Introducing Doctor Murphy Shelby. (can't remember if I gave him a model in a previous chapter tbh so enjoy this hunk lol)

Chapter 23

Charlie POV

"King, we didn't discuss removing the child." Marcus immediately said, clearly in shock by the sudden revelation. King only looked at him in disinterest and what looked like disappointment as well.

Meanwhile, I was over here trying to think of how to escape.

"He's an abomination, Marcus." I heard King say and it drew me from my thoughts. "Besides, once I tell them he's pregnant and show the evidence, I'm sure his mate would want me to cut it out of him anyway." That last statement sent a pang of hurt through my heart. I knew that most likely wouldn't be the case when Kit found out, but then again...I didn't know how he actually would react.

Any man...no any person that finds out another man is pregnant would immediately think I was a freakshow.

"But King, Murphy said--"

"Murphy is not the Alpha!" King growled and Marcus backed down, clearly seeing he was overstepping his boundaries. "I heard what Murphy said and I told him I would take it into consideration, and I did only to decide I like my plan better."

"If you kill him and take the cut the child out they won't hand over Allister to you!" Marcus yelled in desperation for his Alpha to hear him out, but it only made King more furious and he backhanded Marcus so hard, something in his face cracked. He fell to the floor with a scream of pain and I only watched the scene with wide eyes.

Shit, I gotta come up with a plan fast!

King wasted no time in having everyone move the table and chairs out of the way before adjusting the camera to make sure it had a clear view of me, King and the tray of various sharp objects.

King hit the call button and Marcus slowly recovered and came to take his place beside King. His cheek was severely bruised and his eyes holding a fury I had never seen before. My attention was brought to the projector screen as the cameras connected and I was met with a furious and exhausted looking room of males.

I noticed it was one of our conference rooms and I was concerned about how he was able to get into the projectors we had in them. Apparently, Bryce was confused as well.

"How the fuck did you get on this? Did you hack our systems?" He snapped and King only smiled, clearly showing that was exactly the case and he was very proud of it. I immediatley searched for one person in particular in the room, and when I found them I resisted the urge to cry out.

"Charlie!" Kit yelled and I bit my lip looking down at the table. I had to be strong. I couldn't let this break me if I was going to escape. "Oh, Goddess." He gasped and I took a deep breath before looking up and tensing when King grabbed my shoulders and squeezed them tightly.

"As you can see, I allowed Charlie the chance to clean up. Even gave him new clothes and some food." King said happily, but everyone in the room looked pissed still which seemed to confuse him. "Are you all not happy with this? I'm treating him very nicely."

"How about you fucking let him go?" Allister snapped and King let out a small growl that was not because of anger, but because he was horny. Which was gross. This dude was a serious horndog, holy shit.

Then again so am I.

Sigh. Not the time Charlie. Not the time.

"My, my. You look more handsome than I last remember Allister, baby." King cooed and Bryce tensed up moving to block everyone's view of his mate. King frowned at that but sighed and shook his head. "Nonetheless! I'm sure you all are wondering why I've "hacked" your system, as you so rudely put it."

"There's no rudely put it. That's what you did, dickstain." Nikolai yelled and King tilted his head in what looked like curiosity, but I could see the desire swimming in his eyes. Oh god, please don't tell me he's about to hit on him...

"Well, who are you?" King purred. "If I had seen you before Allister, I would've taken you instead," Lysander growled and looked like he was about ready to jump through the damn screen and rip Kings throat out, but no one was allowed to speak when Marcus cleared his throat to gain his attention.

"King, a word please." King didn't look pleased with his Beta ordering him, but he agreed nonetheless and stepped aside. I took the opportunity to look around the room for my escape plan. If Kit and everyone saw me escape they could come get me. I'm almost positive they had Nixon or his brother doing some digging to get Kings location. Upon my inspection, I soon realized I only had one plan to escape.

They were keeping me drugged with Wolfsbane, which explained why I wasn't cuffed at the moment. They must have slipped more into my meal as well because I felt more sluggish than usual. My only option was to let them torture me first, and then the second I got a clear shot, I would grab one of the scalpels and use it to my escape. Even if I couldn't use my wolf, I could still use my training. After we found out King was making use of his wolfsbane, our Pack began extensive training to still fight and win battles in our human forms.

And it also helped that Tyler had friends who were ex-Navy Seals to assist with the training.

King and Marcus were returning and I looked back at the screen to see Kit staring at me. He knew what I was planning and gave me a nod of his head and a smile.

"I hear you have been hosting my father-in-law in your Pack. Tell me, how is the old man?" King chuckled and Bryce looked about done with the playful banter King kept trying to have.

"Cut the shit. Tell us your plans with Charlie so I can figure out exactly how I want to end your pathetic life." Bryce growled and the sudden attitude switch King did make my stomach drop. Now I knew why he was so evil. That face was so disturbing and I could already imagine what I was about to endure.

"Doctor Shelby, please enter," King ordered and I heard Allister gasp and rise from his seat a little as the Doctor entered the room with some machines. I instantly recognized the ultrasound machine and my body froze. I looked at King and Marcus and then at the screen as everyone else looked extremely confused.

"What are you playing at?" Bryce asked slowly and King didn't respond, just watched as Murphy got to work with setting up the machine. More people brought out a small operating chair and started to move me onto it, but I refused to go without a fight. I kicked and punched as much as I could, but Murphy looked tired with my resistance and injected me with more wolfsbane so the others could restrain me to the chair.

"What did you just put in him?" Kit yelled and I continued to struggle slowly, tears rolling down my face. I couldn't let him find out. Please, Goddess don't let them do this!

"I conducted a blood test on your mate back at your clinc--"

"That you killed our Doctor to take the place of." Lysander snapped and Doctor Shelby sighed tiredly.

"The results I got back were very...peculiar. I--well actually, I'll just let you see for yourselves." He moved to lift my sweater up, but I kept squirming to make it difficult for him. Doctor Shelby looked incredibly tired of my resisting and nodded at some of the guards who came over and held me down.

"No please! Don't do this! They cant know!" I begged and it fell on deaf ears as he coated my lower stomach in the gel and I heard the gasps fill the room as he put the machine to my stomach and projected the image on the screen.

"He is with child." King said triumphantly and I refused to look at everyone's faces. They were disgusted, I knew it. They didn't want me back now. King started laughing as the Doctor cleaned up my stomach and the guards moved me from the operating chair, back to my normal one. The silence that filled the air further jammed the thought of them being disgusted in my head. All my old emotions came flooding back to me and I soon realized...I wanted to die.

I wanted King to end me here. I didn't care anymore. They didn't want me and their silence was clear. How are you supposed to explain that your Betas mate, who is a male, got pregnant to other Packs? Hell, if anyone find out at all about me, I could be kidnapped and experimented on. And I'm sure Bryce and everyone would let it happen.

King finally decided to speak. "The lack of silence is something I was looking--"

"So what if he's pregnant?" Kit interrupted and I jerked my head up to look at him in shock and...admiration. "All the more reason to get him back." He was staring at me the whole time and I so desperately wanted to see hate and disgust in his eyes, but all I saw was love and determination. King didn't look too pleased with his declaration, however.

"He's a male. And he's pregnant. Is that not strange to you?" He asked and Kit shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe...a little. But I don't care about it enough right now. My mate is scared as it is I'm sure and it just gives me all the more reason to kick your ass if you hurt him or our baby." King stared at him for a while before he smiled and turned to look at me.

"You have a very determined mate here Charlie." He chuckled and I glared at him.

"Yeah and he always comes through with his promises." I spat. The reaction I was expecting and the one I got were polar opposites as King started laughing like a maniac. Even the other people in the room were looking uncomfortable.

"You people are killing me with these jokes!" He howled, bending over and clutching his stomach as he continued to laugh. "You really think I'm just going to let you come in here and take something from me again? I gave you Allister with the sole intention of getting him back." He wiped some tears from his eyes and moved around to stand behind me. I started to get antsy as the same guys from before walked over and gagged me. I couldn't see what was happening behind me, but I could see Kit and everyone's eyes going wide and what Marcus said made my heart drop into my stomach.

"Shouldn't we restrain him before we do that?" He asked and King clucked his tongue.

"Of course not. He's so pumped full of wolfsbane he can hardly stand without falling." King chuckled and then leaned down beside my ear. "Besides, I gagged him so I don't have to hear his pitiful screams." He whispered and I started yelling through the cloth in my mouth.

"Charlie, baby look at me." Kit called out and I tried to keep my eyes on him as panic took over my body. I was having a panic attack and he knew this and was trying to calm me down. "You need to breathe. I'm going to get you out of there, okay?"

Once again that didnt please King at all.

He threw whatever was in his hands back on the tray and the loud noise made me jump. "Stop trying to ruin everything I have planned! You are going to come here with Allister and maybe I'll give you your freakish mate back!" He yelled and Kit pierced him with a cold glare.

"Not happening."

"So then you'll just have to watch as I dissect your unborn child from your mate," King said smugly, but Kit wasn't giving up.

"Also not happening. You may not know it King, but we have several tricks up our sleeves and one of them is right under your nose." I didn't expect what happened next to happen. So when the knife pierced down straight through my thigh, I didn't stop my screams and the tears that escaped, muffled by the cloth in my mouth. Normally something like this shouldn't hurt that bad for me, but it literally felt like he just stabbed me with a burning knife. I was slowly going in and out of consciousness from the pain and I could hear a lot of yelling going on, mostly from my family as King laughed.

Snap out of it Charlie. Is that my wolf? So now you want to fucking join the party.

I can't help you because of the wolfsbane, but you've trained for this. You aren't restrained. Grab the knife and get out of there. My wolf snarled and he was right. I could do this. This was my escape. Everyone was too preoccupied with the commotion going on to notice me ripping the knife out of my leg, knocking over my chair and slashing Marcus on the chest as he advanced on me. King was caught in the crossfire of my falling chair but quickly regained his composure as Marcus fell to the floor clutching his chest. I dodged King as he tried to grab me and moved swiftly to get behind him, slicing him once on the back of the knee and again on the neck as I came back up. He immediately fell down and I took the chance to run, stumbling a little and dodging the few guards in the room, slicing away as I made it to the door.

But not before someone sucker-punched me straight in the face.

I staggered backward, clutching my broken nose and glared at the man who hit me. None other than baldy with the eagle tattoo.

"I've been waiting to kick your ass." I sneered and he matched my tone.

"Likewise." He lunged for me and I twirled around him, kicking him in the back and watching him stumble forward before whirling around to face me. He was about to take another hit but got distracted by Marcus yelling for everyone to help their Alpha as he laid there bleeding out as his wolf tried to heal his wound. I took the opportunity to stab baldy in the neck and didn't waste time in running out the door as he fell to his knees, blood gurgling from his mouth.

Think fast, Charlie.  I chanted to myself as I glanced at the many corridors. My brain was too muggy to think clearly and try and remember the path they took me along and I was struggling to keep consciousness. Wolfsbane and a gashing wound do not mix. The wolfsbane was making my healing abilities non-existent. So I either found something to stop the bleeding or I would probably bleed out before the drug wore off and I could heal properly. I had no time to think of even the tiniest thought of a plan when I heard shouting and footsteps coming my way. Fuck! Doing enie-menie-miny-mo in my head, I chose a corridor and went down it, silently praying that no one was going to bum rush me.

The guards were advancing on me and I had no other option but to run into a random room and block it with the closest thing I could find. Once I had shoved the desk in front of the door, I took a second to observe my surroundings. I didn't have a weapon anymore, due to it being embedded in someone's neck and I couldn't use my claws because of the fucking drug. 

Shit. I am so fucked.

My eyes widened as they settled on a window and I almost cried out in joy. I hadn't seen a damn window since I've been here. But why is it that this room has a window when all the others didn't?

"That's because I like feeling natural sunlight every once and while." I whirled around to face who was in the room with me and narrowed my eyes as Doctor Shelby walked casually over. "I'm not here to hurt you, Charlie." He said tiredly, but I didn't stop glaring at him.

"Like I would believe you." I spat. "You're the reason I'm in this mess."

"And now I'm going to be the reason you're out of it." I stared at him in confusion. What type of double meaning is that?

"Is this a joke?"

Doctor Shelby clucked his tongue and shook his head while putting his hands in the pockets of his lab coat. " 'Fraid not. I have an escape plan for you to meet up with Julian."

"How do you know about Julian?" I snapped, back on the defense. This dude just smelled like bad news. And he smelled in general...but that's beside the point.

"Let's just say we have a mutual friend." He could see I wasn't believing anything he was saying and he sighed. "As much as I would love to go back and forth with you, we are running out of time. I have to go hold King and Marcus off in time for Julian to get to the rendezvous point--and you need to be there."

"Wait, hold up on second. You're working with King! How are you suddenly talking like Julian is your best friend--"

"I never pinned you to be this stupid Charlie." He tsked and I snarled. "Use your brain. Your mate just said they had someone helping them within King's circle."

"Maybe I could use my brain if you hadn't of pumped me full of fucking wolfsbane." He pursed his lips at that and pulled a small vial out of his pocket, handing it to me.

"This is an antidote I've been working on. I don't know much about its effectiveness, seeing as that is only from the fifth batch I've made, but its worth a shot if you're willing to risk the side effects to get out of this." I took the vile and eyed it for a second. I did really want to leave here. I wanted to go home. I wanted to see my parents. I wanted to have Kit hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. No matter how much I wanted to ignore Doctor Shelby and kick him where the sun don't shine, I could sense some truth behind his words. 

"Fine. How are we doing this?" Doctor Shelby looked relieved when I agreed and clapped his hands together.

"I'm going to handle King and his minions, so don't worry about them. Wait three minutes after I leave and then head down to the end of this hall, make a left and you'll come to a staircase going down to a basement. Follow the hallway down there and then make a right and you should see a fence with some boxes in front of it. Julian will be waiting there for you. That's all I know, so what happens after that is left for Julian to tell you." I nodded my head and thanked him before letting him leave and starting my countdown.

I kept the antidote in my hand,  not sure what to do with it because I didn't want to take it now and risk having something bad happen as a result. Once the time was up, I slowly peeked out the door and then took off, following Doctor Shelby's instructions until I made it to the stairs. But after going through the hallway and turning like he said, I saw a bunch of small chain link fences around the massive room...but none of them had boxes in front of them.

"Dammit!" I cursed quietly and looked around for somewhere to hide in case someone showed up. I went over the route I took and tried to figure out where I went wrong, but everything was adding up except for the fence with the boxes. I heard whistling and tensed up immediately as footsteps grew closer. There wasn't really anywhere to hide and I didn't have a weapon to fight, so with a quick prayer, I opened the top to the vial and downed the liquid. If it worked, I could transform and take out whoever was showing up. And if it didn't work...

Well, let's just hope it does.

I prepared myself as the footsteps reached where I was and then stopped before a cynical laugh filled the air. "I knew Murphy was spewing bullshit when he said he found you unconscious." Eli chuckled and I curled my lip as he came into my field of vision.

"Leading King on a wild goose chase and for what? You're right here. Vulnerable. Weak. Killing you is going to be so enjoyable."