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*****
*Jayden*
The butter knife in my hand glistened in the little bit of light that managed to make it through the boarded-up window as I tilted it on my fingers.
Distracting my father wasn’t a very hard thing to do, I just had to tell him he was weak and he forgot everything, stopped being rational to just go primitively ballistic. It was terrifying, but it was funny for a moment. I figured that his wolf was just like that.
Needless to say, I hadn’t gotten myself beat up to the point where I could barely move for nothing over the past few days.
My body still hurt like hell, but it didn’t matter because I had gotten a weapon. Well, not necessarily a good weapon but it was close enough.
I bit my lip as my eyes shifted to the door across the room. It was the day where I could – probably would – die but it would definitely be the day Eli got away from their house – or wherever they were keeping him,
I tucked the knife under my sleeve as the door unlocked, the sound loud in the silence around me. I didn’t know what time it was, but the light that filtered in told me it was daylight outside. I looked at the door as my father’s footsteps made their way towards me.
“How was your night? Sleep well?” He asked.
I studied the man that I looked so much like when not taking into consideration our differences in body mass, I was much skinnier. In the past few days, I had been more terrified of him than I had in my life, but that terror was overshadowed by the need to tick him off and distract him from my son. The terror was replaced by outspoken snappy responses I knew would annoy him to the max.
“I should be asking you that. It’s sort of hypocritical, don’t you think? All the times you called me names because I’m gay and here you are, and there Mike is –”
“You better shut your fucking mouth, I’m not a fucking faggot!” He cut me off. I chuckled.
“Whoa, calm down, Dad.” The fact that I felt so much like Corey at the moment made my heart flutter. He was the reason I wasn’t as shy and broken as I used to be, he was also the reason I could barely hold my tongue despite who I was currently speaking to. “No need to take offence… You guys are perfect together. It’s about time you stopped pretending to want to get back with my mother.” I knew one of the things my father could absolutely not stand was someone questioning his sexuality and pulled my legs back as he kicked the cage.
“Coward!” He yelled.
“Really? You put me in here.” Shit, Jayden, shut up.
His eyes were glowing topaz, his wolf was going to lose it and my own would retaliate, I would end up hurting myself in the cage.
Much to my surprise though, he muttered a spell and the cage broke open completely in front of me.
“You talk a lot, Jayden. At least when you were younger you knew how to guard your mouth.” He said. I quickly jumped out of the cage to get to my feet so that I wasn’t at too big of a disadvantage.
I knew my stamina was terrible, so if there was any chance of escaping, I needed to end things quickly.
His heart.
No one could be brought back twice.
“Let’s –” he began but I wasn’t going to waste time and attack him when he expected me to, so I launched at him pulling the knife from my pocket in the process and plunging it into his chest forcefully.
It would have killed him if he hadn’t made a last-second move to get out of the way, I was sure the knife slid in just millimetres away from his heart. As he yelled in pain, I didn’t waste time being disappointed and ran out of the basement hearing him yell curses at me.
‘Eli!’ I linked to him silently begging him to be awake. It would be so much easier to find him if he would respond. I couldn’t call for him, because then Mike would know I was out of the basement.
I didn’t wait for him to reply as I made my way up the stairs while trying to move as quickly and silently as I could opening every door I passed.
I couldn’t smell him. Why couldn’t I smell him? Yes, my senses weren’t that great but I should still have been able to smell him or feel him around somewhere, unless… I froze at the last door I opened and peered into the empty bedroom. There was not a trace of his scent. If they had ever had him there, there should have been the tiniest bit of his scent still lingering.
What if they never took him?
What if they had killed him on the site?
I felt my legs turn to jelly at the thought, my body tensing causing air to trap in my chest.
“Ah, look who’s out of his cage. You know you’re not allowed out of the basement, right, Jayden?” I turned to Mike, but my head was too clouded to focus on the fact that he was just a few feet away from me and I had no protection. My heart was beating in my throat with panic. What if I’d let them kill him? “How’d you sleep?” he smiled leaning against the wall nonchalantly.
“Where-where is he?” I ignored Mike’s question.
“Who?” He asked, “Oh, him.” He chuckled, “Where do you think, Jayden?”
I shook my head stepping back against the wall. I couldn’t have fought them all this time for no reason. I couldn’t have been trying to protect him so much when he was already gone. He couldn’t be gone. I couldn’t have let them do that to him.
I felt my body weaken as my eyes burned with tears.
“Where is he?” I repeated in a whisper.
“You know where.” He replied seriously. I began shaking my head but he continued, “Why would we keep him alive? I had a chance and I took it. Do you think I’ll let another Alpha live? Especially an heir to Galaxy? Let you and your mate have your peace after what you did?” He snorted.
“What we did?” I looked at him.
“You should have let it be.” He chuckled. “You’re not going to see your son again, Jayden. He’s dead. Like me, except there’s no way you can bring him back; you only get one wish that powerful.” He said, “And there’s no witch powerful enough to do what she did anyway.” He said.
He was right, we could only ever make a wish that big once, and I had chosen to wish Adan back to life. No witch powerful enough?
“Bianca…” I mumbled.
“Someone that powerful will always be a threat, of course we could not leave her out of this.” He narrowed his eyes.
They killed Bianca? How? She was so strong. Marcus…
“The problem with you, and everyone around you, Jayden, is that you all base your lives, every move you make on your emotions, you all get so attached to everyone around you.” I looked at Mike as he walked closer to me, “I don’t have to break you like I used to, even though that was fun.” I stepped away from him as bile rose in my throat at the memories when he smirked before he chuckled, “Knowing that you let me kill your son, that’s enough, isn’t it?”
I shut my eyes clenching my fist. I should have fought harder…
I should have protected him.
“Let’s be honest, Jayden. You could never have kept him safe. You’ve always been too weak. I told you, you should have listened. You can go home now, your pack’s going to be attacked, and you’re going to be baggage to them, to Corey,” he chuckled, “And to Tamia. You can’t help her, you couldn’t even save the stronger one.”
I looked at him and swung my fist with the last strength that I had trying to get him to stop talking. He stumbled back.
“Shut up!” I yelled.
He laughed.
“He didn’t even get a funeral, Corey thinks we have him. Good luck finding his body if you ever leave.” He said.
I fought to control my breathing as I got angrier by the second. If Eli was gone, I would find a way to bring him back but I was not letting them get off after everything. I was not letting them go alive.
—–
*Corey*
“Marc! Marcus!” I yelled running through the house. “You’re finally here!” I let out an exasperated sigh as I saw him in the living room.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t –” He was saying.
“I can’t – I can’t feel Jayden. You have to help me.” I cut him off.
We had run over the areas, it was quick because of the number of wolves we had searching, but Jayden hadn’t been there. I was almost out of options, but I still had Marcus.
“What are you talking about?” He raised his eyebrows before sighing, “Look, Kade just called me and told me to come by urgently. I’m sorry I didn’t answer sooner… I… Bianca… left me.” His voice softened painfully as he spoke.
“I – She left you?”
“Yeah,” He gave a dry chuckle, “Right after you left.” He shrugged, “Just sent a text, by the way. Didn’t even bother calling.”
“But… you were engaged,” I said.
“Yes… But it’s better because I’m here now, you can – you distract me before I get more beer.” He said.
“I can’t – Marcus, I need you to help me find Jayden,”
“Why?” His eyes flickered past me, “Where is he? What happened?”
“Carrie.” I said, “It’s a long story, but I need you to help me find Jay. Like you did with Sean back then, remember? I need that, and I need you to do it right now.”
“Corey, I can’t just use that. Sean’s an alpha, it’s different, the power –” he began to explain.
“Yes, you can!” I cut him off, “You can.” I didn’t look up as Sean and Kaden walked in behind me. I clenched my fist. “Marcus, Bianca brought Mike and Jayden’s father back to life and-and they have him right now – they took him and I can’t feel him, I can’t find him without you.”
His face fell into complete shock. “What? She did that?”
“I don’t know, I think Carrie convinced her to.”
“No, Bianca wouldn’t just do that to him. What-what did they do to her?” Marcus asked. “I can’t-I can’t get a hold of her either.”
“Shit,” Sean muttered.
I let out an aggravated sigh but I stopped mid-breath as my heat began pounding. I took in a deep breath and gasped as it suddenly felt like I could feel Jayden again, like I was being pulled towards him.
“What’s going on?” Kaden looked at me.
“It’s his pull, isn’t it? You feel his pull?” Sean said, “Corey, move. You can track him now.”
Right. I was about to follow but Marcus grabbed my arm firmly.
“If you can feel his pull now, it’s because they want you to. It has to be a trap.” He said.
“It doesn’t matter, I can take them –” I was cut off by a loud siren and looked towards where the noise was coming from outside.
No, no ,no. Not now!
“It’s an attack!” Kaden snapped as he sprinted out of the front door.
“Corey, get Trent covering the left side of the house, you’re on the right, Kade’s up front, we need to push them back.” Sean ran out.
But Jayden… It was my chance to find him. I stood still considering just following the pull, ignoring the attack. Did they really need me? He needed me… I needed to find him.
I snapped out of my thoughts when screams that sounded like teenagers’ came from outside.
“Corey!” Sean shouted.
“I’ve got it!”
At least I knew he was alive…
*****
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