Chapter 233 - Unexpected Zoe

When Zoe rounded the corner to the rear of the old abandoned cottage, she saw Lucas sitting on Andreas' back. Andreas was struggling against the hold Lucas had on his wrists.

"Stay still, old man," Lucas spat, yanking Andreas' wrists harder to get him to stop struggling.

As Zoe got closer, Andreas heard her approach and caught her scent.

"That little bitch told you where I was, didn't she?" the elder sounded absolutely unhinged with rage. "She's too damn smart for her own good," he snarled.

Lucas rose and pulled Andreas up to stand with him, and the elder sent such a vicious glare her way, she stumbled back a little.

"What happened to you?" Lucas asked, noticing that she was drenched in water and shivering.

"I fell in the creek," she shrugged, teeth chattering. "So I was right!"

"Of course you were right. You know everything about me. You think that makes you smart? No, it makes you a fucking traitor, Zosime. Does this guy even know what you are? Does Graeme?" Andreas was snarling, spit dripping from his mouth as his eyes narrowed menacingly at her.

"We all know she's a fucking vampire old man, so don't even worry about it," Lucas shoved him in the direction of the pack house.

"A vampire? She told you that?" Andreas' voice plummeted. They weren't entirely right, but they weren't wrong either. But she wasn't supposed to be able to divulge any of that information.

"No she didn't tell us, she let Greta throw her off of the treehouse. And then when she didn't get hurt, we kind of figured it out. Keep walking."

Andreas began chuckling. It started out small like a death rattle in the elder's throat, but then he was quickly roaring with enormous, unrestrained laughter. Lucas stopped walking, wondering if Andreas had actually lost his shit.

"I would have loved to have seen that," he guffawed. "Maybe we can make it a local attraction. Throw Zosime from the treehouse."

"Whatever. You can make yourself laugh all night with that shit while you're sitting in a cell," Lucas growled. "Zoe, he dropped something on the ground back there when I grabbed him. Go get it please."

Zoe jogged back to the area where both males had been struggling on the ground. It was completely dark now, but thankfully her vision allowed her to see better than most. A glass bottle was lying on its side with a clear liquid in it. She picked it up and examined the contents visually. It appeared that there was some crushed up white powder in the bottom of the bottle.

Jogging back to catch up with Lucas and the elder, who was still being shoved ahead through the forest, Zoe shook the glass bottle so that Lucas could see.

"What is it?"

"It looks like Andre was trying to dissolve pills of some kind. That must be why he was in my lab."

"Your lab? I gave you all of that, you ungrateful, fucking psychopath. That's my lab!"

"What drugs are in the bottle, Andreas? Who is it for?" Lucas twisted his wrists tighter.

"You think you can make me tell you by hurting me, pup?" the elder snarled.

"Oh, you know what? I bet whatever it was he ground up in the cottage while he was in there. I'll go look and catch up with you!" Zoe said before darting away from them.

A snarl puttered in Andreas' throat.

"What, is she on to something there, Andre?"

"You sure got cocky fast. I seem to recall you helping us on several assignments."

"I never knew what it was for. And I never knew all of the sick things you did," Lucas hissed.

"So you're believing that vampire girl, are you?"

Lucas was done answering or bickering with the elder. It was going nowhere, and it was annoying. Instead, he used one hand to call Graeme to let him know what was going on.

By the time Zoe caught back up to them, they were already nearing the dungeon. Graeme and his second were waiting for them there, so Lucas handed him off. Andreas groaned and rubbed his wrists, shooting a glare at Lucas as he did.

Graeme didn't find it necessary to hold his wrists, as there was no chance for Andreas now. He was outnumbered and significantly overpowered.

"Good work, Zoe," Graeme nodded to the girl who was proving to more helpful than he thought. "Did you find out what was in the bottle?"

"Yes, it was misoprostol. He ground it up and tried to dissolve all of it. That was the procedure we used when…"

Andreas launched at her unexpectedly, knocking her down with a big thud against the ground before she could get the words out to implicate him. He was going to bite her fucking tongue out for saying anything against him. How could she? She came with a guarantee to be loyal to him, and now she was speaking of his transgressions right in front of his face—right in front of the Alpha!

Zoe screamed in surprise, and then she felt him try to clamp down on her face. She wiggled beneath him, shaking her head back and forth and pushing him away, but eventually his teeth caught a good hold on her and he shook.

It was the most excruciating pain she had ever felt in her life. She didn't even know that kind of pain was possible.

Lucas and Graeme pulled Andreas off of her. Graeme had to grab the elder's jaw and unlock it from the girl in order to tear him away, and he dislocated his jaw in the process, causing it to hang gruesomely open to one side.

Zoe was screaming between haggard breaths, and she didn't even appear to realize it. Her face was frozen in shock, mouth open, blood pooling and covering her in red. It was dripping into her eyes and running down her cheeks and into her hair. All the males stared at her in horror, aside from Andreas who would have smiled if he could.

She wasn't supposed to be able to get hurt, but there were two gaping crescent-shaped wounds on either side of her face—one under her right eye and one low on her left cheek. It appeared as though Andreas truly wanted to rip the girl's face off.

After coming to his senses, Lucas tore his shirt off and bent down to put pressure on the bleeding that wasn't stopping. Why wasn't it stopping?

"I thought she was a fucking vampire!" he growled, annoyed that he hadn't foreseen something like this happening.

The death rattle of a chuckle knocked eerily in Andreas' throat.. No one realized that he was the only one who could hurt her, not even Zoe.