Page 79 of Captured By the Monsters
“It’s for my safety,” she asserted, making Rowen snort.
“Doubtful. What do you want?” he demanded, not caring about tact. Even though Sera was trying to fix both worlds, we weren’t here to make friends.
“I’m a member of the current human government—a leader representative—and can take you to the person you want to see.”
“Both of us?” the rebel leader prompted, and the leader representative sent him a glare.
“We both want to speak with him,” Sera shouted, still trying to break through the barrier we formed in front of her.
Good luck.
The representative looked angry at having to cater to the rebel, but wisely agreed to take Sera and him to the leader of The Above. Next to me, Axton tensed, and I knew he didn’t like this. We were walking into the situation blind, but Sera would be delighted—this was exactly what she wanted.
“Stand guard,” I cautioned Axton and Rowen in our tongue as I turned to my mate. Giving my back to the crowd made me vulnerable, but I trusted my Trifecta to protect me. “We will go, but you must stay between us,” I warned her in English.
She frowned but nodded, knowing this was her only option.
“Lead the way,” Sera ordered the woman.
I narrowed my eyes on the rebel leader who fell into step next to my mate. I wasn’t here to protect him, and I sure as hell didn’t want him this close to Sera. Axton took the lead while Rowen and I flanked our mate’s back.
If looks could kill, the woman wouldn’t have to worry about killing the rebel leader herself, as Rowen’s glare would already have done so. He clearly didn’t appreciate the human man cozying up to Sera any more than I did.
Axton stoically walked ahead, not looking back, but I was sure he was plotting murder, too. The rebel leader had no idea how many targets he’d just painted on his back, but knowing my mate, she would be upset if we did anything to him.
I wondered if maiming him was still an acceptable option, given the circumstances.
Silently, we walked through the Plaza. Occasionally I would lift Sera over a felled body, but her bare feet were stained with blood, along with the bottom of her dress. The sight flipped my stomach, and I felt sick that such ugliness dared touch her.
I longed to take her away from here, but Paratiisi wasn’t perfect either. Granted, it was better than The Above, but it still had its shadowed past. There was much for us to overcome, no matter where we were at, and at the end of the day, I was just thankful to be at Sera’s side.
The leader representative ushered us into a large building where she stopped at the elevators and scanned her keycard. The door pinged open, and she looked apprehensively back at us—whether from fear of being crammed in such a small space with monsters or from skepticism that we would all fit, I wasn’t sure.
It would be a very tight squeeze, but there wasn’t a chance the three of us were separating and not staying with Sera. We would just have to make it work.
Axton went in first, his shoulders hunched comically to accommodate his girth. He tugged Sera in, tucking her into his side and largely out of sight. Next, Rowen went in, and I followed. The leader representative grimaced when she attempted to find an open spot, but she managed to wedge inside, the rebel leader jumping in and pressing himself up against her. This earned him a fierce scowl, but I was happy he wasn’t near Sera anymore. The action might have just spared him his life, although I still couldn’t guarantee the leader representative wouldn’t finish him off for us.
The woman scanned her keycard and pressed an unmarked button. Immediately, the doors slammed shut and the elevator lurched into action, descending. The movement caught me off guard, and I quickly pressed back into Sera, poised protectively just in case.
When nothing happened, she poked me to give her some space. Normally I would have apologized, but I didn’t want to speak. Axton, Rowen, and I needed to remain alert. There was no telling what would happen when these doors opened.
The elevator rumbled on slowly, as if struggling against the number of occupants. Nothing inside indicated how many levels we had already descended, but it felt like we were returning back to Paratiisi—a very unsettling thought, indeed.
The rebel leader shifted uncomfortably next to the woman directing us. “Do these things have a weight limit?” he mumbled to her.
“Don’t talk to me,” she hissed primly just as the doors opened onto a lavish office space.
The rebel leader gave a low whistle as we all exited the elevator. “Must be nice being rich and in control.”
“Actually, don’t speak at all,” the representative snarked, amending her previous statement.
In just a few steps she was swiping her card again on a scanner next to the metal doors that were currently sealed shut. After the card beeped, the lock unlatched and she tugged the heavy door open, motioning for us to go in.
As soon as we walked in, I heard the sounds of screams and fighting like what we had seen when we first got out of the shuttle. Rounding the corner, a large office space greeted us.
A man sat in a chair with his feet up on the glass table in front of him as he rewound the video and pressed play, watching the violence that had occurred again.
“Have our guests arrived?” his nasally voice rang out, making me cringe.
“Yes sir.”
“We are here to negotiate a new treaty with you,” I offered, wanting to waste no time in making our intentions clear. I didn’t want him to think we were the enemy.
He chortled in response and lowered his feet to the ground, spinning around to face us. “Please enlighten me on why exactly I would do that, when the current one is working out so perfectly?
My monsters growled at my side, and I couldn’t hold my tongue as I snapped back, “I wouldn’t consider sending countless women to their deaths to be ‘working perfectly.’”
With a shrug of his shoulders, he pushed from the table and buttoned his suit jacket. “Better their deaths than mine. That’s what my forefathers always said, and I’m inclined to agree with them.”
