Page 90 of The Alpha King's Fate

"Excuse my manners,” he said as he stepped back from her.

Without his huge body blocking her view, she saw a setup very similar to the one she passed in the hallway, only much larger. In the middle of the big room, four glass walls went up to the high ceiling enclosing something that looked like an air conditioning unit at the top. And an empty hospital bed was in the middle, with straps made of silver chains.

Another shudder went down her spine at the thought of what they would do to her if they strapped her down.

“I’m Commander Walters. You can just call me Commander. We’ll be seeing a lot of each other,” he continued as he walked further into the room.

Computers and other equipment lined three walls of the room, and several people in white coats stood at the back. Even though they were not as big as the Hunters who brought her in or the Commander, they smelled like Hunters.

“That still doesn’t answer my question.”

Her wolf couldn’t help, yet she still found the guts to speak. When the Commander turned to look back at her, she moved back again.

“You already fooled me once, Miss Carlisle. Did you really think I would never find you? You're the key to everything. The answer to the end of this war."

"What war? What the hell are you talking about? Normal people don't go around kidnapping people and putting them in cages," she spat out.

"You're right," Walters chuckled. "But you're not people, are you? It took me a couple of weeks after I met you, but I figured out why your face was so familiar."

Her chest tightened. He knew who she was. What she was.

“I never met you before that day.”

The Commander's lips were thin and crooked. When he smiled, she saw nothing but his evil intentions.

“You’re right. I guess you could call it fate,” he said before he looked behind her. "That's what your kind likes to say, right?"

The Hunters who dragged her into the room stepped forward and grabbed her before she could escape them. It wouldn’t have done her any good but she should have tried to fight. At least she wouldn’t have gone down as the cowardly queen who'd been killed without as much as a squeak.

"Stop it. I'm going to call the police!" She shouted.

Their grip was like a vice as they dragged her into the glass-walled partition and shoved her onto the bed.

Briefly, she remembered when some of the pack members tried to sexually assault her. She felt as powerless as she had then, unable to kick out or fight even though she was much stronger than she used to be.

"Yes, let's involve the humans so they find out about the beasts that live among them," the Commander chuckled.

The cold metal snapped on her feet and wrists before they wrapped a heavier chain around her torso and arms. When the Hunters stepped back from her, she couldn't even move.

"Interesting," the Commander said.

His eyes settled on the chains. Chains that should have been making her skin sizzle and burn.

A little hope flared when she realised that could be her saving grace. She passed the silver test when the Commander tried it in the forest. She fooled him into believing she was human, so they let her and Jax go.

And back then, she had been at full strength. Now her wolf had deserted her again, and her body still felt the effects of being drugged. It would be easier to pretend to be human.

"Why are you doing this to me? I'm just a maid; I have no money to give you and no family who would pay any ransom."

"You're a lot more valuable than any amount of money, Miss Carlisle," Walters said as his gaze met hers again. "I look forward to finding out just how much more."

A man in a white coat came to stand next to the doctor, holding a tablet. He typed in something and showed the screen to the Commander before they both turned back to her.

"And her cut is still bleeding. Make a note of it," the Commander said.

"Of course, I'm bleeding! I've just been assaulted. Did you expect it to stop without medical attention?" she hissed.

The commander sneered but didn't respond. Just how much did Hunters know about wolves? Had they always experimented on them?

---