Page 23 of Merciless & Mated

“Fucking cunts!” Bianca growled and leapt up from her seat. “Come. Bring the omega.”

I sidetracked to get Gianna.

“What’s going on?” she asked, trotting after me down the halls.

“Torture.”

“Of me?!” she squeaked.

“Fuck no. I’d already be driving you out of here if that was the case. Your abductor is being interrogated.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Do your best not to react to anything.”

When we joined them in the interrogation room, Enzo was busy securing Nerin to the bolted-down chair. Gianna’s eyes were wide, her scent sour with fear, but I kept my arm around her waist.

“Please!” Nerin cried. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know she belonged to someone!”

“Shut the fuck up, you oozing pustule.” Bianca yanked his head back by his hair, flipped open her Swiss army knife, and plunged the blade into his thigh.

Nerin screamed like he was dying, and to be fair, he probably would be before long. Gianna shook in my embrace. There wasn’t much I could do to soothe her in these circumstances, but afterward I could.

“Did you think we wouldn’t find out?” Bianca hissed.

“Please! Don’t?—”

She dragged the blade down his leg, blood gushing from his thigh as he bellowed.

“Why were you trafficking girls in the border territories? Who were you sending them to?”

“Fuck! Fuck, I don’t know! They just paid me.”

“Elio,” Bianca growled, “rip apart his accounts and trace where the money came from.”

“On it.” Elio left us to start his task.

Bianca twisted the blade, carving deep. “Did you truly believe I’d let you live when I found out?”

“Bianca—” Nerin wept. “Please, I never wanted—I never thought?—”

“That’s a fucking problem, Nerin.” She yanked the knife out and slammed it back down into his forearm. His shrieks filled the room. They didn’t mean anything to me. I’d seen so much blood these past decades and this man had targeted my mate. He deserved every bit of punishment Bianca wanted to inflict.

Bianca turned to us and Gianna froze like a deer in headlights.

“Come here,” Bianca ordered.

Gianna moved toward Bianca and I could see her tremors from here.

“He’s the one who took you?” Bianca asked.

“Yes. He came to the warehouse and told me like he was proud of it.”

Bianca grabbed Gianna’s hand, wrapping it around the knife with her own hand on top. The next strike was with their joined hands, Nerin screaming bloody murder when it sank into his shoulder, the two of them carving down his arm.

“There’s your blood owed,” Bianca said. “Back to your alpha.”

Gianna retreated immediately, sinking into my arms. “What the fuck,” she whispered, luckily quiet enough that only I could hear her.

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