Page 72 of Entering a New World

“Can you please let the professor go?” I asked again, silently apologizing to my former fellow Inn-mate for getting him into his mess. He blinked at me twice behind his thick glasses, which I took as him acknowledging my apology. “Please. I promise I’ll do everything you say, but the knife at his throat is making me nervous.”

“Nice try,” Alistair snarled, red blotches raising on his cheeks and neck. “I’m not letting him go until you made that video. No, make it a livestream. I want you to tell people live on camera that I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Holy shit, he was truly insane.

You can’t argue with crazy, I heard my mom say with a giggle. In my memory, she ruffled my hair and nodded.

I couldn’t remember what that conversation had been about, but I remembered that sentence, and holy shit, did it ring true right this moment.

No arguing.

Just agreeing.

Maybe someone would see. Someone from the pack. Someone who knew Rhett and me, someone who’d realize I wasn’t filming of my own free will.

My eyes darted through the woods stretching behind the Inn, hoping like hell I’d see an oversized wolf emerging from the trees, but if there was someone there, they were staying firmly in the shadows.

“Okay, I’ll go live for you, okay? No need to hurt the professor.” Damn, I should’ve asked for his name. What was wrong with me? We’d spent weeks under the same roof, yet I didn’t even know his name. Weren’t you supposed to make kidnapping victims look human? How could I make Alistair see the professor as a person if I didn’t know anything about the guy besides his reason for being here?

Which I only knew because Mave was highly suspicious about the guy.

Mave!

Oh fuck.

Where was Mave?

Had Alistair hurt her? Was she calling in reinforcements right this second?

I barely caught myself in time before I started craning my neck, trying to get a glimpse of her through the windows.

She’d know something was wrong. She’d be able to scent Alistair. She’d be able to call Paul or Gray or Rhett—if she was conscious.

Please let her be conscious.

“I’m going to reach inside my pocked to get my phone, okay?” I told Alistair, holding both my hands up to show him I didn’t mean funny business. “I’ll slowly reach into my pocket and…”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll grab your phone. I heard you. Now hurry the fuck up.”

I did just as he said and pulled my phone from the pockets of my jeans while fighting the urge to call Rhett for help.

I couldn’t risk it while Alistair had the professor.

“Here it is.” I held it up and turned it on. “I just need to log into my Insta and…”

I didn’t get to finish the sentence.

A low, threatening growl came from the side of the house, then a gangly grey wolf emerged, ears flattened against its skull, eyes firmly trained on Alistair.

I heard the professor drawing in a shaky breath, his hands digging even more desperately into Alistair’s arms.

But I had only eyes for Alistair. I was aware of the big wolf, but I knew it wasn’t a threat. The wolf was pack. Family.

“Don’t hurt me,” Alistair said, his eyes wide as saucers. He held up the hand he’d had previously slung around the professor’s waist, as if he was trying to placate the wolf. “You’re a good puppy, right? You’re not evil at all.”

The wolf growled, baring a set of very sharp teeth.

“Good puppy.” Alistair kept rambling, his attention solely on the wolf.

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