Chapter 103: MY MATE WAS COMPLETELY AT THEIR MERCY

Chapter 104

Ren

The word was still hanging in the air when I heard the first floorboard creak in the hallway behind me.

It wasn’t a slow, sneaky sound. It was the heavy, steady thud of multiple men moving together, taking their positions down the narrow corridor with total confidence.

They weren’t hiding their presence anymore. They didn’t need to. The trap was already sprung, and they knew it just as well as I did.

I didn’t turn around right away. I kept my eyes locked on the old man by the window. The scared, trapped look on his face vanished completely.

All the panic in his eyes melted away, replaced by a cold, nasty smile that made my stomach drop into a bottomless pit.

The faint tremble in his hands stopped. His stooped shoulders straightened up, and the weak, pathetic facade he had put on since I walked into the room disintegrated into thin air.

He let out a dry, rattling laugh. He tossed the silver box onto the desk between us, watching it bounce off the dusty wood before coming to a stop near the edge.

"You were always too arrogant for your own good, Ren," he sneered, standing tall. The weak, tired look in his posture was completely gone, replaced by a dark, cocky energy.

"You really thought you found me because a scared girl lost her nerve? You actually sat on that park bench and believed you had her backed into a corner?"

He tilted his head, his yellowed teeth showing in the dim amber light spilling from the overhead bulb.

"Priya didn’t betray me to save herself, boy. She brought you here because I told her exactly what to say to get you out here in the dark. She gave you the speech, she gave you the tears, and she walked you right to my door like a sheep to the slaughter."

The floorboards in the hallway groaned as three large men stepped into the doorway, completely blocking the only exit out of the room.

I knew he was lieing. He wanted me to think I got into his trap because he set it. But I knew he wasn’t that smart.

His men just came at the right time. Because he knew I was smart and might get him anytime.

He was waiting for me to figure out the truth. And he was waiting with these men.

They weren’t just random thugs pulled off the street. They were heavy, dangerous men holding military-grade firearms loaded with silver rounds.

The sharp, metallic scent of silver mixed with the foul, unwashed stench of rogue wolves flooded the small office, thick enough to make my throat burn.

They stood shoulders-width apart, their faces completely void of emotion, training their weapons directly on me.

"You brought rogues onto pack land," I said. My voice was low and quiet, but my anger was boiling just under my skin.

My wolf was clawing violently at the back of my ribs, screaming at me to turn around and tear their throats out one by one, but I forced myself to stand completely still.

One wrong move, one sudden shift, and everything could blow up in my face.

"I brought whoever was willing to take Callum’s money," the old man said softly, stepping slowly around the battered desk to keep a safe distance between us.

"Callum gave me the funds. I gave him the bait. And you were stupid enough to leave the one place you should have been protecting with your life."

A sudden, icy feeling shot straight down my spine.

Left the one place...

"Darren is outside," I said, trying to sound completely calm even though my chest felt dangerously tight.

"Julian is locking down the perimeter right now. You’re not getting out of this building alive, no matter how many men you brought with you."

Lumi’s father threw his head back and laughed...a loud, ugly sound that echoed off the peeling wallpaper and rusted water pipes.

The three men at the door didn’t even flinch. They just stood there with their heavy guns pointed straight toward the center of my back.

"Darren is currently dealing with two burning supply trucks on the far south side of the border," the old man whispered, a nasty grin stretching across his wrinkled face.

"A very loud, very bright fire to draw your sentinels away. We knew you’d send your best enforcers to put out a fire near the main gates. And Julian? Julian is sitting in your truck down the street, completely clueless that your radio frequency was jammed the second your boots hit the gravel in the alley."

He reached into his heavy trench coat with slow, deliberate movements and pulled out a small black phone. The screen was lit up green in the gloom of the office.

He held it up high so I could see it clearly. A call was active, the timer counting up second by second on the display.

"You know what I love about guys like you, Ren?" he asked, his voice full of deep, ugly hate.

"You think being big and strong makes you untouchable. You think being an Alpha means you always win every fight you walk into. But you forgot one simple rule of survival: when you run out into the night to chase a fight, you leave the people you love completely unprotected."

He pressed the speaker button on the center of the screen.

The quiet, static hiss of the open phone line filled the dusty room. For a second, all I could hear was the rain drumming hard against the tin roof above us and the low hum of the wind outside the window.

Then came the faint sound of a heavy wooden door slowly creaking open. Followed by a small, heavy gasp and the distinct shuffle of uneven footsteps dragging across a hardwood floor.

It was Lumi. She was up, trying to drag her weak right side across the bedroom floor the way she had been practicing so hard every single day since she came home.

My heart stopped beating entirely. The air was ripped straight out of my lungs, leaving my throat feeling raw and dry.

"Look at her, trying so hard to walk," a smooth British voice purred through the phone speaker.

Callum.

"She can barely make it three feet without stumbling over her own feet. Unconscious, awake, recovering... it doesn’t matter. She still can’t run away from me."

"Callum," I growled, the name ripping out of my throat like a wild animal’s roar.

"Stay right where you are, Ren," Callum said calmly, his tone completely cold and devoid of any humanity.

"If you make one single move toward that old man, or if you try to force your way out of that room, my guy standing right beside her pushes her down these hard wooden stairs. With her stroke, one bad fall is all it takes to break her neck."

The room felt like it was spinning out of control. My vision blurred red with pure, blinding rage, but my boots remained glued to the floorboards.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t shift. I couldn’t even breathe heavily, terrified that the sound of my rage over the speaker might give Callum a reason to act.

They hadn’t just set a simple trap for me at the docks.

They had used Priya to pull me miles away from the house, knowing my protective instincts would blind me to the danger.

They used the old man as a lightning rod to draw my focus and my temper away from the estate.

They pulled my top guards away to a fake fire on the border, leaving Lumi completely helpless while she was still struggling just to move her body.

My mind raced through who was left at the house. Damian had traveled just a day ago, taking a large chunk of our heavy security team with him to inspect the northern borders.

He had left a small handful of his best guards behind at the estate, and Neve was there with Lumi right now.

A cold, agonizing spike of fear stabbed through my chest. Was Neve working with them again? Did she unlock the doors and let Callum’s men walk right in?

Had she played me for a fool this entire time, pretending to care for Lumi while waiting for the right moment to strike?

No. I slammed that thought down immediately with everything I had left. Neve wouldn’t do that.

She had broken down in tears in that cell, she had begged for Lumi’s forgiveness, and she had spent weeks sitting by Lumi’s bed, holding her hand, bathing her, and reading to her until her voice gave out. She loved Lumi like a sister. She wouldn’t turn her back on us.

I just had to pray that Damian’s remaining guards were standing their ground outside the bedroom, and that Neve was fighting with everything she had to protect her.

I prayed to whatever gods were listening that they were both still breathing in that house.

Lumi’s father stepped closer, tapping the phone screen before slipping it back into his inner coat pocket.

He looked at me with a sick, triumphant grin that crinkled the skin around his dead, hollow eyes.

"You fell for it," he whispered, his hands trembling with joy. "You actually thought you were the hunter tonight. You thought you were coming here to play the hero for my daughter. You thought you could come down to the docks, wave your Alpha title around, and sweep everything under the rug."

He leaned in close, coming so near that I could smell the stale tobacco, bitter alcohol, and sour sweat on his clothes.

He knew I couldn’t touch him. He knew that a single aggressive movement from me meant Lumi would be thrown down those wooden stairs miles away.

"You lost, Ren," he sneered right into my face, his voice dripping with absolute venom. "You walked right into it, just like I knew you would. You’re just as weak as your mate."

Behind me, the three men took a synchronized step forward. The loud, metallic clicking of their guns filled the quiet room as they lined up their silver-loaded barrels directly at the back of my head.

I stood completely frozen in the dark, rainy warehouse, listening to the faint, ragged breathing coming from the open line in his pocket...praying with every piece of my soul that Neve and Lumi were holding on, and knowing that right now, my mate was completely at their mercy.