Chapter 23 - Silas
The scarred bear shifter went down hard, with Silas’s jaws still locked around his throat. Blood filled Silas’s mouth, and he held the position for three more seconds to ensure the threat was neutralized before releasing him.
The clearing around him was covered with bodies.
Some of them dead, most of them, unconscious or too badly wounded to fight further.
Rael was inspecting them one after another, making sure that they would not present any danger when they awoke.
Javi and the men were going around the perimeter to ensure there were no other shifters coming in.
August was towering over Carter, gasping for breath. It had been a fierce battle. They were outnumbered, but they were better trained. Those other shifters didn’t stand a chance.
Silas wiped the blood from his mouth and turned to look at Elle, to make sure that she and Carter were fine. Except Elle wasn’t there.
His heart stopped. His gaze swept across the clearing, looking for that beautiful brown hair, curvy figure, and her smaller human form among the shifters.
Nothing. She wasn’t there.
“Elle?” He called out her name, trying to hide the panic in his voice.
No response.
“Where’s Elle?” He turned to August.
August groaned and looked around, turning rapidly concerned. “She was right here. She was with Carter when the fight began.”
“She’s gone,” Rael said, having completed his circuit of the clearing. “Her scent trail leads into the forest, heading northeast.”
Panic clawed at Silas’s heart. His wolf started to pace within him, restless, urging him to trace her steps and go after her. But years of training, discipline, and critical thinking made him stay still long enough to evaluate the situation.
They were in unfamiliar territory, deep in a forest that bordered neutral lands. They had just put down a dozen aggressive shifters and they weren’t so sure that they didn’t attract more. Carter’s father was in binds. Silas planned on interrogating him.
And now, Elle had disappeared and he couldn’t figure out why. Especially in a territory that might be full of enemies.
Before he could formulate a plan, Carter’s father made his choice for him.
The older man had somehow worked one hand free from his bindings during the chaos of the fight. He lunged for August’s dropped weapon, grabbing it with desperate speed.
“Nobody will move,” he grabbed Carter and pointed a gun at his head. “Nobody moves, or the boy dies.”
Silas stood still, his eyes narrowed. He could barely believe what he was seeing. A father
was holding his own son as a ransom. The boy he endangered.
“Father, what are you doing?” Carter’s voice trembled.
“Shut up,” his father snapped. “This is your fault. All of it. Had you done your job properly, we would not have been in this mess.”
“Drop the weapon,” Silas said coolly. “You are walking out of here. What you should be concerned about is whether you leave dead or alive.”
His hand twitched. “I swear I’ll do it.” He insisted, licking his lips. “I will kill him.”
Silas believed him. He would be stupid not to. Especially with the crazed, desperate, and calculating way the man was looking at his son.
Before anyone could make a move, a voice cut through the tension.
“You won’t get the chance.”
A different shifter came out of the forest. It was a wolf shifter with dark hair, cold, almost empty grey eyes, and he was pointing a gun at Carter’s father.
“You talked,” the new shifter said, flat and emotionless. You compromised everything.”
“No, no, no,” Carter’s father nervously wiped his forehead with the edge of his sleeve. “I didn’t tell them anything! The boy got caught, but I—”
Bang!
The new shifter shot him.
Silas leaped forward and grabbed Carter, but it was too late for his father.
The bullet hit him square in the chest, killing him instantly. His weapon, which was in his hand, dropped on the ground, followed by his body.
The shifter disappeared back into the forest, and Rael and Javi went after him, but Silas was well aware of the fact that they would never catch up. That was no ordinary shifter. He felt it.
Silas reached Carter just as the boy started screaming.
“Father! No, no, no, Dad, please!” Carter tried to run to his father, but Silas restrained him, wrapping his arms around the protesting teenager.
August checked the father’s pulse, his expression grim. “He’s gone.”
Carter collapsed, now full on sobbing, his whole body trembling.
Silas still held him—this boy who was used by everyone, who had just lost the father who was an awful parent to him.
But it was still a painful loss, and Silas knew what it was like to lose a parent, however difficult the relationship was.
But they did not have the time to do this. Not now. Not when Elle was gone, and there were possible enemies around.
“Carter,” Silas pulled back, grabbing his shoulders and staring at him. “Carter, listen to me.”
The boy’s sobs turned into hiccups, his red-rimmed eyes focusing on Silas with difficulty.
“I’m sorry about your father. But we need to move. This is not a safe zone, and my mate is gone. I need your help.”
“My help?” Carter asked hoarsely. “How can I help?”
“You know this area, don’t you? Your father brought you here, showed you the short-cuts, the good ways.”
Carter nodded slowly. “He... he made me memorize routes. In case I needed to run.”
“Then you will lead us through the paths. You will assist us in locating my mate and in exchange…” Silas paused, staring at him for a moment. “In exchange, I will give you a home in my pack and assist you in taking care of your mother. Make a better life for yourself.”
Carter gazed at him, looking doubtful and hopeful at the same time. “You... you’d do that? After everything I did to your pack?”
“You were being used. You are a child who made the wrong decisions. There is nothing that makes you unredeemable.”
“But why would you—”
“Because my mate asked me to treat you as a victim, not as an enemy. And I believe she is a good judge of character. Even more than me.”
Silas gave Carter a squeeze on the shoulder. “So what do you say? Will you help me find her?”
“Yes.” Carter nodded. “Yes, I’ll help.”
“Good. Then let’s move.”
Rael and Javi came back, empty-handed, as Silas had expected. “He got away. He was a professional. Knew perfectly where he was going.
“Then we leave him, in the meantime,” Silas stated. “Our priority is Elle.”
The bond lingered at the back of Silas’s mind. Elle was far away now, much farther than she should be if she’d just wandered a short distance from the clearing.
And underneath the distance, Silas felt something else. Her magic was focused on something that grabbed all her attention.
“She is following something,” Silas stated. “Her power pulled her away from here. Following some sort of trail.”
“What kind of trail?” August asked.
“I don’t know. But we need to find her before something happens.” He turned to Silas. “Where is Northeastwards?
“Around a hundred yards away. But there is a path through the thicket of the forest that leads to an old industrial building.”
“Why does it all have to be fucking industrial?” Javi muttered under his breath, walking alongside Silas as Carter led them into what seemed like more and more unknown land.
“There is something you should know,” Carter said, after ten minutes or so of walking. “About the building we’re heading to.”
“What about it?” Silas demanded.
“My father... he said there are occasions when buildings are used in the operation. For storage. For...” Carter swallowed hard. “To keep women before they’re moved to another location.”
Silas’s blood ran cold. Elle was on her way to one of the places that the trafficking operation works from. Alone. Most likely, going into danger without support. “Let’s move faster.”
They moved with enhanced shifter speed now, Carter struggling to keep up until August simply picked him up and carried him. The boy directed them through complicated shortcuts that shaved precious minutes off their travel time.
And all the while, Silas felt Elle getting closer. Not because she was coming back toward them, but because they were catching up to where she’d gone.
The bond pulsed stronger. Silas felt her shock, fear and determination. He knew that she had discovered something important.
“There,” Carter pointed. “The building is right behind these trees.”
They walked into the trees, and Silas’s worst fears came true.
A large warehouse lay in front of them with a number of buildings, some in good condition, others in poor condition. There was one building, the biggest, the one at the center, which had blacked out windows.
There were also dozens of cars around. More than required for a simple industrial area.
“It is an auction,” Rael spoke.
Silas growled low. It was the largest group of traffickers that they had ever seen, and Elle found it alone.
“Where is she?” August asked, his eyes looking around.
Silas shut his eyes and focused on the bond. Elle’s presence was so powerful that he could nearly feel it.
“She is there,” his eyes flickered open, nodding at a spot close to the main building. “She is on the west side.”
They all went closer, relying on the darkness and their training in order to go unnoticed. They took another step closer, and after a moment, Silas was able to see her—Elle, cowering behind a dumpster looking directly at the entrance to the building.
The relief that filled him was so great that it almost knocked him down. She was alive. Unharmed. Safe.
For now.
Silas made his way to her, making just enough noise that she wouldn’t be startled when he appeared beside her.
Elle’s head whipped toward him, her eyes widening. “Silas? What are you—how did you—”
“Later,” Silas interrupted. “What did you find?”
Elle grimaced. “An auction. The biggest one yet. It has to have about thirty buyers in it, and about ten women are being detained. The ones I’ve seen at least.”
Silas’s jaw clenched. This was it. This was the operation that they had been chasing for several months, and they’d finally found it.