Page 94 of Veil of Shadows

The choked voice whimpered. “What—what a dream.”

“Just accept it. Say it. Just say, ‘I accept.’”

I shook my head out in the hallway. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. She’s lying. She’s throwing you for a loop. Holy fucking hell, the guys were right. She’s feeding people whatever they need to hear in order to agree with the transformation.

The choked voice became breathless.“I… accept…”

I whipped around and started away from the door. No. I couldn’t stay there a second longer. I had to get out of there. I had to get back to the guys. They were right, and they were in trouble. Both of the packs were. The further away from the door I got, the quicker I moved. Until I felt so confident in my ability to keep silent that I sprinted back toward the hallway with the windows. Maybe I could bust one out. Or maybe I’d find something sharp enough to carve out a hole in the glass for me to climb through. But as I skidded around the corner, facing the hallway lined with those bay windows, I didn’t even take a step down it.

Someone grabbed my hair and wrenched my head back.

30

BEXLEY

“Did you really think I wouldn’t know you were there?” Delilah snarled in my ear.

She wrenched me around, twisting me by my tendrils as I whipped around. Her balled-up fist wrapped up in my hair slammed into the back of my head, keeping me rooted to my position as she backed me into a wall.

“You’re lying to get them to agree,” I said with a shaky voice.

Goddamn it, I hated how afraid my voice sounded.

“Sometimes,” Delilah said as she held my hair tightly, pinning me to that wall, “people just need to hear what they want in order for them to do what’s best.”

I tried shoving Delilah away, but she didn’t even fucking flinch. She did giggle, though.

“Go on, try that again. It tickled a bit.”

I gnashed my teeth at her. “Fuck you, you bitch.”

In a flash, she yanked my hair, and the force spun me around. I felt her knee press into my lower back as she slammed my cheek against the wall.

“Ah!” I exclaimed.

She gripped my hair tightly, raking her long nails across my scalp. “You can fight all you want, Special Agent Anna. But I always get what I want in the end.”

“Bex?” Jacob called out in the distance.

I drew in a deep breath, ready to scream my fucking head off. “Jac—mph!”

Delilah released my hair and clamped her ice cold hand over my mouth.

“Jacooooooob!” I shrieked against her palm.

She giggled maniacally. “You can die if that’s what you want, that’s none of my concern. Just know that it’ll be a waste.”

“Bex! Where are you!?” Jacob called out.

His voice got closer. I bit down onto Delilah’s hand. She hissed as she yanked it away, but before I could even draw in a deep breath, she picked me up over her head and tossed me down the hallway.

“Ah!” I shrieked.

“Stupid… bitch!” Delilah exclaimed. “Where the hell do you get off biting me like that!?”

“Bexley!” Jacob bellowed.

My body crash-landed to the floor. The candlelight sconces on the walls illuminated as she tossed me down the hallway, as if to showcase and bring spotlight to the fact that I was sorely outnumbered.

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