บท 23: Runaway

Confusion dawned over the Tiberias Trio. Noah scratched the back of his head. Kallum quirked a brow, turning to Cruden for answers. Cruden never second-guessed himself. His memory was sharp as a blade. He paid attention to every little detail.

No one entered or exited Tiberias Pack House without Cruden's clearance. No one had access to Roselia and her room except for the handpicked staff members.

"The maid that we tortured when we initially believed she poisoned Roselia," Cruden growled. "We released her for wrong imprisonment and awarded her handsomely for the mistake."

Noah's mouth dropped open in shock. "At the entrance, I did smell a strong stench of that maid, but it was weak in Roselia's room. Do you think she tampered with Roselia's sandwich and then ran off?"

Cruden's nostrils flared. A rat. He could read the motive from a thousand miles away. He should've known the woman would try to get revenge. God f*cking damn it. He wanted to use the maid as a form of guilt trip for Roselia for not telling him the answers he needed. Now, he was regretting his own decision with every inch of his body and soul.

Cruden only had two regrets in his life. And they both involved women. He thought he had corrected one of the two, but now, it was becoming three regrets.

"F*cking hell," Cruden snarled under his breath, sharply turning to Kallum. "Comb through all the security cameras for that maid. She mustn't have gotten far. Lock the city down."

Kallum rapidly nodded.

"I want her caught, dead or alive, and brought to me." Cruden's orders were delivered through clenched teeth and restrained rage. He seldom raised his voice. He saw no need to intimate others with loudness. Anyone could yell. But not just anyone could murder and torture.

"Noah," Cruden called.

Noah straightened immediately, awaiting his orders. Cruden rarely gave him any commands. The little demands that Cruden did give, Noah fulfilled to perfection. He never wanted to let down the brothers who raised them. The brothers were Noah's first memory of this world. Their affectionate head pats. Their scowls at his tantrum. All of Noah's cherished memories involved his brothers.

"Watch over Roselia with your life. Do not let her out of your sight." Cruden's words were curt and cold. "Interrogate every doctor and nurse that comes to treat her. She is your priority. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir," Noah responded.

"Do not fail me, Noah."

Cruden and Kallum stalked off. The spacious corridor grew cramped with their presence. Testosterone and strength rolled off in waves. Their power captured all air in the hallway, suffocating any passerby.

Kallum was on a war path.

Cruden was headed for murder.

No one messed with the Tiberias Trio's property and got away with it.

- - - - -

The Tiberias Trio never hurt women. They were raised in a household where a woman was always abused. Day and night. A powerless mother's attempts to shield her children only resulted in double punishment on all four. Until, Cruden learned to take the hits in his mother's place. Learned to grit his teeth and bear the whip. Learned to brace his stomach for the impact of a fist.

It was beneath the Tiberias Trio to lay a hand on a woman. Rarely, did a woman commit an act so heinous in the Tiberias Pack that she'd be tortured or harmed. Rare, but not impossible.

In circumstances like this, their cousin dished the punishment. Anna Tiberias. The Torture Princess. With golden locks and sapphire eyes, her soft skin resembled a porcelain doll. With rosy cheeks and ruby lips, Anna was the counterpart to the Tiberias brothers.

"I really hate getting my dress dirty, you know?" Anna huffed, plopping onto the steel chair with her elbows leaned back. She gestured to her lace white dress stained red with blood. "You just had to call me on my off day."

Kallum's lips twitched at her blatant annoyance. He glanced over at Anna's masterpiece—a barely standing prisoner in rags and an open wound.

"Isn't this the same girl I dealt with a few days ago?" Anna waved her scalpel around, clicking her tongue. She was supposed to be in med school finishing up her last classes of the day. "You let her out for her innocence only to drag her back?"

Kallum cleared his throat. "When we released her, we paid off her parent's mortgage, doubled her salary, and provided a scholarship to her younger siblings in exchange for our mistake of believing she was the one who poisoned Cruden's wife."

Anna slowly nodded, impressed by how they fixed the situation, but knew the money barely dented the Tiberias fortune. Their family legacy was forged with blood money and dead bodies. Not a single competitor lived long enough to become an enemy of Tiberias Pack. Their great-grandfather made sure of it, and so did their grandfather, then their father, and now, Cruden Tiberias himself.

"In retaliation for our once-in-a-lifetime good deed," Kallum scowled. "The maid went along and committed the crime she was initially accused of. She tampered with Cruden's wife's food, triggering an extreme allergic reaction that left her bed-ridden."

"You know she has a name," Anna deadpanned.

"I don't bother to learn the name of servants," Kallum scoffed.

"I mean Cruden's wife," Anna snorted.

A stiffening silence suffocated them. The atmosphere grew dark and dangerous. Cruden's enigmatic presence lingered behind the two of them.

"Roselia."

Slowly, like victims in a horror movie, Anna and Kallum turned around to face Cruden.

Cruden Tiberias resembled a king on a throne. Except, the throne was a steel chair with rusted feet from all the blood that once splattered onto the sterling material. His expression was as empty as his haunting stare. Emotionless. No one could predict what ran through his mind.

"Her name is Roselia Nicolette Tiberias," Cruden warned.

"Are you sure it's not Roselia Nicolette Fiore Tiberias?" Anna teased, emphasizing "Fiore." Roselia's maiden name fell on deaf ears to Cruden.

"Don't poke the bear, Anna," Kallum muttered. "He'll bite your head off and leave you to the wolves."

Anna doubted that'd ever happen. She was family. Tiberias men always protected their family.

"Ugh…" the maid finally regained conscience after blacking out from the agony of Anna's precise cuts. Her werewolf blood healed her faster than a human could ever dream of. The subtle cuts were already sealed over within the hour that passed, revealing slight scabs.

"Make it quick, Anna." Kallum glanced down at his watch. "We don't have all day."

"It's not my fault Mary refused to speak after I yanked off all twenty of her finger and toenails," Anna muttered. "This one is more stubborn than the rest."

"Alpha…" Mary weakly pleaded, her voice hoarse from all the screaming. "I swear I'm innocent—"

"Bring in her little brother." Cruden rose to his full height. His large figure cast a dark, twisted shadow over Mary.

All the torture in the world won't make her speak. But what will?

"Ah, are we to skin the pup?" Anna groaned, circling Mary like a vulture out for meat. "Mother did ask for a new fur coat, but I was thinning mink and not wolf… considering we're werewolves and all."

"The fur would make a nice coat," Kallum said. "And the skin would be great leather for a new belt."

"N-no…" Mary whimpered, her eyes widening. "Please, m-my family is as innocent as me—AHHHHH!"

Mary shrieked as Anna sliced into her Achilles heel. Blood spurted from the open wound, but the pain of cutting the muscles was unbearable. Mary wailed, collapsing face onto the floor.

"I'll go and fetch the little boy," Kallum said. "I wonder if he'd scream as loud as her."

Kallum left the prison chambers. Cruden remained with Anna who wiped off the blood from her blade.

"Serves her right for trying to run away. Now, she can never walk again," Anna snickered with a shrug of her shoulders.

Cruden stared down Mary. Mary writhed like a fish out of water, drool dripping from the corners of her mouth.

"I just need a name, Mary." Cruden lit a cigarette, drowning out her cries and moans of blinding agony. "Who made you feed Roselia her deadly allergy?"

"Please…" Mary begged, her wrists bound behind her by silver chains forged with wolfsbane. The deadly plant and material burned into her body, leaving behind permanent scars. She was shaking uncontrollably from her pain as hair began to sprout from her skin. She was going to shift soon as if her wolf would dare to go against the mighty Tobias. Tobias would eat her wolf alive and leave no bones behind.

In the background, they all heard it.

The soft skip of a little boy hopping down the prison hallways. One skip. Two skips. His innocent voice filled the corridors, haunting everyone present. Naive and bright-eyed, he was a shining beacon in the darkest part of the Tiberias dungeons.

"Where are we going, Beta?" he asked with a chirp to his words. He was completely unaware of the dangers he happily walked into. "I'm so excited about this new toy!"

"No!" Mary cried out, recognizing the voice of her youngest brother. The baby of their family. "No, please!"

"A name," Cruden snarled. "That is all we need and your little brother goes home."

Anna hummed to herself, picking up a different tool on the table. To her, this was as easy as dissecting an animal. To her, the prisoner was not a werewolf. A traitor to the pack was as good as dead to her. "Ah, there's the skinning blade. Looks like it was sharpened by Kallum."

Mary gasped, her head snapping to the knife glistening under the swinging lightbulb. She had endured an hour of torture, her body barely able to sustain itself. Even now, her vision was blurring.

"Oh, Beta, I smell my sister. Is she holding onto the present for me?" the little boy asked, his voice growing closer now.

Mary screeched. "RUN AWAY!"

Cruden didn't even blink. He could hear the abrupt stop of the footsteps, frightened by her monstrous warnings. The doorknob began to turn. A set of keys loudly rattled, warning Mary of what was about to happen.

"A name." Cruden's words were the final exchange.

Mary knew there was no way out of this. Finally, in defeat, she uttered a single word. "Kerpan."