Do you know her?”

Lori whispered to Sylvia and Sylvia shrugged.

“She claims she’s a family friend. Her last name sounds familiar.“

She said and Lori nodded.

She walked to the living room, where Kate was already seated and admiring the decor. Kate glanced at her.

“Oh! Can you get me a glass of water?”

“Sparkling water if you’d please.”

She added and Lori nodded.

“Right away.”

She said as she clenched her fist and went to the kitchen.

She ran into Eliot on her way and he was pouting.

“You said you were going to check up on the baby. What took you so long?!“

He asked and Lori pointed to the living room.

“We have a guest.”

Elliot peeped into the room and his face paled.

“Kate?!”

He called and Lori rolled her eyes as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Sparkling water. She checked the fridge, they had that.

Sylvia rushed into the kitchen.

“Let me take it to her.”

Lori shrugged.

“It’s fine. I’ll do it.”

Sylvia shook her head.

“No. No. I insist. Don’t worry just go check up on Emilia.”

Lori agreed. Releasing the tray to Sylvia and she left the kitchen.




She was barely upstairs for a minute when Elliot rushed over to her.

“Do you know that woman?“

She asked eagerly and Eliot nodded, his expression unreadable.

“Yes.”

“Who is she?”

Lori pestered.

“She’s Gabriel’s ex.”