Part of the Plan (Book 2 in the 'part of' series)

Chapter 45 Rescue

Chapter 45 Rescue

Harlow's POV

"Dad!" Ralph exclaimed and ran over to help Eban. He didn't even flinch as the flowers dug into his own skin. "What's going on? Where's the others?" I stayed back through the interaction, I didn't want to see much more of the horror that was becoming our lives.

"Running." Eben coughed out some blood as soon as the gag was removed. "We were attacked." Ralph's breathing hitched along with my brother's. I looked to Emi with a concerned expression. "I'm sorry." His voice was incredibly weak, I could hardly recognise it.

"There's nothing to be sorry for." Aiden mumbled under his breath. "We'd all be in this mess anyway." Eben shook his head as Ralph helped him to the seat which I had previously occupied.

"It's my fault he's in there." He pointed towards the television. "My fault he's angry." The confusion seemed to be ever-present but I was starting to understand this a little bit more.

"What happened?" I said softly, Karim was benign tortured right now and that had to stop. What Travis was doing couldn't be excused by anything in my opinion. I was well aware it was my opinion, I was still very passionate about it. Nothing would excuse the pain that he inflicted.

"He told you." Eben struggled to talk. "Our pack came together naturally, we became friends with each other and relationships were built." I nodded along with what he was saying, unsure about how much I was taking in. "Travis' pack wasn't built that way, he thought that if you were born in the pack, you stayed in the pack." Emi's mouth made an 'o' shape.

"The pack didn't like that though, did they?" Eben shook his head. "Finlay." Eben nodded.

"Karim's father and mother didn't like it." Eben continued. "They argued with him and tried to persuade him otherwise. He didn't budge." He looked to glare at the screen. "It got to the point that they ran away. Your mother tried to help them." He said towards Ralph as grief filled his eyes.

"I was seventeen, you didn't tell us." Ralph's voice sounded strained and his knuckles were white. "But why is this happening? Is this all just because Finlay wanted to change packs?" Eben shrugged slightly.

"It's only logical." A loud noise startled us from outside. We all jumped up, even Eben who struggled to stand. The door didn't open, it was like something was being bashed against it. It only happened once and then it was quiet for a while. The lock suddenly fell off.

I moved towards Emi and tried to stay as close as possible. I didn't want to distract Ralph from Aiden or his father. The door slid open quietly, a small head popped around the corner with a curious look. Their eyes were wide and scared.

"Lowell?" Ralph whispered with a panic. He rushed to the door and looked outside. "How?" I didn't know who or what was out there but I started to head towards the door. I could see most of the children, along with a body. I raised an eyebrow at Randall, who was hovering over them with an angered expression.

"Had to do it somehow." Randall muttered, already walking away from the door. "Their security is awful." We filed out of the cellar and into the fresh air, it was dark and damp. It wasn't pleasant but anything was better than in there. "Dad?" Randall looked at him in confusion before shaking his head. "No time let's go." We jogged away from the place.

"What are we doing?" I started to slow down slightly. "Karim is still back there." The children were beside me, not being able to run too quickly. Everyone else started to slow down as well.

"We can figure it out when we get to Abilene." Randall informed me. "We've got to group all the children together again." I thought that was a little strange but I shrugged it off. "Safety in numbers. We need to figure out an actual plan."

"This is starting to get very repetitive." Aiden stated with a frown. "They have the upper-hand right now." We continued to jog for a little while, with the last words echoing in my head. It didn't fill me with any sort of positivity.

Abilene had been huddled by a tree with Oran and Melina. Oran waved to us happily whilst Melina ran to us all and gave us all hugs, giving Eben an adorable kiss on the cheek when Ralph lifted her up. "There's my little honey bear." Eben had said, the adorableness making my heart weep slightly.

"What's going on?" Abilene asked, she had a look of exhaustion on her face and her jeans were all torn. "Where's the others?" She seemed almost frantic.

"Others?" Ralph looked towards Randall, who had the same expression as Abilene. "What do you mean? I was going to ask you that." A moment of silence took over the group.

"So are we going to answer the question or what?" I interrupted the silence slightly, causing some to jump. "Basically Lathen and Karim are being tortured because Karims' father, also known as Travis' beta, wanted to leave his pack." I said simply. I was still moving from foot to foot as my body refused to stay still.

"That makes no sense." Abilene shook her head lightly. "We heard howling a few hours ago and the others went to check it out." She crossed her arms with a frown. "We followed protocol but we haven't heard from them since." We started to walk, just so that we're constantly moving. It would be extremely difficult to fight with all of us. We would be heavily outnumbered.

"How'd you find us though?" Aiden raised an eyebrow, he was walking hand-in-hand with Ralph.

"This." Channon held up my brother's phone where we could see.

"Yeah, who knew that humans could track nearly as good as we could?" Channing asked with a cheeky grin.

"I have an idea." Emi announced in a rather quiet voice. Heads snapped to her. She had been staying quiet throughout the conversation. If she wasn't so close to me, I may have even thought she was a ghost. "It'll be dangerous."