Beyond Beta's Rejection

(Harper’s POV)

I woke up to the sound of voices arguing. I kept my eyes closed and tried to assess the situation without alerting anyone to the fact that I was awake. I could tell that I had been put in a chair, and both my hands and legs were tied to it. I tried flexing slightly, but the ropes holding me down gave me no movement. f**k, I really didn’t know how I was going to get out of this one. I had a feeling that my usual charm wasn’t going to go very far.

I could tell the voices were Elias and Marcus, although they were whispers and even with my hearing barely audible.

“Just don’t go crazy,” I heard Marcus. “It could all be a misunderstanding. Give her a chance to explain her side of the story.”

“I think it’s pretty clear whose side she is on, don’t you?” Elias whispered back. “I knew there was something odd about her story. I should have listened.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“Boss, please, she’s your mate,” Marcus pleaded.

“And that makes it so much worse. The fact that she can betray her mate so easily makes me sick.” The venom in Elias’ voice was clear, and it took all my control not to flinch at it.

“Boss-” Marcus started, but Elias made a shushing sound, and the room went quiet.

“I know you are awake.” I heard louder and closer, making me jump slightly. “I can feel your fear.” I opened my eyes to see that Elias was sitting in a chair in front of me. His back was straight, and his face was impassive, but his eyes were fuelled by pure cold hatred.

“You have every right to be scared,” he said, and the corners of his mouth turned into a half-smile. I could tell by his posture, voice, and how he looked at me. He meant it, and he meant to hurt me. I resisted the urge to gulp or to struggle in the chair. I wasn’t going to give this evil bastard the pleasure of that.

“Now,” he said in an almost flat tone. “I am going to ask you some questions, and if you answer them quickly and correctly, then this will go a lot easier for you.”

“Boss,” Marcus said, and I looked up at him standing behind Elias. He looked very uncomfortable and wouldn’t quite meet my eyes.

“If you don’t answer the questions, well then….” Elias’s voice trailed off, but a sideways glance at a rolled-up canvas pouch finished the sentence for him. I recognised the type. I had one myself. I didn’t like torture, but that wasn’t to say I hadn’t done it when it was needed.

“Boss, please,” Marcus said again, and Elias sighed.

“Marcus, if you can’t be here, then fine, but mind yourself, or I might start to wonder who your loyalty belongs to.” Marcus visibly flinched at that, and he finally made eye contact with me. The look in his eyes scared me the most. He was worried, worried for me. Things really didn’t look good.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he hissed at Elias, and Elias nodded his head.

“Good,” he said. “Then let’s begin, shall we?”

He looked directly at me, and I met his glare with unwavering confidence. I was sure I had been in worse situations than this and had gotten out of them. I think I was sure, anyway.

“Who do you work for?” Elias asked. Straight to the point, I see.

“Go to hell,” I spat at him, and he smiled a little.

“Oh, I have no doubt about that, my dear,” he said. “Maybe you can save me a seat,” He leaned over and sniffed the surrounding air. Just his closeness was enough to confuse my senses. How could I love someone so evil, first Colton and now Elias? The moon goddess really had a thing for bad guys and me, didn’t she? But maybe I could use that. He hadn’t moved away, and I could tell that he needed my scent as much as I needed his.

“Elias please,” I pleaded. “I’m sorry, I was just curious.” I tried to put on a vulnerable act. Men loved that, saving the damsel in distress, even from themselves. I felt Elias shift closer to me and felt his breath on my neck.

“I would do anything to believe you,” he whispered, and I felt his nose graze my neck. I closed my eyes and tried to pull myself against him. “I want to believe that you were just in the wrong place, that you never meant anything other than curiosity.” I felt his hand in my hair a second before he yanked my head back. I yelped in pain, and I found myself face to face with him again.

“But I know that you are lying to me,” he spat. “I know that you have betrayed me, your own mate.” He let go of my hair and stood up and walked to the other side of the room.

“I should have known,” he said, not looking at me. “You betrayed your mate before. Of course, you could do it again.” He turned and looked at me.

“Or maybe you didn’t, maybe it was all a lie.” He stalked towards me with fury on his face. “Was this all a ploy? Did you and Stokes have a good laugh after I told you my deepest painful moments?” He glared at me, and I could see the hurt in his eyes, and despite everything he was doing to me, I felt somewhere inside me like all I wanted to do was soothe his pain.

“Please, Elias,” I pleaded, tears running down my face. “Please, I didn’t want to hurt you.” He growled in response,

“You are a liar,” he growled and turned and punched a wall before turning on me again. I flinched at the hate in his eyes as he was about to say something else, but then something happened. Something I didn’t understand. It was like his body jerked, and his eyes went black. I looked on in fear at what was looking down at me. I didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t Elias. Even in his fury, whatever this was, was cold, evil, and soulless. I felt frozen in fear and even heard Maia whimper in the back of my head.

“Oh my goddess,” I whispered. “What are you?”

Marcus seemed to jump to attention all of a sudden and jumped in between whatever it was and me.

“No, you leave her alone,” he said, and the creature just laughed.

“Like you could stop me, you pitiful little wolf,” the voice that came out of Elias’ throat was deep and guttural again, nothing like Elias.

“But you protect her from me,” the thing said, and Marcus stiffened as if ready to fight, and the thing in Elias’ body nodded.

“Good, now protect her from him, or I will do it for him.” The thing looked at me and smiled, but I felt a chill run down my spine from it. He then looked back at Marcus. “He won’t like it if I have to do it myself.” He looked back at me with a smile, and then the black bled out, and the familiarity of Elias’s eyes was back. He looked confused for a moment as he looked between Marcus and me.

“What the!” he exclaimed, and Marcus stiffened again.

“He said not to hurt her,” Marcus said and stood taller. Elias looked at me, the confusion still on his face, but then it cleared, and his face fell into a blank look again.

“I won’t have to if she answers my questions,” he said and walked to the table where the black pouch was.

He stood in front of it for a couple of minutes before turning around and looking at me. He then untied the pouch and unrolled it. I could see glints of silver as it unrolled, and a new fear crept in. I could tell that Elias meant business. He turned and looked at me again and then pulled something out. I tried to see what instrument he planned on torturing me with, but he quickly pocketed it before coming and sitting back in the seat in front of me.

“Now, let’s start again,” he said, and a shiver ran down my spine.

“Did you come here to spy on me?” he asked, his eyes capturing mine. I knew there was no way that I was going to be able to sweet talk myself out of this. I looked him square in the face and sighed.

“Yes!” I said clearly and heard Marcus gasp. I glanced up at him quickly and saw that he looked at me, hurt on his face.

“Good. The truth, finally,” Elias said. He picked up my phone and looked at it. “And what was the reason for your mission? What did you hope to gain from spying on me?” he asked, and I glared at him.

“To take you down, you son of a b***h,” I snarled. “To stop you from what you were doing.” How could he even ask that? Why else would he be so protective of his operations if it wasn’t to get away with the evil things that his Circle does?

“So you mean to stop my plans?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Damn straight, I do. I don’t know how you think you have the audacity to be even shocked by it, you evil bastard,” I spat again. “Do what you want to me. I’ve already sent evidence to my superior. We will take you down,” I screamed at him.

It wasn’t just shouting at an evil man like the one in the club the other week. This wasn’t just another mission to me anymore. This man had broken down my barriers and got me to trust that he was even remotely good, and I felt every bit the fool I was for doing so. I put all my anger into that, all the pain that I was feeling right then. Elias just sat there, unmoving, unflinching. Like this didn’t even bother him one bit. He looked down, pulled something out of his pocket, and then looked at me. If I hadn’t been staring at him, I would only have seen the cold hardness, but I saw the flash of something else again for just a moment. It was that hurt that angered me the most. How dare he be hurt?

“Last question,” he said, “I already know the answer, but I want you to admit it to my face,” he said. “Who do you work for?”

“And I said go to hell, you son of a b***h,” I spat back at him. Elias sighed and looked down at the sharp tool in his hand.

“Fine, we’ll do it the hard way,” he said.

Just then, there was shouting from outside, and part of me hoped that The Council had got here just in time. The door burst open, and Tommy came flying in.

“Elias, stop!” he shouted. “She’s not The Circle!”

Both Elias and I glanced at each other in confusion, and then at the same time, we both looked at Tommy and exclaimed.

“What!”