Page 120 of The Alpha King's Fate

She did as told, and the Hunter twisted her arm to her back without caring how much force he used. The cold metal of some thick handcuffs bit into her wrists before he grabbed her by the scruff of her new gown. The jerk shoved her out into the hallway, where other Hunters came out of their rooms and joined her guards, lining the hallway walls as they did when she arrived.

The Hunter behind her shoved her again to make her move. She stumbled but caught herself before she fell. Her anger rose again for a moment, but she pushed it down and began to walk down the hallway. She would not meet her end in the bowels of the Hunters’ base. No. Her end would be much more spectacular.

They forced her to bypass the elevator and go up the same double flight of stairs she came down last night, probably so more guards were watching her at any time. The Hunters didn’t look her in the eyes, they kept their gazes forward, but she knew the memory of her killing their friends was still at the top of their minds.

‘Focus,’ the voice in her head said.

Right. She had to keep all senses on full alert. She needed to take every detail in and map every possible means of escape.

The moment they opened the doors at the top of the stairwell, something snapped in place, as if her links to the pack members in the warehouse were restored. Was there something blocking that in the basement? She had assumed that whatever potions they injected in her weakened her links to the pack, the same way it broke off the connection with the wolves outside of the base. But she was clean. Whatever the Hunters used on her burnt off when she half-shifted and healed.

So that only meant one thing.

Magic.

That was the only way they could have blocked her in the basement.

Did the Commander get the help of a witch? Did they know about witches? The first time she saw them, they broke through wards set up by generations of witches in the forest as if they were nothing. She hadn’t thought of that. What if whatever the Hunters were doing had dark magic involved?

The white door marked ‘Restricted’ came into her view, and she knew the direction of the warehouse from there. But where was the way out?

She almost walked past the door when the Hunter grabbed her gown again and forced her to stop. Then the doors to the restricted area were unlocked and opened.

Her breath hitched at the first look inside. She’d known the Commander did something nefarious there, but she hadn’t expected it to be so blatant.

The Hunter shoved her in, but she was too shocked to stop herself from falling flat on her face. When she lifted her head, the familiar face of a Hunter hound was growling down at her, snarling at her with a thick glass wall between them. It frothed atthe mouth, showing giant, sharp teeth and blood-red eyes. Evil. She sensed nothing but evil intentions from it.

Someone pulled her up and shoved her to continue walking. There were glass cages on one side, full of giant beasts. And on the other side, cowering at the back of their cages were normal dogs.

They made these beasts?! Did the Commander fuck with nature so much that he created the beasts they used to hunt them?

Cold seeped down her bones at the thought of what he expected her to do. If the Hunters experimented that long to create their hounds, they were probably confident they could turn into wolves.

“Sorry to drag you here so early, but you have work to do, Layla.”

She looked away from the dogs to see the Commander standing in an open doorway with a proud look on his face. He didn’t look sorry at all.

He turned and walked into the next room without a word, and she was once again shoved to follow. The next room was worse. Instead of dogs in glass cages, there were people. Half shifted with mangled faces—patchy fur and bulging eyes. Claws coming out of the wrong areas.

Her heart pounded hard against her chest as she walked past each failed experiment, following the Commander’s bulky frame. What sort of person did such horrible things and still woke up with a clear conscience each day?

The commander entered another room at the end and turned to face her.

“I want you to be the first to see the results,” he said with a grin.

There were two glass cages in the room. In the first one, Rebecca sat on the floor, eyes glued on the second cage.

‘Mum?’

Rebecca turned her head slowly, and their gazes met.

‘What did you do?’ Rebecca whispered in her head.

It felt good to finally hear her mother’s voice, but the fear in her mother’s tone wiped that out straight away.

‘I’ll fix out. I’ll get you out of here,’ she vowed.

Her mother turned to look at the other cage again.

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