Chapter 106: HOW DID THEY GET SO MANY MEN TO WORK FOR THEM

Chapter 107

Ren

The front gates of the estate hung wide open.

Rain lashed against the windshield as Darren slammed the truck into park outside the main residence.

Blood dripped into my eyes from a split in my forehead, but I barely felt it. The silence hanging over the driveway was heavy, thick, and wrong.

There were no guards at the entrance. No patrols in the courtyard.

I shoved the passenger door open with my shoulder, tumbling out into the mud before scrambling back to my feet. Darren was right behind me, his weapon drawn, his eyes wide with rising fear.

We took the front steps three at a time. The heavy doors of the house were pushed inward. Inside, the main hallway was a bloodbath.

Seven of my men lay scattered across the floorboards.

Seven.

I didn’t need to step closer to know they were gone. I knew every single one of their faces.

Sam, who had trained the new recruits last spring. Eli, who had just welcomed his second child three weeks ago.

Men I had sat at the same table with, men I had shared meals with, laughed with, and bled beside on the borders.

They hadn’t just been cut down in a fair fight. Every single one of them had a burn mark charred into the center of his chest...a single, clean shot driven straight through the heart with silver bullet.

Darren dropped to his knees beside Eli, his hands shaking as he reached out to check a pulse that wasn’t there.

The pain in his eyes was raw and heartbreaking. He swallowed hard, his throat working as he stared up at me, his jaw trembling in the dim light.

"They’re all dead, Ren," he whispered, his voice cracking on the last word. "Every single one of them... silver straight through the heart."

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. The cold fire in my chest was turning to something sharp.

I tore through the ground floor, kicking open doors, checking the kitchen, the study, and the security office. Empty. I threw my weight against the master bedroom door upstairs, splintering the frame as I burst inside.

The room was completely destroyed. A side table was overturned, fresh blood was smeared across the edge of the mattress, and the heavy curtains had been ripped down from the wall.

No Lumi. No Neve.

I stood in the middle of the ruined room, my chest heaving, fighting the urge to roar into the empty house.

Normally, I could close my eyes and track their scents across miles...the soft, warm trace of vanilla that belonged to Lumi, or the sharp, crisp scent of pine that belonged to my sister.

But the dead silence inside my head was deafening. The dark chemical poison sitting in my veins kept my wolf trapped in a dark, silent box.

Even if they had used wolf-suppressants on Lumi and Neve to mask their presence and put their wolves to sleep too, it wouldn’t stop me. Nothing on this earth was going to stop me.

My phone vibrated violently against my hip.

I couldn’t use my broken fingers to pull it out. Darren rushed up the stairs behind me, reaching into my pocket and holding the phone up to my ear as he pressed the answer button.

"Ren!"

It was Julian, Neve’s fiancé. His breath was ragged, and heavy wind whistled through his microphone.

"Julian," I growled, my voice sounding like grinding stone. "They took them. They took Neve and Lumi. Did you give Neve anything we can use to track her? A ring, a necklace, anything..."

"I don’t need a tracker, Ren," Julian interrupted, his breath coming in fast, sharp hitches.

"I was coming back early to see Neve. I reached the estate driveway just as two black vehicles were speeding out of the property. I saw a man who looks exactly like Callum leaving in the front car! I turned my car around, and I’ve been following them ever since."

A cold spike of adrenaline slammed straight into my stomach.

"Where are you?"

"I can’t talk right now...they’re driving fast, and I can’t let them spot me," Julian whispered hurriedly.

"I’m sharing my live location with you right now. Get here fast!" The line went dead with a soft click.

"He sent the location," Darren said, his eyes scanning the screen before grabbing his keys. "Let me drive!"

We sprinted back down the stairs, stepping past the bodies of our fallen brothers, and threw ourselves into the truck.

Darren backed out at full speed, spraying mud and gravel across the lawn as he slammed the vehicle into drive and tore down the road.

The location pin flashed bright blue on the dashboard screen, moving steadily toward the dense, overgrown woods miles outside pack territory.

"Stop the car," I ordered suddenly, my voice low and firm.

Darren flicked his eyes to me in complete shock. "What? Ren, we don’t have time..."

"Darren, pull over right now!"

Surprised by the raw command in my tone, Darren slammed on the brakes. The heavy tires skidded along the wet road before grinding to a halt on the shoulder, surrounded by tall trees and thick bushes. He didn’t say a word, just stared at me in confusion.

I didn’t explain. I pushed the passenger door open with my elbow and hit the muddy ground, running deep into the dark, rain-soaked woods.

I needed my wolf.

I was strong as a man, but with my wolf, I was unstoppable. To tear Callum and his rogues apart, to make sure Lumi and Neve walked out of there alive, I needed the beast inside me.

The injection they gave me was supposed to keep a wolf asleep for days, and it had only been about an hour. It seemed completely impossible to force it awake this early, but I had to try.

I stumbled into a small clearing, surrounded by dripping oak trees. Heavy rain pounded against my face, washing away the dirt and the blood from my forehead.

I closed my eyes, reaching deep down into the dark corners of my mind, searching for the bond, searching for the fierce, snarling spirit that had shared my soul since birth.

Wake up, I demanded mentally, slamming against the thick, icy wall built by the chemical poison. Wake up!

Nothing. Just a heavy, silent blackness.

I tried a second time, gathering every piece of my strength, forcing my heart to beat harder, driving my Alpha command straight against the poison in my blood. FIGHT IT! WAKE UP!

A sharp wave of nausea hit my stomach, and blinding pain flared up my broken wrists, but the wall inside my mind didn’t even move.

I forced myself through a third attempt, pushing with everything I had left, screaming into the void of my own mind until my throat burned with raw pain, trying to drag the monster back to life.

The wolf remained completely still, fast asleep.

I stood there in the pouring rain, my chest rising and falling heavily. Water dripped from my chin and soaked through my shirt.

Three tries, and nothing. It wasn’t going to wake up today.

I wiped the rain and tears from my eyes using the back of my bruised forearm, my vision sharpening into cold determination. Fine. I would go just like this.

I turned around and marched back out of the woods, stepping out of the dark trees and back onto the wet road.

I walked up to the truck where Darren was waiting by the driver’s door. Right at that moment, another set of bright headlights cut through the rain.

Julian pulled his sedan alongside Darren’s truck, stepping out into the storm. He had a lethal, desperate look in his eyes, and a heavy rifle was slung tightly over his shoulder.

"They stopped up ahead," Julian said, pointing toward his phone screen. "They pulled into the old abandoned timber property at the end of this dirt track."

I stepped up to both of them, my voice cold, steady, and devoid of any doubt.

I didn’t care that both of my wrists were completely shattered and hanging useless at my sides. I didn’t care that my wolf was locked away in the dark. I didn’t care how many armed men Callum had waiting inside that building.

I was walking out of there with Lumi, or I wasn’t walking out at all.

"Let’s move," I growled, stepping past them into the dark night. "We end this now."

We moved on foot, sticking to the edge of the dirt road where the thick pine trees provided cover from the pouring rain.

Julian led the way, his eyes scanning the shadows with the sharp focus of a hunter, while Darren walked right beside me, his gun kept low and ready.

The old timber mill loomed up ahead like a dark giant against the night sky. The roof was partially caved in, and the wooden outer walls were stained black by years of damp weather.

Three large SUVs were parked in a rough semicircle near the main entrance, their engines off, but their headlights still warm.

There were five guards standing by the front doors, leaning against the metal frames with rifles resting in their arms. They were talking in low voices, laughing quietly as if they had already won the night.

"Two at the door," Julian whispered, dropping to one knee behind a large mossy rock. "There are probably twice as many inside."

How did they get so many men to work for them. Who dared go against me. Did they bring them along?