Chapter 30
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Lina
“Help! Somebody help us!”
My voice tore through the silence of the house, desperate and shaking.
I was still on my knees beside Marcus, my hands bound in front of me with that damn zip tie, completely useless.
Knox was gone. Blake was gone. And his father was bleeding out on the floor in front of me, the pool of red spreading wider with every second that passed.
I heard the thunder of footsteps on the stairs, guards responding to my screams. They burst through the bedroom door, claws out, faces set for battle.
“Luna, what-”
The words died in the first guard’s throat as he took in the scene. Marcus on the floor. The blood. My bound hands.
“Ambulance, NOW!” he roared down the hallway. “We need medical immediately! The former Alpha is down!”
Everything happened fast after that. One guard dropped to his knees beside Marcus, his hands moving with practiced efficiency as he checked for a pulse and applied pressure to the worst of the wounds.
Another guard rushed to me, his claws retracting as he reached for my wrists.
He used a knife from his belt to slice through the zip tie binding my hands.
The plastic fell away and I rubbed at the raw, red marks it had left behind.
“You’re safe, Luna,” the guard said, his voice deliberately calm and steady. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
I wanted to laugh. Or scream. Or both.
Safe? I wasn’t fucking safe. My daughter wasn’t safe. My mate wasn’t safe. My father-in-law was lying in a pool of his own blood while a psychopath drove away with my newborn baby and my husband. None of this was okay. Nothing about this situation was even remotely close to okay.
A siren wailed outside, growing louder as it approached. The ambulance. They had arrived so quickly that I felt a momentary flash of relief before the numbness set in.
I sat on the floor of that bedroom, watching the chaos unfold around me, and felt myself drift away from my body.
It was a strange sensation, like I was floating above the scene, observing without participating.
The paramedics rushed in. They loaded Marcus onto a stretcher, shouting medical terms I didn’t understand.
Guards swarmed the house, checking on Serena and Sarah, coordinating with each other through radios and hand signals.
I heard all of it. Processed none of it.
My daughter was gone. My mate was gone.
The thought kept circling in my head, a broken record that wouldn’t stop playing.
Blake’s tiny face, scrunched up and crying.
Knox’s gray eyes, filled with anguish as he made the choice to sacrifice himself for me.
The sound of his footsteps walking away, walking toward danger, walking into the arms of people who wanted to destroy us.
I should have fought harder. I should have done something. I should have-
I pushed myself to my feet, not acknowledging anyone, and stumbled toward the door. I couldn’t stay here. Couldn’t just sit in this room where everything had fallen apart.
I ran down the stairs, my legs shaking beneath me. I nearly tripped on the last few steps but caught myself on the railing before I could fall. My body felt like it belonged to someone else, trembling and weak, but I forced it to keep moving.
The front door was open. I burst through it and into the yard, my eyes scanning desperately for any sign of them. For the black SUV Lucio had driven. For my family.
There was nothing.
Just tire tracks in the soft earth, leading away from the house and onto the road. The vehicle was gone. They were gone.
I started running.
My feet pounded against the ground as I followed the faint trace of their scent. Knox’s familiar smell, woodsy and warm, mixed with the clean baby powder scent of Blake. It was already fading, dissipating into the air, but I could still detect traces of it. Enough to follow. Enough to chase.
I made it maybe twenty feet before strong arms wrapped around me from behind, lifting me off my feet and halting my desperate pursuit.
“Lina! Lina, stop!”
Noah’s voice, strained and urgent in my ear. I struggled against his grip, kicking and thrashing, but he was too strong. A wolf’s strength against a human’s desperation.
“Let me go!” I screamed. “I have to find them! I have to-”
“They’re gone!” Noah’s voice cracked on the words. “They’re gone and we need to know what happened! You running off half-cocked isn’t going to save them. We need information. We need a plan.”
I went limp in his arms.
He was right. I hated that he was right, but he was.
Chasing after a vehicle on foot when I didn’t even know which direction they’d gone was stupid.
Suicidal, even. I was human. I couldn’t shift and run for hours without rest. I couldn’t track a scent across miles of territory.
I couldn’t fight off three wolves by myself even if I did somehow manage to find them.
I needed help. I needed the pack.
Noah set me down gently, his hands hovering near my shoulders like he expected me to bolt again. I took a deep breath, then another, forcing air into lungs that felt too tight.
That’s when I finally noticed the crowd that had gathered.
Noah was there, of course, his green eyes red-rimmed and worried.
But behind him stood Ryder and Jasmine, their expressions grim.
Sawyer, Ryder’s beta, his hand resting on his hip.
Cole, his face a mask of barely controlled rage.
And behind them, dozens of guards and pack members, all of them watching me with expressions that ranged from concern to horror.
They were waiting for something. Waiting for me.
The realization settled over me like a weight. Knox was gone. Marcus was on his way to the hospital. That left me. The Luna. The person who was supposed to lead in her Alpha’s absence.
I wasn’t ready for this. I had never been ready for this. I was just a human, a bookstore owner from Pine Valley who had stumbled into the world of wolves and never quite found her footing. I didn’t know how to lead a pack. I didn’t know how to wage a war.
But I knew how to fight for my family.
There was so much to do. So many things that needed to happen, decisions that needed to be made, orders that needed to be given. My mind raced through the priorities, sorting them into some kind of coherent order.
First: Marcus. Was he still alive? The ambulance was already gone, the wail of its siren fading in the distance. Nothing I could do about that now except hope the paramedics could save him.
Second: The twins. Rowan and Thea were still at kindergarten, blissfully unaware that their baby sister had been kidnapped and their father taken hostage. They needed to be somewhere safe. Somewhere protected. Somewhere that wasn’t in the direct line of fire.
I breathed in. Held it. Let it out slowly.
And then I started giving orders.
“I want a group of trackers to follow the Alpha and our baby’s scent immediately,” I said, my voice steadier than I expected.
“Lucio kidnapped them, so he is not to be trusted. He is a public enemy of this pack, and he’s working with Mira and Mary against us.
Follow the trail. Report anything you find.
Do not engage unless absolutely necessary.
I want them found, not alerted to our pursuit. ”
A group of wolves nodded sharply and shifted, their clothes shredding as their bodies transformed. Within seconds, a pack of wolves was sprinting away from the house, their noses to the ground, phones clamped in their mouths so they could communicate when they found something.
I turned to the remaining guards. “I want the report from the Pine Valley trackers on the meeting room table within the hour. Everything they found, every lead they followed, every scent they tracked. All of it. Now.”
Another group scattered to obey.
“I also want a contingent of twelve wolves at the hospital immediately. They are to guard Marcus, Serena, and Sarah around the clock. If they breathe, I want to know about it. If they so much as twitch in their sleep, I want a full report within seconds. No one gets in or out without my explicit authorization.”
More wolves ran to carry out the order.
I took another breath, steadying myself, and turned to Cole, Ryder, and Sawyer. “Meet me at the meeting room. Dismiss the council. They’re useless right now. I’ll brief you on everything that happened, but first I need to secure my twins.”
Cole nodded, his jaw tight. “We’ll be waiting.”
I turned to Jasmine. The Moonfang Luna was watching me with an expression of deep understanding, as if she knew exactly what I was feeling because she had felt it herself.
“Would you help me, Luna?” I asked, hating how small my voice sounded. “Would you watch over the twins while I deal with this? I need someone I can trust. Someone who can protect them if things go wrong.”
Jasmine stepped forward and took my hands in hers. “Of course. Whatever you need. They’ll be safe with me.”
I wanted to smile at her, wanted to express some kind of gratitude for her support, but my facial muscles refused to cooperate. Everything felt frozen, locked in place by the enormity of what had happened.
“Let’s go,” I said instead.
Noah brought the car around and we piled in, Jasmine in the back with me while he drove. The streets of Ravenshollow blurred past the windows, familiar landmarks reduced to smears of color as we sped toward the kindergarten.
It felt like an eternity had passed since I woke up to Hunt’s phone call. Since I heard Mira’s voice on the other end of the line. Since everything fell apart.
But when I checked my phone, I realized it had only been thirty minutes. Half an hour to destroy everything I had built, everything I loved, everything that mattered.