Chapter 389

Olivia

The door burst open, bathing the dark basement in golden light, and both Jenifer and I were jolted from our tense standoff. We exchanged wide-eyed, fearful glances, our shared shock etched across our faces.

The abrupt intrusion had caught us both off guard, but I had hope.

“Help!” I began to call out, my voice strained and hardly more than a whisper after Jenifer’s intense grip had taken my breath away. “Help me, ple—”

But before I could finish, Jenifer lunged forward, clamping her hand over my lips. “Shut up,” she hissed, her voice so low only I could hear. I watched in horror as she slipped something small and silver out of her pocket, and then I felt the cold blade of a knife pressing firmly against my throat.

As the hinges creaked and the door swung wide, my heart raced with a flurry of mixed emotions. Could it be Nathan, finally coming to my rescue? I wanted to believe it, to call out for help and have my love rush in to save me from this living nightmare.

But I couldn’t. I was frozen in fear, held still by Jenifer’s clammy fingers and the knife against my flesh. And besides, I knew that it couldn’t be Nathan now; I would have sensed him if he was so close. I was sure of it.

Jenifer tugged me deeper into the shadows, and I stumbled alongside her, our bodies pressed close together in the cold, suffocating darkness.

“Get down.” She shoved me down to the floor behind a pile of crates, keeping us hidden and out of sight. Before I could find the strength to fight back, she was pushing me down to my belly and kneeling on my back, holding me down against my will.

“Stay quiet,” she hissed, the cold blade of the knife still pressed against the warm, soft flesh of my throat. I could feel it pressing into me, threatening to slice me open at any moment. There was no fighting back; one wrong move and I would be dead.

With my cheek pushed into the dirt floor of the basement, I couldn’t see anything. The crates obstructed my vision; all I could make out in the darkness was a tiny space between two crates, which was just barely enough to give me a view of the shadow lurking around.

I didn’t know who it was, but whoever was here was not in their human form; not anymore, at least. The hulking shape of an enormous black wolf caught my eye through the gap in the crates, its nose pressed to the ground.

I reached out to my wolf in the depths of my mind, searching desperately for some sort of guidance. “Jade,” I called out mentally, hoping she was alert enough now to help, “what should I do? Where is Nathan?”

Jade’s voice echoed in a response, a soothing sound amidst all of the terror and uncertainty. “He should be waking up now. I could sense him. I’m sure of it.”

Relief washed over me. “Thank god,” I said. “But how? How did he wake up?”

Jade’s response held a hint of uncertainty. “I’m not entirely sure, Olivia. All I can sense is his return to the physical world. Since we’re mates, his wolf relayed his emotions to me, and that’s what allowed me to release my scent for him to follow.”

My eyes darted toward the shadows where Jenifer concealed us, our clandestine hideaway a fragile sanctuary. Nathan was waking up, following the trail of my scent, but he wasn’t here yet. We had to wait, to bide our time until he arrived.

“Don’t try to make a run for it,” Jade warned me. “Jenifer, despite all of her talk, is scared. She’ll lash out; she’ll hurt you and your baby. Just stay calm, try to buy some time until Nathan arrives.”

“And who is this here?” I asked. “Will they help?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Jaded replied softly. “They’re not in our pack, so I can’t pick up their scent. All I know is that if you call out, Jenifer will almost certainly slice your neck open. And that’s not a risk we should be taking right now.”

Jade was right; the risk simply wasn’t worth it. If I wanted to survive long enough for Nathan to arrive, then I needed to do what Jenifer wanted, to play into her game. And if that meant laying here silently while the mysterious wolf sniffed around the basement, then so be it.

I shifted slightly, trying to get a better look through the crack between the crates. Jenifer just pressed her knee into my back more firmly, and I almost cried out in pain. But I breathed deeply, willing myself to stay quiet despite the discomfort.

The footsteps drew closer, and each footfall felt like a nail in my coffin. Jenifer pushed the blade harder against my neck, and I could feel the first beads of blood gathering on the surface of my skin, a warning that if I made a sound or even moved a muscle, it would result in my death.

Then, the footsteps stopped. The crack between the crates became filled with something; a dark, black shape. Black fur, an enormous body.

The silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity. Jenifer and I held our breaths, and I could feel my heart pounding so loudly in my chest that I was almost certain the intruder would be able to hear it.

A guttural growl reverberated through the basement, echoing off the damp, stone walls. The growl was feral, primal, a menacing warning that sent shivers down my spine.

I knew that growl. I recognized it, even in the darkness. I had heard it before.

Red eyes gleamed in the blackness of the basement. My heart constricted as I stared into those crimson orbs, the color of blood and fire. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It couldn’t be him.

But it was. It was Alvin.

A sense of fear was at war with the feeling of relief inside of me. Alvin, the one I thought was lost forever to the darkness, had returned.

But why? Had he come to save me from Jenifer’s clutches, to rescue me from this living nightmare? Or had he returned to finally exact vengeance once and for all, to settle old scores and make me pay for the betrayal he had accused me and Nathan of?

I wanted to call out to him, to plead for his mercy, to understand his intentions. But Jenifer’s cruel hand remained firmly clamped over my mouth, her sharp nails digging into my skin. Her knee pushed harder into my spine, and the cold metal of the knife dug even harder into my delicate neck.

I was silenced, rendered completely voiceless in this critical moment. If I moved a muscle, if I made a sound, I would be dead.

But through the crack between the crates, Alvin’s red eyes never wavered from mine, and an unspoken tension filled the air. The basement seemed to shrink, the world reduced to nothing but the locked gaze between us.

What did he want? What was the purpose of his return?

Was he here to help, or was he here for vengeance?