Chosen By My Mate's Father-in-law-Chapter 79: Going Rogue

[Jasmine’s POV]

Slowly, I fought my way through the blackness in my mind and opened my eyes. It was difficult to even do that. It felt like someone had glued them together.

I let out a low groan as I took in my surroundings, but my eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dark room I was in yet. If I concentrated hard enough, I could hear the sound of faint murmuring in the background.

My stomach stiffened when I realized I wasn’t alone.

Where the hell was I? Why did it feel like someone had taken a jackhammer to my skull? The back of my head pulsed from even the slightest movement, and I immediately closed my eyes.

Intense pain made me suck in a sharp breath. My whole body was aching like I’d been run over by a truck. My stomach let out a loud growl. When was the last time I ate?

My memories painfully came flooding back to me. Dinner with Isabella. Ditching her guards. The black van. Trying to fight off our attackers. The pain of the syringe in my neck.

My eyes flew open again.

We’d been kidnapped. Someone had been waiting to take the Lycan King’s daughter, and as soon as her guards weren’t around, they swooped in.

Fear coursed through me as my heart slammed against my chest. Panic crawled up my throat, and it seemed like there wasn’t enough air in the room.

But I couldn’t give in to my fear. I had to focus and assess my current situation.

Immediately, I tried to move my hands, but that made pain radiate up my arms.

“Ow,” I muttered quietly, not wanting my captors to hear me.

I looked down at my hands in my lap, and my stomach dropped. Silver shackles encircled my wrists, weakening my body and suppressing my wolf.

I was alone inside my head. Worry gripped me as I tried to access our pack’s mind link to call out for help—I’d even accept Elliot’s help at this point—but the silver did its job by repressing my wolf and the abilities that came with her.

Next, I looked around and swallowed nervously when I realized I was trapped in a dark cellar, propped up against the cement wall. There were metal bars on all sides, and it reminded me of a prison cell.

I tried to push away the feeling of claustrophobia as it threatened to overwhelm me.

I gasped when I looked to the side. Isabella was lying on the dirty ground next to me. She was unconscious, and in the dark light, I couldn’t tell if she was breathing. Silver chains encircled her wrists too.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, I scooted over to her and scanned her body. She had a wound on the top of her head that was slowly oozing blood, matting her thick, dark hair. Her face was as pale as a blank sheet of paper.

My hands shook with terror as I reached out to feel for a pulse.

“Please be alive. Please be alive,” I murmured like a mantra.

My shoulders slumped with relief when I felt the small thrumming on her wrist.

“Isabella,” I whispered, trying to shake her awake. “Please, wake up. We’ve been kidnapped. We need to try to escape.”

But she didn’t stir. Her only movement was the slight rise and fall of her chest. I looked around for something to stop the bleeding on her head. There was nothing.

I looked down at my dress and was about to rip off a piece of it when I heard the sound of heavy thudding on the cement outside of our cell.

My blood ran cold when I realized it was the sound of footsteps.

I froze with my hands at the bottom of my dress. The sound of murmuring floated through the bars of the cage. My ears pricked as I tried to eavesdrop on our kidnappers’ conversation. It took me a moment to calm down enough to quiet my heavy breathing. But without my wolf, I didn’t have my heightened hearing, so it was hard to make out what the voices were saying.

I heard enough to realize that they were rogue wolves, though, which I could have guessed.

“I still can’t believe you injected the other girl too,” one of them said with irritation in his voice. “We were only hired to take one.”

“What was I supposed to do?” another asked. “Leave the spare right there on the sidewalk as a witness to her little friend’s kidnapping?”

The first man sighed. “I guess you’re right. It’s lucky we had that other syringe handy.” He paused. “Now, the question is, what do we do with the spare?” His tone was low and dangerous.

My stomach jolted when I realized I had to be the spare that they were talking about. I was the other girl whom they didn’t know what to do with. As the Lycan King’s daughter, Isabella had to be their target. She was a lot more valuable for ransom than me.

So, what would they do with me?

Kill me? Torture me for fun? Keep me as a prisoner?

My mouth went dry as I considered the possibilities.

“Why don’t we just ask for more money?” one of the men suggested. “I’m not handing over two girls for the price of one.”

“But how do we even get in contact with the people that hired us?” another rogue asked. “When they hired us for this job, they didn’t give us a phone number or email. All of our communication with them has been through written notes that they delivered.”

“We don’t have to make a decision right now,” the third man said. “We gave them enough wolfsbane to knock them for a while. Let’s go get some food. I’m starving.”

I heard the sound of retreating footsteps, and as they faded away, I was just left with my racing thoughts and my rapidly beating heart.

The wolfsbane in my system, along with the silver shackles, had to be the reason for my aching muscles and pounding headache.

Now that our kidnappers were gone, I ripped off some fabric from my dress and pressed it against Isabella’s wound to stop her bleeding.

“Isabella, you have to wake up,” I hissed as loudly as I dared. “We’re in danger.”

As I kept trying to rouse her, I searched our surroundings for possible ways to escape. But the bars looked like they were made of silver too, and there was only one exit to the cellar. And I was sure that even if we managed to get out of here, that exit led right to where our kidnappers were stationed.

No matter what I did to try to wake up Isabella, her eyes remained closed. I didn’t even know how much time passed as I tried to shake her awake, but the next thing I was aware of was the sound of footsteps again.

The rogues were back.

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