Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 128

**Nora POV

We were forced down a staircase. Thrown down, was more accurate. I lost my footing and tumbled half way, landing hard on my shoulder and sliding in the dirt. Blake’s uncle laughed, but no one else did. The warrior who picked me up was gentle about it and examined my shoulder before dragging me forward.

None of us said a word. There was no point, and we weren’t going to give that bastard the satisfaction of hearing us in distress.

The warriors took us to a large, iron door which one of them unlocked and threw open with a metallic groan. They forced us inside and slammed the door behind us. We could hear the locks clinking into place.

The room we were forced into smelled like blood and sweat. It was

incredibly dark and for several seconds I couldn’t see. I felt Blake grab my hand in the dark and I leaned against him.

This was pretty much the worst case scenario, but at least we were together. I knew that if I were alone, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. This dank room was too similar to the cell I was trapped and tortured in back in Moonery.

Blake k*ssed the side of my head. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,”I said softly. The fall stung,but I was fine.

“Who’s there?” a shaky voice calledfrom the darkness.“Don’t come any closer!”

I felt Blake go stiff at the sound. I recognized the voice, and I was sure that he did, too. It was Margot.

“Margot,”Blake replied gently.“It’sokay, no one is going to hurt you again.”

“Oh, King Blake,”she sobbed.“Thank the god dess it’s you.”

There was movement in the darkness, and a pale, sickly yellow light flooded the room. I saw Christian standing near the door with his hand on a light switch.

Margot was on the other side of the room, sitting on the ground. Her ankle was chained to the wall. There were bruises on her face and arms, but none of them looked fresh.

I hurried over to her and knelt in front of her.“Are you alright?”I asked.“What have they done to you?”

She smiled sadly.“There’s no permanent damage, at least not yet. I’m so sorry that I got caught. I thought that I had been careful enough, but Graham… he’s paranoid. He caught me.” She looked up at me and shook her head.“But I didn’t tell him anything. No matter what they

tried, I wouldn’t talk…”

She sniffled and tried to hold back her tears.

“I know you didn’t,”I answeredfirmly. I had endured torture in an attempt to get me to talk once too. I knew how horrible it was and how painful it was not to be believed. I would at least spare Margot the pain of not being believed.“I know you wouldn’t betray us.”

She nodded and tears began to fall down her face.

Christian sat heavily on the floor. “What do we do now?”he asked.“We can’t just sit down here andwait for them to do whatever they’re going to do.”

Maisi e sat beside him.“We take a few hours to regroup and heal,” she said in a tone that left no room for argument.“Then we’ll find a way to break out of here and get home. We have to stop them before they can do any damage.”

“That’s exactly right,” Blake agreed.He sat beside me and grabbed the chain tying Margot to the wall. With one hard tug he pulled it free of the wall.“Graham is going to be busy dealing with the rest of the Alphas for a little while. We need to put together a plan before we go charging in.”

“I’m so, so sorry King Blake,”Margot said sadly.“If I had known that my involvement was going to make things worse, I never would have contacted you.”

“You aren’t responsible for any ofthis,”Blake answered firmly.“Every ounce of spilt blood is on Graham’s hands, his and that bastard uncle of mine. No one else’s.”

We all sat on the d*rty, cold ground and drifted into our own thoughts. This situation was deteriorating quickly. In these circumstances, what plan could we possibly hatch that would be useful to anyone? It felt hopeless, but we couldn’t give up. There were too many people

dependent on us to protect them.

We couldn’t leave them at the mercy of Graham and his uncle.

I don’t know how long we were sitting there before Chrisitan spoke up. I leaned my head against Blake’s shoulder and I may have dozed off for a while.

When I came out of my daze, Christian was speaking.

“I know it’s simplistic,” he started.“But I think the only plan we needright now is to get out of here and rendezvous with the nearest troop of warriors we have positioned in the forest. We need to sound the alarm as soon as possible so that our people can prepare to defend the pack.”

“The pack has everything they needto shelter in place,”I replied groggily.“As long as we can warn them. I think that Christian is right.”

“I hope that it doesn’t come to all of

that,”Blake noted.“But I agree.”

Maisi e was standing at the large metal door and examining it closely.“I think that I can le ver this off of the hinges if we find something strong enough to jam under it.”

Margot got to her feet and walked slowly across the room. There was a wooden armoire in the corner that I hadn’t noticed before. She opened it and pulled out a long pr y bar. She brought it to Maisi e and handed it to her, but kept her eyes on the ground the entire time.

None of us asked how she knew it was there or what it was there for. It was obvious that it was used on her.

“So we’re just going to knock thedoor down and fight our way out?”I asked.

Blake stood and helped me to my feet. He nodded.“It’s a long shot, but we can’t waste more time.”

There was a loud crash as the door

fell from its hinges. Maisi e and Christian stepped out first, ready to fight whatever warriors were sent to watch us.

But…

“There’s no one…”Christian notedin confusion as his b*dy fell limp.

The rest of us followed him out and saw that he was right. The basement was empty.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Maisiesaid through gritted teeth.“What game are they playing?”

She walked carefully across the room and led the rest of us up the staircase. She put her ear to the door and listened, then huffed in irritation. She took a step back.

“I don’t hear anything. What do wedo?”

Blake looked distrubed by the entire situation.“I don’t know what’s going on,” he admitted.“But we need to get out of this damned

basement before we can figure it out. Get that door opened.”

Maisi e nodded to him and turned back to the door.

The door at the stop of the stairs was locked, but Maisi e was able to break that lock easily. She just grabbed the handle and twisted hard. It was a cheap door knob and there was no deadbolt to reinforce it.

We all followed her through the tight hallways and toward the front of the building.

The place was eerily silent. It quickly became apparent that there wasn’t a soul around. No warriors or guards at all.

“I don’t understand,”I began.“Whywas it so easy for us to escape? They put no effort at all into keeping us here.”

Blake growled and punched the wall beside him. His fi st passed through the flimsy particle board

easily.

“That bastard,” he growled.“Theydidn’t put any effort into keeping us locked up, because he doesn’t think that it matters. He thinks he has us so thoroughly defeated, that any resistance we put up is futile.”

“That’s insane,”I replied indisbelief.“Surely he knows that he can’t take you in a fight.”

“Not on his own,” Blake noted.“Butif we get to the castle too late, and he’s already taken out our defenses…”

We all fell silent. So that was it. Graham locked us up to buy time. He planned to wipe out our pack to such an extent, that there would be nothing left for Blake to rule.

My heart sunk as I knew what that meant.

He was going to murder everyone.