“Why?” Remi asks.
“She was the baby of the family, and I think she got most of their attention,” Addison answers. “But I think what he was truly jealous of is the amount of power she had. Even from a young age, Genevieve was stronger than William would ever be.”
“Jealousy is a strong motivator.” I reach up and rub my temples. I haven’t slept since Pruitt left, and my head is starting to pound. Between the lack of sleep and my wolf constantly trying to push forward, my skull feels like it’s going to crack open.
“Where is William now?” I ask.
Addison sits up straighter, and her eyes widen. “I totally forgot!” With newfound energy, she climbs off the stool she was perched on and rushes to the open barn door. She leans out the door and hollers, “Noah!”
“Addie, what is it?” Remi’s eyes are full of concern. “What did you remember?”
Addison turns back to face us. “You have to remember I never actually met Gen’s family. Anything I ever knew about them was told to me by Gen, and I was so young when she talked about William. She never talked about him after she left with Archer.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t answer my question,” Remi drawls.
“When William met Nicolai, he had just graduated and was looking for a job—” She starts but stops when Noah walks into the barn. He’s dressed in a button-down flannel and dirty jeans. We don’t often see him out of his police uniform since he’s always working, and it’s nice to see that he’s taken some time off to be with Addison. “Noah! After the accident when I asked you to look into Genevieve’s family, didn’t you find that William was working for Volkov Industries?”
“Volkov Industries?” I push off the table and walk closer to the pair. “As in Nicolai Volkov?”
“Yes, if I remember correctly, William got a job working for Nicolai’s company.” Noah’s thick brows furrow as he tries to recall the information he’d gathered many years ago. “It’s a medical company of some sort, I could never figure out exactly what they did there. William started off as an intern or something, but the last time I checked, he was the head of financials.”
“Which means he works closely with Nicolai,” Remi deduces. “Which means—”
“We have a place to start looking,” I finish for her. For the first time since Pru got in the helicopter, I feel hope returning to my body. It may be a small start, but at least it’s something. “What do you say we go pay William a little visit?”
38
Pruitt
I never passed out. No matter how much I wish I could have, my body never allowed it. Instead, I was conscious for every burning moment of Nicolai’s special form of torture. I felt every single cell in my body burst into flames, and every nerve singe away. And now, almost an hour later, my body still shakes with spasms. The burning sensation has dissipated, but every muscle and bone in my body is sore, and it hurts to even breathe.
I turn my head to look at Jax, who sits reading a newspaper that had magically appeared. He never left the room, even though there was nothing else for him to do until the dose of hellfire faded. He never said anything as he watched me convulse and scream in pain. He just stood watching, the emotion on his face something I couldn’t quite decipher. I swear there was a moment when I could no longer draw in air and was suffocating that he looked worried. But he still never did or said anything.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” I tell him, my voice hoarse from screaming for the past hour.
Jax lowers the newspaper and looks at me over it. His purple eyes scan me before he stands from the plastic chair he’s sitting in. “We’re lucky you didn’t piss all over yourself. I’ve done this to many people, and most can’t control it. You actually handled it a lot better than anyone I’ve ever used hellfire on. Good for you, Blondie.” He sarcastically gives me a thumbs up.
“Gee, thanks.” I scowl. “Your praise means the world to me, Demon Boy.”
I hear Jax chuckle as he comes around the table to mess with the chains on my ankles. “Demon Boy,” he mocks. “Don’t think I’ve ever heard that one before.”
“Whereas I’ve heard blondie a million times.” People always assume my hair is bleached and dyed, but my white-blonde locks are all-natural. “I’m not going to lie, Jax, I’m a little disappointed with your choice of nickname.”
“Well, there’s no going back now.” He shrugs as he starts removing my left ankle cuff. “You’re stuck with it.”
“Well, it would seem I’m going to be here a while, so maybe we can come up with a new one.” I want to laugh, but talking is painful enough. I lift my head when I feel the cuff fall off my ankle. “How are you able to remove these if they’re magically bound.”
“I’ve still got some tricks up my sleeve.” He winks at me before moving to work on my arms next.
“Can demons use magic?” I ask. “I honestly just learned about all this supernatural craziness, so I don’t know anything about demons.” Margot said they were assholes and to avoid them at all costs. But Jax doesn’t seem that bad. And yes, I know he just tortured me, but I don’t think he really had any choice.
“Demons have their own set of skills, but they can’t do magic.” The second the cuff is off my right wrist. I pull my hand away from his grasp and stretch out my arm. My muscles groan in protest as I move.
“Then how can you?”
Jax stops working on the last cuff, and his eyes meet mine. He stays quiet for a moment before finally answering me. “I’m not just a demon.”
“What? How is that possible? I heard cross-breeding is impossible.”
“They—”
Jax is interrupted when Nicolai saunters into the room. “You’re right, Pruitt, it was impossible to crossbreed species, but we’ve been working very hard to rectify that.” Nicolai looms over me, scanning my body head to toe. “What a shame, the hellfire didn’t bring out your stubborn little wolf. Oh well, we’ll just have to try later tonight.”
“Sir, I don’t know if she’ll be able to survive another round so soon,” Jax interjects. I feel the last cuff fall from my wrist, and I pull my other arm to my chest.
“Yes, she will. She’s a strong one.” Nicolai caresses my cheek, and I jerk back from his touch. No longer tied to the table, I push his hand away and sit up for the first time since I’ve been here. “Run along and go to the bathroom,” he says. “When you’re finished, we’ll go on a little tour of my facility.”
I watch the way Jax’s face tightens when Nicolai speaks, and it becomes even clearer to me—Jax doesn’t want to be here any more than I do. And maybe I do have an ally here, after all.
Nicolai puts another pair of magically enhanced handcuffs on me when I exit the bathroom connected to the room I was held in. Once he’s sure the cuffs are secure, he pushes me out the door.
The hallway is all white just like the room I am in. Floor to ceiling, nothing but white. I notice multiple doors with small windows as we walk down the hallway. I have no idea what we are walking toward, but the way Jax stiffens as we draw near, I know it’s not good.
“What is this place?” I ask them. I don’t care who answers at this point. I just want answers.
“It’s one of our many medical facilities,” Nicolai says with pride in his voice, “originally created to find the reason behind the poor wolf shifter fertility, although it’s grown quite a bit from there. We figured why stop with only solving the fertility issue? We’re currently on stage three of our breeding program.”
“Breeding program?” I gulp, and my stomach drops. As we near a set of heavy metal double doors, my wolf starts to freak out in my head. She’s screaming at me not to go in there.
Nicolai stops by a keypad and punches in a code. I can’t stop myself from trying to see, but he blocks it just well enough I’m only able to make out the last two numbers.
Seven…Nine…
The door buzzes and Nicolai walks through the automatic doors, dragging me behind him. “My partner is fascinated
with crossbreeding species,” Nicolai begins. “He wants to take the strong traits from each species and put them into one being. There has been a lot of trial and error, but we think we are getting closer to figuring it all out,” he explains as we walk toward a sliding frosted-glass door. “This is just one of the wings of this facility. I believe this is the witch wing…” He glances over at a plaque on the wall and nods. “Yes, witches. We have eight subjects in here, four of which are pregnant.”
The sliding door opens, and I almost fall to my knees when I see what’s on the other side. It’s a large half-moon shaped space with ten different rooms—more like jail cells. The walls are made of glass, giving no privacy. In each room is a hospital bed, and I notice most of them have an occupant.
“Holy shit,” I breathe. This is a scene from a psychological horror movie.
This can’t be real life…
“Don’t worry about the ones who are unconscious. They aren’t in any pain,” Nicolai assures me before walking further into the room.
My feet stumble when Nicolai pulls me behind him, and Jax catches me before I face plant on the cold tile floor. I nod at him in thanks before pulling away. My bare feet pad across the floor as I’m tugged along behind Nicolai. When we near one of the cells, I see the poor woman who lies on the bed has a ventilator in her mouth, and her swollen pregnant belly has all kinds of monitors on it. Her skin is ashen, and her body looks frail.
“What happened to her?” I turn to face Nicolai, not wanting to look at the poor woman anymore.
“She tried to escape.” Nicolai looks at Jax for confirmation. “We don’t tolerate insubordination here. She knew the risk when she tried to leave.”
“So, she’s here against her will?”
Nicolai smirks at me. “Do you know many women who would willingly be impregnated with an experimental embryo? Repeatedly? With little to no chance of a viable offspring?”
I stare at him, not willing to answer him. Of course, I don’t know anyone who would willingly be a test subject such as this.
“Didn’t think so.” Nicolai nods when I don’t answer. “These women have been collected from all over North America. Avery was one of my little gatherers, bringing me subjects to add to the program. She was tasked with collecting rogue wolves. I have others who bring me witches, wolf shifters, and so on. We even have a couple demons here.” My eyes slide to Jax at Nicolai’s last statement. “Jax is part demon, yes,” Nicolai continues, “but as he told you, he’s not just demon.”
“What are you?” I ask Jax for the third time since I’ve met him.
“I’m mostly demon, but I’m part witch and wolf shifter as well.”
Nicolai pats Jax proudly on his back. “Jax is our first successful subject from the breeding program.”
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I want you to do another session of hellfire on her, Jax,” Nicolai calls over his shoulder when he exits my room. We had left the wing of locked up witches and returned to my own torture chamber. I never thought I would be happy to be back in here, but compared to what I just saw, I’ve got it easy.
I just have to survive another round of hellfire. No biggie.
When the door slams behind Nicolai, I spin and glare at Jax. He leans against the far wall with his long arms crossed in front of him, and his head hangs down. He doesn’t look up at me, even though I know he feels me staring at him.
After a minute of staring, I finally snap. “What the fuck, Demon Boy?”
“What?” His head shoots up, and he finally looks at me. “What did I do?”
“It’s not what you’ve done, it’s what you haven’t done!” I rage, marching toward him. “You’ve sat back and watched them do this to all these poor people, and you haven’t done anything to stop them!”
“Who says I want to?” he says with a sneer before pushing off the wall and standing at full height. He’s tall, but not as tall as Ryker or the twins.
“You might not be saying anything, but I’ve seen the way you look at Nicolai. You hate him and this place just as much as I do—maybe even more!”
“There’s nothing I can do.” He shrugs.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it.” I jab him in the chest with my finger. “You’re a wolf, witch, and a fucking demon. I bet you could take out Nicolai with the snap of your fingers.”
“I can’t!”
“Yes, you can!”
“I can’t because I need him to find my father!” Jax snarls, lowering his voice so no one can hear, I assume, as his gaze flicks toward the door.
Confused, I take a step back from Jax to give him some space. “Your father?”
“Nicolai’s partner—I’m pretty sure he’s my father,” Jax explains while pushing his hair back off his forehead. “My mother told me before she died, she thought he was the father. He used his own—genetic material to create the first hybrid embryos.”
“Gross.” I cringe.
“He was the one who took my mother out of her own bed when she was sixteen. He’s the one who experimented on her and then killed her and left her body in a ditch somewhere when she could no longer carry a child to term. He’s responsible for all of this—not Nicolai, who likes to think he’s important, but he’s just another pawn in this guy’s organization.”
“You don’t know who he is? Or what his name is?”
“I’ve heard people call him Sterling, and I have a vague idea of what he looks like based on what my mother said about him. But that’s all I have.”
“Your name is Jax Sterling?” I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from laughing. “You sound like you should have a magic show on the Vegas Strip.”
“My last name is not that fucker’s name,” Jax growls as his eyes glow in anger.
“Okay, okay.” I hold my hands up in surrender. “What is your last name, then?”
“Whitlock.”
“Jax Whitlock. I like it,” I tell him. “I was born Grey Thorne, but go by Pruitt Bailey now.”
“I heard about your childhood.” Appearing uncomfortable, Jax rubs the back of his neck. “At least you didn’t spend your adolescent years in a twelve by twelve cell.”
“You’re right. I didn’t spend my childhood in a jail cell, but Nicolai did take away the life I was supposed to have—should be having right now.” I back away from Jax, noticing I’m still standing too close to him. I lean against the wall behind me, mirroring the way Jax stood when I entered the room.
For the first time today, I allow my mind to wander to Ryker. I’ve been trying not to let myself to think about him because when I do, I want to fall to the floor and cry. And I can’t let that happen—I can’t show weakness here. I will not allow Nicolai to break me. I will stay strong for Ryker, no matter how much I miss him and wish I were back home with him.
Jax sighs. “I’m sorry I can’t help them or you right now. I’ve been building Nicolai’s trust for years, and I’m so close to meeting Sterling—I’m not willing to risk it. My whole life I’ve been trying to get close to the man, I’ve thought of nothing else.” Jax’s violet eyes turn away from me, almost like he’s too ashamed of himself to look me in the eye.
“So, what are you going to do when you find him?”
“I’m going to rip his heart out of his chest.”
“How can I help?”
39
Ryker
I booked a flight to Vancouver before Remi and I ever left Addison’s house. We had to convince Pruitt’s aunt it would be best for her to stay home instead of coming with us. It was something Noah said that finally convinced her. My mom will also be staying behind, but my father and siblings will be joining me. I was surprised when my dad insisted on coming along. He hates traveling and being away from the pack.
“This says we’re only twenty minutes away from Volkov Industries Headquarters,” Ranger tells us from the backseat of the SUV we rented once we landed in Vancouver. “I’ll call the front desk and ask if he’s in the office now.”
I d
on’t turn around to look at him from my spot in the passenger seat. “Don’t bother calling. We aren’t going to talk to him at the office. We’re going to talk to him at his house.” I look down at the address Noah forwarded to me.
We were lucky Noah still had a friend in the Vancouver Police Department. His connection was able to find a current address and phone number for William.
“Smart.” Dad nods as he takes a left on a narrow downtown street. “There would have been a lot of security at Volkov’s office, we wouldn’t have been able to get to him there.”
“He lives in a high-rise penthouse, there’ll still be some security we have to get past,” I warn him, not wanting him to think it’s going to be easy. I’m still furious with my father for his contribution to Pru’s plan, but I’m thankful he’s making an effort to rectify his actions. And I meant what I said to Sawyer and him—as long as Pru isn’t in my arms, I won’t forgive them.
“I’m ready to start knocking some heads together.” Ransom cracks his neck and shakes out his fists. “I’m sick of sitting back and watching this asshole fuck with your life, Ryker. Time to get a little payback.”
“We aren’t even sure William is going to know anything.” Remi shoots Ransom a look. “Then again, he’s not an innocent party in all of this. He’s the one who brought Genevieve to Nicolai’s attention in the first place.”
“No one is ever innocent,” I comment as I sit back in my seat. While we’re both exhausted and running on very little sleep, my wolf and I are itching to get our mate back.
The four of us stand back as we watch Remington saunter up to the security guard at the front desk at William’s condo building. We lucked out as only one security guard is in the lobby right now. The lobby is contemporary with clean lines and chrome accents. A giant abstract lighting fixture is the focal point. The whole space is cold and unwelcoming, and I have no idea why someone would want to live somewhere like this.
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