Chapter 100

ANASTASIA MULBERRY

“So, what does the fact that you’re a rogue have anything to do with the reason that you kidnapped me?”

His eyes glinted in excitement, almost as if he had been waiting for her to ask this very question.

“While most wolves belong to a pack, I belong to an organisation.” Harvey stated firmly as his voice trailed off, a distant look in his eyes which suggested that he was thinking hard. If Anastasia didn’t know that he was a rogue, she would have assumed that he was mind linking.

“What kind of organisation?” She asked after a few moments after having waited several minutes for him to continue but instead, was met with a bout of silence.

“The kind that partakes in the exchange of goods.” Harvey went on to explain, rubbing a hand under his chin as he struggled to come with the best wording. When he couldn’t come up with this best way, he sighed and decided that it was probably best to just bite the bullet and tell her the truth, especially since she was going to be in the centre of it all.

“To be more specific, in the exchange of wolf pups.”

“What did you just say?” Anastasia echoed after a few moments of silence, unbelieving of what she had just heard. “Did you just say that you sell children?”

“No. I said that we exchange wolf pups.” Harvey shook his head. “But I think the term that the both of us are looking for is child trafficking.”

“Child trafficking?” She couldn’t help but repeat, her eyes wide and her jaw dropped in complete and utter shock. When he nodded, the empty contents of her stomach threatened to rise up to the surface but she was quick to push another question out of her mouth before that could happen. “How can you be so heartless that you partake in child trafficking? What kind of organisation is this?”

“The kind that traffics children, but we already discussed this.” He snickered, almost as if there was even a small part of this scenario that was remotely amusing. “I’ll have you know, it’s a very profitable business and I’m lucky to be a part of it.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing right now.” The whisper barely passed her lips, unable to look away from him. “How can any part of you think that this is good?”

“Well, you better believe it because we haven’t even started yet.”

“If you’re trafficking children, then how do I come into this?” She asked quietly, unable to hold back the evident fear and worry in her tone.

Anastasia hated to admit it, especially when the safety of many, many children was currently hanging in the balance after the horrible news that she had just heard, but she couldn’t help but worry for herself. With the way that they had managed to drug and restrain her, rendering her absolutely helpless, she doubted that there was much she could do if they decided to branch out from child trafficking to human trafficking.

“What? You thought we were going to sell you?” He laughed, his shoulders shaking slightly at the bizarre and bewildered look on her face.

When her silence answered for her, Harvey laughed harder.

“Fortunately for you, our clients are more interested in babies. Werewolf pups, to be specific. So, you have nothing to be worried about.”

Anastasia wanted to voice aloud that after learning such despicable news, she had a whole lot of worries and concerns now swirling through her mind but she forced herself to bite her tongue; fearful of getting rebuked for such a statement.

“Regardless of that, you’re actually very important in this whole operation.”

“How?”

Instead of answering her question, Harvey whistled lowly as he glanced around the room, as if it wasn’t dark. However, she was sure that he was able to see perfectly with his supernaturally enhanced eyesight.

“I’m not going to go into it too much, but recently we’ve had to relocate this whole operation. Just a few months ago, actually.”

“Let me guess. Around the time I met you?”

“Yes! How did you know?” He chuckled and reached a hand up to smooth down his hair, not the least bit bothered by the fear-stricken expression on her face. “Okay, let’s get back on track. While child trafficking has worked for us in the past, we ran into some issues which turned out to be operation blockers for us hence, the need for the relocation. Anyway, regardless of the change of location, we’re still facing some of the same issues as we had before but running into you for the first time, I got an idea.”

Anastasia held her breath and bit her tongue as she blinked back at him, her mind reeling from all of this confusing information that he was unloading on her.

“Long story short, people seem to notice and make a big deal when their pups go missing and while there’s still some fuss when a grown adult goes missing, not nearly as much.”

“I thought you just said you didn’t do human trafficking.”

“Well, let me finish and then maybe you’ll understand where I’m going with this.” A deep, gruff growl slipped into his voice as he stared daggers at her, not the least bit appreciative of the way that she had just disrupted him.

“Since you’re so impatient, I’ll make things easier for you.” He paused to purposely roll his eyes. “We make a lot of money selling werewolf pups. Much more than we used to make while selling human babies but like I mentioned before, stealing new borns is far too messy and always leave a trail behind.” He paused and sent her a pointed look, almost as if making sure that she was following him.

“The first time that we met wasn’t in the diner but rather, I had saw you walking around town with those werewolf friends of yours. While everything about you screamed human, you got a paper cut but unlike a normal human, you healed nearly instantly. It was only then that this whole thing started.” Harvey announced, a proud glint in his eyes.

While Harvey had received many praises and recognition for his idea which would essentially revolutionise everything about the way they work and function, Anastasia couldn’t help but shiver in a mixture of sorrow, fear and disgust, unable to believe that all of this had stemmed from something as simple as papercut; something which she couldn’t even remember happening even though it was only a few months ago now.

“I started following you for the next few weeks and very quickly I was able to pick up on two things. One, that you were playing the part as surrogate for your werewolf friends and two, you were one quarter werewolf. The thing is, usually part wolves, similar to humans, aren’t able to carry werewolf pups but not you, apparently.”

Anastasia’s breath hitched in her throat as she stared back at him, her mind reeling from all the information that he was dumping on her while struggling to believe that all of this was in fact a reality.

“It didn’t make sense to me. At first, I couldn’t wrap my mind around how you were able to carry a werewolf pup while not being a full werewolf yourself but only a few weeks ago it all made sense to me.” Harvey paused as his lips stretched a grin, clearly proud of himself for having cracked the puzzle. “While we were interested in you already, finding out you’re somehow managed to land yourself an Alpha wolf as a mate just sweetens the deal. On top of that, everything now makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Anastasia frowned deeply, the frustration evident in her voice, not even trying to conceal it anymore. “None of this fucking makes sense!”