UnMasked

by Yara Gharios

  As predicted, there truly is a door, on the opposite side of the window. It’s wooden and old looking, although there aren’t any holes or cracks in it. It all gives a very eerie, middle-ages kind of vibe. I feel like the princess trapped at the top of a tower, sadly enough. Where could they have possibly taken me? How can a place like this still be used by anybody today?

  Now’s not the time to be thinking about geography or history, I argue with myself.

  No, what I need to do right now is find a way out of this place. First, I need to fight the drugs in my system and stand up so I can get a feel of the room. The light’s not helping much.

  With a grunt, I lift myself up so that I’m kneeling on all fours. It takes some effort, and I need a moment to catch my breath and stop my head from spinning, but I make it. I put my hand against the wall and am about to push my leg up, so I can use it as crutch to stand, when a voice behind me catches me off guard.

  “Wait,” a voice says softly. “You need your strength. Don’t stand up too fast.”

  I used to have nightmares about what it would be like if someone did kidnap me. There was plenty of torture, sometimes rape, but mostly me being alone for hours and hours with the knowledge that my family is looking for me. I didn’t expect anyone else to be here. That’s why I jump so hard with fear when I hear the little voice. That, and because of the drugs, which have also apparently inhibited my senses so that I didn’t detect anyone’s presence.

  My hand slips and I fall back against the wall. The impact hurts a little, but it’s nothing compared to what I’ve experienced in the past because of my brothers.

  When the renewed dizziness fades, I look in the general direction where the voice came from and notice a small silhouette sitting there. It’s too dark for me to see it, but I can tell it’s a kid, and that there’s a strange shape next to him.

  “Who are you?” I ask.

  “I’m Paul,” the kid replies. “This is Jace.”

  The strange shape is actually a sleeping toddler.

  I gasp. Jace!

  That’s when it hits me what this is really about, when I remember the name. This is about more than just revenge for what I did to Reena. Jace is the toddler whose family was massacred and who was kidnapped a while back. Are Jason and Tyler behind the kidnappings of the young boys, then?

  I don’t have enough time to dwell on that, since Paul looks in the mood for some chatting.

  “What’s your name?” he wants to know.

  He can’t be more than twelve. I wonder how long ago he was taken, if he was alone this whole time.

  “Dylan,” I mutter. “Don’t worry, Paul. I’ll get us out of here.”

  “Good luck with that,” he says. “I’ve been trying for two years.”

  Well isn’t he just a smarty pants?

  “Is that how long you’ve been here?”

  “I’ve been here six years,” he informs me. “Two is how long I’ve been trying to escape. But it’s useless. The window is too high, even for you, and it’s too small for either of us. There’s only one reason why they’d open the door, and that’s to bring us food. But even then, there are bars that keep us five feet from the door, and they slide the food over to us without caring whether or not they spill.”

  I frown, crawling and groping around until I find the metal bars that confirm what he says. “What do you do if you have to use the bathroom?”

  “There’s a tiny toilet in the corner behind you.”

  “Ew!” I yell. Okay, that’s disgusting.

  The sleeping little guy moves at the sound of my voice, and then he starts crying. Woops.

  “It’s okay Jace,” Paul reassures him while I try to shush him. “Dylan didn’t mean to scream. He’s just sad about not having his own potty.”

  The kid doesn’t stop wailing, though, which kind of starts to reawaken my sense of hearing, and sharply stabs me repeatedly in the eardrum so that I have to cover my ears.

  This must be the first act of torture they’re going to use on me.

  Finally, after ten long seconds, a door bursts open.

  What do you know? There really is one.

  Light floods in from the doorway and illuminates part of the room. However, I don’t have time to examine it, because the last person I expected to see rushes in to the wailing baby’s side. She kneels on the other side of the bars right next to the two boys and slips her hand through to caress his head.

  “It’s okay,” Reena coos. “You’re alright. Don’t be afraid.”

  For some reason, I’m expecting Jace to know what a viper she is and coil away from her, but he does the complete opposite. He crawls over to her until their arms meet through the bars and they’re practically hugging. Any escape plan I might have started hatching flies out the tiny window. I am too shell-shocked to react.

  This can’t be the same Reena.

  Jace continues crying, although it becomes softer and doesn’t pierce my ears as much.

  “You can’t start crying anymore, Jace,” Reena whispers to him, almost like she’s pleading. “We don’t want him to come down here.”

  “It’s not his fault,” Paul defends him. “Dylan scared him.”

  She doesn’t react to my name, which means she already knows I’m here. That’s when I regain my senses and jump to my feet as fast as I can, stumbling towards her and grabbing her by the neck through the bars.

  “You b*tch,” I hiss. “Get us out of here now!”

  Jace starts wailing again. I cover my ears with one hand and a shoulder, so that Reena doesn’t escape my clutches. Sadly, it turns out I’m barely even putting any pressure on her neck, and I’ve stumbled right over Jace’s little foot.

  “Shh, Jace it’s okay,” she sounds desperate. “Dylan, please, I know you hate me, but we can’t let them hear him or they’ll come. He has to stop…”

  “What the hell is he crying about now?” a voice booms from the hallway outside the door.

  Moments later, Jason stomps in. My brain doesn’t register the way Reena jumps and cowers against the bars. My hand almost drops from her neck, but I hold on. I’ve never been intimidated by anyone other than my dad and Logan. The way Jason is looking at us now would have been intimidating, if not for the anger boiling inside of me. I glare at him as hard as I can. His only response is to smirk.

  “Looks like our little shewolf is awake,” he taunts. Then he glares at the now sobbing child in his sister’s arms. “Shut him up.”

  “He’s just a little scared,” Reena tries to explain. “If I can just take him upstairs for some –”

  Jason cuts her off by marching angrily towards her and crouching till he’s at eye level and roughly grabs her arm. She whimpers and flinches, squeezing her eyes shut like she’s anticipating a slap.

  “Shut him up,” he repeats, low and threatening, “or I will.”

  She nods stiffly, only opening her eyes once Jason has let her arm go and is on his feet. I can’t even speak. My arms drop. I can only stare dumbly at Reena as she slowly calms Jace down.

  “Uncle Colton’s going to want to talk to you soon,” Jason declares.

  From his tone I’m guessing that’s addressed to me. Then it occurs to me. What uncle? Logan’s dad is dead. As I turn to the door to ask, Jason’s already out. I call after him to wait, but he doesn’t come back.

  Wanting answers, I face Reena and the boys again. A sense of déjà vu washes over me when I see that she’s the one with tears falling down her cheeks now. It finally clicks. The bruise forming on her arm is the first one I notice. Then I also see another one on her face, fading into a yellowish color. How did I miss this? Better yet, how did Logan miss this? He’s known Jason his whole life, and Reena for over seven years.

  “How long?” I ask.

  Reena doesn’t even look at me, she just continues to stroke Jace’s hair, who is now falling back to sleep. “How long what?”

  “How long has he been hitting you?” I specify.

  It takes
her a moment to answer, and when she does, it’s short and clipped. “Two years.”

  Sh*t. “Why?”

  She shrugs. “Because I don’t listen.”

  I wince at the mechanical answer she must have memorized from his abuse. Although I still don’t like Reena, I can’t help but pity her now. I hate her for what she’s done to me, and I haven’t suddenly stopped wanting to get back at her somehow. However, I’m justified in wanting to hurt her, even if I never actually physically would. But Jason has no excuse. Although I know it’s tragic and unfair, I’ve never known anyone who has an abusive home, so I don’t really know what to say. I feel awkward and sad at the same time.

  I opt for changing the subject. “Who’s Colton?”

  “He’s an uncle I didn’t know about until Uncle Cameron died,” she tells me.

  “Why don’t I know about him?”

  With Jace asleep, Reena slowly takes her arms away from him and stands up. She doesn’t leave, though. She just stands out of my reach. Feeling the drugs still in effect, I lazily crawl back and sit next to Paul and Jace, leaning my back against the wall.

  “He came to Uncle Cameron’s funeral,” she continues in a low voice. “My dad knows him, but he doesn’t know the whole story of why he left the pack. Colton was originally arranged to marry Lauren, Logan’s mom. But she and Cameron fell in love. Colton was always envious of his brother, and he felt betrayed by him, so he left. Or at least that’s the story my dad and Logan knew, which he asked them not to tell anyone.”

  I’m almost afraid to ask. “And what’s the real story?”

  Reena looks down, holding her hands behind her back. “He was kicked out.”

  Confused, I frown. “Why?”

  “He wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  “That’s it?”

  She meets my eyes levelly. “When you meet him, you’ll understand.”

  I don’t know what to say to that, so I ask the other thing I’m dying to know. “He’s the one kidnapping the boys, isn’t he?”

  Her silence is confirmation enough.

  “But why?” I need to know.

  It’s easy to spot the signs of exhaustion and fear on her face when she sighs. “He’s looking for someone.”

  “Who?” I press.

  This feels a bit weird. I don’t even know why she’s telling me so much, or why I keep on asking her. But I have a strange feeling that the more I know about this new uncle, the bigger chance there is of something popping up that would help me find my way back to Logan.

  Reena shrugs. “I don’t know her.”

  Her? My eyes widen. “A girl? Is… is she a… a werewolf?” Now I’m really starting to get afraid.

  “Yeah,” Reena hesitantly confirms.

  Every single curse I know comes to mind in a string of words. I was right; it is about another female werewolf. But then… I look at Paul and Jace. The latter is still sleeping, so I’ll take Logan’s word for it. But the older boy staring back at me is obviously a boy. To someone who knows what to look for, it would have been easy to tell if he was a girl, but he’s not.

  “What about them?” I ask Reena.

  “He thinks we were hiding her,” Paul answers.

  My eyes widen. “As in hiding her from him?”

  Paul nods at the same time that Reena replies. “Uncle Cameron helped hide her, but he moved her around so much that uncle Colton always got to the families after she was long gone.”

  “My parents took care of her for two months before they had me,” Paul tells me. “Then I was born, and she left.”

  So this is why Logan’s father had that list of families. But it doesn’t explain why he had to hide the girl in the first place, and from his own brother, nor does it offer a reason as to why Colton took the youngest in the families. I do have a theory about everything, though, and I’m afraid to have it confirmed. But I need to know, if not for me, then for Logan.

  “Why did he kidnap the youngest in the families?” I dare ask.

  Reena throws a hesitant look at Paul, but he stares back at her boldly, defying her apparent idea that he’s too young to hear this. “Uncle Cameron never said who the girl was to any of the families, and I don’t think any of them knew she was a shewolf. He just asked them to trust him and help him take care of her for a while. Some of the families heard Colton’s side of the story when he would come looking for her, and they told him everything they knew. Others were loyal to Cameron and wouldn’t cooperate… He didn’t like that. Sometimes, he would just take their youngest kid until they talked, or keep him if they didn’t, like with Paul, but… other times…”

  Grimacing, I shake my head for her to stop. My eyes drift down to the sleeping toddler. I got it loud and clear. “Are there others here?” I ask, my voice cracking.

  “Three,” she tells me sadly. “Two are teenagers and now willingly work for him.”

  I look up at her, sensing something off. “And the third?”

  She chews on her lower lip, trying to hold back from crying again. “He’s three months old,” she shakily reveals. “His family was trying to run away when he caught them a few weeks ago. I’ve been taking care of him. That’s why I’m here.”

  I vaguely remember a while ago Cade giving a report to Logan about a family off the list that moved without telling them. What was their name?

  “Carson?” I guess.

  Reena nods. “Emmett Carson.”

  This is so twisted. How can anyone kidnap a three-month-old baby without remorse like that? How can anyone have the heart to do any of the things Colton’s done?

  And let’s not forget, there’s still one mystery left unsolved which I absolutely need an answer to.

  “What about me?” I ask, already knowing I’m dreading the answer. “Why am I here?”

  “For more than one reason, I think,” Reena admits. “First, because in a twisted way, Colton sees it as getting back at Cameron, by taking away his future daughter-in-law.”

  “But it’s more than that,” I guess.

  Reena grimaces. “Yeah. I know you hate me, and you have every right to be. But you should know that I never wanted to do anything to hurt you or Logan. When we met uncle Colton, it didn’t take him long to get Jason on board with his ideal ‘pure’ pack. They both share the same trait, a need to control those around them. Colton always wanted to surpass Cameron in everything, including pack size and strength. He wanted a mate who is a werewolf. I think that’s why he wanted that girl at first, because he thought she was the only one.

  “But then when we came back, he remembered hearing about another female werewolf by the name of Connolly in the area. It was so long ago that he wasn’t sure if it was true.” She looks at me meaningfully. “Jason saw you shifting once,” she reveals, to which I gasp in shock, “when we all had that camp, and he suspected that it was you. Colton was getting impatient, so he got Jason to convince me at any cost to get the truth out of you. I didn’t know the whole story until you said you’re a girl, I swear. I was just supposed to… I mean Jason wanted me to seduce you. I didn’t want to, but when I said no…” she trails off, leaving me to deduce the rest on my own.

  “It all clicked after you told everyone the truth,” she adds. “I couldn’t stay there and let all of this happen. So I ran away and came here, to Uncle Colton’s. I was hoping to convince him to leave you alone, but he wouldn’t listen. Thinking back on it now, I don’t know why I thought he would listen to me; it’s not like we’re close family. He wouldn’t even let me leave. That’s around the time he took Emmett.”

  This is super weird, I muse. A heart-to-heart with Reena. Who would have thought?

  I’m not sure how much of her story I believe, perhaps just enough to know for certain that she was forced into trying to ruin me. I remember the day of the camp, having the suspicion that someone was watching. I should have realized.

  The day she kissed me and caused the biggest fight yet between Logan and me, she was crying. I should have
wondered about that back then. She still might be a b*tch at heart, and I still don’t like her, but I understand her motives now, and I hate her just a little bit less. However, she hasn’t told me what I want to know.

  “That’s all great, but you still haven’t answered my question,” I point out. “Why am I here?”

  Reena gives me a look. “You know why.”

  I know, but I’m still hoping you would give me another –

  My thoughts are cut short when someone steps in through the door, and says in a really eerie and creepy voice, “It’s really simple. You’ll be eighteen soon, and when you are, you’re going to be my mate.”

  Part 3

  Colton

  CHAPTER 26

  Dylan

  My first thought is Ew. And then, Ew ew ew ew ew! He cannot be serious!

  From the looks of him, this Colton guy is at least forty. That’s about twice as old as I can accept from a guy trying to get in my pants. He doesn’t look the least bit like Logan. He’s got pitch black hair, for one, and eyes just as dark. His skin tone is more tanned, and he’s got a much bigger muscle size. His facial features are more angular in a rough way. He looks dangerous and intimidating. Not my type at all.

  “I already have a mate,” I protest.

  Colton’s laugh at that moment is low and descending even more in tone with each sound. It’s sardonic, and kind of creepy at the same time. “You and my nephew may be true mates, but as long as you haven’t solidified your connection, anyone can step in and claim you.”

  The way he says it causes my heart to jolt once in fear. “Claim me?!” I repeat incredulously. “I’m not an object!”

  He smirks. “Oh, I wasn’t implying you were,” he replies tauntingly. “But see, as long as your connection to Logan hasn’t been strengthened, anyone can take you as mate, and you will give children of both sexes to whoever does.”