Chapter 83 - The Anxiety

CELESTINA VILLARAMA'S POV

My entire surroundings felt like they were spinning, and my vision was still blurry as my head felt like it was about to burst out. I don't remember that I had any drinks yesterday, and I can't even recall anything at all.

Upon my first attempt to stand up, I completely failed, as I lost my balance because of how both of my legs were tied up, as well as my feet and wrists. There were a lot of ropes that were tangled around my whole body, and it made me immobilized.

"I see that you're finally awake, Celestina. If I were you, I wouldn't move much since I'd just be wasting my damn energy. Those ropes were tightly tied on you, and there's no way that you can untie it all by yourself," a man spoke, and I can't even see where the person was hiding himself.

I almost froze when he threw ice-cold water on me, causing me to flip my body around the floor. "Who are you, and why are you doing this to me? Don't you know who I am?" I asked, even though I wasn't confident that I could defeat whoever it was.

The man let out his laughter; his voice was quite deep. "Have you already forgotten the voice of the man who you swore to be mates with? That hurts, Celestina," he said, finally deciding to show himself.

"Leo!" I exclaimed as I hurriedly tried to kneel on the ground, directly in front of him. My head was about on the same level as his thighs, and we were in a weird position. "Set me free, Leo. I didn't intend to leave you and the others at the bar; it was Kris' decision, not mine," I reasoned out.

Leo scoffed. "Kristoffer's decision? Why? Don't you have your own mind to choose whether to follow him or not?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Minutes later, the beta, Leo, decided to help me get up. I thought that he finally had a change of heart and wanted to let me go, but I was absolutely mistaken. Leo launched his attack with three consecutive punches. His hard knuckles made it harder for me to defend myself, especially with all of my limbs tied.

This was definitely a one-sided match, and I don't even have the power to resist.

'Shift with me, Celestina. You can't deal with Leo's wolf on your own,' Celeste ordered me around through the depths of my mind. 'Siege isn't coming for you; he's being kept occupied by Stella, and I think your sister and Leo are teaming up,' she added.

"Don't even think about shifting with your wolf. I tied her up as well," Leo mumbled, bringing out some sort of bottle from his pocket. "This potion is used to keep wolf spirits hidden for twenty-four hours, and that's just the right amount of time that I need to stall for their Luna ceremony to be done," he added.

I groaned as I aggressively strengthened my muscles in an attempt to force the ropes to be broken.

'Don't believe Leo's words. I'm not feeling weak anywhere, and there's no rope on me either. He's merely bluffing, since he's afraid that you'd shift with me,' Celeste said, assuring me that Leo was just putting up a brave front, though it wasn't enough to ease up my anxiety.

I've come to the decision that I should let Leo do as he pleases until I finally see an opening where I can strike back or possibly escape. The beta came to grab my crimson hair, pulling it as he started to drag me wherever he was heading.

I sensed that he wasn't planning to let me go until the next day, so I guess that he's probably going to lock me up in their cells, since that's the only place where no one will be able to reach me, and I didn't guess wrong.

"Did Lucas ever bring you to our basement?" Leo asked as he stopped in front of a door, so I only shook my head in response.

He placed his thumb on the wall, where there was a small pad to scan his fingerprint. The door opened as soon as it was scanned, revealing a room that was filled with a lot of wolves. They were likely rogues that were captured by the beta and were forced to be trapped here.

"Were you collecting rogues for all the years that you've been missing?" I questioned him at the same time that he let go of my hair, pushing me from behind to let me enter the room. "What's the purpose of putting them in prison?" I added another query, letting my curiosity take over my mouth.

Leo also went into the same room, glancing around the hallway to check whether someone was in sight before he shut the door. "I've been thinking about this very same day. I knew that I'd stumble upon a woman who I have to bring here, just to force her to choose me and only me," he answered with such a serious tone, so I was unable to take his response as a mere joke.

The howls of the rogues made me terrified. My chest felt like it was suffocating, so I was kind of having a hard time breathing. All of them were looking straight at me, but I could barely sense that they weren't insane. The looks in their eyes were filled with the desire to have me as their feast.

Leo grabbed the rope on my wrists, and he tore it apart with his sharp fingernails. He did the same for the rest of the ropes that were tied to me. It created a red mark on it, and I doubt that it wouldn't give me a bruise in a few hours. I repeatedly clenched my fists open and close to exercise my hands.

"Do you seriously have no idea who I am, Leo?" I showed him the pendant of my necklace that should've made him react the same way that the Wongs siblings did, but my expectations turned into dust when his facial expressions were blank. "You don't know who owns this?" I tilted my head sideways, wondering how he had no idea about the golden necklace.

"So what if you got that from the Moon Goddess, Sarina? That wouldn't make me hesitate to lock you here," Leo replied, showing me absolutely no care about the goddess.

He picked up a key that was on top of the table nearby. Leo advanced to one of the empty cells, and he demanded that I get inside. I was still contemplating whether to follow him or not.

'Go in, Celestina. I have a good intuition that you can escape after Leo gets out of this place. I can sense a wolf searching for you, though I don't know who it was,' Celeste insisted that I go in.

Heaving out a deep breath, I willingly stepped foot in the cell. The cell right beside me was filled with the rogues who held onto the silver bars. They kept on removing their wolf paws from it since it kind of burned their skin, but they still repeatedly held it as if they could break it apart.

Leo slightly bent his knees, leaning his body forward toward my cell, which he locked. "Stay put, Celestina. I'll come back here to fetch you once I confirm that Siege and Stella have finally finished up their pledges and rites," he said, leaving me behind with the lights turned off.