Chapter 22 - Alanis
The chaos was perfect.
Alanis had been waiting for this moment—the signal that would indicate Rael was moving. When the lights cut out and the shouting started, she knew it was time.
However, Derek grabbed her, handing her off to her buyer—a rich shifter who had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for her, and had other plans.
“Stay with me,” he commanded, gripping her arm tight. “I paid a huge sum of money for you, and I am not losing my investment because of a raid.”
Alanis allowed him to pull her through a side passage, away from all the Rael. She needed to be alone with him so that her plan could work.
Because this man wasn’t just a buyer. She had been spying on him at the auction and had caught him chatting with some important-looking people. He knew things. He had information she needed.
“Where are we going?” she asked, making her voice tremble a bit.
“We have a vehicle outside, somewhere safe. We will be long gone before they can catch up.” He pushed her into a tiny office and shut the door behind them. “Fucking raid. Somebody must have tipped them off.”
“Who would do that?” Alanis asked, pretending to be ignorant, her mind taking a mental inventory of everything that was in the room. Table, chair, window. Potential exits, potential weapons.
“Someone with a death wish,” the buyer snarled. He reached into his pockets, pulling out his phone and typing fast. I need to communicate with my people, prepare for an extraction.”
This was her chance. “There is something I must tell you.”
He looked up from his phone, glaring at her and looking irritated. “What?”
“I am not really a virgin.”
His face contorted in confusion. “What?”
“And I am not really submissive.” She moved fast, took the heavy desk lamp, and swung it at his head.
He was a shifter and quicker and stronger than a human, so it did little damage. But it did enough to have him stumbling back, giving Alanis a chance to hit him in the throat and then to the forehead. He fell onto his back, choking.
Alanis' zip-tied his hands behind his back—she’d lifted the ties from one of the guards earlier—and crouched beside him.
“Who really runs this operation?” she demanded. “I know there are other important members who are not from the Caldwell pack. So, give me names.”
He looked at her, with blood streaming down his head. “Go to hell.”
“I’ve been there. It’s not as scary as you think.” She pressed her thumb on the wound in his head, and he hissed. “Names. Now. Or I make this worse.”
He held out for another half minute and spilled.
He told her about the Blackwood Pack and how they framed the Weston Pack using the Caldwell pack.
They acted largely in the background, Caldwell being a cover.
Alanis listened carefully and gave him a second blow to the head, which knocked him unconscious.
She was walking to the door when it suddenly flew open.
Derek stood in the doorway with a murderous expression. “I knew it. I fucking knew you were lying.”
Alanis slowly took a step back, her heart beating wildly against her chest, as she looked for a means of escape.
The window was behind her, and they were on the second floor.
Derek was standing in the way of the only door.
And he was an Alpha—stronger, faster, more dangerous than the buyer she had just taken down.
“It’s over, Derek. You should run while you still have the chance.”
“We have an escape plan.” He entered the room, shutting the door behind him. “Backup vehicles, by-pass routes. We will be gone before they even finish processing everyone downstairs.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“You won’t.” He took a step closer, and Alanis saw the moment his rage crystallized into something colder. “You’ve ruined it all. We’ve spent years in this business, expanding it to several states. And you—you worthless, shiftless piece of shit took it all away.”
“Good. That was the plan. “
“We gave you a home!” Derek snarled. “We tried to make you useful, and you paid us back by running away and coming back, just to ruin us?!”
“You tortured me!” Alanis snapped, frustration, disbelief, and hurt evident in her tone. “You and the pack made my life a living hell and tried to sell me like livestock. So, yeah, Derek. I am so fucking glad this all came crashing down!”
Derek lunged at her, grabbing her shoulder and flinging her into the wall. She immediately grabbed the chair by the desk and threw it at him.
He caught it with one hand and tossed it away like it weighed nothing.
“You’ve always been weak. Trying to fight back when you should have been content to accept the way things are. You reckon you can beat me—even now?”
“I don’t have to beat you,” Alanis drew in a shaky breath. “I just need to live long enough to wait for back-up.”
“Your backup is engaged downstairs. It is only you and I, cousin, and I have been waiting years for this “
He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up off the ground. Alanis tore at his hand, unable to breathe, black spots creeping into her vision.
“This is what becomes of traitors,” Derek hissed.
The knife that Alanis had stolen from a guard was hidden in her sleeve. She slowly pulled it out and drove it into Derek’s forearm with the remaining strength she had left.
He bellowed and let go of her throat. Alanis fell to the ground, choking. She tried to crawl away, but Derek regained himself quickly.
His fist connected with her ribs and then on her face, causing her vision to blur.
“You never knew when you were beaten,” he gasped. “Stubborn bitch.”
The last thing Alanis saw before darkness claimed her was Derek’s fist coming at her head again.
***
She woke up to cold ground beneath her and chains around her wrists.
Alanis slowly opened her eyes, trying to figure out where she was. Her vision cleared slowly, and she realized she was in the woods, with her hands bound up above her head to a small tree branch. And there were seven Caldwell pack members around her.
Derek stood right in front of her, his wounded arm bandaged. “Good. I would like you to be awake for this.”
Alanis pulled on the chains. They were strong, but not impossibly to work with.
“Let me guess,” she said, hoarsely. You will take revenge on me because I ruined your operation. Kill me, maybe?”
“Killing is an easy death. I will make you sorry you were ever born.”
“Big talk from someone whose whole business just closed down. None of it is coming back, Derek. You lost everything.”
“There are still some resources. Contacts. Money in offshore accounts.” Derek grinned in a sadistic manner. “We will re-establish, go smaller, be more cautious, and we shall not forget you—the traitor who believed she could ruin us.”
“You can never rise again out of ashes.”
“You’d be surprised,” Derek said confidently. “At dawn, we will be across the border. New names, new land. The network is not as small as you think. We will be another cell.”
Alanis swallowed. He was right. The network was enormous, and the resources and connections exceeded Caldwell Pack. Even with the raid, even with everything they’d accomplished tonight—Some of them would escape, regroup and continue.
Unless she stopped them here.
“The chains are titanium,” Derek said, watching her test them again. “You’re not breaking free, cousin. So stop trying, and accept what’s coming.”
Alanis shut her eyes and concentrated. The chains were strong, no doubt, but the branch it was attached to was not made to support extra weight. If she was able to pull… Alanis
tugged and hurled herself backward. The branch cracked.
Derek’s eyes widened. “What—”
Alanis tugged harder, and the branch broke right through. She rolled on the ground to cushion her fall, her chains still on, but unattached to the tree. The pack members immediately attacked.
Alanis fought like a cornered animal. The chains did not give her much freedom of movement, but she would weaponize them, throwing the bulky ends at faces and deflecting blows.
But she was up against seven people—she was hurt, tired, and working on pure adrenaline.
She went down on her knees with a kick to her wounded ribs. Someone grabbed her hair and pulled her back. Derek stepped forward, brandishing a knife.
“Enough,” he said. “You are too much trouble to be left alive. I should have killed you the first time I saw you.”
He pressed the knife hard against her throat. Alanis’ eyes fluttered closed, her heart beating wildly. This was it then. The end. And the only thing or person she could think about was Rael. Suddenly, she heard the sweetest sound in the world—the howl of a wolf.
Her eyes snapped open.
Derek’s brows knitted in confusion. “Who the—”
Rael burst from the tree line in his wolf form—massive, powerful, silver-gray fur bristling with rage. He went straight for Derek, hitting him with enough force to send them both flying.
The knife went spinning into the darkness.
Behind Rael came Javi and Silas, also shifted, flanked by pack enforcers. They fought the remaining Caldwell pack members ruthlessly.
Alanis scrambled back. Her hands were still in chains, and she could not do much, but she was able to pick up the knife from the ground.
Derek shifted into a brown wolf, squaring up to the bigger form of Rael. They went round and round, growling, and Alanis could see the moment when Derek knew he could not match up to Rael.
He tried to run, but Rael caught him in three strides, clamping his jaw around Derek’s hind leg. Derek screamed and turned to attack Rael, but Rael was quicker and stronger.
They fought viciously, both going for the kill. But Rael had discipline and strategy, while Derek had nothing but rage.
It was over within seconds when Rael tore out Derek’s throat with his teeth. Derek’s wolf remained motionless before he finally sank to the ground, gradually shifting back to human. His throat had an open gash, and his eyes were glassy.
“This is for Alanis,” Rael said in a deeper and rougher voice. “This is justice for all the women you sold. For all the lives you ruined.”
Derek tried to speak, but there was blood in his throat. He choked to death on it.
Rael shifted back to a man, breathing heavily, and covered in blood. He immediately hurried towards Alanis. “Are you hurt?
“I am all right,” she lied. Her ribs were certainly broken, she had swelling on her face, and she was quite certain that she had a concussion. “The chains—”
Rael took them off and cradled her in his arms. “God, I thought I lost you,” he sighed into her hair. “When I could not find you at the warehouse, I thought—”
“I am fine,” Alanis said softly, despite her body trembling. “I’m okay now.”
The battle was over. They had killed some of the Caldwell pack members, and others were being tied up by the pack’s enforcers.
Back in his human form, Silas approached, his face grim, looking at the carnage.
“All targets accounted for,” he reported. “Some injuries on our side, nothing serious. Gavin also died during the chaos. The Caldwell pack is finished.”
“And Blackwood?” Rael asked, not loosening his hold on Alanis.
“In custody. All of them. We have evidence, testimonies, and financial records. They won’t talk their way out of this.” Silas looked at Alanis. “You did a good job tonight. The information you gathered was crucial.”
“It wasn’t worth—” Alanis started, but Rael cut her off.
“It was worth it. Every bit of it. You brought down a network that’s been operating for years. You got justice for yourself and for countless other women.” His arms tightened around her. “But don’t ever scare me like that again. Understood?”
“Understood,” Alanis said softly.
She looked at Derek’s body, feeling... nothing. No satisfaction, no closure, no relief. Just emptiness where rage used to be.
“He’s really dead,” she said.
“He is,” Rael confirmed. “He can’t hurt you anymore. He can’t hurt anyone anymore.”
Alanis nodded slowly. Eight years of running, of being afraid, of knowing her former pack was out there somewhere—and now, it was over.
Really, truly over.
She let herself lean into Rael’s embrace, let herself be held while the adrenaline faded and the pain set in.
“We need to get you to a medical facility,” Rael said, noticing her wince. “You’re hurt worse than you’re letting on.”
“I’m fine.”
Rael’s voice was gentle but firm. “You’re not fine, Alanis. And it’s okay to not be fine. You just went through hell.”
She wanted to argue, wanted to maintain the facade of strength. But she was so tired. Tired of fighting, tired of hurting, tired of pretending she didn’t need help.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Take me somewhere safe.”
“Always,” Rael promised, lifting her carefully into his arms. “Wherever you need to be, I’ll take you there. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”
As they left the clearing—leaving behind Derek’s body and the remnants of the pack that had tormented her for so long—Alanis finally felt something shift inside her.
It wasn’t closure, exactly. It wasn’t peace either. But it was the beginning of something. The possibility of healing. The chance to build a life that wasn’t defined by trauma and running. And maybe the freedom to finally choose where she belonged.