Charlotte figured she was now in their new headquarters and lab.
Fear once again tried to crawl up her spine, but she ignored it. Montag and his goons surrounding her needed her full attention, and her worries had no place here.
Montag reached out and gripped her face in his hand, pinching her cheeks and chin. If she hadn’t already been dazed, strapped down to a metal table, and bleeding from the bomb that had sent shrapnel into her skin, she could have fought him off.
But because she wasn’t at her full strength, he could try to intimidate her and do whatever he wanted.
She’d be damned if she let him for long, though.
“I know exactly who you are, Charlotte Jamenson. But you used to be Charlotte Reyes, isn’t that right? The daughter of the former Central Pack Alpha. He kept you chained in his basement, didn’t he? Or was that your brother, the man who took over after your father met with an…unfortunate accident.”
He nodded over her head at another person, who came into view. The man in black held out a metal cuff too large for a wrist or ankle.
She knew exactly what that was for.
They were going to make her relive what she’d endured as a child, and perhaps even more. Charlotte stiffened, then cursed herself for letting this man see anything about what she was feeling. She’d known some of the government knew about each of the Packs and had kept it secret. But she hadn’t really thought this one man would know so much about her past.
And if he knew about her past, then he knew her weaknesses.
And for a man who had her in his clutches, that would be exactly what he needed to break her.
I won’t break.
I am strong. I am Charlotte Jamenson. I am mated to Bram and Shane. I am Pack. I am loved. I am me.
I will not break.
“You’re also the daughter of Maddox Jamenson, isn’t that right?” Montag slid his finger down her cheek, and bile rose in her throat.
“Fuck you,” she spat.
His grip tightened. “That’s not the kind of experiments we do here. Fortunately for you. And I think you would do well to remember who came before you. Isn’t that right? Maddox has a scar right on his cheek, one that never healed because of some magic or whatever you wolves call it. Well, we don’t have magic, but I have something special that will make sure you never heal.” He studied her face, his own impassive. “That is, if you live long enough for it to scar.”
She wouldn’t let them kill her, wouldn’t let them take everything she had.
Shane and Bram would come for her.
Her family would come for her.
And damn it, she would save herself, as well.
She thrashed under the straps, putting all her weight and strength into the struggle, trying to break free. The others in the room might have weapons, but she was a weapon. Even weak, if she were fast enough—and damn it, she was always fast—she’d be able to take them out even if they hurt her in the process.
She just needed to get out of the prison they held her in.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, her wolf in her voice. “Do you get off on cutting up women who can’t fight back?”
Montag looked like he wanted to hit her but held himself back. Instead, he released her and wiped his hand over her clothes as if he couldn’t stand the scent of her on his skin. Good, because she wanted nothing to do with him.
“I want the man you call your mate.”
His gaze locked with hers when her eyes widened. “Yes, I know much more than you think. I saw the way you leaned into him and that other man on the feed when you blew up my compound. You think I’d have left it without someone watching it beyond those guards you took out? You aren’t as smart as you think you are. I want Shane back, and now that I have you, he’ll come right to me. I would have preferred not to have to bother with you, but the man refused to leave the den. He didn’t even budge when we tested the wards.”
He had to be talking about the bomb they’d dropped right on top of the den that the wards had barely been able to hold back. But even as her mind worked through that, she could only think of one thing.
Shane.
Montag wanted Shane.
Of course, the man wanted Shane. Her mate was the only thing left of Montag’s experiments. At least, that was what they had thought before, and from the manic way the former General was acting now, she had a feeling the Packs had been right. Montag needed Shane’s blood to continue his experiments.
Only the other man didn’t know the serum hadn’t worked. It had only brought Shane closer to what he could have been if he’d been bitten. The whole process had almost killed him multiple times, and the ramifications of a man-made serum being introduced into the Pack bonds weren’t even known yet. This human, this Montag, had forever changed the Packs, yet he didn’t even know it.
She wouldn’t be telling him, though. Giving him that much information would be deadly.