Page 101 of Beast

No one took it.

“Who delivered it?” Pavel demanded.

“It came flying over the fence, boss. When I looked over to see where it came from, all I saw was the tail end of a car peeling down the road. We already scanned for explosives or harmful substances, and it came back clean.”

Pavel glanced at me, an indecipherable look in his eyes. “You expecting a package?”

“No, boss.”

Lev and Dominik exchanges glances. Sacha looked at Efrem, then nodded.

“Let me see it.” Efrem reached for the envelope and the soldier handed it over.

We all waited as Efrem opened it and pulled out a cellphone. Taped to the phone was a sticky note with my name on it.

Efrem lifted his gaze to mine. “This your phone?”

I stared at the phone, drawing in a deep breath. “Looks like it, yeah.”

Pavel and Alexei exchanged a glance.

“Wait, there’s something else in here…” Efrem stuck his hand back in the envelope, pulling out a lock of long blonde hair that had been secured together with a piece of duct tape.

Bile churned in my gut. I had no doubt it was a piece of Annika’s hair.

Alexei let out a sound of anguish, reaching for the lock of hair. Efrem slowly handed it over, his hand shaking.

“I hope to God you had nothing to do with this, Adrik, or so help me, I’ll kill you myself,” Efrem vowed. The vengeance in his eyes and in his words was rare. The kid was so easy going that he rarely got riled up. He was also honest to a fault, so I knew his words to be truth. Hewouldkill me if he thought I had knowingly been a part of this.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and everyone tensed.

“Answer it, Adrik,” Pavel ordered. “And put it on speaker so we can hear.”

Efrem handed me the phone, a wary look on his face that said hewantedto believe in me but still didn’t know if he could.

Blowing out a breath, I swiped the screen, knowing who it was even before I looked at the number.

Please let my suspicions be wrong.

Every gaze in the room focused on me.

“If you’ve hurt her, I’m killing you,” I threatened into the phone.

A chuckle. “You don’t scare me, Beast. A true wolf would never abandon his pack. Atrue wolfwouldn’t make promises he had no intention of keeping. You’re just apiglike all the rest.”

My chest caved in. This wasn’t the boy I’d once known.

But his words confirmed my suspicion. I knew, without a doubt, that Damien was on the other end of the line.

“Oh, did you like the lock of pretty blonde hair I sent you? So soft and fair. That’s the first piece of her I’m sending you. There will be others, too, unless you cooperate and do what I say. I’m thinking I’ll send you a finger next, or maybe a toe.” He let out a high-pitched chortle.

Fuck me.He’d completely lost his mind. How did I talk him out of hurting her and into letting her go?

“Let her go,” I pleaded. “She’s innocent in all this. Whatever you want, you can take it out on me.”

“Oh, I guarantee I will be taking it out on you, but I plan to play with the pig a bit first.” He sniggered.

Motherfucker.How could this psycho be Damien? I needed to calm him down, not antagonize him any further.

---