Chapter 35
· King Soren ·
“Very well,” I reply, icy calm infusing my voice. “Damian, wait.” The wicked smile fades from Damian’s face, but he remains poised, awaiting my final word, as he waits to see if Bianca will do as asked. I turn my attention back to Bianca.
Her eyes are swollen from crying, the once defiant glimmer reduced her to a trembling mess in front of me.
She looks to her parents, then back to me. Her breaths come out in ragged gasps, and through them, she manages to squeak out a terrified, “What do you want me to say?”
“Tell him you escaped, that you managed to convince one of the guards to let you out for some reason.” My gaze hardens as I continue. “And if you fail, your father pays the price.”
Bianca nods shakily, pulling herself together, and I peer over at Damian who quickly retrieves his phone tossing it at me.
“Is it on private?” I ask him and he gives me a look to say that is a stupid question.
Turning back to Bianca, she reaches for the phone just as her mother worms her way to my feet, groveling in terror.
“Please,” she begs, her voice nothing more than a croak. I stare coldly down at her, refusing to allow any feelings of mercy to cloud my judgement. They don’t deserve mercy.
“One word of warning and I kill them,” I tell her. “Now make the call.”
Her face is a mask of terror and desperation as I hand her the phone. She takes it with trembling fingers, dialing the number we’ve demanded of her. Her breath hitches as it starts to ring.
Damian rises from his crouched position over her unconscious father, the murderous glint in his eyes fading slightly now that his task has been interrupted, though he looks slightly disappointed he doesn’t get to kill her father.
Bianca’s mother is sobbing silently at my feet, her body shaking from the shock of what she’s endured.
Bianca doesn’t meet my gaze. I point to the screen. She gets the message and pulls the phone away, placing it on the loudspeaker.
It rings a few more times before he finally answers. “Hello?” he says, sounding wary, but I also notice the sounds of hushed murmurs in the background, like he is surrounded by people, making me wonder if he went to King Alaric’s kingdom.
“It’s me, Bianca,” Bianca says before clearing her throat.
“Bianca? I’ve been trying to reach you. I heard about what happened, where are you?” he demands. His voice wavers slightly, betraying his concern.
Bianca takes a deep breath before responding. “Rhett… I need your help,” she begins, her voice steady despite her situation.
“Where are you?” Rhett says hurriedly, panic seeping into his words.
She blinks hard, briefly closing her eyes before answering him convincingly, “I don’t know… somewhere secluded… I’ve managed to escape.”
This was the pivotal moment of our ploy; bait is only as good as its bite.
Rhett hesitates on the other end; we hold our breath collectively – Damian leaning in with anticipation, “Whose phone are you calling off?” he asks, and she looks at me nervously.
“The town outside the kingdom. I’m using the gas station attendant’s mobile,” she stammers, Rhett goes to say something, but she cuts him off.
“Please, I haven’t got much time. I need to get out of here before they realize I’m gone.
” As she speaks into the phone, I admire her cunningness.
She really knows how to put on a show; no wonder she was able to frame Aubrey so easily; she lies as if it is as easy as breathing to her.
Regardless, Rhett is untrusting, as he should be.
“Fuck, how did you escape?”
“Why does it matter? I’m out, where are you? I will meet you,” she says and I glare at her, almost tempted to rip out the phone.
“You’re telling me you escaped the king’s guard?”
“Not the entire guard, just one… I… I” she looks at me in panic as she falls over her words.
“What did you do, Bianca?”
“I… I sucked off one of the guards, convinced him to let me use the bathroom and snuck out the window.” she blurts and I hear Damian make a noise behind me and I cut him a glare.
“Of course you did, such a fucking whore. What about Aubrey?”
“What about her? I am to be your fucking mate!” she spits at him not holding back any of the venom she feels for my mate.
“Shut up, that isn’t what I mean, but something is wrong. I felt the bond sever,” he coughs out, and she waits for him to regain his breath.
Clearly, the broken mate bond is having adverse effects on him already.
“I don’t know, but you need to get here so I can mark you. I think they may have killed her, or… I don’t know. I’m not good and I’m as trapped as you right now,” he tells her.
“What do you mean? How can I get to you, I’m fucking stranded.”
“I don’t know, call your damn mother, but I need to mark you or I may be tempted to mark one of these bitches, I’m in fucking agony right now.”
“Bitches? I was kidnapped and you have been fooling around with other women!” She shrieks and I jump, slightly startled at her tone, like she forgot completely she is meant to be getting answers and not quarreling with her boyfriend.
Rhett coughs again, this time is a deep throaty cough, and it takes him a few seconds to catch his breath.
“No, of course not. I tried to get back to you both, but when I did, Alpha Jefferson’s pack was searching the docks, I hid in one of the containers when I was fucking locked in,” he growls.
“A container?”
“Yes, are you fucking listening to anything I’m saying. I’m stuck in a container headed to King Alaric’s. We had to move the shipments when we got word of being raided from Clyde,” he says.
I clench my fists and Damian steps forward at hearing Clyde’s name; we suspected it might be him but weren’t 100% sure, but hearing Rhett say it, we now are.
“Clyde called and told us to move everything to the trucks, we loaded what we could and the rest we dumped when Jefferson’s pack showed up. I jumped into a container and now I’m stuck on a truck to god knows where.”
“Shit, which port are you being taken to, I can try to meet you there?”
“I don’t fucking know, all I know is I’ve been stuck in this damn container with King Alaric’s shipment and Clyde is also trying to locate me. I’m just glad I jumped in the right one, or I would be at the bottom of the docks right now.”
I glance at Damian, my stomach twisting at his words, knowing we have bodies to retrieve, but also trucks with hostages to locate.
Rhett falls silent and Bianca looks at me nervously. And I mouth to her to find out which trucking company.
She nods. “Which trucking company? I’ll try to get a hold of King Alaric and see if he can make the trucks pull over.”
“Good luck, I’ve been trying to reach him since all this shit went down, he blocked my number, clearly wanting nothing linking back to him, the bastard.”
“I told you this was a bad…”
“Shut up, I’m already kicking myself enough without you starting on me,” Rhett snarls through the phone.
Bianca sighs. “Fine, do you know where the trucks were headed?”
“To the eastern checkpoint, from what I heard one of the men say, but the route… I’m not sure.” His voice is raspy with frustration. “Listen, if you somehow make it to Alaric, tell him the shipment he’s waiting for is locked in a container with me.”
Bianca lets out a nervous sigh, her hand shaking as she clutches the borrowed phone tighter. “I’ll do what I can,” she promises.
“Look for a company called Boreal Transports. They’re the only ones we pass our shipments to,” Rhett says, his voice barely above a whisper. There’s a faint rustling on the other end of the line, and he curses under his breath.
“Be careful! And remember, Boreal Transports!” Rhett repeats urgently.
“I will.”
“I need to go, so I can conserve battery. Call me when you find a way out of the town. Call your mother, she’ll help.” Rhett tells her before hanging up.
Damian and I exchange glances.
We have leads to follow, trucks to locate, bodies to retrieve. Bianca sniffles as the screen goes blank and passes me the phone through the bars, careful not to touch them.
“There, you have him. Now let my parents go,” she whimpers.
“Not yet.” I nod to Damian who steps forward pressing the buttons on the screen panel, turning off the volts of electricity to the bars. The door swings open and Bianca tries rushing out, but I catch her around the waist, tossing her back inside. She lands in a heap on the floor.
“Eastern checkpoint?” I ask her.
“He means the ports on the east of King Alaric’s kingdom, near the beaches.” The next second her father is tossed into the cell with her and her mother shrieks dashing for the door. Damian is faster grabbing her hair and dragging her back.
Looking at Damian, he drags her thrashing body and tosses her in, slamming the door shut. “What now?” he asks.
“Command them not to use the mindlinks, I need to go check on Aubrey.”
“Aubrey is alive?” Bianca asks.
I pause. “Of course she is, she is my fiancée!” I snap at her.
“Look into the trucking company Alaric uses, and locate that fucking truck he is on.” Damian nods, punching in the code to electrify the barred door of the cell.
Turning on my heel, I head out of the basement to check on Aubrey and to tell her I may need to leave when we locate the trucks and Rhett.