Page 26 of Wolf Claimed
She couldn’t believe he’d made her divulge her name. At least he hadn’t asked her about her mother. That would have destroyed her. Implicating her in Grave’s murder wasn’t exactly a trivial matter, but she knew how to fight that. The truth about her past, though. . . There would be no surviving that.
“You passed out before I could finish my questions.”
“Let’s get this over with, you bastard.”
“I can’t. The serum loses effectiveness after an hour, and I can’t give you another dose for forty-eight hours without risking a stroke.”
“You singled me out based on a switchblade that I lost in the woods. Someone knows who I am and is trying to frame me, Gallagher. Can’t you see that?”
“Perhaps. Or you’re working for your father.”
“Maybe you’re working for him. You’re his type. Heartless and driven.”
“Don’t make an enemy of me, Monroe. You’re going to need me.”
“To prove my innocence? No thanks. You’ll bury me just to advance your own agenda.”
“And what agenda is that?”
It was a good question, one she hadn’t figured out yet.
“I thought so,” he laughed, even as he pointed to the camera in the far corner. “All the trainees were in the security room, watching.”
“Why?” she bit out, straining to keep the fear out of her voice.
“A little outside pressure never hurts. Though I have to admit that I didn’t expect to find out you’re related to one of the top three people at the WSSO.” He grinned just then, leaning against the wall. “You’re going to need me to keep you alive. Those shifters out there will want your blood. And I can’t say I blame them. All of them lost packmates and family to the virus attackyourfather devised.”
Oh, god. Maddox.He’d lost his mate to the shifter virus. Gallagher was right. All the shifters would blame her.
Someone pounded on the door. “Let me in, Gallagher,” Rafe demanded. He sounded unbelievably angry.
“It didn’t take them long to get here. I’m not going to risk my guards, Monroe. I might have to let the shifters have you.”
“Let me out of these cuffs!” Her heart was racing, fear rising as she pictured the shifters out there waiting to take their revenge out on her.
Another bang against the metal door made her jump. Rafe. She needed to explain to him about her father and Graves. He was reasonable, calm, not like many of the other shifters. He’d listen.
But there were twenty other shifters out there, including Maddox, who wanted revenge against the WSSO. Even if Rafe believed she wasn’t involved with the WSSO, he was vastly outnumbered by the other shifters.
Gallagher unlocked her ankle cuffs and yanked her up by her upper arms, her hands still cuffed behind her.
“I didn’t kill Graves,” she repeated, though Gallagher didn’t seem to care. Innocent or not, she was Woodrow Monroe’s daughter.
Gallagher pulled her to the door. “I’m coming out, Anderson. With Monroe.”
“Don’t call me that. I stopped using his name years ago because I want nothing to do with him,” she said, fear and anger mixing inside of her as her mind raced. How the fuck was she going to convince anyone of her innocence?
Gallagher set his gun’s muzzle against the base of her neck. “I suggest you get really quiet and cooperative, Monroe,” he said as he punched the code into the security panel. The door sprang open.
Five shifters blocked the corridor. Kingsley, Brock, Tiernan, Rafe, and Maddox. She nearly lost her composure when she met Maddox’s eyes. They’d turned pitch black and held no warmth. And his expression was stone cold.
The strangest feeling rose up inside her. She had this sudden urge to dig her fingernails into Gallagher for the pain he’d put her through, for forcing the truth from her and compromising her safety. And yet, despite the seriousness of her situation, despite the dark look on these shifters’ faces, she had the urge to run to them, not away. Well, three of them. Not Kingsley and Brock. Those two made her entire body tremble. Or was that the waning effects of the truth serum? Several times now, she’d felt foggy and distracted, as if she were being pulled in two directions at once.
Gallagher shook her, pulling her from that fog. “Answer him.”
“Answer who?” she asked. She hadn’t heard a question.
Rafe stood there scowling as if he wanted nothing to do with her, and Tiernan couldn’t stand still. His feet shuffled even as bones moved back and forth beneath his skin in his arms and shoulders. He was trying to shift. Or trying not to. She couldn’t begin to guess what he was thinking as a mixture of anger and rage filled his face. Seeing the disappointment in his eyes was the worst. It was a look she’d seen in her father’s eyes so often growing up.
