Chapter 93

ANASTASIA MULBERRY

Anastasia wasn’t sure what had happened to her or where she was now, but she couldn’t help but whimper at the feel of the cold concrete underneath her, especially when it came into contact with the bare skin of her back that had become exposed where her jumper had risen.

A quiet groan passed her lips as she struggled to get off the ground, almost as if something was weighing her down. It was only when she blinked a few times to clear her vision and her mind became less clouded that she realised why.

With both of her wrists and ankles cuffed and shackled to the wall behind her, the very one that she had been leaning against while unconscious on the cold, hard ground, Anastasia struggled to manoeuvre herself with the heavy chains weighing her down.

“What the fuck?” Anastasia couldn’t help but whisper as she stretched her fingers out in front of her before reaching to free herself although the chains were sturdy and rattled every time she moved.

She continued to groan in frustration as she pushed her hands down on the ground to lift her body up into a sitting position. While the chains were heavy, Anastasia still felt groggy. Far groggier than she usually felt after waking up in the morning.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed but by the time she had managed to force herself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall behind her, she was panting heavily and her heart was racing. Struggling to calm herself down, Anastasia lifted her head to glance around the room – more like a dark and dingy cell – though there wasn’t much that she was able to make out through the dark.

Anastasia wasn’t sure what day it was, what the time it was or even how long she had been stuck in the dark. Not that she could focus on much as her head pounded lightly, no doubt from when she had dropped to the floor.

Her breath hitched at the thought and as her most recent memories started coming back to her, from just before she had lost consciousness, Anastasia couldn’t help but gasp.

Her skin erupted in goosebumps and her breathing turned ragged as she remembered the flowers and the note or more specifically, the flowers and note that her mate had sent her. There was no way that she could prove it, but the last thing she remembered was reading the note and smelling the flowers. Her head had started to spin then and now, she had somehow woken up in the dark with her wrists and ankles restrained; essentially chained to the wall.

Completely and utterly restrained.

The very thought that Marcellus could have done this to her sent a fearful shiver down her spine however, she struggled to believe that despite the rocky circumstances that they were currently trapped in, he would be capable of doing this to her.

Surely, there was no reason for him to come to such extremes either! While their mate situation was currently uncertain and neither of them was sure of where they stood with the other – mostly because he had majorly fucked up and allowed it worsen by aging a couple of months – not once had she even hinted to him that rejection was on the table. While rejection was something that she had scarcely been considering – never being able to ponder on the matter for too long as the mere thought of it was unbearable – and it was probably something that he feared she would do, she hadn’t threatened him with it nor had she explicitly or implicitly mentioned it to him.

Despite the fact that out of everyone that she knew, Marcellus was probably the one person with the most amount of means, motives and how, neither her head or heart could bring themselves to believe that he would stoop to such levels.

When the faint sound of a pair of shoes tapping against the ground drifted toward her, only growing louder in sound as the seconds passed, she forced her breathing to still in fear that whoever was coming her way, was coming for her.

When the sound of a door creaked open and a stream of harsh light shone into the room, temporarily blinding her, Anastasia couldn’t help but groan aloud as she bowed her head and pressed her face into the crook of her elbow.

“Good, you’re awake.” A voice sounded from across the room and immediately, her head snapped in its direction; her eyes wide in a mix of fear and surprise after having gotten accustomed to the light now; though the former was the more predominant.

The second she locked eyes with the pale blue of his eyes, her jaw threatened to drop to the ground, shock now completely wracking through her entire body.

“Harvey?” She sounded aloud in a quiet whisper, barely able to believe the sight of the familiar man in front of her, not daring to hope that he was here to help, especially since he wasn’t in handcuffs just like her. “What’s going on?”

Harvey chuckled as he walked further into the room, only stopping once he had reached her. When he dropped himself to the ground directly in front of her, Anastasia wished for nothing more than to shuffle away from her in fear that he would try something, especially since it now appeared that he had played a part in her kidnapping however, unfortunately, that was not possible with the way she was currently restrained.

“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out already.”

“What do you mean?” Anastasia couldn’t help but whine as her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion and concern, desperately seeking answers to questions he so clearly refused to acknowledge, let alone supply answers to. “Why am I here?”

“All in good time, Ana.”

She felt the urge to recoil at the use of her nickname. While it had previously felt pleasant and friendly when he had called her that before, now, it just made her feel scared and unsafe. Even more so as she was unsure as to what part he was playing in all of this.

“I thought you were a good guy.” Anastasia found herself murmuring quietly, the words passing her lips before she could stop them. “I never expected something like this from you.”

“Well, you thought wrong then, didn’t you?” Harvey laughed with an amused twinkle in his eye, almost as if he found something about her current predicament hilarious however, she was sure that the grass was most definitely greener on the other side. Although, it appeared as if that was something that she would not have the pleasure of experiencing.

“I’m so confused. What’s going on right now? Why am I in handcuffs? Did you kidnap me?”

“You have an awful lot of questions for someone that was just drugged.” He murmured quietly, his eyes studying her carefully, almost as if he was trying to gauge just how much she remembered before she had blacked out.

Anastasia forced herself to keep her face neutral and void of any emotion or feeling, but that had proved to be very difficult, especially after her theory of being drugged had just been confirmed.

“Why was I drugged?”

“So, we would be able to bring you here without any problems.”

“We?” She dared to question in a hopeful tone in attempt of prying as much information out of him as possible.

“You know I can’t answer that.” Harvey chuckled lowly as he raised his knees and rested his arms on the top of them, leaning in closer to get a better look at her. “It looks like there’s a bruise on your forehead.” He murmured lowly; his eyes trained intently on her. The longer he studied her, the more her lips turned down at the corners, almost as if he was genuinely concerned for her and upset about the fact that she had somehow been injured – albeit, a very small and far from serious injury – during the grand ordeal. “They weren’t supposed to hurt you.”