The Forbidden Mate
Chapter Twenty-Five – Race Against Time

Alex

My warriors have been hunting the traitors down, securing the pack. Twenty of our warriors have died, and five other pack members, besides my father and his gamma were killed. The losses the traitors have suffered have been greater, forty are dead.

The fighting was brutal, and it took longer than I had hoped for the final traitors to be defeated. Once they realised that they had lost, they became desperate, none of them had wanted to be captured, they knew what would await them if they were. We have taken some prisoners, but they will only live long enough to provide us with information we need on Carl. Once they cease to be useful we will dispose of them. We have no sympathy for traitors, there would be no forgiveness for betraying their pack and killing their own family and friends.

I long to see Katy, to hold her in my arms. She is the only person who can calm me down, can help me fight the rage and loss that I feel. Not having seen her for hours has been driving my wolf mad. I need to make sure that she is OK. At least she had not been at the pack house when the fighting started. She was safe at home with Daniel to protect her. Now I just needed to be with her to hold her in my arms, inhale her sweet scent. She will be able to comfort me as I try to come to terms with the loss of my father and the deaths of so many of my loyal pack members.

I see Euan hurrying towards me panic on his face. What could have happened now.

When he reaches me, he says “The warriors I sent to Katy’s house have reported back. She and Daniel are gone. There are signs of a struggle, the front door and the bathroom door were smashed in. I think that Carl has taken them.”

“NO, how?” I ask as I feel panic starting to seize hold of me.

“We knew that Mike was suspicious of Katy, maybe he was more suspicious than we thought. They look like they have used the chaos of the attack to kidnap her.”

“We need to find her, rescue her, before they kill her” I say frantically.

“We will do,” Euan says trying to reassure me. They have my brother too. I am not going to lose any more family members today” he declares.

I place an arm on his shoulder to show my support. I know that I am not the only one who has suffered loss today, but I can’t think of anything or anyone else other than Katy. I need to find her before it is too late.

“We need to find out where they have gone. Did they find anything at Carl’s house that could help us locate him?” I ask.

“Not yet they are still searching” he tells me.

“We need to speed up the search, send more wolves to help them” I tell him. “Summon Ross, he has spent enough time with them recently he might know where they have based themselves. I want the questioning of the prisoners to begin now. Tell the guards that they can do whatever they want to them as long as they get the information we need quickly. I approve of the use of torture.”

I have never wanted to be the kind of Alpha that kills and tortures to get what he wants, but I will use whatever methods I need to, to get Katy back.

Katy

Mike has followed Carl’s instructions to the letter, and all three of us have had our arms and legs bound together so that we can’t move. To keep us from speaking he has tied gags over our mouths. We can’t communicate with each other or call out for help. All I can do is watch as they dismantle their base and load it into waiting cars and vans.

I know we will be next, and then once they are ready they will take me to Lucius, and goddess knows what torture awaits me at his hands. I may never see Alex again.

Once they have emptied the house, I hear Carl ask “Has Will returned?”

“No” Mike replies.

I assume that Will is the warrior who was sent to find out what happened to the rest of the traitors.

“We can’t wait much longer for him we need to start moving out” Carl says.

“You think we should just leave him and the rest of the warriors?” Mike asks.

“They all should have been back by now or sent word saying that they had succeeded in winning the fight and taken over the pack. I think they have been defeated and Will has probably been caught. If he has been taken it won’t be long before he is forced to talk, and Alex and the rest of the pack will know where we are. We need to move before that happens. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

We must take Katy to Lucius. Once Lucius has her the war ends and we will have won. If we lose her, it will revitalise the royal pack, and with Alex now the alpha of the Lunar Eclipse Pack they will resume their old role as allies of the royals. All the work that Lucius has done to destabilise the enemy packs with rogue attacks and taking over the smaller packs will count for nothing”

“I understand” Mike says nodding. “I will load the three prisoners into the car.”

Alex

We had found nothing incriminating at Carl’s house. We have torn the place apart, but there is no evidence of the plot to take over the pack, or any clues to his whereabouts now. I am frustrated but I know better than to expect anything less. The man is too clever and cunning to leave behind anything we can use against him.

Euan has started to interrogate the prisoners, but they haven’t said anything useful yet.

It is slow going and we are running out of time. We have been searching for an hour but we are no nearer to finding her.

Euan has asked Ross to think of anywhere that they could have taken her. Although he has spent time with them, he wasn’t in their inner circle. We don’t think they fully trusted him. He wasn’t told that they were going to attempt to take over the pack until the very last minute. He doesn’t know of anywhere outside of pack lands that they could have gone, and we had already searched all the locations that he could think of.

I have asked Manders to check on Carl’s finances, what properties he owns outside of the pack lands. Anywhere close that he could use, but so far, he has found nothing.

I suddenly hear a shout from behind me. Amy one of our senior warriors is approaching with Will. I recognise Will as one of the warriors who had attacked me in my officebut had managed to escape. This was a stroke of luck, if Carl had trusted him to attack me, then he was in their inner circle. He would know where she was.

“I found him skulking in the forest near the packhouse” Amy tells me.

“Well done” I say.

“Will, I have some questions for you and you better answer truthfully or I will take great pleasure in torturing the answers out of you, and once I have finished I will hand you over to the pack warriors. They are furious with you traitors right now, desperate to avenge the warriors that you have killed. I am sure they will come up with innovative ways to take that anger out on you.” I tell him.

“What will it be? Are you going to be loyal to Carl and the rest of the traitors and make me torture the answers to my questions out of you? I promise you will be in agony by the time I finish, or are you going to tell me what I need to know now? The final outcome will be the same.”

Will gulped and started to shake. He knows he is a dead man, but the thought of being tortured is enough to loosen his tongue. I didn’t expect him to hold out. If he was able to betray his pack, the people he had grown up with and who had helped and supported him all his life, he was hardly going to be any more loyal to Carl and the rest of the traitors.

“What do you want to know?” he asks me.

“Do they have Katy?”

“The Omega? Yes, they have her, Lily and Daniel” he replies.

“Have they harmed her?” I ask trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.

“No, she seemed fine, a couple of bruises but nothing else. They won’t harm her. Lucius wants her” he tells me.

At least they haven’t killed her, I think. There is still a chance.

“Where have they taken her?”

“An abandoned house five miles north of the pack lands” he answers.

I don’t know it. I look questioningly at Amy.

“I don’t know where it is” she tells me.

“You will need to show us where it is Will, and if you try to trick us or delay us. I will make sure you suffer the most painful death you can imagine.”

He shudders, and nods at me.

I order all the warriors to stop doing what they are doing and prepare to hunt down Carl. We will move out once Euan gets here.

…………..

Ten minutes later Euan arrives. It has taken him longer than I expected, but I can see why. He is accompanied by Jane, and Joseph with fifty warriors from the Royal pack. I have never been so pleased to see him.

I walk forward and hug Joseph.

“It is so good to see you” I tell him.

“I hear you need our help. Your rogue Beta has our queen” he says to me.

“Yes,” I confess. “I knew they were suspicious about who she was, I had assigned one of our warriors to protect her, but I didn’t think they would try and abduct her in broad daylight. They used the attack on the pack as an opportunity to kidnap her. I failed her. I should have taken better care of her.”

“I am sure you did everything you could” Joseph tells me. “The last 48 hours has seen Lucius move on ten packs. They are smaller packs who have been loyal to the Royals. The Heart Moon and Silver Moon Packs have both been wiped out. The rest have been taken over by Lucius and absorbed into the Dark Moon Pack.

His plan was for Carl to take over your pack and swear allegiance to him. You have managed to stop his attempt. If your pack had fallen the war would have been over before it had even begun, and Lucius would have won.

If we can free the queen, then we will have thwarted his plan to win the war, and it will galvanise our allies. It will give them hope that we can win.”

“They have taken her to an abandoned house just outside the pack borders. We captured one of the traitors and he is going to show us where it is. We need to get there as quickly as possible. Carl must know by now that his warriors have been defeated and he will be getting ready to leave if he hasn’t left already.”

“Let’s go then” Joseph tells me.

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