Page 142 of Knot my Alphas

I can feel his anxiety.

Caroline has been a mother to him all these years. She’s amazingly protective of him and treats him like a son.

I haven’t known her for a long time but she’s taken on a motherly role for me as well. She’s the reason I have a comfortable nest now. I don’t even feel scared about going into heat because I know she’ll be there if I need any help or advice.

Caroline is truly the matriarch of the pack and losing her would devastate all of us.

Kneeling down, Damon hauls Callahan’s body on his shoulder. The tarp covering him effectively conceals him from view. “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” he says, marching out of the prison cell.

We follow him out as he hurries down the long, narrow hallway and goes up the staircase, leading us to the upper floors of the mansion.

Instead of going through the entrance hall, Damon uses a different exit to take Callahan out.

Raiden leads me and Julian through a different route. We’re on our way toward the rarely used rooms on the ground floor when Caleb blocks our path.

“What’s going on?” he demands. “Why is the bomb squad inside the house?”

“No time to explain,” says Raiden. “Just help us look for Mom.”

“What?”

“They have Caroline,” I say in an urgent tone. “They want Callahan in exchange for her life.”

Caleb’s steely eyes widen. “Who has her?”

“We don’t know,” says Julian. “There are two women who’re holding her hostage. We suspect they came in as escorts to a couple of pack leaders. They called Callahan’s phone the moment the news announced about the arrest of the terrorists that took over the school.”

“Let me get this straight,” Caleb says in a slow, grim tone. “We’re about to lose Callahan?”

“Yeah,” says Raiden. “We can stop him if we find Mom in the next couple of minutes.”

“I still don’t understand why we need a bomb squad to find her?” Caleb asks in a low, worried tone.

“There’s a pack of explosives tied to her,” Raiden says, lowering his head.

“Fucking hell!” Caleb bursts. “Why didn’t anyone bother to tell me any of this?”

“Calm down,” Julian says in a low, somber tone. “We don’t have the time to stand around and chat. Let’s go find Caroline.”

“I’ll go check the upper floors,” Caleb says.

“No,” Raiden says at once. “She’s in a dark, closed space. It’s probably one of the rooms that we rarely use.”

“Then, let’s split up,” says Caleb.

“In the meantime, I’ll check the camera feeds in all the downstairs rooms,” says Julian.

With a nod, we break apart and start checking the rooms on the ground floor.

My heart beats loudly with each tick of the clock. I can’t even bring myself to wonder what would happen if we lose Caroline today.

Damon’s already on his way toward the estate’s main gates. He’ll hand Callahan over within a few minutes and we’ll lose our only leverage.

Please be safe, Caroline, I desperately pray, shutting the door to a dark, empty room.

We’ve barely covered half the floor when Raiden’s phone rings out, echoing around the hallway.

Caleb, Julian and I rush down to where Raiden is standing.

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