Page 5 of Fate Awakened

“I don’t know what this is all about, but you can just let me go. I won’t tell anyone. I won’t call the cops. You don’t have to go through with this,” I plead, hoping to help him see reason.

Tip one of being kidnapped. Make them see you as human, a person with a life, family, and people who would miss them.

“Don’t pretend you have no idea why you’re here. You made that video, and ever since, all anyone can talk about is you. This act of yours won’t stop me from making this trade. You may be necessary to the rest of them, but to me, you’re a means to an end.” He turns up the radio, signaling the end of any conversation with me, and my brain begins spinning over his words.

The video. This all comes back to the murders.

Fear reenters my body as I realize the gravity of my situation. I’ve been kidnapped by someone who works with people who kill people. Hell, he could kill people too, and he’s using me as leverage for something.

I lower myself back down on the seat, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity of my actions. No one knows that I’m missing. Liv thinks I’m at Cain’s.

Cain!

Even the thought of him has my heart clenching, and the ache in my chest is back pulsing through every crack, tear, and shatter. I ran out without even telling him where I was going or why.

Would he even care?

He probably has a bubbly redhead in his bed. I cringe involuntarily at the thought. I’m going to die, and it will take days for anyone to notice. Defeat fills me, and the numbness I’ve honed over years of trauma slides firmly into place.

It's funny how at that moment, I think of my mother. This is her fate, dying alone with no one to care that she ever existed. I never thought it would be mine. I thought I had more time. Time to live the life Sammy and I always talked about. Time to grow a career, fall in love, and make a family. Time to really live.

A single tear slides down my cheek, and I let it fall silently to the seat untouched, not bothering to try and mess with my bound hands. The emptiness burrows deep within me as I close my eyes, hoping to escape the nightmare my reality has become, even for a little while. As I reach for happy memories, my thoughts of Sammy and our lightning bugs lead me back to Cain and the words he said in that parking lot that stuck with me.

“I never want to do anything to make you feel unsafe, Firefly. I want to protect you from everything in this world.”

The joke’s on me for believing him. I spent a lifetime building walls to protect myself from the world. All it took was a couple of weeks, some nicely timed words, and some earth-shattering orgasms to break me.

Talk about a walking cliché.

The tears stream continuously down my face, and my breathing struggles to keep up with my spiraling brain. I don’t even care what Hudson thinks about me sobbing in his backseat. Everything I thought I’d become turned out to be a lie. I’m weak. I’m disposable. I’m exactly like her.

I’m so sorry, Sammy.

Chapter 3

Cain

Themotorcycleridebackto VP Securities isn’t nearly long enough to calm my racing heart or to relieve any of the stress in my shoulders. The sun is just peaking over the horizon now, and the city is beginning to wake up. The dawning of a new day only brings me more dread. The longer she’s gone, the more likely we will lose her. My wolf can’t take the idea of that happening, and he continues pushing against my willpower to take over and search for her himself.

Find Mate. Mine.

It gets more challenging with every passing minute to keep him contained. He feels their connection slipping just as much as I do, and part of me wants to pass control over to him, to give in to my baser instincts and hunt for her to the ends of the earth. Only the logical side of my humanity knows we’re on a limited timeline, and if we waste it running around in the woods, we could lose her forever. That isn’t a risk I’m willing to take.

We will find her. She will return home safely, and she will get to make her own choice as to how she moves forward.

Hold on Firefly. I’m coming.

I park behind the complex, throwing my helmet to the ground as I stalk into the building. My focus is locked in as I take the stairs two at a time heading to the holding cells on the second floor. As I pass the empty rooms, I recall mapping this area on blueprints in Dante’s office.

When this facility was first envisioned, this entire floor was to be a training facility for recruits, both for the pack and VP securities. We needed to stay in top shape to be successful in the security world and be ready for a fight should we face one from a neighboring pack or humans as a whole.

It was Jake who pushed Dante to add a level for interrogation and holding cells to allow us to get the information necessary, and it was Jake who saw all of the design and construction. We didn’t think we would ever use them at the time, but now here we are a few years later with more than a hundred interrogations completed.

When I reach the end of the hall, I scan my palm on the sensor, unlock the double doors to the interrogation suite, and nod to the guard on duty. His name is Andre, and he’s at least three times my age but looks closer to forty with the light peppering in his beard. One of the most significant benefits of being Awakened is the delayed aging process that allows us to live four to five decades longer than most humans, prolonging our ability to protect the pack.

Most Alphas in the US are well over sixty, making Dante’s rise at only twenty-two unheard of for the time. He remains the youngest Alpha running a pack by at least a decade. While some packs believe his youth is a weakness, we see it as our competitive advantage because we can adapt to modern technology and utilize it more effectively than previous generations. The older packs find their progress stunted by antiquated rules and laws, which we’ve done away with.

“Hey there, Mini Mingan. What brings you down here this early in the morning, though you don’t appear to have slept? Maybe for you, it's late at night?” The deep timbre of his voice echoes through the hall and reminds me of a grandfather's warm tone. Andre worked alongside both sets of my grandparents during the old war. He remains one of the most senior in our pack, as the victory we found cost us more than we could’ve imagined.

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