Page 130 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“No,” Eric tells her. “Nothing that happened is your fault, Annette. You didn’t make any poor decisions. They did. They chose to abduct you and take you away.”

“Okay,” she says quietly. “Two masked men were suddenly behind me, and then everything happened so fast. They pulled something over my head, and there was something in it that made me lose consciousness. Before I did, I heard them talk about how they got another gem for their collection.”

Gems, here it is again.

“I can’t remember anything from there on until I woke up,” she admits. “I was in a room with a bed. The windows were locked. I couldn’t even look outside, and the doors were locked too. I was so scared. Then, there was Meg. One guy brought her to me; he was scary.” A shiver runs through her body. “So scary. Meg was shocked when she saw me and said something about me being so young, and she told Night—that’s his name—that he swore to never abduct someone so young, like they did with her.”

He indeed has kept her for all those years.

“Night got furious, and he hit her,” Annette mutters, her fingers clenching. “He dragged her out of the room, and then I didn’t see her for a couple of days. When she came back, she looked like she was even skinnier, and the skin around her neck was burnt. They probably restrained her with silver or something. It… it also looked like she got beaten.”

“We will make sure to get Meg out of there,” Arden says earnestly. “She has been with them for so long.”

“I… I had the feeling she was special to them,” Annette says.

“How so?” Arden wants to know.

“Not to all of the men, but to Night. I think he is their leader or something. But he is the one who keeps dragging Meg around. The others never even looked at her. I think they were scared to do so. Meg is the only one not locked in a room.”

“Is she allowed to roam freely?” Arden wants to know. “Is she working with them?”

“No, I think she is only allowed in two or three rooms, and they send her to the new gems to care for them. That’s how they call us. And Night, he sometimes touched her head or her arm, and when they branded me, she had to be there, too.”

“They branded you?” Arden asks.

Annette nods, showing him her wrist. There is a bandage around it, as the pack doctor checked her thoroughly and made sure to patch her up. She removes the dressing and there it is.Just like our previous victims, a tattoo branded into her skin. It’s inflamed and must hurt a lot.

“May I take a photo of it?” Arden asks her. “I want to send it to my friend. He will look up what it says.”

Annette nods.

“What about the other guys?”

“Well, there is Junior,” she says. “I think he and Night are friends or something. They are both tall and strong. Junior is probably the nicest,” she admits but grimaces while saying so. “But the bar is low. And then there is PJ. He is skinny and has blond hair and is creepy. Recently there has been a new guy, too, but I don’t know his name.”

“Can you work with one of my assistants to draw a phantom picture of them?” Eric asks.

“Yes, if that helps, I will do it,” she says.

“You mentioned gems,” Arden says.

“Yeah,” she starts before he can even form a question. “They are so weird about that, or rather Night is. I think the others just don’t really mind. He called me Opal, and when I said my name was Annette, he got mad and hit me. Meg then told me to not say my name in front of him but that she would make sure I wouldn’t forget it. She kept calling me Annette.”

“What did they call Meg again?” Arden asks.

“Azurite,” Annette answers promptly. “Night always kept saying how she is special, his most beautiful, special gem.” Another shiver goes down her spine. “He was obsessed with her.”

“Annette,” Eric starts. “This might sound weird to you now, but did you ever donate blood?”

“No,” she says promptly.

“Did you visit the city hospital recently, here in Paris?” he continues.

Annette stares at him. “Now that you mention it,” she mutters. “We went there with my school class. It was a two-day trip to Paris, and it was amazing. It was my first trip away from the pack, just with my friends from school. Our teacher did this science project with us, and we went to the hospital to get our blood group checked. Guess what? I was a super rare blood group!”

“I see,” Eric smiles. “Thank you.”

“Oh,” her head perks up again. “I forgot to mention something. The guys were all tattooed. Night had his on his neck.”