Harry POV
“Dad, what is it? What’s wrong?” I rub my eyes which were still sleepy as I stand on top of the stairs.
It was too early for him to be up, even when he usually wakes up early for training every morning…today is far too early. He had just walked back into the house, where had he been? It was too early to have completed training just yet.
Something woke me up, some weird dream. I woke up hot and sweaty, which is really weird because I haven’t done that since I was probably Rex’s age. So why now? I could feel the dampness of my superhero T-shirt as it still clung to my chest.
“Nothing, go back to bed!” I could feel the lie on him, Dad never lied. Something had to be wrong. Is it Mum? Was it the baby?
I’ve made sure all my toys are tidied away since she tripped down the stairs, in fact I had donated most of my toys to the kids unit at the hospital. I couldn’t chance anything like that happening again.
“Dad?” My voice holds a demand in needing to know what was wrong as he started to climb the stairs. He hesitates at first, his fingers pinching at the bridge of his nose.
“I need you to stay here and look after Mum.”
“Why…Dad, what’s going on?” I could tell from his tensed body this perhaps wasn’t to do with Mum. He moans as his eyes glaze over into a mind-link, then comes back down the stairs and opens the front door. Who ever mind- linked him is outside.
“Two minutes…” He orders at whoever is out there before he turns around and runs up the stairs. I listen intently and hear Mum’s slight shocked shriek from upstairs which makes my heart bump faster. I could feel it in my chest, it felt heavy.
I move to look outside the front door when I see our warriors gathering… what on earth?
“Harry, I need you to…” Dad starts as he comes running back down the stairs. “Dad, what’s going on…” My eyes are wide as I stare at all the warriors before me.
“Son, I need you to look after Mum…” He tries to fob me off again as he reaches for the front door. Why would Dad be gathering the warriors when the Alpha family is at the Blue Moon pack?
I don’t know why but my initial thoughts go to Elspeth and a pang pains me in my heart.
“Tell me!” I slam the door before he gets a chance to stop me.
Blocking myself in the way, preventing him from going without telling me anymore. He considers me for a moment, his six year old son who he could quite easily lift and move out of the way, but he doesn’t. Something had to be wrong and it was all my fault. If Mum hadn’t of tripped down the stairs then Dad would be with the Alpha family for Beta Noah’s marking ceremony.
“The Alpha family left the Red Stone pack late last night but haven’t been seen since.” I can hear the concern in Dad’s voice. He hadn’t told me everything yet but I know he was with Evelyn the day her parents died, the day the pack was attacked. He worked hard to prevent such a thing from happening again.
“What does that mean?” I try to swallow down the lump forming in my throat.
“It means…” He crouches down in front of me, both his hands gripping on my shoulders for comfort. He wasn’t one of the head warriors right now informing a young pack member, he was a father informing his son of bad news..
“It means they are in trouble, all of them. Alpha Reuben has ordered for our warriors to join his. I need you to…”
“I’m coming!” I adamantly state.
“Not a chance Harry!”
“Dad, Rex and Elspeth need me. I can’t stay here and do nothing..”
“You won’t be…you’ll be looking after your Mother.” I completely understand what he is saying, Mum can’t be alone right now but I have this growing sense within me that Elspeth is calling for me, that she needs me. If she’s scared like she was in the basement of the rogue attack, she’ll need me to calm her down.
“Dad, Rex says I’m going to be his Beta one day. I can’t leave them, not if I can help. Ask Miss Smith to watch Mum, I won’t let you go without me!”
Dad was not happy with my being in the car, his eyes were burning into mine from the rearview mirror. He insisted on driving, me being with him at all stages.
Miss Smith was sitting with Mum and would make sure she got to the hospital if anything changed with the baby. We took a number of cars, all the warriors prepared and armed, ready for whatever fight comes our way.
“Where are we heading?” One of the female warriors asks Dad as she sat next to me in the back. “Our orders are to head towards the Red Stone pack but await final instructions as we get closer.”
We had been driving for around an hour and a half when an incoming call flagged up on the car’s media system.
“Alpha?” Dad answers it immediately, barely letting it ring once. “Donnie….” Alpha Reuben’s tensed cold voice sounds out throughout the car.
“I need you to come to the Red Stone pack, ignore the last known location…”
“They weren’t there?” Dad’s eyes flicker to mine as I look at him in the mirror.
“Yes they were there…Alpha..”
Someone in the background gained Alpha Reuben’s attention, causing him to pause his update.
“The warrior car was attacked, I’m sorry but none of them survived…” Alpha Reuben finally continues, informing us of the loss of our pack members. Warriors that Dad would have trained, gotten to know well. Dad’s hands grips the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white.
“And the Alpha car?” Dad asks, his tone now mirroring Alpha Reuben’s. Cold, ready for battle.
“Ambushed, they have been taken. Signs of severe injuries, I’ll update you more when you arrive. Hurry!” A growl escapes Rex’s Dad’s chest. Who was injured? Panic fills me that it could be either of the twins.
“Yes Alpha.” Dad cuts the call, putting his foot flat down on the gas pedal, the car speeding even more.
Evelyn POV
“Evelyn…” I could hear someone calling me from a distance, it sounded like Noah. Why did he sound so far away?
“Mummy?” Is that Elspeth, she sounds upset. Why is she upset?
“Mum…wake up!” It’s the abrupt bossy command from Rex that finally makes me start to come to.
I wished hadn’t..
My body ached, my head in agony. It felt floppy and it hurt like hell when I tried to move it. I must have been unconscious with my head slumped judging by the pain in my neck.
I try to move but something was restricting me. Whatever it was, I pulled as my strength started to return to me only to hear the clanging of chains. Was I chained up?
I slowly open my eyes to find myself sitting up on a chair, chained, in a poorly lit room. There was no fresh air, it was stuffy and hot.
“Mum.” Rex’s relieved voice helps me concentrate more on my surroundings as my wolf comes to the surface.
“Rex? Where’s your sister?” I ask, my wolf lending me her vision. As my vision unblurs I find Noah and Cassandra both chained to chairs like me, but both awake and looking unharmed. I then find Rex and Elspeth handcuffed but sat on the floor, they weren’t chained to anything.
“Elspeth, are you okay hunny?”
“Yes Mummy, I’m okay.” Her bottom lip starts to quiver, she was trying to sound brave but I could sense her fear.
“Noah…”
“Try not to move Evelyn, you’ve hit your head. Try to just sit still…” He orders at me although he was trying to pull at his chains, trying to release himself. I try to move my hands to touch my head but they are held tightly down by these chains.
I am able to look down at my top to find myself coated in my own blood. The head gash must have been quite bad but it seems the bleeding has stopped for now and the wound was already starting to heal.
“Where are we?” My mind goes back to the memory of what happened. I remember seeing a man with a bazooka gun on his shoulder, the missile missing us and hitting the car behind… my warriors perished at the scene. But after that my mind is blank…
“I’m not sure. We were all knocked unconscious…”
“Not me, we are in a shipping container. The man that tied us up, he is a rogue. He is the same one that your brought back to the pack Mum.” Rex has a slight pride in his voice for keeping watch.
The anonymous rogue? Bastard! Damn Reuben for stopping me from chasing after him. Reuben…Was he okay? Did he know we were missing?
The large freight container’s metal doors are opened and the vast contrast in the morning daylight outside burns at my eyes. My wolf had been in night vision mode. I have to clamp my eyes shut to stop the stinging which is already causing protective tears to fall.
He walks in, a man that I won’t let anyone else kill but myself, a man that will die by my hands only. I thought he was somewhat trustworthy, but now he has completely attacked my family.
He has a gun in his hands, keeping the doors open he walks over to us, two rogues standing on watch. Elspeth can’t help herself, she is only four year’s old. She starts to whimper in fear as he steps closer to us.
“Stop crying!” He growls at her, daring to touch her and push her head aggressively.
“Don’t touch her!” I roar, my wolf coming forward through my eyes and voice. My body trying with all its might to break these chains.
“She just wants her teddy.” Rex spits out, shuffling closer to Elspeth and blocking her from the man’s hateful glare.
“What do you want?” Noah growls out venomously, trying to gain the rogues attention away from the children.
He is sick in the head. He starts to laugh, itching his temple with the barrel of the gun. But Noah’s plan worked, he was no longer interested in the children, however, he was now wanting to rile up my beta. He points the gun at Cassandra, getting in her face as he starts to laugh. Cassandra is frozen in fear unable to do anything but watch the movements of the gun in the hands of a madman.
His laugh was sinister and crazed, as if his skin side and wolf side were fighting one another for control. “Get away from her!” Noah seethes through gritted teeth, trying to yank the chains off him.
“Oh, now Beta, not too soon. We are going to play a little game.” His smirk is sadistic, void of any warmth. He sold his soul a long time ago.
My head whips to the door, my eyes starting to adjust to the sunlight when I hear footsteps on a path outside. The sound of her high heels as she walks in, echo throughout the container.
A vile monstrous growl escapes me knowing that the rogue had sold his soul again to the devil. To be precise, to the she-devil, to Vicky.
