Chapter Six

As soon as he was dragged out of his cell, Roman suspected he knew what he was in for.

He didn't know how much of Hunter and Randy's story he believed about Kevin being the one leading the pack until he was dropped in front of the man like a piece of trash. And if he thought he was big, he'd evidently never seen someone with Kevin's physique before. Jesus Christ.

Now, he was extremely thankful Seth had escaped and wouldn't be at this man's mercy.

Kevin was taller than him by at least half a foot and much broader, completely bulked up muscle coupled with a cold smirk that sunk deep into Roman's bones. If this was the man who had taken Daniel and the pack hostage, Roman could believe it without having any doubts. There was an aura that surrounded him of nearly pure darkness, pure disdain for every living creature around him that dared to share the same air as him. He didn't even seem grateful when Dave dropped Roman in front of him, didn't acknowledge the big man's presence. Instead, he simply knelt down and knotted a hand in Roman's hair to drag his head up off of the concrete flooring.

If he could, he'd hold his own head up because it was such a blow to his dignity to be manhandled like a child, but he was far too weak from the pain and the energy his body seeped from him so it could heal itself. With the changing moon still far off and the fact they were given so little food and water each day, it was probably a miracle he'd managed to shift at all before to attack Dave. He didn't think he'd be able to pull that off again even if he needed to. Even keeping his own head up was impossible. When Dave had come to his cell, he'd been slumped in a corner, barely moving except for a muscle twitch every now and then, and he wasn't any better now. If anything, he could feel himself inching closer to death each and every day.

But he couldn't die. Who would take care of the pack if he died on them? There was no one else.

"Nice to finally meet you. Dave's told me all about you." Kevin shook his head fiercely and Roman's skull rattled from the force. It hurt, but he couldn't quite summon the strength to fight it off. "The only dominant we captured other than your pathetic alpha. Not to worry, though. He's a little closer to breaking every day. I'll get what I want out of him eventually."

Pure disgust churned in Roman's stomach. Daniel was an excellent alpha, possibly the best there had ever been, and it killed him to know this monster was trying to break him. "Fuck you."

A sharp kick to his ribs had him crying out and trying to writhe away. Dave stood over him, large and hulking, blocking out the flickering light bulb barely lighting the room, and Roman could feel the anger oozing off of him. But that was simply Dave; he was an angry fucker and he took some sick pleasure in taking it out on Roman time and time again, trying to pump him for information he didn't fucking have. Hell, he didn't think any of them had it because no one told him what they were looking for. There was a decent chance that this entire display—from taking them hostage to torturing them—was really for nothing if they didn't have any answers.

"Speak politely and I might not let Dave beat up on you for the moment. I only want answers. That's not really so much to ask." Kevin's voice remained so fucking casual, so light and easy.

But he wasn't the one on the floor being beaten. "I don't even know what you want from us."

"So I've heard from all of you. I don't believe that, though." Kevin stood, Roman struggling to follow because of the grip on his hair. "I know you know where they are. Just tell me."

They. So Kevin was looking for someone, multiple people, but Roman still had no idea who he was talking about. There was no one of interest in the area and certainly no one threatening because Daniel would never have allowed them to stay. Not at all. "Look, if you don't fucking tell us who you're looking for, you goddamn idiot, we can't do anything to help you!"

It was a bad idea to get loud, to get snappy, and Dave let him know that immediately when a hard punch caught him in the jaw and staggered him. Before he could recover from the blow, he was suddenly slammed to the floor and Dave's knee was digging into his throat, cutting off his air. Vainly, he struggled to free himself so he could breathe. His chest was already tight and throbbing, and his windpipe was constricted by the position. Desperately, he clawed at Dave's leg but with no strength, he couldn't shift out his claws to help him. He was helpless. Defenseless. He'd never felt so fucking weak before and as the black dots began to dance in his vision, he hoped he'd at least wake up in his cell so this part of the nightmare could end.

Before he could lose consciousness, though, Dave shifted off of him and he gasped for oxygen as soon as he could. His throat stung from the constriction and his lungs burned, but he needed the air. Dimly, he was aware of more people filing into the room and he wanted to pass out anyway. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to witness his humiliation and degradation at the hands of these two monsters. God, what if he'd just invited for monster to join in on the fun?

He twisted his head around to see who had entered the room, recognizing Randy's and Hunter's scents before he saw either of them. Neither of them looked particularly pleased to be in the room, and Roman couldn't blame them. The only other person to enter the room was the Mexican who'd stopped Dave from mauling him—Alberto. He looked less pleased to be in the room than the others did, if that was even possible, and yet again Roman felt for him. This room was the last place he wanted to be, so surely none of them wanted to be here, either.

"Nice to see you three finally decided to show up. Why exactly are you late?" Kevin's voice adopted an edge, and Roman sensed this was not a man to be fucked with. No wonder his people were at his beck and call. Did he have something on all of them, or just on some of them?

"Had to put the others back in their cells. Takes a few minutes to clean them up and you wanted them kept alive." Hunter shrugged and leaned against the wall, but every line of his body was taut, screaming how uncomfortable he was, and Roman decided he liked him just a little bit more.

Kevin nodded slowly. "Well, at least you got here. Ready to watch a little bit of fun, boys?"

"Absolutely," Randy said immediately, though Roman mused that his voice hardly sounded like he wanted to see whatever Kevin had to show them. Maybe he was a decent person.

"Good." Kevin pressed the sole of his boot into Roman's stomach, and had he any strength left, he might have wriggled away from it. As it was, he couldn't. "Dave, go ahead and get the knife."

Dave's cackle of demented glee was enough to make Roman feel sick, and then he was kicked over onto his stomach. Before he could even guess why he was being placed into this position—this sickening position that made him feel so weak and broken—someone straddled the small of his back and effectively pinned him to the floor. Dave? Most likely, but he still hoped not.

When he tried to sniff out what kind of blade Dave had, his nose burned and he hissed in realization. God, please, no. He knew how badly silver hurt his kind, how it acted like a flesh-eating parasite and began devouring their skin around the site of the wound inflicted upon them. Was he meant to suffer that pain to get information he might not even have to share?

His answer came when the tip of a blade pressed down against his spine, and he did his best not to breathe to avoid driving the tip into his skin. Despite his skin not yet being broken, he began to itch and he knew the blade was silver. The pain would be immense, then, and he likely had no means with which to escape. Before he could so much as formulate a modicum of a plan, the blade sliced directly down his back and he screamed, the flaming sensation accompanied by the slower, more insistent burn as the silver began to leach into his skin and do its deadly work.

Silver killed. Given enough time, even surface wounds would be enough to kill a wereanimal as the silver would slowly leach into their veins and arteries, carried through to their internal organs until those were eaten away as well. He'd hard it was the most painful death one of their kind could be forced to suffer, and now he had a chance to experience it firsthand. He didn't want it.

As Roman knew he would be, Dave was merciless. He didn't give Roman a chance to learn to bear the pain before he continued slicing at his skin, opening more wounds that while not necessarily deep were causing a pain he had never known. It was maddening, and he clawed at the concrete floor until his fingers bled, not even bothering to muffle the sounds that left his mouth. Through quickly blurring vision, he saw Hunter and Randy flinching away from the scene, their eyes screaming at him to just hold on, but he didn't think that would be possible.

"Not enjoying the show, Alberto?" Kevin asked above the blood pounding in Roman's ears, the blood that sped faster with each beat of his heart, allowing the silver deeper inside of him…

He sobbed as the burn in his back seemed to double with every cut, already too weak to fight back and now forced to just lie here and take it. How could he have let himself fall this far? He had to be strong for Seth, but he couldn't even be strong for himself. If he couldn't hold on through this torture, he would die here on this floor and Seth would be left all alone.

Kevin growled. "You will watch this or you will face punishment for not following orders."

"You can fuck off," Alberto snapped. "I've seen enough, and I am not watching you hurt him."

Tense silence settled in the room—except for the sound of Roman's ragged, wet breathing and the drumbeats in his ears. Confused, he titled his head just barely, as every movement seemed to aggravate his back, and realized Kevin was standing inches away from Alberto. Even the handsome Mexican seemed small in comparison to Kevin's massive frame, but he stood tall nevertheless and Roman felt a stab of admiration for him being able to do so.

"Sir," Randy said after a moment, shifting uneasily where he stood. "Sir, Roman's back is a mess. If we don't clean him up now, he's not going to be much use to us in the future."

Kevin ignored him, focusing instead on Alberto. "What did you just say to me, Alberto?"

"I told you to fuck off and that I'm not watching this," Alberto said, clearly unruffled.

Without warning, Kevin lashed out with one hard punch, staggering Alberto and sending him flying into the wall. The crunch of bone made Roman wince, as did the accompanying scent of blood. Kevin had broken Alberto's nose and, from what it looked like, split his lip as well. All for not wanting to watch a torture scene. How could any alpha be so cruel to those who stood beside him? How could anyone think he had the right to treat someone this way?

But Kevin wasn't done; he caught Alberto by the collar of his shirt and shook him roughly. "I think you need punishment. I think you need to remember that you are not a loner anymore."

Instead of speaking, Alberto simply cocked his head as if awaiting the punishment Kevin promised to dish out—the punishment Roman would've told him to avoid at all costs if he could currently speak. Instead, he was helpless to do anything but watch from the floor even as his back continued to burn and an irritating itch spread across his skin. If he could have, he would claw his own skin off to stop it but he knew it wouldn't be enough. Even if he dug straight down to the bones, he would inevitably die from the poisoning long before the pain and itch ever stopped. A telltale whine left his lips, so fucking pathetic but he couldn't help it, and that seemed to remind Kevin that he was still in the room because the man glanced down at him.

A glance up into his cold eyes sent a tremor of foreboding through Roman's body, but he couldn't understand why. He simply let his head fall back on the floor, not caring when the hard blow made his skull rattle because nothing else mattered right then. All he wanted was for the pain to end, and it wouldn't. This was supposed to get him to talk, so making him suffer was the goal. And, according to his captors, the key to open his mouth so he would spill his secrets.

"If he won't treat him now, sir, he's going to be too far gone," Hunter said, and Kevin sighed irritably before nodding once and turning back to Alberto, a low growl leaving his lips. Without hesitation, both Hunter and Randy darted forward, helping Roman up, and then Randy was in the bag of tools Dave had brought, pulling out a bottle of what was hopefully neutralizer.

Roman breathed a sigh of relief when he felt Randy press a rag soaked in the stuff to his back, the chemical starting to soothe the pain and discomfort already. But even as his pain began to ease, Kevin threw Alberto to the floor, then reached for the buckle of his belt. Wisely, Alberto chose not to move; Dave was hovering nearby and would likely attack if anyone tried to threaten Kevin. But Alberto stayed put even as a small shudder worked through his body as Kevin pulled the belt free from the loops of his jeans and folded it once, shortening the available leather. But Roman knew that would make every strike harder, so much more forceful, and yet so much easier to control because there was less of the belt to have to worry about losing control of.

A gesture from Kevin had Dave darting forward, ripping the shirt from Alberto's back with one hard yank, and there was so much scarred dark skin on display. Roman nearly swallowed his tongue at the sight of all of the scars, surmising that surely some of them were from the man who had taken his pack hostage. Was this how Kevin thought he could run a pack? By beating them down savagely and not giving a fuck about their pain and suffering? He couldn't have lasted long with that attitude because few dominants would take that kind of shit, but Roman wasn't sure. How many of them had been through the same beat downs and torture he had been?

Randy came to stand in front of him, wiping away the blood that had dripped down his shoulders and pooled under his chest, and Roman let him without putting up a fight. He truly had nothing left with which to put up a fight, and when the first sound of leather rebounding off of bare skin sounded in the room, he almost threw up. How could they live in this environment? Why hadn't the lot of them banded together to stop this madman before he gained this much power?

When Randy moved again, Roman bit down on his tongue; there was already a raised red welt on Alberto's back, and as he watched, the belt came down again. And again. Over and over, and Alberto remained as silent as possible through it beyond a few grunts and a hiss or two making its way free. Kevin seemed unamused with his silence, but Dave had a maniacal grin on his face that said he was enjoying this just fine even without Alberto crying out in agony.

"You need to remember which one of us is the boss, you stupid bitch," Kevin snapped, bringing the belt down hard across Alberto's broad shoulders. "You had nothing and you were nothing without me. You remember who you begged for help on your goddamn knees."

Roman turned his head away, pressing his face against the crook of Hunter's neck as he tried to mentally tune himself out of this moment. If Kevin wanted to beat his men, fine. There was nothing Roman could do to stop it in his condition, but he would not watch this. Alberto refused to watch him get torn apart, and all he could give the man right then was his unwillingness to watch this unfold for him, as well. Thankfully, Randy and Hunter were much more forgiving. Both of them helped him stay on his feet and turned away, not forcing him to watch this display.

A sudden, sharp snap made Alberto cry out and the scent of fresh blood slip into the air once again. Helpless to do anything but, Roman pressed his face deeper into Hunter's neck and tried to surround himself with the warmth of the two men and Hunter's scent. "Make him stop."

"I would if I could, but I can't. The only thing I can do is distract him for maybe a minute, but he's not going to let this go." Hunter started stroking his hair, and Roman shuddered slightly before pressing tighter to him. How much longer was he to be a prisoner in this nightmare?

Finally, the belt stopped bearing down and Roman chanced a glance, wincing at the bloody ruin of Alberto's back; the leather cut in deep. To his astonishment, the werewolf was still conscious and didn't look to be on the verge of passing out any time soon. Whether that boded ill for him or not, Roman didn't know. He just hoped the beatings were over for the moment.

Kevin sighed and dragged a hand through his hair, then glanced over to where Roman stood with Randy and Hunter bracketing him and trying to comfort him. "Jesus Christ, would you two stop? He's not one of the submissives, he's not some fragile little bitch who's going to break if you don't hold him together. Do me a favor and get him back in his cell."

"Yes, sir," Randy said quickly, and Roman winced as he was all but dragged from the room, Hunter and Randy doing their best to move him as quickly as possible from the room.

Being led from the cage at least provided Roman with a little more knowledge. The building they were currently in was simply a large house with a large basement where the cells had been erected—and he wondered what they had held before his pack was imprisoned in them. As far as he knew, no one had lived in the house for years; he would have smelled their lingering scents otherwise, and he smelled nothing. It also let him in on a discovery that made his stomach sink. Kevin's men were greater in number than he first believed, and he suddenly wasn't so sure Seth could find the Calvary necessary to take on this many wereanimals without dying.

Thinking of Seth made him feel ill, so he shook the werewolf out of his head and tried to see the condition of his fellow pack members as well as he could as he was led through the basement. Most of them were in bad shape, and it would be a miracle if all of them survived. It broke his heart to know some of them risked dying if only because Kevin and his men wanted information, and as far as Roman knew, they hadn't bothered to tell anyone what the information was.

He was now convinced that Kevin believed Roman and his pack knew the information and were simply hiding it, that they had long ago guessed what he wanted to know and simply refused to tell him what it was. Maybe Daniel knew. As alpha, he was bound to know plenty of information that he hadn't shared with the rest of them, information that was important enough for him to know but vital enough for him to keep a secret. Of course, if he had to keep it, he would, but Roman just hoped that wasn't the case because the pack was dying as a result.

"How is the pack doing?" he asked once Randy and Hunter returned him to his cell.

Randy knelt in front of him, stroking his hair out of his face. "Some of them are in bad shape."

"The one who mouthed off yesterday?" Hunter shook his head. "He's sporting a broken leg."

"They broke Colin's leg?" Roman felt physically ill at the news and squeezed his eyes shut. This wasn't supposed to happen; they had to get out of this before it became worse. Deadly. Fatal.

Hunter cleared his throat, and Roman forced his eyes open so he could see the big man. "I did my best to reset it and bound it with what we have lying around, but it's going to heal incorrectly if he can't shift soon. And the full moon is too far off. It'll be too late by then."

"Kevin doesn't want us to let any of you shift lest you heal the injuries you've sustained as a result of his… Interrogation techniques." Randy winced. "But if we have to end up forcing him ourselves, we'll do it. Roman, we're doing our best to keep your pack alive if nothing else."

"Thank you. But it's not going to last if he keeps getting angry," Roman murmured.

Randy nodded. "Exactly. Whatever you know, please, just tell him so he'll let you all go."

"But I don't know what he wants to know." Roman waved for them to set him down in the corner where he could stay propped up without having to try. Plus, while hard and unforgiving, the cold concrete helped soothe this back. "I can't answer questions I don't even know."

Hunter straightened and began to pace, and Roman would have given anything to know what the big man was thinking. Much as he wanted to get his pack out of this mess, he couldn't do it without knowing what Kevin wanted to know, and even then, he might not have the information that Kevin so desired. What could he do if he didn't have the answers? Lie? Not likely.

"We need to get him to tell us what he wants to know," Randy said after a brief silence.

Hunter sighed. "I know. I just don't know how. I don't know if any of the others know, either."

"He has to have told someone." Randy paused. "Do you think Taker knows what he wants?"

"It's possible, but I don't want to tip Kevin off by asking around. He needs to be long gone before I even think about talking to Taker. He and Taker work too closely together," Hunter said.

Roman shook his head up at them. "Don't put yourselves at risk like that just to find information that I might not be able to do anything with anyway. Just find my mate, Seth. Can you do that? He's the wolf I was with, the one with the blond streak in his hair. Find him and tell him."

Hunter and Randy exchanged uneasy glances, and Roman wanted to scream at them for dangling the possibility of help in front of his nose and then yanking it away without another word. If they couldn't tell Seth what was going on, then nothing was going to be accomplished here. He needed them to go to Seth and tell him everything they knew so he could come help them.

And it was so much stress and expectation to pile up on Seth's small shoulders, but Roman honestly had no other options beyond him and Damien. The members of his pack who hadn't been caged were working with Kevin now, a desperate bid to keep him from killing their mates, and Mike was AWOL as far as he knew. Which had destroyed Dolph when he found out; Mike had almost seemed like a guy who would never back down from a fight, and now he was gone.

Randy finally looked down at him. "We'll see what we can do about finding him."

It wasn't what Roman wanted to hear. What he wanted to hear was that Randy and Hunter would exhaust themselves finding Seth so they could let him know what was going on. At the very least, Seth could find back-up and save their pack, but he had to know where they were, first.

And Roman doubted Hunter and Randy were going to find him unless they took this very seriously. While Seth was small and seemed virtually helpless on the outside, he was a loyal werewolf through and through and he would do what he had to in order to save his pack.

But how could he do anything if he didn't know where to look? Roman had only had a passing glance out a window on his way to that room and on the way back to his cell, but nothing he'd seen looked like home. They might not even be in New York anymore. What would Seth do then?

He couldn't do a damned thing except look for them, and if Kevin had been careful enough, he might not even realize where Roman and his pack had been taken. Seth wasn't an alpha, after all, and though he had connection to the pack, he wasn't like Daniel. He wouldn't be able to save them with that alone. He needed back-up, he needed numbers, and he needed anything else possibly to formulate a plan to come and get them. If Hunter and Randy couldn't be bothered to give him that, then they were all going to die in this place, and they had to know it.

"You have to do all possible to find him," Roman said, stressing it the best he could.

Hunter nodded and ruffled his hair, and Roman bit down on his lower lip to keep from growling as the two wereanimals excused themselves from his cell and escorted themselves out. Much as he just loved being talked down to and treated like he was lower than he was, he was getting fucking tired of this bullshit. Though the two seemed empathetic to his situation and the situation of his pack, he was so over it and he wanted them to prove it by doing something other than simply nursing them all back to health. And though he did appreciate them stopping the silver from eating through his body, he needed more. It wouldn't keep him alive forever, their kindness, and he had no delusions about how little it would end up meaning if Kevin grew angry and agitated enough and decided to take that out on Roman or one of his pack members.

Roman shoved himself to his feet, using the wall for support as he inched along it to the bars and peered out. Though the construction of the cells made it hard for him to see very much, he could see just enough to know Drew was passed out asleep in his cell, curled up into a ball to keep himself warm, and it looked as though Heath was doing the same. Of course they were exhausted, they were barely given enough food and water to stay awake and they were beaten senseless.

They were going to die here if nobody found them. Much as he hated to admit it, there was very little he could do to prevent the abuse suffered by his brothers, and as long as he himself was subjected to it, they were all in the same boat. Yeah, he could take a hell of a lot more than most of them, but that didn't mean he was immortal. He could die just like the rest of them could, but the fact he couldn't even protect the submissives he'd sworn to Daniel he would help protect…

Roman pressed his forehead against the bars, forcing himself to take a deep breath. Getting angry would solve nothing right now. Even if he wanted to be angry, to tear the entire foundation of this building apart with his bare hands and crumble it to dust, he couldn't. Not from where he was right now. Only from the outside could he do something to make all of this pain end.

He had to hope Seth knew what he was doing. As much as that pained him—Seth had never been in a situation like this and it was so much responsibility to put on him—he had no choice. If Seth couldn't be the one who pulled them all out of here, no one would. Damien was there to help him, of course, but like Seth, Damien had never faced responsibility to this magnitude before and wouldn't know what to do with it on his own. God, were they all going to die in this hell hole?

Yet again, not the way to think. What he needed to do was try to figure out what the fuck Kevin wanted from them so that, if they did so happen to have the information, he could decide whether or not it was worth it to pass it along. Depending on what he wanted to know and why he wanted to know it, it might not really benefit them to pass it along to him. He might kill them anyway.

And there were certain things that a man crazed with power like Kevin didn't need to know anyway, so there was that to consider, too. But what did he want? Something he thought they knew. About someone for that matter. He was looking for someone, that much had been obvious during the beating, but who was he looking for, and why was he looking for them? He was insane; it could be someone who could boost his power level or it could be someone who just scorned him in the past and he wanted revenge. So many avenues of thought, so many possibilities, and none of them made sense. Why did he think Roman and his pack knew who they were? Were they wereanimals, too? Was that why Kevin thought Roman knew who they were? Evidently so, but what wereanimals could Roman possibly know about that—

Shit. Roman's knees weakened and his breathing tightened as the weight of his epiphany dawned on him. There were wereanimals not in their pack. There were, what, five of them who lived out in the country, five that Daniel had assured him were not going to be a problem and simply wanted a safe home to live in. Despite not being pack members and making it clear they never would be, they had been allowed to stay and Daniel refused to say why he allowed them to stay when most alphas would've kicked them out. Roman thought Daniel was just being nice.

And he had been wrong. Desperately wrong. God, he couldn't believe how wrong he'd been and he wondered what the cost was going to be. What would they have to lose in order to pay for him not realizing the truth until now? He didn't know, had no idea, but he didn't want to find out, either. What he wanted was the fucking truth from Daniel because now it was obvious Daniel had been hiding the wereanimals, and Roman still had no idea why he'd done it.

Only when he knew why would he be able to decide if it was worth giving them up to Kevin.

A/N: A wild update has appeared! Actually yeah, I've just been busy and haven't been able to get to these stories, which is a shitty but true excuse. But now I'm back to update for you guys! I'm curious to hear what you're thinking about this story, so drop me a line in the Review section.