Hannah POV
Someone is repeating my name again and again and again.
My head feels heavy, and so does the rest of my body. It's as if a ton of bricks were lying on me, and I have problems with moving. I have absolutely no energy in me, even to open my eyes. For a moment, I try to figure out where I am, what has just happened, why my head is so painful, and why I'm lying on something cold.
The celebration, Gideon's panic, Hank being poisoned, and afterward screams from the garden, and then someone hit me in the head. The realization of the recent events comes to me, and that's what makes me open my eyes despite the terrible pain I'm still in.
"Hannah! Oh, my Goddess, Hannah!" Hayden keeps saying.
So he was the one who has been calling me all this time.
I sit slowly and slowly look around. We are in some kind of basement, at least that's how it looks like, judging from the dusty floor, no windows, and quite frowst air inside.
Hayden is chained to the wall with the silver; of course, I see burns on his wrists. He looks quite rough. There are many bruises and blood all over him. His wolf probably has problems with healing him because of the silver chains.
"Hannah, are you alright?" He keeps asking.
"My head is killing me, but I think that's it. Do you know what happened?" I ask him, letting my back rest on the cold wall.
When someone left me in here, he was considerate enough to put a blanket on me, and I'm using it to wrap myself because I feel cold.
"After we separated, Becca mindlinked me, saying she noticed Gideon talking with someone suspicious in the woods. But I was attacked when I was headed in that direction. I put up a fight, but they managed to drag me into the car."
"It's impossible. Gideon was in the packhouse with me. Something happened to Hank from the Full Moon Pack. Gideon said that he was poisoned and told me to lock myself in my room," I say; the realization hits me. "They must have waited for you, and Becca was in charge of the pack's security today; she was with us when we were attacked in the woods, and she was talking alone with Connie at the party."
"Hannah, there's no way Becca or anyone could communicate with the rogues; there's no mind link established between them," Hayden says.
That's when the door to our prison gets opened, and I'm not surprised when I see Becca entering, but I'm also not surprised when I see Connie right behind her.
"Hello, dear Hayden and Hannah," Connie says, smiling at me.
"I failed to realize that I didn't hear your car after you had left me in the packhouse's corridor," I say "you were waiting for me because you knew what would happen to Hank. You were the one who poisoned him."
"I didn't poison him; I poisoned everybody from my pack's delegation to your party, except my parents, of course," she says.
Hayden growls but doesn't struggle. There's no point in it, he is helpless against the chains, and I am helpless against two werewolves standing in front of me, especially against Becca, who is a Head Warrior, after all.
"What did you poison Hank with?" I ask.
"With Red Venom"
Hayden takes a breath sharply and looks at Connie as if she was crazy.
"Have you lost your mind! Using the Red Venom is the death penalty for the one who uses it and mandatory disbandment of his whole pack!" he screams.
"Well, once the Council will come here to clean all this mess, I will sadly report that my father was the one who did it, of course, if he is still alive till then. And I don't care about disbanding Full Moon; I care about something else much more," she says.
" The security was too tight today, and we both needed to make sure that Mikkeli would be distracted enough to let us take his precious mate away along with his brother. Using Red Venom was a little extreme, I agree. After all, it is the poison strictly forbidden in the werewolf's world," says Becca. "In short, if you gave the right dose to anybody, they will get feral after a couple of hours or minutes, depending on the dose, and attack everybody and anything within their reach. It's a poison impossible to be detected; that's why the Council is so strict with the punishment for using it. Immediate death for everybody who purchased it, and disbanding of his whole pack. The only way to survive taking Red Venom into your system is to restrain your wolf and make it impossible to shift, which of course, is almost impossible because your wolf is getting feral so there is no proper control over them."
"And because my dear pack members went feral in the middle of the party, I'm sure the chaos was so big that no one noticed what we have done," Connie continues." Mikkeli is probably now going crazy knowing that his Luna and his brother are gone. Maybe he even killed your pack doctor because right before the transformation, Becca mindlinked Tony, saying that she had seen him with someone in the woods. And at the same time, the group of rogues attacked your border. Of course, they lost, but we had clear passage with our precious cargo from all the patrols."
"Was this your plan from the beginning? To take Hayden and me and...?"
"No, not from the beginning," Becca interrupts me. "At the beginning, we were planning to use the twins, not you, Hannah. But our plan didn't go as smoothly as we hoped it would, and we had to modify it."
"And that plan was what? Why did you do it, Becca?" Hayden says through gritted teeth.
She looks at Hayden, and I see her face changing; gone is a strong and kind warrior; I see only hatred and fury.
"To finally get rid of you and Mikkeli and take what is mine, the Blackwood Pack, which is mine through my birthright, dear brother. Do you think you were our father's firstborn? No, I was! I am his firstborn child!"
I don't know what I should think about it, and I don't know how I should feel about it. I look at Hayden, seeing him as surprised as I am; the pure shock is on his face as if he has never had even the slightest thought about something like that.
I take a sharp breath. I need to get more time and probably get the answers to all the questions I have.
"Explain to me," I say "tell me why you had to pull my family into this?"
To my surprise, Becca looks at me sadly, but I see no hesitation in her eyes. There's no way she would change her mind. She made the decision, and she will never step away from it.
"In the beginning, my dear biological father got my mother the same offer as Hayden's mother, the male heir, in exchange for the Luna title. But she had me, a daughter; my wolf is strong, but I was a girl, and he would've never accepted the girl ruling his precious pack. When my mother was pregnant with me, she fought to protect this place from the rogues. She was wounded with the wolfsbane, which caused my premature birth, and she lost the ability to produce again, so Alpha abandoned her because she couldn't have any longer given him any male children. He gave her some money, and that was it. Well, she didn't care too much because soon after that, she found her mate, and he accepted both her and me, he raised me as his own daughter, and we were happy until..."
For a moment, there is silence before she continues, but I clearly see, glancing at Hayden, that he knows what she went through.
"It didn't have to come to that if Alpha hadn't taken my parents away from me. His pride, and his lack of skills to protect our territory, got my mother killed when I was 10, and my stepfather became disabled. And you know, Hayden, how families of those who couldn't any longer contribute to the strength of his pack were living under the rule of our father. We barely managed to survive because my stepfather was suddenly useless. It didn't matter that he was wounded while protecting and following the orders of his Alpha. For him, we were just collateral damage he didn't care about. I was his daughter, and he let me starve, he let me shiver during the winters, and he insulted my father for reducing his rank to pack's manual laborer. My father died when I was 17. You know why he was struggling so much to keep living? For me! He wanted to be sure to raise me so he could face my mother one day. So he endured the humiliation of his pack warrior's reduced rank and our life in extreme poverty. He taught me how to be a warrior! One of the wolves from our pack, by coincidence, revealed the truth to me after Alpha's death. That's when I understood that Blackwood Pack must be mine and that it is my birthright to rule and protect these lands."
"You may have our blood, but you are not strong enough to challenge Mikkeli directly," Hayden says, "so you have to plan this scheme to get rid of him. What exactly was your plan?"
"Mikkeli is too strong to be directly challenged, but at the same time, he's very vulnerable if we take his family under consideration. At first, we were planning to make sure he would propose to Connie and then slowly convince him that you want to take his place. For that, we needed your sons. We wanted to provoke both of you to try and kill each other, which of course, Mikkeli would win but killing his own brother for sure would get him weaker. Especially if after that he would find out that his poor older brother did it to protect his own sons who were taken hostage by the cruel Ryan of Full Moon pack."
"I would be the one to reveal my father's evil deeds, so Mikkeli and I couldn't be mated, but at the same time, Mikkeli wouldn't hurt me and still trust me enough to make me the Alpha of the Full Moon pack, and I'm sure he would be extremely happy when Becca would reveal him the truth about their relationship. Of course, he would start to believe his older sister more, maybe even enough to make her his heir, and after that, small doses of wolfbane and his wolf's grief would take care of the rest."
"Is that why you killed my parents?" I ask, trying not to lose control over myself. I cannot do anything stupid, at least not now.
"The problem with our plan was that we didn't manage to kill your parents. We were planning to kidnap the boys and then use them to blackmail Hayden into trying to kill his only brother, but they suddenly died, and Hayden managed to feel the death of his rejected mate, and Mikkeli immediately rushed and brought all of you here, and we were no longer capable of getting the boys without revealing ourselves."
"The attack in the woods, revealing my brothers the truth, hunters in the packhouse, was it all an attempt to break Mikkeli, to make him weak?" I ask.
"Exactly, especially the attack in the woods. His brother, his nephews, and his mate were dead in one moment; that would be the last blow. I didn't know about Kyle being part of our family then, but I think if we managed to do that, I would already be ruling as an Alpha of the Blackwood pack." Becca's voice is void of any emotions.
"Unfortunately, because of the tight security on your land, we couldn't get the bigger force to attack you, and we didn't expect the interventions of my Beta, so you all managed to survive." Connie finishes.
"But why? Connie, why did you decide to help Becca? Why did you decide to do this together?" Hayden asks. I see his eyes shifting; his wolf is very close to the surface.
"It's easy, Hayden, it really is. There's nothing I wouldn't do for my mate."
Connie wraps her hands around Becca's waist, and they give each other a strong kiss. I gasp when the realization hits me; it was Becca with Connie when I saw them in the garden. I've seen them talking many times, but why would I wonder about Head Warrior talking with the daughter of our ally?
"We found each other after I become a Head Warrior under Mikkeli's reign. When our dick father was in charge, a woman carrying such a rank would be impossible. But Connie's father would've never accepted our mating, and Connie decided to help me with fulfilling my dream of taking what is rightfully mine," says Becca after they stopped kissing ."We are able to communicate through our mating bond. None would ever be able to catch us."
"For that, you have to mark each other, and I would smell if you were marked Becca," says Hayden.
"That's because I'm not. The funny thing with mate marks is you have to mark each other. But if only the lower-ranked wolf, who not by choice I am, marks the higher-ranked the change in smell is very subtle, and you are still able to establish the mindlink. My scent didn't change, and Connie manage to hide her thanks to the small amount of silver she has been taking. Her parents are stupid enough never to notice."
"Like they didn't notice you stealing your pack's money so you could pay the rogues and for the Red Venom," I say.
"I see Hank figured it out and shared it with you. His interventions for sure made my job more difficult. Good that now he's no longer a problem." Connie says in a dead tone.
"And now, what is your plan now?" Hayden asks
"The plan didn't change. My mate noticed Hannah being Mikkeli's mate and how you both slowly started to fall in love. We just had to give you some time for this. This is quite simple; I will notify Mikkeli that I found a wounded Becca on my territory and how my father's warriors did it, which will make him attack my pack. We don't stand a chance considering the fact that our Beta, Gamma, and head warriors are dead because of what happened at the party. By the time Mikkeli will find you two, Hayden will have killed you, Hannah in his feral state, and Mikkeli will have to kill him because feral wolves can't be allowed to live, and then his broken heart and rage will do the rest, and challenging so broken Alpha won't be a problem."
With that, Connie takes the syringe and gets close to Hayden, and even though he tries to struggle, there is no point. I try to stand up, but Becca quickly shoves me to the ground; I feel strong pain in my chest.
"You fucking bitch!" I scream, trashing under her.
"I'm sorry, Hannah, I really am. If you only weren't Mikkeli's mate, I would never hurt you. But I promise you that I will take good care of your siblings. After Mikkeli will surrender to his pain, and I take my rightful place, Connie and I make sure to give them everything they deserve," she says to me as I spit right into her face.
I see her face scrunch in anger, and she slaps me hard.
Connie steps away from form Hayden and also breaks two of his legs; Becca hits me again, this time directly into a stomach, before she lets me go, and they both leave the room; I can hear the keys; we are locked.
"Hayden," I scramble towards him immediately, ignoring the pain.
He is still in chains, but I know that they don't stop him when the poison will force him to shift.
"We are too far away from my pack; I can't mindlink anybody," he says. "There is only one way for you to survive this. You have to kill me before I go feral," he whispers, and my blood runs cold.