Chapter 99

Anastasia didn’t trust herself to say anything further and instead, she quickly accepted the canister and raised it to her lips. While she feared that he may have given her something other than water, she knew she had pushed her luck too far already and anymore than that, she would literally be asking for it.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers. Except she wasn’t a beggar. She was a prisoner.

Tipping her head back, she welcomed the cool flow of water, her throat feeling slightly better already. To avoid choking and angering him even further than she already had, Anastasia made sure to take a few breaks between gulps, all the while keeping her eyes on him in fear of him trying something while she was momentarily distracted.

“Seems like you were thirsty.” Harvey laughed as she handed the small metal canister back to him.

Instead of ignoring him again like he had accepted, she made a point of nodding her head.

“I was, thank you.” She all but forced the words out of her mouth, trying not to gag on the disgusting taste it left on the tip of her tongue, more than just partially to do with her thanking him. While Harvey certainly didn’t deserve any thanks from her, she much preferred staying alive than him coming for her head, and since she was chained up with absolutely no chance of escaping, she knew she needed to play things smart.

If that included feigning being meek and sickly sweet, then so be it.

If she played her cards right then she would have the rest of her life to live whatever way she wanted but right now, she had to push through her natural instincts and make herself appear smaller in front of him. Only then would she be able to reassess the situation for her next steps.

“You’re welcome.” He hummed quietly, a slightly impressed look on his face as he stared at her. “Your throat feels better?”

Anastasia nodded again. “Still slightly sore, but much better now after the water.”

“And your wrists?”

“They don’t sting anymore.” She answered honestly, glad that she wasn’t bleeding anymore. Thankfully, she had only cut into them a little, having given up before causing anymore damage to herself.

“To return to my earlier question, are you still on your postpartum period?”

Even though Anastasia still felt uncomfortable answering the question, especially since it was Harvey, her kidnapper, asking. However, she had already learnt the hard way that now was not the time for insolence

“Yes.”

“Good.” He hummed while reaching a hand up to rub his chin, a thoughtful expression on his face.

She was very tempted to ask what he meant by that and why he had that disturbing look in his eyes, though she bit her tongue as she sincerely doubted that he would answer. Instead, she would probably get rebuked for such a question and after earlier, that was something that she was looking to avoid.

A few moments of silence filled the dark room, but Anastasia was quick to break it after having suffered in silence for a prolonged period of time earlier.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Anastasia couldn’t help but whisper in a small voice.

“Will you stop asking me if I just tell you?”

“Yes.” Anastasia rushed to lie.

“It’s a long story so I hope you haven’t got anywhere to be.” Harvey chuckled sadistically, very much aware that he was the one keeping her trapped here.

“I’m in no rush so feel free to start anytime.” She stated dryly, unable to see the humour in the situation like him.

“Well, that Alpha mate of yours was correct in saying that I’m a rogue.” Again, Harvey laughed freely, almost as if there was any part of this situation that he was somehow able to find funny in that twisted mind of yours. “My mate never rejected me and I never left my previous pack because I was heartbroken. I’ve actually had a mate and pack this whole time.”

“You’re a rogue.” She stated as her lips trembled slightly, unable to believe that all of this time, Marcellus had been correct in his initial judgement and prejudice against Harvey. At the time, she had just believed he was acting that way because he was jealous but now, looking back, she should have assessed the situation and genuinely considered his concerns without allowing her hurt and pain from his actions to cloud her vision.

“I prefer the term lone wolf, but you know that already.”

Anastasia wanted to roll her eyes, but instead, voiced aloud something which had been dancing on her mind since the moment he had mentioned it earlier. While not for one second did she believe him, her cruel mind kept taunting her with the possibility of it despite her aggressive denial.

“You said Marcellus was behind this whole thing but I know that’s not true.” She held her eyes as she stated the fact instead of questioning him, daring him to deny the claim.

“You’re right.” His lips stretched out into a comical smirk, once again irking her with how much he enjoyed watching her suffer; a truly sadistic characteristic. “I just said that to play with your mind.” He stated simply with a shrug of his shoulders, almost as if he hadn’t just admitted to lying in order to manipulate and scare her into complying with him. “You were being very difficult so I was hoping that after some time, you’d calm down and we’d be able to talk properly. You may consider dropping your mate’s name like that as cruel, but it worked, didn’t it?”

Despite the fact that she insisted within herself that not for one second, she believed Marcellus to be behind this whole thing even though things were currently very rocky and uncertain between them, Anastasia couldn’t help but feel relieved that it was now confirmed.