Chapter 162

Chapter 0162

One month ago

Five months. Five months I’d been searching for Eli Gunnar and I finally have him cornered. He’s wily, I’ll give him that, but he won’t get away from me this

time.

I’m sitting outside a seedy hotel off of Interstate–10 in fucking No Where’s Ville Texas. I’m ready to snag this asshole and finally get him back home. We have the place surrounded. We’ve laid eyes on him and we’ve made up a story to the 15 year old human idiot running the front desk about us being US Marshalls and this guy being on the run. Whatever. That’s just so the cops aren’t called giving him a chance to sneak away like he did the last time.

As I watch, he comes out his door, looking around before closing it behind him. He has his bag over his shoulder. Looks like he’s about to move again. We caught up to him just in time.

My guys move in and surround him. He throws his bag to the ground and prepares to fight, but they shoot several darts of wolfsbane and it only takes a minute for him to drop. I get out of the car and walk over to him. He’s still conscious when I grab his hair pulling his face up to mine. “Got you, you sack of shit. Now you will pay for what you have done.”

I’ve had Eli in my dungeons for nearly a month. For the first week, I didn’t even ask him anything, just used him as a punching bag. I have so much pent–up

anger

and frustration and he’s the perfect asshole to take it out on. All of my rage of being alone most of my life, my frustration at losing Cara, my annoyance at having to choose a Luna that I don’t feel is worthy of the title because I can’t find my fated me, all of that comes out when I walk into that dungeon room.

It’s surprising, really, that I haven’t killed him yet. The man can take a beating, that’s for sure. I’ve started to wonder if he has some alpha blood in him. I’m not sure my own Beta could have lasted this long.

I wipe his blood from my hands and turn to him. “Why did you do it?”

It’s the same question I’ve asked him every day for the past three weeks. Why did he kill my mother?

His answer is always the same. “I didn’t kill her.”

I look at him, his arms are restrained by silver cuffs over his head to a bolt in the

ceiling. He is hanging, his feet dragging on the ground, unable to hold himself up.

“Wrong answer. You were found holding her dead and bloodied body. Why did you do it?”

He lifts his head, one eye completely swollen shut, the other barely a slit. “I didn’t do it. i told you, I didn’t do it.”

“Right, because you’re such a stand–up guy. Is that why you tried to force Cara Nelson into a mate bond? Because you’re such a great person?”

“What I did to Cara was wrong and I admit that. She didn’t deserve what I did to her and I will pay my penance for that, but I didn’t kill your mother.”

I punch him in the gut. “Kind of hard to deny what you did to Cara. You were a little too obvious about that one. But you were found with my mother’s body in your arms. Her dead body.” I grab his hair, pulling his head up so he has to look at me. “So just admit it. After all this time, aren’t you tired of denying what you did? Just admit it and I can end this torture. I’ll give you a quick death. Continue to deny it, and this,” I gesture around the room, “will continue.”

He looks at me, spitting blood at my feet. “I. Did. Not. Do. It.” He enunciates each word.

“Fine. Have it your way.” I lay into him for another 20 minutes before he’s unconscious.

“Unhook him, give him enough food and water to keep him alive.” I tell the guards watching him. “Contact me if anything changes.”

I head upstairs. The dungeons are in the basement under the packhouse. They have reinforced walls and ceilings so that anything that happens down here cannot be heard outside these walls. Werewolves are violent by nature, but that doesn’t mean that pups and pregnant mothers need to hear me beating the shit

out of someone.

When I get to the top of the stairs, I find Dustin waiting for me. “What’s up?” I ask.

He looks me over before turning. “I’ll walk with you to your room, looks like you could use a shower.” I look down at myself. I’m covered in blood. I hadn’t even realized it. I quickly look up to see that there is no one in the part of the

packhouse. I would need to be more careful.