Chapter 3

Dinner was served by 9 as requested and went smoothly. The Blood Moon warriors were strictly regulated indeed. Like clockwork men, they marched to the mechanisms of their routine, which I learned was dinner at 9, practice from 10 to 12, cleanup, drinks, then it was lights out.

They barely spoke to one another, let alone me or my children, not even a thank you for the lodging or food. They've been here half a day, and the gamma is the only one I've spoken more than three words to. It's unnatural. We're pack animals, after all. There seems to be no comradery, no warmth in their ranks. Even over the drinks—which they brought—there was no idle chitchat between them, stories, or songs. They just recited oaths to their alpha, who isn't even here. It's just another ritual, a mark in their routine. This is no normal camp.

1:05 AM, and I find myself in bed listening to nothing but eerie silence, trying to process this situation. I can't just let them leave with the girls, can I? I'm not stupid. Even an idiot can see they are being mistreated. How, I don't know. Likely treated like slaves, at the least, but what can I do? I can't take on 36 warriors myself. I probably couldn't even take on one. I haven't shifted in weeks, and my wolf has always been smaller. She's fast, and Victor taught me what he could to ensure I can defend myself, but I'm nowhere near strong enough to take out trained warriors.

I could mind link our gamma or beta, but the gamma and I aren't on the best of terms, and I've never even met the beta. Plus, that could just drag our pack into a confrontation with Blood Moon—if the upper ranks would send anyone at all.

I've lived on the edge of our pack in more ways than one since Victor's death. Part of me couldn't forgive the others for what happened to him. Our pack is massive. They didn't need him on patrol, and he should never have been alone on patrol. If only someone had been with him, he might still be alive, be here with me.

Our beta and alpha didn't even bother to come to express their condolences, to pay their respects for the sacrifice our family made for them. They had a lowly omega mind link me. He didn't even come in person, and his well wishes came with the joint missive that my home would be needed as lodging for the war effort. Even so, they wouldn't just ignore me, would they? Ignore five young she-wolves in need? We are better than that.

My thoughts are interrupted by a sudden creak in the hall before the soft closing of a door. Probably a warrior using the bathroom—so they aren't robots after all. That's when I hear it—a blood-curdling scream. I know it's Anna, and I'm lost. It's like every cell in my being is exploding, fear and rage releasing in the after wake.

I find myself at her door before I even realize my feet hit the floor, throwing it open with such force it bursts off the hinges clattering against the wall. He's standing over her tiny frame hunched in the corner. The gamma. His back is to me. Her nightgown is torn. Her face is covered in tears. Her cheek is red. He hit her. He hurt her. I feel my wolf taking over. The sound that comes out of me is otherworldly. I don't recognize it as me, recognize it as my wolf. It's something else, and it wants blood.

As the gamma turns to me, I use the last of my cognizance to scream one word at Anna and her brothers through the mind link—tunnel. I watch her scramble past his legs and through the open door behind me before my flesh shreds, bones crack, and my vision goes red.

It's cold now. Is that ground? I'm on the ground. It burns. Chains? Silver chains? I'm on the ground outside in silver chains. What happened? A drop of blood drips off of one of my curls, falling on my knees. I'm covered in blood. There's blood everywhere. The house is a wreck. Someone hits me. I look up to see a warrior just as he swings again, knocking me sideways.

"Where are they?" he demands. I still feel dizzy. Confused. What happened? Where is Anna? Where is the gamma? "Who?" I croak out. My throat feels hoarse, burned.

"The ones who helped you," he seethes. "What? Ones who helped me what? Where are my children? Where is that fucking son of bitch Bradley? He was trying to rape her!" I screech, straining against my chains as I stand up, my anger giving me strength, waking up my senses before I'm slammed back to the ground by two warriors that I didn't realize were behind me.

"Don't play dumb. He's dead, along with three more of our men. Torn to fucking shreds, and we know you couldn't have done that alone. You fainted like the weak whore you are. How did you get them past our perimeter, and where did they go?" He kicks me with each word of his final question.

"I don't know," I sputter, spitting blood, "No one else was here. I don't know what happened. Where are my children?" I plead. I can't feel them. They must have given me wolfsbane. When I reach out for the mind link, all I feel is darkness, emptiness. I feel alone, isolated, terrified. I just want some confirmation they're okay. Please let them be okay.

My pleading is met with a few more sharp kicks, and my vision blurs. In the distance, I can just barely make out headlights coming up the road. It has to be our pack warriors. They'll save me. They'll sort this out. "Dark Wood warriors incoming," a man to my right reports, confirming my guess, "should we move her out of view?" he continues.

"No," the man standing over me says, "maybe they can get some answers out of the skank." I see now, under their disciplined decorum, these men are monsters, just like their fucking gamma. The car arrives, and to my surprise, I see our gamma, Theo.

He steps out of the car with four high-level pack warriors and glances around at the destruction before commenting coldly, "What's the meaning of this?" "Our leader and several of our men have been killed. We found this one collapsed in the mess. Her children are missing," the one standing over me replies.

They made it out. They don't have them. My kids are okay. They have to be. "The alpha felt their pack link sever. Hers too. That's why we're here. Why is she in silver chains?" Theo replies, the disgust in his voice clear. For me or the idea of me chained in silver, I do not know.

Wait, the pack link is severed? That doesn't make any sense. I'm not dead. I didn't renounce the link. How were we all severed? When both a wolf's parents die, sometimes a pack link has to be re-established, but I'm not dead. I'm in too much pain to be dead. My everything hurts.

"She's a traitor to our kind," the warrior above me states. He must be their new commander. "She set a trap here for our men. Let someone lay in wait for us. We want to know who they are and where they are now, and we'll get it out of her by any means necessary."

Theo doesn't reply immediately. He's fucking mulling this situation over? I'm a member of his pack. "I didn't have anyone laying in wait," I try to defend myself, "their gamma was going to rape my daughter. I lost it. I don't remember what happ—" I'm cut off by a boot to my gut. "Our gamma would never take a child. She's lying. Someone killed our men, and she helped them," the man who kicked me says.

None of our pack warriors move to help me. I look up at them and see nothing but confusion, doubt, where loyalty should be.

"This is a matter for the alpha to settle," Theo finally says. "You and your men will follow us back to the pack house with the woman." The woman? He can't even remember my name? My mate died under his command, and he either can't remember or won't bring himself to say my name? That bastard.

"He will get the truth from her. We will find out what happened to your men, and justice will be done," he continues. He looks over at me with indifference. Is this because the pack link is severed? I know Theo and I have our history, but to treat me like a lowly rouge—a rouge?!? My pack link is gone. Me and the kids, we're rouge now, the realization slams into me. Oh, gods, no. I feel tears slip down my cheeks.

"We need to find her brats," the man who has been kicking me states. "They were probably in on this too." No, no, no. Just leave them be. Leave them be is all I can think as Theo moves closer to me. "You will not hunt former pack members of ours on our land. We will send warriors out to find them," he replies, showing me a sliver of the man I thought him to be once.

He wouldn't let these beasts take my kids too. At least if they were in our pack's hands, they had a chance. The alpha might accept them again. They could be safe here again. My boys wouldn't be forced to become one of these monsters or die, and my sweet girl wouldn't be savaged and left like the others. The she-wolves they brought. I underestimated what had been done to them. I can only imagine. The alpha wouldn't let them have me, would he?

Arms sweep me up from behind, dragging me to the nearest SUV, and I'm slammed in the back. My head impacts hard against the door on the way in. I feel fresh blood run down my face, mingling with my tears, as the door closes behind me.

The same eerie silence from earlier in the night settles over me. The men don't talk. They don't listen to the radio. We just drive. So much has happened in a few short hours.

I feel myself being pulled away from my home, my family, traveling down the road I know so well. Now it seems to lead directly into the unknown. I can only hope my children are safe. Hope the alpha shows me mercy, that he can make sense of what happened.

What did happen? Maybe the Blood Moon men turned on their leader, came in after I blacked out, and are just using me as a scapegoat to cover their mutiny. I have to come up with some sort of explanation. I don't know isn't going to cut it, even if that's the truth. I try to shift into a comfortable enough position to sleep. I have a feeling I'll need my strength. Besides, what else can I do?