The dimly lit cave is illuminated only by torches hanging on the walls, but I don't exactly need them to see where I'm going. We walk by different cells with iron bars holding frail and weak looking werewolves that had broken the law somehow. Some cells are empty, but I don't think much about them as my focus is on something else. I make my way knowing exactly where to go, sniffing my prey from afar even with the metallic stench of blood coming from the cells.

Curious eyes watch us from their cells as we walk past them, going deeper. I think I might recognize some of the prisoners as the rogues captured yesterday, and I’m proven right when I see Gina among them, sitting on the floor and hugging herself as she whimpers out in fright.

And at the end of it all the person I hate most is being held. She looks pathetic, curled in a ball at the end of her cell with her dirty black hair falling around her face. The sound of our footsteps makes her raise her head up slowly for us to see her bloody face covered in dirt. Just one night in here, and she looks like shit.

She's still dressed as she had been in the warehouse yesterday, but now, there's dried blood adorning her clothes along with the side of her face that I had smashed into the floor. Her eyes burn with hatred as they land on me, and she slowly stands to her feet while we stop in front of her cell. The iron bars connected from the top to the cemented floor separates us as she also walks over to us. They're made of strong metal and laced with wolf's bane. Though wolf's bane isn't so lethal to Lycans, the bars are strong enough to hold her. Even if she managed to break through them, there are a lot of Lycans and werewolves outside, ready to stop and lock her back up.

I keep my expression cool even though I'm seething in anger and slightly satisfied because of her pathetic state. But I still preferred her six feet under for all she had done to me.

Her hands come up to clamp around the bars as her expression changes and her eyes soften. They turn watery as she turns to Reagan and pushes her bottom lip out in a pout.

"Tell me this is a joke, Reggie." I try to suppress the growl from emitting from my chest as the name I hate so much comes out of her lips.

"Why am I being locked in here. I didn't do anything wrong." I turn to see that Reagan's expression hasn't changed one bit with his head c****d to the, as he studies her with a blank expression. Yeah, she isn't going to fool him or anyone here.

Her eyes turn hard as she turns back to me, and the hatred shows forth. "If anything, she should be the one in here. You saw her try to kill me, didn't you?" She briefly glances at Reagan, but he still isn't budging. Her bottom lip trembles when she sees she's failing, and she turns back to Lexi at my other side.

"Lexi. Tell me you don't believe what they're saying about me. You know I'm not like that. I would never do anything to harm Reggie or his mate. I..."

"But you did." Lexi cuts her off with a cold voice that sends chills around the room. She walks closer to the bars until she's only just a few feet from Janet, with her angry eyes sending daggers her way. Janet even flinches back a little from the cold glare, but her hands remain on the bars.

"We trusted you and accepted you into our home...our lives, Janet. You know how difficult it is for us to make friends other than our family, but we accepted you. And this is how you repay us?" Lexi might try to sound composed, but I could hear the hurt in her tone. She had really trusted Janet and had even defended her to me some times, asking me to also accept her.

I hear Reagan sigh beside me, "Lexi. Why don't you go wait in the other cell along with Bella.” He suggests, and with one last glare at Janet, she walks away towards another cell, having a large iron door this time, before disappearing behind it.

I turn my attention back to Janet, who has a crestfallen look on her face as she looks down. "Sad, isn't it?" I taunt for her to look back up at me. "You didn't seem this guilty when you were thinking about selling me, or even killing me just to separate me from my mate." She ignores me and turns to Reagan with her eyes turning back to their innocent facade.

"Reggie, don't believe anything she says..."

"You found out weeks ago about the rogues' hideout, and instead of contacting me, you teamed up with them just to get rid of my mate." Reagan's voice turns chilly at the end, enough for Janet to know she's screwed. With her jaw set in determination, she straightens her posture and meets his glare.

"Since you've lost all faith in me, I would prefer to continue this conversation with the council and prove my innocence. Maybe then you'll see your mistake in trusting her instead of me." She briefly glances at me with spite before looking back at Reagan. She really is a good actress seeing as she isn't ready to give up even though she was caught red-handed.

"Oh, Janet." Reagan sighs with a displeased tone as he tuts at her. "Don't you know we have witnesses, among the rogues we captured, that are ready to throw you under the bus if it would help reduce their sentences?" Her face begins to fall slightly, but she quickly composes herself. "And let's not forget about other crimes you've committed. As we speak, Danny is in Canada, reporting to the council not just about your involvement in the illegal trade of she-wolves and plotting against a Princess, but also about the human you brutally murdered in the forest in the middle of the night out of jealousy. Werewolf hunters have been notified about your heinous crime to that poor girl. You should pray the extremist among them don't take laws into their hands and attempt to kill you before you even make it to the council. So you see, you can't weave your way out of this one, Janet."

By now, Janet's eyes had widened into saucers as she takes in Reagan's words with all the color draining from her face. She looks like a ghost with her dark hair falling over her pale and horrified face. Call me a sadist, but I'm enjoying this.

She frantically shakes her head, "No. I didn't partake in the trade of she-wolves. I didn't do any of those things!"

"I hope you have a stronger defense to use in front of the council. Even your father won't be able to save you." Reagan says before turning towards me. "Come. Let's go." He tilts his head towards the cell with the large iron door.

"I'll catch up with you." I turn towards a shock-stricken Janet. "I've still got something to take care of." Although reluctant to leave me alone with her, he sighs and walks over to the other cell, also disappearing through it.

"You must feel really smug right now, don't you?" Janet hisses from her cell, her grip on the iron bars tightening, with her knuckles turning white. I smirk at her, walking closer until only a few feet were left between us.

I sniff the air, "Smell that?" I ask, leaning down but she doesn't play my games with me. "Apart from the scent of victory, there's something more interesting in the air." I use my hands to shift my hair away from one side of my neck, leaving the other side bare as my smirk widens.

Janet seems confused for a while before realization slowly dawns on her face. She sniffs the air a bit, and her face falls with her eyes turning watery. Even though my mark isn't showing, I know she understands the meaning behind my words when I show her my neck. Reagan's scent will forever be mixed with mine, so she can smell him off me.

"So, yes. I do feel smug." I watch as her eyes dart around the room with her lips trembling while she shakes her head in denial.

"No. He loves me." She keeps repeating, making my chest begin to burn as I feel my beast's anger at her words.

"No, he doesn't." I snarl at her, and her eyes snap up then to glare at me with nothing but pure hatred. "Tell me Janet, has he ever said those words to you?" I get my answer when she remains quiet but keeps on glaring at me.

I let out a chuckle out of both relief and amusement at her naivety. "If you had just been a bit more observant and stopped throwing yourself at him, you would have realized that he never wanted you. He probably saw right through you from the start."

Her hand darts out then towards me, but I'm fast enough to hold onto her wrist before she touches my face. Her claws are already out, and if I had been a second too late, she would have clawed my eyeballs out.

Not wasting time, I twist her wrist, eliciting a crude snap and a gasp followed by a howl of pain from her. I let go of her and watch her clutch her hand toward her chest. Tears fall from her eyes as she inspects her broken wrist, careful not to touch it.

"If the council doesn't sentence you to death, I'll find you myself and do the job they are supposed to", I vow before turning around to walk towards the door where my mate and Lexi had gone through. It seems to be soundproof as I can't hear a single sound from the other side.

I hear the rattling of the iron bars behind me, with Janet shrieking at the top of her lungs.

"No, I'll kill you! You hear me, slut?! I'll tear out your lungs right where your mark is before slowly gouging your eyeballs out. Then I'll rip your limbs out one by one, and your screams will be music to my ears. Come back here, bitch!" Damn, she really was psychotic.

I ignore both her and the urge to go back and give her merciless death. She deserves to face trial first before her punishment is handed down to her.

I push through the iron door and cautiously walk in before closing it behind me. In the middle of the room is Gina's dad, bound by his wrists to a wooden chair, and the rope seems to be laced with wolf's bane as the skin is bruised with bright red marks adorning his wrist. Beads of sweat glisten on his body, and his hair also seems wet with it sticking to his face. His face looks exhausted, with his eyes droopy even as he tries to remain awake. The stench of burning flesh fills the room along with the metallic smell of blood.

Opposite him sits the lady from yesterday with the emerald eyes, sitting on a chair while she repeatedly questions him. And when he seems reluctant to answer, Alpha Benson walks out from the shadows with gloves on to tighten the bonds on his hand, causing him to grunt out loud. The ropes laced with wolf's bane dig into his skin, making a sizzling sound like they were burning and dripping blood. I hadn't even realized Alpha Benson was here before.

Reagan is leisurely leaning on the walls at one corner but saunters over to me when he notices I walked in. Lexi and an unfamiliar-looking Lycan are the remaining ones in the room, also watching the scene of Gina's father being tortured until he speaks up.

Reagan wraps his arms around me, pulling me into his side as we both watch the emerald-eyed lady interrogate her prisoner.

"Isn't he talking?" I whisper the question to Reagan beside me.

"He has been talking for a while now, but he just isn't so eager all the time." He explains with a sigh.

"Tell me everything."