"Back at that time, I had no idea that the people who had kidnapped were not humans..."

Emily smiled bitterly at the memory as she continued, "... my first encounter with the Supernatural races wasn't really a good one. I did not get to see their monstrous side until the third night when I decided to flee from the dungeons where I was locked with many others. They caught me... and brought me back to a hell that refused to let me go no matter how much I cried or pleaded."

​​

She felt one of Shadow's hands on her right foot as he squeezed it lightly, not sure whether to comfort her or himself.

"Did they... did they t-tor-tor.....t-tor..."

"Tortured me?" Emily asked, voicing out the question that Leo was having a hard time asking.

The bittersweet smile on her face made everyone fear the answer, not like they already did not know. They were just reluctant to accept it. But if Emily answered the question, they would no longer be able to fight the truth.

Emily could read their expressions, the reluctance in their eyes but this was what they were dying to know and she was finally ready to reveal.

She took a deep breath before replying in a low voice, "What else they were supposed to do? Praise me for trying to escape? Of course, they tortured me. But their main torture started when they failed to compel me into an obedient slave and I ended up meeting the man who was controlling the entire human trafficking system in City X."

Once again she felt all of the men around her stiffening at her words but no one spoke, probably because they had no words to say at the moment.

"I hate him... Everyone used to call him Fifth Sire, so I never got to know his real name, and because he always used to wear a mask, I also did not see his face. In short, I don't know anything about him... but he's the only person whom I hate... really hate..."

She felt nine pairs of eyes trained on her but the one which made her react was Shadow's piercing gaze as he looked at her in surprise.

Kaiden felt his fingers twitching and he curled them into tight fists to control himself and his wolf that was ready to destroy everything at the moment.

Hate... It was the first time he had heard his angel saying those words and the fact that she confessed about hating someone, scared him more than he wanted to agree.

She was such a person who would not hate even her worst enemies but here she was, accepting that there was indeed someone in the world whom she hated... hated enough to destroy him. Kaiden could see that in her beautiful eyes.

What he would have done to her to make her hate him so much?

This question was ringing in not only his mind but almost in everyone's mind. But no one found the courage of asking the question.

"Don't you guys wanna know why I hate him... especially when he never hurt me?"

Emily's sudden question made everyone look at her in confusion. It was Simon who finally divided to ask, "He didn't?"

Emily slowly shook her head in denial before she spoke, "He didn't... but he also didn't stop his lackeys from torturing me. The only thing that he did in my favor was to warn his men from ever touching me in the wrong way... but it was also because he wanted me for himself..."

This time, none of the men sitting around her seemed to control their anger. The growl that escaped Kaiden's lips was filled with anger and warning while she felt Shadow stiffening even more.

Mark was already out of his seat while Rylan was trying to stop Simon from punching someone or something.

"Don't worry. He also never touched me in the wrong way. Luckily he was not impressed with my underdeveloped thirteen-year-old body and wanted to wait for a few years while training me, in the meantime, to become his perfect slave." Emily told the men but realized that none of them seemed to calm down at all.

"Because they failed to compel me or read my mind again and again, they started doubting my identity as a human and to make my true self come out, they made me experience the worst of that hell."

She stopped when suddenly her eyes landed on the silver chain that was sitting inside the box.

"That chain... they used to bind some of the humans with silver chains and those people mostly received the worst tortures. It took me a few months to realize that those people were also not humans... there were supernaturals hostages. And just like them, I was also tied with these silver chains that cut..."

Emily suddenly stopped, not wanting to tell them how she was tortured by those silver chains and how she watched the other captives also getting tortured.

"Well... let just say that I experienced the worst in those eight months that I spent in the dark and cold dungeons. Either I was being tortured or I was made to see others getting tortured. That's why I hate him. Not only because of what he did to me but also because of what he did with the others."

Emily felt her voice wavering when the bloody and sad scenes of the day when she earned her freedom from that hell, suddenly started appearing in front of her eyes.

A very familiar face also appeared, still full of life and warmth even though she was on the verge of dying.

Emily recalled the memory of how she watched the beautiful girl dying in front of her very eyes with a silver bullet that entered her heart from the back. She recalled how the brightness of those beautiful eyes dimmed before they became lifeless...

She felt her vision blurring as the memory of the beautiful girl made tears welled up in her eyes. One of the things that she had regretted was not trusting that girl and never giving her a single chance to complete whatever she wanted to tell her from the very first day the two of them came across each other in the fourth month after Emily got captured.