Free Web NovelChapter 243: Chapter 243
Aria’s POV
The voice was male and unfamiliar.
“Maybe we used too much of the drug...” he added.
“No worries. If she doesn’t wake up, pour water on her.” That was the voice of another person. Two men.
Before I could process my thoughts, cold water crashed over my face.
“Ah—!” I gasped, shuddering violently as the icy shock soaked into my clothes and skin. My wolf snarled at the humiliation, claws scraping inside my chest.
“So you were awake?” a gruff voice sneered. Fingers clamped around my chin, forcing my head up. “You were just pretending?”
I tried to pull away, but my limbs felt heavy and sluggish, in addition to the silver chain I was bound with, wolfsbane must have been laced in the drug. My weakness amused him. I could hear it in his breath, feel it in the way his grip tightened.
“Alpha Nathan’s luna,” he chuckled, his fingers tracing my cheek in a way that made my skin crawl. “Even if he doesn’t value you, you’re still different from the rest.”
Revulsion rolled through me. My wolf recoiled, furious but trapped, unable to surface.
I forced myself to straighten despite the dizziness, summoning every ounce of control I had learned.
“If you know who I am,” I said evenly, my voice echoing through the vast space, “then you know who Alpha Nathan Hemsworth is. And what happens to people who cross him.”
For a moment, his grip loosened. I felt the hesitation ripple through the air like a crack in glass.
Hope flickered within me.
“Aria,” another voice cut in, rough and gravelly, carrying authority. “We wouldn’t have brought you here if we hadn’t already weighed the consequences.”
The sleazy man laughed nervously. “That’s right. Acting like Luna Aria won’t save you.” ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
I pressed my lips together. The second man wasn’t just muscle, he was the leader. The real danger.
“Why capture me?” I asked, lifting my chin despite the blindfold. “What do you want?”
A low chuckle followed. “You’ve made too many enemies. Once upon a time, you were a celebrated lawyer...destroying lives, ruining futures. Have you forgotten?”
Memories surged unbidden...Late nights poring over case files. Standing in courtrooms, fighting for people who had no voice. Pro bono cases...Whistleblowers...Criminals exposed. Corporations dismantled.
I had known enemies would come.
I just hadn’t expected them to come now, after prison, after everything had already been taken from me.
My heart felt heavy, but my wolf lay inside me, unrepentant.
“No, I haven’t forgotten” I said quietly. “And i don’t regret it.”
“This is revenge, then?” I asked, cutting through their theatrics.
The answer came in the form of pain.
A brutal kick slammed into my stomach. I cried out despite myself as my body folded, air ripping from my lungs. The man’s foot stayed there, grinding mercilessly into my abdomen.
“Still think you’re some righteous lawyer?” he spat.
Something hard pressed deeper. It was like a metal or maybe the toe of his boot, twisting cruelly. My vision swam behind the blindfold. My wolf howled in rage, slamming against the chains suppressing it.
I refused to scream. Only broken whimpers escaped me.
The leader said nothing. I could feel his gaze, watching to see how much pain I could endure.
The sleazy man laughed when I didn’t beg. “Aria,” he said smugly, “if you get Francis to admit he stole the patent at Starsource Research Institution in the upcoming trial against Lucious, we’ll let you go.”
My breath hitched. So that was it? This was about Francis’ case? They didn’t just want revenge.They wanted me to become a liar.
My fingers curled weakly against the cold floor, my nails biting into concrete as my wolf growled low and furious inside me.
I won’t break. Not for them, not ever.
Nathan’s POV
I was standing beside the car when the images came through. They were from Francis.
The moment I saw Aria bound, my body locked as if winter itself had seized my spine. My wolf surged violently to the surface, hackles raised, a low, murderous growl rolling through my blood. The air around me dropped several degrees.
Just then, a call came in from Francis. As soon as I answered, his voice cut through, stripped of its usual composure.
“The people who kidnapped Aria reached out to me with threats. Wasn’t it you who forced Aria back to Hemsworth Villa?” he demanded. “You promised you’d protect her and the child. Now see what has happened.”
The accusation landed, heavy and direct.
Collins stiffened beside me, disbelief flickering through his expression. He must think Francis had lost his mind. No one spoke to me like that.
No one, except someone who cared enough about Aria to forget fear.
I didn’t respond. My lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line. On the surface, I was stone, but beneath it, my wolf was tearing at its restraints, snarling for blood.
“Beep—beep—”
The call cut off.
I lowered the phone slowly, then tossed it to Collins without looking away from the screen still burned into my vision.
“Find where the photos were taken,” I said, my voice flat and razor-sharp. “Check if it is the abandoned auto shop you mentioned earlier”
Collins didn’t waste a second. He stepped aside, already calling the tech team.
I opened the car door and slammed it shut.
The sound echoed violently through the parking structure. Collins flinched and glanced back, pain flashing briefly across his face.
Few minutes later, Collins stepped closer to the window, “Alpha Nathan,” he said quickly. “The interior in the photos matches the location we identified earlier. There is a high probability it’s the same place.”
That was all I needed.
“Confirm it,” I said. “Then we move. Immediately.”
Whoever kidnapped Aria had made a fatal mistake.
They wouldn’t live to tell the story.
