43

"Get your fingers off me!" I warned him, but he only pushed me tighter against the wall. He turned my head in his hand, looked me up and down and then luckily let go of me. "Sit down." He pointed to the small wooden table in the center of the room, but I was still frozen in panic.

"I don't like to repeat myself," he then said, looking at me disparagingly. Without knowing who he was or what he wanted from me, I walked over to the table and sat in one of the three chairs.

He watched me and waited for me to look at him again. Grinning, he pulled down his hood and ran a hand through his brown hair while taking a deep breath.

"My name is Darius," he explained and then sat down across from me. "And yours is Chiara?" He probably overheard Ethan and me in the dungeon, I thought to myself, and just nodded at him in fear.

"Okay, Chiara. I want you to know that nothing will happen to you. We may be at war, but women are taboo for me." I listened to him and sat quietly, while inside me a sudden, unbelievable anger towards him flared up. He was certainly the one who made my grandma a widow. I clenched my fists under the table, trying not to knock the whole table over in anger.

"I just want you to call Jayden and he comes alone to the meeting point I'll tell you." He sat back and waited for my reaction, but instead of being angry any longer, he just utterly stunned me with his words. Did he really think I was such a traitor?

"Why Jayden?" I then asked, noticing his expression go very, very dark. "He killed someone very close to me."

I held my breath and thought about how many times Ludwig and Jayden had talked about the war, but I had never thought about the blood on their hands. "So? Agreed?" He pulled me out of my thoughts and looked at me questioningly.

"No," I whispered softly, afraid of the consequences of my refusal, but I couldn't do what he asked. He got up and walked towards me and gently stroked my hair, which made me tremble again. "I promised you nothing would happen to you. But as long as you refuse, I'll bring you down. Maybe then you'll change your mind."

He grabbed my arm, hurting me with it, and pulled me out of the house behind him and through the wooden door next to it. As soon as we stood at the stairs, I heard pain-distorted screams that made me run down the stairs with a racing heart.

"Ethan?!" I yelled as I ran down the darkened hallway and stopped short of breath just outside his cell. Ethan was lying on the floor in the middle of his prison and all I could see was blood on his body. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I shook the bars, just wanting to go to him to help. It all seemed like pure madness and was too much for my nerves.

"I told you, I won't hurt you." Darius appeared next to me and I glared over at him in anger as he smiled at Ethan's beaten-up body. "So?" he asked me again and just as I was about to say no again, a man appeared behind Ethan in the cell with a long stick in his hand. "You know, I don't need him because I have you. The question is do you still need this scum."

He whispered those words close to my ear, making me tremble in panic. I didn't want to trap Jayden, but I didn't want to let Ethan die either. Before the man could swing his stick, I turned to Darius. "I'll do it! But leave him alone!" I begged loudly and noticed a nod towards the man in the cell, who then came out and ran past us. I looked Darius in the eyes with hate and then quickly ran over to Ethan to roll him onto his back and examine the injuries.

"Have a rest. See you tomorrow," my kidnapper said and put a bottle of water in our cell to then lock and disappear. When I couldn't see or hear him anymore, the adrenaline leveled off in my body and the tears just trickled down my body as I knelt and placed Ethan's head on my lap. I caressed his cheek and just hoped that he would wake up soon.

The fear for him almost drove me insane and I just felt guilty. Why did I just take off? Why did I dump Jayden on a bet? It was all my fault, I told myself, looking at Ethan who, no matter how arrogant he was at times, didn't deserve this.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered to myself over and over as Ethan continued to rest his head on my lap, breathing heavily. I stroked his hair, his cheeks, at least trying to take some of his pain away.

"What... what did he want from you?" he gasped and then coughed so hard that I had to help him up. I patted his back gently and waited for him to recover somewhat. "He wants Jayden," I whispered and suddenly he looked at me with wide eyes. "No!" he admonished me and painfully pushed himself up to stand crouched in front of me and one hand on his head.

"There's no way that's going to happen! I'd rather kill that bastard!" he cursed, dragging his injured body over to the stretcher to sit on it with a groan. "Are you really tired of life? He's going to kill you," I warned him, but even in this situation he managed to crack his dirty grin.

"Let him try. I'll rip his damn-" He screamed, but his coughing didn't allow him to finish the sentence. You could tell that he had already experienced a lot of violence in his life, because in his situation I would certainly not have been able to curse or keep my courage.

He clutched his chest in pain and took aim at me. "You're not going to hand Jayden over, no matter what happens to me! My wounds are healing and even if I don't, I'm too happy to die for him," he commanded, then groaned and collapsed onto the couch, exhausted from the beating recover.

I was still sitting on the cold stone floor trying to find a solution that would save everyone, but I was just a stubborn, stubborn girl who always seemed to screw things up and not a strong alpha who surely already had a plan. I listened to Ethan's rattle and closed my eyes. Maybe prayer would do, maybe our guardian angel would hear my prayers, but even after I'd sat there for more than an hour, hands clasped, even the soft murmuring took me heavenward, no hope of a happy ending.

I opened my tired eyes, got up and walked towards the bars to thirstily take the bottle of water. As soon as I took a few sips, I felt my stomach settle, but Ethan's breathing suddenly became so irregular that I immediately rushed over to him.

"Ethan?" I whispered, putting the bottle under the couch to put my hand on his forehead, which was smoldering so hot a normal human would probably have died by now. I took the bottle in one hand and lifted his sweating head with the other to let a few sips of water run into his mouth.

He struggled silently, but not with me. I held him and forced him to drink. It wasn't the time to be stubborn and I knew he was the last to show weakness, but as Darius mentioned, I was the Luna of the pack and this idiot had to understand that it was okay to show weakness.

He opened his eyes and looked at me maliciously for a moment until I smiled and held the opening of the bottle to his mouth and he nodded my thanks and I let the water flow into his mouth. If we got out of here safely, he would certainly never admit this situation, his ego was too big for that.

After he shook his head weakly, I pulled the bottle back and lowered his head gently, causing him to close his eyes again and rattle to himself again. The anger at his appearance made me run furiously to the bars and with all my strength I knocked on the iron with the plastic bottle and screamed for help, but no one came. I also didn't know if we could even be heard from down here and exhausted and powerless I let myself slide down the bars and just sat there again until I finally fell asleep from exhaustion despite my fear for Ethan.

"I wish my guests a wonderful good morning!" I opened my eyes tiredly and couldn't move for a moment. My butt felt frozen from the cold stone floor while my neck felt stiff.

I stretched my arms and slowly took in my surroundings until I caught sight of Ethan, who was still asleep but looking much better than before my nap. Relieved, I was about to get up and go over to him when a hand gripped my neck from behind and choked off my breath. My eyes widened and I wriggled my arms and legs wildly, but he wouldn't let go and I thought I was going to choke, but just before that he released his grip and I tipped over to the side, gasping for air in panic.

"I hope you understand that you have to make your call now?" Darius asked me with a stern look while I turned to him and his hand was still stretched through the bars. "She won't do anything!" Ethan breathed, sitting up carefully not to show pain in front of Darius.

"Yes, I know you would die for him because you have no one else and your life is beyond miserable, but what if I change my strategy?" Darius smirked at him and before I could understand and comprehend what he said he'd grabbed my neck again and pulled my head against the bars, making Ethan growl loudly.

My pulse, which had been fast before, became very slow and calm while the tears filled my eyes and I felt nothing but the pain around my neck. I struggled with every part of my body and tried to free myself, but it just didn't work. The last thing I saw before everything went black was Ethan standing up cursing wildly.