Carnal

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Cutting it Close

"I thought you were dead."

Cain's voice wavered as he spoke.

"I am dead," Jacob scowled, swatting Cain's hand from his throat.

Cain seemed taken back by the ease with which Jacob pushed him away. Jacob however, walked slowly around him to face the audience he had gained.

"I do apologize that you've all wasted your time today," he said, genuinely seeming remorseful. "I will admit that I considered killing you all now since Cain set everything up so perfectly, but I have a plan and that I intend on carrying through to the end."

"Don't worry though," he continued, "you'll all die eventually, but it will be far more climactic than this."

"Why would you come if just to taunt me?" Cain asked.

Jacob laughed.

"I'm your brother, I should think that every opportunity to taunt you should be taken."

The temperature of the room cooled significantly as the revelation was made and those sitting in their seats realized who stood before them.

"Oh well," Jacob said, looking down at his watch. "It's time for me to go, I'm a very busy man these days; you know, places to be and people to kill and all."

Before turning to walk away Jacob stopped to look at the young girl who still sat quietly in her seat. He smiled at her and gave her a wink.

I felt my stomach twist in disgust as she smiled back, not realizing the man who was ultimately responsible for the death of her own father.

As Jacob made his way to the door, he stopped and turned over his shoulder.

"One more thing," he said to Cain. "If you have any sense at all, I know you're thinking about following me. You should know that at this exact moment, the most important Beta of them all—having been unknowingly sedated with a lethal dose of wolfsbane—is en route to a palace belonging to someone in this room where he will be held captive and eventually die. He has less than seventy-two hours to live and should you want to save him, I think it would be best to divert your energy into finding out who in this room has betrayed you."

I saw Cain's shoulders fall.

"Good luck, brother," Jacob said. "For his sake, I hope you find him soon. Wolfsbane will kill him in less than seventy-two hours, but it will make him wish he was dead in the next twelve."

With that, Jacob left the stunned room sitting in silence, not forgetting to close the door behind him as he left.

Almost as soon as the door latch clicked into place, the room erupted into a frenzy. Fingers were pointed as accusations were shouted.

All trust left the room when Jacob did.

Despite the chaos around him, Cain had his back to everyone, still staring at the door as if frozen by the responsibility of choosing between his given options.

I stood up, ignoring Zahra as she tried to pull me back and walked quickly around the commotion to Cain.

"Follow him," I told him quickly, grabbing his arm. "Don't let him get away. We'll find out who has Daniel."

Cain turned to me with a blank expression.

"You heard her, go," a voice said from behind me.

I turned to see the same blond man who had sat next to Cain earlier, the Australian one.

When Cain didn't react, the man grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

"Go, dammit," he said. "Jai and I will help her find Daniel."