Chapter 0290

Athena

Brianna guided a sobbing woman into the office. The redhead clutched her chest, gasping for air as wide-eyed Brianna settled her into a chair.

"He can't hurt you now." Brianna reassured her.

The gunshot finally made sense. Lucas had killed another person. Someone he considered unworthy to even approach me. The mark on this woman's neck suggested the victim was her mate.

"I'm sorry." I murmured, knowing no words could ease the pain of losing one's mate. She must be in absolute agony.

"He's really dead?" She choked out between tears.

"Yes." Brianna gave her a gentle smile.

"Good!" The woman looked immensely relieved by the confirmation. Now I felt even more confused. "That bastard marked me when I received your link."

"You weren't his mate?" I asked as more questions flooded my mind.

'It's a trap.' Nyx muttered.

'You think everything is a trap.' I snapped back.

"No." The redhead mumbled. "I was sold to him."

Now I understood why Lucas had shot him. "You were sold?"

She lowered her gaze, her long red hair cascading over her face. "It's not the first time."

"You've been sold more than once?" Brianna muttered with clear disgust.

The woman nodded. "When I received your link, I saw an opportunity. I told him I had to come. That you had sent an order."

"He was a Wolf." Brianna added, explaining why the man hadn't heard my link.

"It was the only thing I could think of. But he marked me. Said he needed to keep tabs on me." She traced the mark on her neck with her fingers.

"Why didn't you just shift and kill him, Hannah?" Brianna pressed.

The woman's brows furrowed and she pressed her lips into a thin line. "I can't shift."

'Lies!' Nyx snapped.

"You can't?" I asked while trying to ignore my Lycan. I was beginning to feel something was seriously wrong with Nyx. Her moods swung wildly. She made me question myself constantly. She always tried to make me see the worst in everything. Sometimes it felt like I wasn't just fighting the darkness but her too.

Especially when she started hating my idea of linking everyone. Something she initially supported but suddenly changed her mind about.

Hannah shook her head and fidgeted with her waist-length hair. "I knew you would ask me that. I don't know the answer."

"Were you bound?" Her tears had finally stopped.

"No, I was just their plaything. I can do everything else. I heal fast, I'm quick. I have excellent smell and hearing. Obviously you can link me. I've just never been able to shift. I can prove the other things if you want. Do you have a knife?"

'Bullshit. She has to have been bound.' Nyx growled.

"You said you've been sold multiple times. Did any of them drug you?" I pressed.

She shook her head. "They didn't need to."

"What do you mean?"

"A long time ago, I learned that if I just did what they asked, they wouldn't hurt me."

I couldn't follow her logic at all. They bought her but didn't hurt her? Dominic, Victoria had found excuses to hit me for any reason, even when I complied.

"You had sex with them?" Brianna interrupted my thoughts. She looked horrified by the idea.

Hannah nodded. "It might sound crazy to you. But as long as I did that, they didn't hurt me. None of them did until...."

"Until Nathan?" Brianna asked.

Hannah's eyes dropped to the floor again. She had figured out how to survive. It sounded strangely like she had accepted what happened to her.

"How old were you when you were first sold?"

"A week short of fourteen. They gave me a year thinking maybe my ability to shift was late. When it didn't come...." She shrugged. "Your parents sold you?" Brianna frowned.

"Yep." She was surprisingly open with information. Not what I expected from someone who had endured that. It had taken me forever to share anything with Alexander. "I wasn't worthy of being their child."

She stood up and tossed her red hair over her shoulder. "Thank you for getting me out of that situation. You have no idea how much it means to me."

"More than you will ever realize." I muttered.

She gave me a smile while Nyx muttered something about reminding Hannah whose presence she was in.

"Can I ask why you wanted us to come here?"

"Have you heard of a Lycan called Seraphina?" Brianna asked.

She shook her head. "Not a name I know. But then I've spent the last ten years mostly around men."

"How did you know where Obsidian Howl was?" I asked. We weren't the easiest pack to find, especially for outsiders. "Nathan said he knew the Alpha here."

Brianna stood behind Hannah and shook her head at me. 'Alexander didn't act like he knew him' She linked me.