Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Chapter 68

Aria’s POV

Darkness.

Complete and absolute darkness.

The bag over my head smelled like dust and something chemical. It scratched against my face with every desperate breath I took.

My groceries were gone. Scattered on the sidewalk somewhere. Forgotten.

Hands grabbed my arms. Rough. Brutal. They yanked me backward so hard my shoulders screamed in protest.

"No!" The word came out muffled against the fabric. "Please! Let me go!"

No one answered.

I kicked. Thrashed. Tried to bite through the thick material covering my mouth.

Useless.

They were too strong. Too many of them.

I felt myself being lifted. Thrown into something hard. Metal. A vehicle?

The engine roared to life.

We were moving.

"Please!" I screamed again. My voice was raw. Desperate. "Whatever you want—I’ll give it to you! Just let me go!"

Silence.

Nothing but the rumble of the engine and the pounding of my own heart.

How long did we drive? Minutes? Hours? I lost all sense of time.

The bag stayed on. My wrists were bound. The plastic ties bit into my skin every time I moved.

*Aria.* Artemis’s voice was weak in my mind. Frightened. *I can’t... I can’t sense anything. There’s something blocking me.*

Wolfsbane.

They’d used wolfsbane somehow. I could smell traces of it now. Faint but unmistakable.

Whatever they’d planned, they’d planned it well.

The vehicle finally stopped.

Doors opened. Cold air rushed in.

Hands grabbed me again. Dragged me out. My feet scraped against gravel. Then concrete.

"Walk."

A single command. Male voice. Deep and unfamiliar.

I stumbled forward. Couldn’t see where I was going. Couldn’t do anything except put one foot in front of the other and pray I didn’t fall.

A door creaked open. The air changed. Colder. Damper. Underground, maybe?

More walking. Down stairs. Each step was terrifying. I kept expecting to miss one. To tumble into nothing.

Finally, we stopped.

"Sit."

I was shoved down onto something hard. A chair? A bench? I couldn’t tell.

My hands were still bound behind my back. The bag still covered my head. Everything was dark and suffocating and wrong.

"Please." My voice cracked. "Please, I don’t know what you want. I don’t have anything. I’m nobody. Just let me go."

Footsteps retreated.

A door slammed.

Lock clicked.

And then silence.

Complete, terrible silence.

---

I don’t know how long I sat there.

Time lost all meaning in the darkness. Minutes felt like hours. Hours might have been minutes.

I tried everything.

Screaming until my throat was raw. Pulling at my bindings until blood ran down my wrists. Calling for Artemis, for anyone, for anything.

Nothing worked.

The wolfsbane in the air kept my wolf suppressed. Weak. Useless.

I was completely alone.

"Hello?" My voice echoed off unseen walls. "Is anyone there? Please! I need help!"

No response.

"I’m pregnant!" The words tumbled out before I could stop them. Desperate. Pathetic. "Please! I’m pregnant! Whatever you want, I’ll do it! Just don’t hurt my baby!"

Still nothing.

My head dropped forward. The bag was damp now. Soaked with tears and sweat.

Who had taken me? Why?

Was it Finn? Had he finally snapped? Decided that if he couldn’t have me, no one could?

Or was it... someone else?

My mind raced through possibilities. Each one more terrifying than the last.

Magnus Blood Crown. Had he somehow found out about the baby? Had he sent people to eliminate the evidence of his son’s mistake?

The thought made my blood run cold.

No. No, that was impossible. Only Cassius knew. And I trusted Cassius.

Didn’t I?

Doubt crept in. Poisonous. Relentless.

What did I really know about him? He’d appeared in my life so conveniently. Always there when I needed help. Always willing to sacrifice for me.

What if it had all been an act? What if he’d been working for someone else the whole time?

Stop it, I told myself. Stop it. Paranoia won’t help you.

But the thoughts wouldn’t stop.

I’d trusted Finn too. Look where that got me.

I’d trusted Kael. Look where that got me.

Every man I’d ever relied on had betrayed me in the end. Why would Cassius be any different?

"No." I said the word out loud. Firm. Defiant. "No. I won’t do this. I won’t fall apart."

But falling apart was exactly what I wanted to do.

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