Mated To The Crippled Alpha-Chapter 236: Beneath the Repair Shop

The scene in the next room hit me so hard I almost forgot how terrible the cages had looked.

Those people had been treated like animals, yes but at least they were still alive. At least they still had their bodies.

In here... I could barely recognize what I was seeing as human.

There were bodies on metal tables and makeshift beds, twisted under harsh lights. Some were missing limbs. Some had been cut open and left incomplete in ways that made my throat burn and my vision blur. The air wasn’t just cold it was heavy, like it was pressing down on my lungs.

I caught sight of a young girl with a beautiful face, but her head was completely bald. My mind seized on that detail like it could save me from processing the rest.

Where did her hair go?

I had heard rumors before whispers about sick people who paid for "rare" things, people with ugly cravings who treated human beings like parts to collect.

My voice shook when I forced it out. "What happened to their... body parts?"

Nelson didn’t blink. His answer was flat, practiced like he’d said it too many times already.

"They sold them."

Something hot and violent rose in my chest. "This is insane," I said, and I hated how small my voice sounded in a room this evil. "This is a whole underground operation."

"It’s worse than you think," Nelson replied, low and heavy.

My stomach rolled. I pressed a hand to my mouth, breathing through my nose, trying not to gag. Rage was there, yes but underneath it was grief so deep it made my bones ache.

Nelson guided me away before I could fall apart, pushing open another door.

The moment we stepped inside, the air changed again. It wasn’t just the smell or the cold. It was the feeling like the darkness in here had weight. Like it wanted to stick to my skin.

The walls were lined with displays. Models. Skeleton-like frames and carved figures. Glass cases held objects arranged neatly, like this was a museum and not a crime scene.

Then I saw what the objects were made of.

My blood ran cold.

Jewelry. Containers. Bracelets.

Bone.

I stared, horrified, my fingers curling into my coat until the fabric bunched in my fists. "What kind of people do this?" I whispered. "What kind of monster thinks this is acceptable?"

Nelson pointed at a small drum that looked delicate at first glance. "That’s made from human skin."

Then he motioned toward a bracelet in the case. "That’s made from human bone."

He nodded toward another item displayed like a prize. "And that one made from a skull."

My mouth went dry. I couldn’t stop imagining hands turning these things over, admiring them, paying for them, smiling while someone else screamed in a room like the one we’d just left.

So it wasn’t just organs.

It was everything.

Skin. Bone. Blood. Muscle.

People turned into profit used up until there was nothing left to take.

The thought made bile rise again, and I swallowed it down so hard my throat hurt.

I wasn’t the only one.

I wasn’t special.

That truth hit me almost as painfully as the horror itself. So many others had been dragged into this same darkness. So many people had disappeared, and the world had moved on, and down here... they had been turned into "goods" and "products" and "art."

My voice broke. "Are they out of their minds?"

Nelson’s eyes stayed hard. "When money and power are involved, some people stop seeing others as human."

"But these were living people," I snapped, shaking now, anger finally spilling over. "They locked them up, kept them starving and terrified, and cut them up like it was nothing."

Beyond my hatred for the Morrigans, I understood something clearly in that moment.

This wasn’t a small group of cruel people.

This was a system.

And they were bold enough to build it under a repair shop, right in the middle of an area no one wanted to look too closely at. They hid it because they thought no one would ever dare dig deep enough.

If Esmee hadn’t mentioned the shop... if I hadn’t seen even a glimpse of this place when I wasn’t alive... we would still be chasing shadows.

I turned to Nelson, forcing myself to focus. "Captain Tucker... did you catch the mastermind?"

Nelson shook his head. "No. Even with Mr. Hale’s warning and extra backup, we didn’t expect armed resistance. There was a shootout. The mastermind wasn’t here, but the person running the place slipped away in the chaos."

"What about the others?" I asked quickly.

"We’ve detained everyone we could," he said. "This connects to multiple cases missing persons, trafficking, illegal organ operations, unlawful imprisonment. I’ve reported it. A specialized team will take over from here."

Then Nelson looked at Lewis, suspicion and curiosity mixed together. "By the way... how did you know this underground area existed? They hid it well."

Lewis’s face didn’t change. He didn’t even glance at me. "I had people investigating the shop for days," he said evenly. "My instincts told me something was wrong. I didn’t expect it to be this big."

I understood what he was doing.

He was protecting the truth about me. About how I knew.

And I let him.

Because the case unfolding in front of us was bigger than my secret. It could crack open everything my death, the tunnel, the people who thought they could erase lives and walk away clean.

The mastermind wouldn’t escape forever.

It was only a matter of time.

I forced myself to keep moving, walking deeper into the underground space. My eyes swept over the room, searching searching for something I couldn’t name. Clues. Proof. Anything.

Then my gaze landed on a row of covered shapes at the far end tall, still, draped in black cloth like someone had tried to hide them in plain sight.

My steps slowed.

My heartbeat changed.

I couldn’t explain it, but something in me tightened, like a string pulled too hard.

"What is that?" I whispered, my voice thin. "That doesn’t look like equipment."

Lewis’s tone sharpened instantly. "Riley. Don’t touch it."

I heard him.

I did.

But my body didn’t listen.

It was like the cloth was calling me. Like something under it had a connection to me that my mind couldn’t understand, but my skin did. My fingers trembled as I reached out, the air around my hand suddenly feeling colder.

"Watch out!" Theo shouted, rushing forward.

It was too late.

I stumbled back without meaning to, colliding with the covered object. The cloth shifted under my touch, and my heart started pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.

Lewis’s voice cut through again, urgent now. "Riley stop!"

I should have.

I didn’t.

I grabbed the edge of the fabric with shaking fingers and pulled.

The cloth slid away in a soft, dragging whisper.

And the second I saw what was underneath, my breath left my body like it had been punched out of me.

Tears filled my eyes so fast I couldn’t even blink them back.