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I see the muscle in Archer’s jaw clench. “Who is this alpha?”

Carol just shrugs. “He went by Niall. Don’t know too muchmore than that, though, I’m not one for questions, especially since the guy was getting me my pills.”

“Thank you for answering our questions,” Archer says.

“No need to thank me, where’re my pills?” Carol’s eyes get wilder and the muscles in her body tense.

“We didn’t say anything about giving you any pills,” Chase says, a look of genuine bewilderment on his expression.

“But I helped you! It’s the fucking least you can do!” She stands from the seat, screaming in Chase’s face.

Chase’s expression immediately grows serious. She moves a lot more quickly than I ever would’ve expected from a woman of her age and stature, and starts clawing at Chase’s face.

“Fucking come on! Seriously?” Chase yells before knocking the woman out. He holds her body away from his as he lets her unconscious body slump to the floor.

There’s an angry red welt across his cheek where she scratched him.

“You good?” I ask him.

“Fine,” he says, wiping at his cheek with the back of his hand. “Should’ve expected something like that.”

Archer glances up from his phone, nodding to both of us. “I asked Madden to come back up here.”

Madden appears in the hallway a second later, a dark scowl on his face as he drags the smaller beta man along with him. “You gotta see this shit,” he growls.

He’s not even aiming his glare at Roger, but Roger might as well be so scared he looks like he’s almost going to piss himself.

Madden guides us down the hall, nudging open a bedroom door to reveal a room the size of a closet. It’s absolutely tiny with nothing but a twin-sized mattress on a rusty frame and a small set of drawers at the foot of the bed.

“This was her bedroom,” Madden says.

The one thing that catches my eye is the windowsill. There are a few books there. Luna mentioned something about really likingto read. Considering those are the few things that’re actually in the room, besides the basic essentials, I’d assume they’re important to her. I need to remember to grab them.

Madden continues dragging us down the hall before stopping at another door. This one is thicker, newer, and overall, doesn’t fit the dilapidated feel of the rest of the house.

“This is where she spent her heats,” Madden growls.

The rest of us stiffen as he opens the door, revealing a dark staircase down to a dingy concrete cellar space. As we head down, there’s the obvious smell of dust from the cardboard boxes in the corner, but also the hint of something overwhelmingly sweet it almost chokes me. The air is thick with it.

It’s the smell of an omega who never got relief from an alpha during her heat. It’s the scent of Luna’s pain.

Even though she hasn’t been in this room in a long time, the scent is so strong it lingers down here, soaked into the cardboard and coating the room like its own sort of twisted, hormone dust.

The blood in my veins boils when I see a dingy pallet in the corner of the room, where the acrid scent is most obvious.

“Your turn to answer fucking questions, motherfucker,” Madden growls, aiming the full force of his glare down at Roger.

“So this is where you locked Luna away during her heats?” Archer asks, his rage making his voice shake.

“It—it’s 'cause I was ordered to.”

“By this Niall person?”

Roger’s eyes widen at the sound of that name.

“Your wife spilled,” Chase says, his jaw ticking as his eyes continue to bounce around the small room.

“Who is he?” Archer growls.