Chapter 024: Crossing the Line

Ava's POV 

Still, the wave of adrenaline that coursed through my veins once the woman vanished had not subsided. As I bent close to Jackson, my heart was racing and my breath came in little bursts. Although his arm was bleeding heavily, his demeanor stayed austere and deliberate; the sting of the cut hardly registered against the weight of what had just happened. The twins. They were quite close, yet she had vanished once more.

My voice stronger than I felt, I added, "I'll get the first aid kit."

Jackson shook his head to gently stop me by holding my wrist. "It's simply a scrape." We have no time for that.

I argued, "Jackson, you need to take care of it," but I knew he was correct. The cut was shallow, so it wouldn't slow him down as long as we didn't waste time.

Pulling himself upright, he said, "I'm fine." His eyes fixed on the door the woman had vanished from, his ideas probably racing with the same haste that had my gut knotted.

"We have to move quickly," I remarked, looking toward Leo, who was already assembling some of the fighters. "She won't let the twins remain outside. She will vanish with them if we do not find them soon; next time she might not return to harass us.

Jackson nodded, his features stiffening into the extreme will I knew so well. "We're not giving her what she wants; she wants me to submit. We are bringing our kids back.

My voice lowering to a whisper, I moved toward him. Still, we need to be clever. She expects us to hurry into this and make a mistake. Before we go, we must determine where she is hiding them.

Jackson nodded even though his eyes shuttered with a trace of irritation. You're correct. She is playing with us, trying to get us to respond.

Turning to Leo, "We need someone who can track her," I remarked. " someone able to follow her without an obvious presence. Where is she keeping the twins and where is she heading?

Always the cool and deliberate one, Leo moved forward with a crisp look. I will forward our finest trackers. She will be found by them.

Jackson nodded cursively. "Don't do it."

Jackson and I stood in the solitude of the packhouse as Leo left to arrange the tracking crew, the weight of everything falling over us like a thick fog. Now the twins were out of our reach once more, after we had come so near to having them returned.

"I won't lose them, Ava," Jackson said, his voice quiet but charged with feeling. "I am unable."

I stretched for his hand and firmly grasped it. Neither will we. We will get them back.

Nevertheless, the anxiety persisted even as I spoke the words. This woman had meticulously planned every action, hence I was afraid thinking we were still in her hands. She was erratic, threatening, and she possessed the one item that meant most to us. The impression that her game contained something deeper, something we hadn't yet understood persisted in me.

The packhouse doors opened once more, and Leo came back bearing two of the best trackers—Dante and Sofia. Both of them were adept at stealthily navigating the forest, and if someone could locate the path, it was them.

"We'll follow her scent," Sofia stated in a cool, businesslike voice. She left behind enough to track.

Tall and powerful, Dante nodded in accord. We will discover her. She will not get very far.

Jackson advised caution, his voice tense. "She looks more benign than she is deadly.

With fast and stealthy motions, the trackers nodded and vanished into the night. Jackson and I stood silently for a brief period, clearly tense. Every second seemed like a lifetime, our children's life weight weighing down on us.

Jackson remarked at last, his voice shattering the quiet, "We have to get ready." "We have to be ready to hit once they locate her."

I nodded, although the anxiety chewing at my core would not go away. This was personal rather than merely a struggle for land or control. Personal conflicts were also the toughest to overcome as the stakes were always bigger and the emotions always sharper.

Jackson came to the table and laid out a chart of our land. "We'll cover every conceivable escape route," he answered, his thoughts already running over the specifics. She will nowhere be able to hide.

Standing next to him, I examined the map but couldn't get rid of the uneasy feeling. "What if this is not about territory?" I said softly, expressing the idea that had been bothering me. "What if it goes beyond just power?"

Jackson raised his head and wrinkled his brow toward me. "What are you meant to mean?"

Thinking back to the woman's chilly, deliberate behavior, "She didn't seem desperate to control the pack," I said. She wanted you to submit, but it felt as though she was having fun playing the game. Like this was about more than just seizing.

Jackson's face darkened, his jaw tightened. You consider this to be personal?

Feeling a cold go down my spine, I said, "I don't know." But I don't believe this is limited to power alone. She is also driven in some other way.

Jackson stopped, his head whirling through the alternatives. "We'll find out soon enough," he murmured low at last.

The hours passed while we sought word from the trackers. Every minute that went by without news seemed like a knife turning more deeply into my chest. The twins—where they were, whether they knew we were battling to get them home, whether they were terrified—kept me from sleeping.

Sofia came back, her face gloomy but resolved as the first light of morning started to slink through the windows.

She continued, her voice cut, "We found her." "She is hiding on the southern border in an abandoned cabin far into the wilderness. She is with a tiny bunch of rogues. Not sufficient to constitute a real threat if we act fast.

Jackson's eyes blazed with will. " Let's go."

I trailed behind him as we rapidly assembled a troop of fighters, all eager to fight. My heart hammered in my chest, hope and terror whirled within me. Now, we were just close enough to have our kids returned. But I couldn't get rid of the sense that this would not finish as simply as we had planned.

Every rustle of the leaves on the tight trip over the forest sent us on edge. Anticipation thickened the air, the type one gets before a storm. I turned my gaze ahead, driving down the anxiety that threatened to surface every second.

At last the cabin emerged from under cover of a tangle of trees. Though little and run-down, it seemed strong enough. Jackson raised his hand as we positioned ourselves and asked for us to halt.

"Be ready for anything," he said, staring at the cottage.

As Jackson and I neared the door, the fighters dispersed around the outside. As we got closer, my hand was clutching the knife at my side and my heart was beating.

Jackson kicked the door open, and we hurried inside armed as well.

There was nothing in the cabin.

I momentarily lost understanding of what I was seeing. There was absolutely no life in the quiet chamber. Not only worst of all—no sign of the twins—but also neither of the woman nor the rogues.

My heart in my throat, a cold wave of terror swept over me and I looked to Jackson. "Their absence is evident."

Jackson's face was austere, but I could see the flutter of anxiety in his eyes. His voice low and urgent, he turned to Sofia. "Are you sure this was the site?"

Sofia nodded, perplexity wrinkled over her brow. "This is where the path ran. I am quite clear about that.

My thoughts flew while the panic started to surge in my chest. We arrived later than necessary. She had relocated them, and once more they were absent.

Before I could say anything, the cabin resonated with a gentle, constant beeping. I turned, staring at the room till I came upon it.

A little gadget flashing continuously under a heap of trash.

Jackson came toward it, his face stiffening as he took it up. "A tracker," he said in a frustrated whisper.

She had been counting on us. Her strategy had all included this as part of it.

Jackson's eyes grew startled as the gadget softly clicked suddenly. "Get down!!"

The blast shook the cabin and sent a tsunami of debris and heat over us. My eyesight blurring, my ears ringing, I ground hard.

My pulse racing as I sought Jackson, I raced to my feet when the dust at last settled.

He was there, determined but pallid, dragging himself up from the debris.

His voice dark, he added, "She's not just playing with us."

She is guiding us exactly as she wants.

And with that, I understood this was far from done.