Part of the Plan (Book 2 in the 'part of' series)

Chapter 44 Back to the Beginning

Chapter 44 Back to the beginning

Emi's POV-

Time started to become more and more of a mystery to me as it passed. We weren't given any kind of food or water when we were there. I could hear Harlow's and Ralph's stomachs protesting as I tried to hide the noise of my own. I had my arms wrapped around my stomach and stared at the door.

I couldn't believe that my mother had come in here and taken Karim. He was one of the most knowledgeable people that I know and one of the very few that I trusted. I didn't know what they planned to do, though I suppose it wouldn't take long for us to find out.

Harlow had resumed pacing again, this time there was nobody to calm him down. Aidena and I had tried but he just wouldn't stop moving. I understood his stress but I wasn't too sure why he was reacting this way. I understood that he knew Karim but I didn't think that it would have this much of an effect.

"So that was your mother?" Aiden looked up and asked me. He had been playing musical chairs for the past few hours.

"Yeah." I looked down and shrugged. "She's not the best." A dry chuckle escaped from his throat.

"She did seem pretty determined to have you on her side though." I just shrugged again and nodded.

"I don't like her." Harlow said simply which caused me to burst out laughing. He said it so casually and so simply. "What? I don't." He huffed and pouted as he crossed his arms.

"Shouldn't walk with your arms crossed." Ralph pointed out. "You're more likely to trip." Harlow just continued to do so after tightening his arms around him. "Suit yourself."

"You didn't answer my question though." Harlow stated as he walked away from Ralph. "Would anyone you know be behind this?" Ralph groaned and opted to lay down on the floor, something I looked at in disgust.

"Not that I know of." He started to do sit ups. "If we knew that, this wouldn't have happened and we would've gone straight to the source." Aiden made a noise, alerting me to his presence. He had almost faded into the shadows.

"We have a visitor." Travis' voice came from the screen, a pleasant difference from the screaming that had now stopped. Lathen was beaten and bleeding in the chair, wrists bound with braids of acanite, the acidic reaction causing very painful-looking burns on his arms. "Now I know you just adore your pack."

"Don't touch them!" Lathen growled fiercely. I looked at him with respect even though he couldn't see me. Travis nodded to the man behind Lathen who then poured some kind of syrup onto his back, causing more of the same reaction and for Lathen to groan in agony.

"Never said I would." Travis then walked to the door and pulled Karim into the room. Karim's eyes were closed and he was shaking. I hadn't seen him like this in years. "Of course, you know who this is." Karim was shoved onto a chair opposite Lathen, the same braids of flowers wrapped around his wrists.

"Karim." Lathen said firmly, showing no other indication of knowledge. "What's he got to do with this?" His questions were trained towards Travis. I wanted to look away but I couldn't peel my eyes away from the screen.

"I'm sure you know why." The man's repetitive phrases made me want to clench my fists and scream at him to improve his vocabulary, but that was at the bottom of my list of annoyances. "I want you to tell us." Lathen shook his head.

"I have no clue what you're talking about." His voice was harsh with a twinge of pleading. Beads of liquid ran down his face, both invisible and crimson. "He's just a boy that we met a few days ago."

"But there's more than that." Travis held out a hand towards someone and a bucket was placed in it. The liquid was clear. "You know what this is." Travis mused as he held it above Karim's head, a few drops escaping. Karim held back a hiss as it fell onto the top of his forehead. A similar acidic effect causing skin to evaporate.

"He's Finlay's son." Lathen muttered just quiet enough to be heard. Travis stopped pouring the liquid . Harlow let go of the breath that he was holding. Aiden and Ralph relaxed slightly. We were all tense.

"Yes." Travis seemed pleased. "They do look rather similar to each other don't they?"The casual tone made me want to punch him.

"What?" Karim growled slightly, the anger never left his eyes, even when he was in pain. "How do you know about him? What do you know about him?" Travis groaned and titled his head back, as though Karim's questions were just an annoyance.

"You don't know a lot do you?" Travis splashed Karim with the liquid again,getting no reaction from Karim this time. "He was my beta. He was my second in command before he was taken from me!"

"We had nothing to do with that." Lathen said calmly. "I have a beta, why would I need yours? Your pack..."He trailed off slightly before his eyebrows furrowed. "Your pack broke up because your alpha didn't have a child." Curiosity laced his tone.

I was frozen in shock. The words were going through one ear and out the other, I couldn't take any of it in. We were getting all our questions answered, our hunches confirmed and yet, it won't help us.

"Yes. We had no beta." Travis spit out. "Yours took him from me." Ralph tensed up at the mention of his father. "He's the reason why Finlay was no longer loyal."

"You did that on your own." Lathen's voice was harsher this time, as the puzzle pieces clicked into place. "Why did you have to go through all this trouble anyway? If your problem was with Eben then." Travis' grin widened, hge looked mad.

"I'm getting back at him. Trust me." The door to our cell suddenly opened. Someone was thrown in. It was Eben. He had blood running down his face, he was gagged and he had ropes tying his wrists and legs together. "It's not stopping anytime soon."