Chapter 21 - Flora
Between work, training, caring for Sofia, and spending more time with Camden, Flora felt like her life was falling into a busy but steady rhythm.
She was used to working hard, so scheduling wasn’t much of an issue for her.
What she had been struggling with was finding the balance between leisure time and productivity.
She knew that time with Sofia and Camden wasn’t pointless, but after so many years of backbreaking labor, she felt like she was constantly reminding herself that she wasn’t doing anything when she relaxed and enjoyed her time with them.
Camden had been understanding of Flora’s difficulties.
To help her, he often had the housework done when she arrived home at the end of her shifts.
They cooked dinner together and then spent time as a family before Sofia went to bed.
Flora was pleased with how well things were going.
The only dark spot in her life now was the sword hanging over her head: Alpha Sier still hadn’t made a move.
Her worries about when he would strike next were all she could think about as she finished mopping the floors at the coffee shop.
Work was taking longer than usual tonight.
After closing down the shop at the end of the day, Mr. Thompson usually stayed to count the till, go over inventory, and handle restocking for the following day while Flora handled the cleaning and dishes.
Tonight, he hadn’t been feeling well, and Flora had encouraged him to go home early.
So after she had finished helping the last customer, she had spent an hour doing the work Edgar usually handled before she even started on her own work.
“There,” she muttered to herself as she poured the dirty water from the mop bucket down the floor drain in the supply closet. “Done.”
She gave the shop one last look, making sure everything was in order for the following day, and went to the front door. She took the key from her apron pocket and turned the lock, ready to head back home to Camden and Sofia. She hoped they had started eating without her.
“Flora. Do you have a minute to talk?”
Alpha Harold was waiting for her outside the shop. It was the first time she could remember him addressing her by name. “That human girl” was what she was used to, although lately he had taken to calling her “Camden’s mate.” It was an improvement, at least.
“Alpha,” she said, addressing him respectfully. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes, but I do need to speak with you. In private,” he added.
Flora couldn’t imagine what the alpha of Silverrose could possibly need her opinion on.
He and Camden spoke to each other almost every day, and she assumed that anything that had any bearing on her life would have been taken care of by Harold’s nephew.
But the two of them had been mending their relationship lately.
Flora had seen how the alpha seemed to show a genuine interest in Camden’s ideas and, although he didn’t agree with them, had given Camden the chance to explain how changes to the pack could benefit everyone.
She had no inclination that Harold would ever apologize for the way he had treated her, but maybe this private conversation was a means of patching things up between the two of them so that he and Camden could work together for the pack.
As such a low-ranking member of the pack, she could hardly say no to him, anyway.
“Of course,” she said, turning the key in the lock and placing it back in her pocket. “Lead the way.”
Harold started walking down the street. Autumn had made its presence known in full force now, and the sun had set hours ago.
Streetlamps flickered overhead, and Flora followed Harold around the block.
He stopped near the alley that led behind the coffee shop and the businesses on either side of it.
Harold had said he needed to speak with her, but not a single word crossed his lips as she approached him.
His silence was starting to concern her.
“What can I do for you, Alpha?” she asked.
Harold pounced, grabbing her arm and pulling her roughly into the alleyway where a black car was waiting with the trunk open. Flora opened her mouth to scream, but Harold wrapped his arm around her torso, covering her mouth with his large hand.
“Easy, girl,” he growled in her ear. “You’ll only make this harder on yourself.”
She tried to break free, but his attack had taken her by surprise, and he was much bigger and stronger than her. He threw her into the trunk forcefully, and before she could even sit up, it closed overhead. Flora was thrown into pitch blackness.
She screamed for help, but there was no one around to hear her. She heard the car door open, and Harold got into the front seat, turning the key in the ignition.
“Help!” she screamed again.
“Quiet back there!” the alpha shouted back. “There’s no one here but me.”
“Where are you taking me?!” she screamed back.
“I’m returning you to where you belong,” Harold said, just loud enough for her to hear it through the fabric and metal of the car. “Back to Alpha Sier.”
The car began to move, and Flora slid against the back of the trunk.
Flora looked around frantically, hoping that her purse was in the trunk with her.
If she could get to her phone and let Camden know what had happened, he would come and rescue her.
He wouldn’t allow Alpha Sier to harm her again; he had promised.
But her bag was gone, and with it, any hope she had of alerting her mate.
She reasoned that it must have fallen when Harold attacked her.
All she had was the key to the coffee shop, which wouldn’t do her much good now.
She placed the key back in her pocket and listened, trying to figure out where Harold was taking her.
The drive didn’t last long, and soon she felt the car slowing to a stop.
She waited in the dark for it to start moving again, but the trunk opened with a snap, and a bright light appeared above her as Harold shone a flashlight in her face.
After being in the darkness, the light disoriented her.
Flora put her hands in front of her eyes to block it, and Harold grabbed her roughly, pulling her from the car.
“Hold still,” he ordered.
Before she knew it, her wrists had been bound together with thick tape.
“Alpha Hughes, stop,” Flora said, her voice rising with panic. “You can’t do this. You can’t send me back to Ironbrand!”
“It’s the only way my pack will ever be at peace again,” Harold said.
Flora was surprised to hear regret in his voice, even as he pulled her away from the car and forced her to sit on the curb in the abandoned parking lot.
Cigarette butts, fast food wrappers, and beer cans littered the ground, and a train rumbled in the distance.
She vaguely remembered seeing an area like this once, on the trip from Silverrose to Ironbrand when she was a teenager.
“I’m already mated to Camden,” Flora pointed out. “You aren’t just hurting me by doing this. What about your nephew?”
Harold winced, and Flora could see she had struck a nerve. No matter what his feelings for her might be, Harold loved Camden.
“That is…regrettable. But what else can I do? Your return is all Alpha Sier is asking for. It has to be done,” Harold said.
But Flora wasn’t going to give in without a fight. She may be bound and at the alpha’s mercy, but she could still point him toward the truth of what he was doing tonight.
“If you think Demetrius will stop once he gets me back, you haven’t learned anything about him,” Flora said.
“He knows that Camden took me from Ironbrand. The Joneses must have told him where I was, and he sent his men to collect me. The ones who were in Silverrose didn’t even know that the kidnappers had failed when they set fire to your people’s houses. What does that tell you?”
“That Sier is dangerous and needs to be appeased,” Harold replied.
“Wrong,” Flora argued. “It tells you that he is dangerous and needs to be stopped. He isn’t just angry with me. He is angry with all of Silverrose, but especially Camden. Once he gets me back, he’ll still come after the pack.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Flora hadn’t told anyone about what Sier had been doing. Demetrius had convinced her that no one would believe a word she said because she was a human, and because of that, he had felt comfortable letting her into his secrets. If Harold knew, he might make a different choice.
“Because I’ve seen what he does to packs who defy him,” she said.
“Ironbrand doesn’t have enough women in their pack for the men to all have mates.
For the past two years, he has been kidnapping women from surrounding packs and bringing them back to Ironbrand as hostages.
His soldiers get mates, and he gets their undying devotion for solving their problem.
When they have children, he’ll have a whole new generation for his army.
Only a few packs have fought back against the kidnappings.
I’ll let you guess what happened when they did. ”
Harold’s face paled with each word she spoke as the evil of Demetrius Sier finally sank in.
“Do you really think he’ll leave Camden and Silverrose alone?
He’s done far worse to those who have done far less to him,” Flora pointed out.
“At least with me in Silverrose, he still has his revenge against me to worry about. But if he gets me out of the way, there’s nothing to stop him from killing Camden.
I don’t want that to happen. Please, Harold. ”
Flora knew that using his first name instead of his title was risky, but she was desperate to get through to him.
Calling him Alpha had been a sign of respect, but she needed him to know he wasn’t just risking his people; he was risking his family.
Camden and Sofia were the only family he had left.
She had to believe that, at some point, he would realize she was family, too.
Luckily, it worked.
“You’re right,” he said with a sigh. “I’m sorry, Flora. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I can’t give you up to Sier. We’ll find another way.”
Flora breathed a sigh of relief as Harold helped her to her feet and cut the tape from her wrists. She massaged them gently, and Harold gave her a look of apology.
“We’ll figure it out together,” she told him.
“Well, well, well.”
Harold whirled around to look at the speaker, and Flora’s blood ran ice-cold as their conversation was interrupted. She had been so focused on Harold that she hadn’t noticed Demetrius sneaking up from the other side of his car.
“What a beautiful moment between an uncle and his niece,” Sier continued icily. “I almost feel bad for interrupting it. Almost.”
He smiled sinisterly, and Flora took an involuntary step backward.
Her foot caught on the curb she had just risen from, and she stumbled slightly.
Harold threw out an arm to catch her, and she regained her balance.
Harold held her hand in his own as her heart beat faster.
It was almost painful as she thought about how close she’d come to escaping from her fate.
She had finally gotten Harold to see the mistake he was making, but it was too late now.
Demetrius would take her back to Ironbrand.
She would be punished harshly, and then… .
She shuddered as she wondered what he had in store for her. Harold remained silent, and she knew he was gauging escape routes just like she was. Demetrius stood between them and Harold’s car. The alpha could escape on foot, but Flora didn’t stand a chance against an alpha.
“No need to feel bad, Sier,” Harold finally said. “You aren’t interrupting anything. Flora and I can continue our conversation later. She won’t be leaving with you tonight.”
Demetrius’ lips pressed tighter together, his smile faltering as he stalked toward Harold.
“Yes, she will,” he said. “Dead or alive, the choice is yours.”
Harold glanced at Flora, gave her hand a squeeze, and then dropped it to take a step away from her.
Is he leaving me behind? She thought in a panic.
But when Demetrius took a step toward Harold, and then another, she realized what he was doing.
“Alive, of course,” Harold continued nonchalantly as he continued to lead Demetrius further away from Flora. “She’ll be going home with me.”
“I meant you can be dead or alive,” Sier seethed.
Harold nodded knowingly and took another step away.
Demetrius stepped right up in front of his face, and Flora knew the moment had arrived.
She wanted to cry out to him to find another way, but she couldn’t see one.
She angled her feet toward the car and her torso toward Harold, waiting for a signal that she knew was going to come.
“I guess we’ll find out,” he said with a sigh.
Harold threw his keys through the air toward Flora, who caught them in one hand and took off at a sprint for the car.
Behind her, she heard the sound of a fist connecting with flesh as Harold swung on Demetrius, buying her time to get to the driver’s seat.
She ripped the door open, threw herself inside, and slammed the door shut.
In an instant, she had put it in reverse and put the pedal to the floor, steering toward the alphas in hopes that Harold would jump into the car with her.
But when she looked, she saw Demetrius standing over Harold’s kneeling body with his head in his hands.
“No!” Flora screamed.
Demetrius looked at her, smiling like a madman with a wild look in his eyes, as he twisted Harold’s head, breaking his neck. A sickening crunch went through the air, and the alpha’s lifeless body fell to the ground in a heap.
Flora was full of rage at the sight. She wanted to rip Demetrius apart, but there was nothing she could do.
Shock and horror threatened to overcome her senses.
And then Demetrius took a step toward the car.
She let out a guttural cry as she threw the car into drive and swerved away from the scene, putting the pedal to the floor and powering toward Silverrose.
I’m so sorry, she thought as tears blurred her vision. I failed you.