𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐊⠀ ⁽ ¹ ⁾

KIDNAPPED

Climbing out of the Wolf Den, Aunt Patty and I start heading back to the loft. "Did dad know about Quill?" I ask her. "What he wanted?" She nods back at me. "All of your Uncles and Aunts knew, even your mother. She wanted you safe, thinking that he'd become a threat to you, they tried to cage Quill as much as possible." I glance at the ground and sigh. "It's no wonder he wants me dead then."

"There's nothing you can do for him." She adds. "He's been on this path since the beginning." I look back at her, shaking my head. "I can't leave things the way they are, maybe if I show him some leniency, he wouldn't have this need to come after me. We can be a family if I just showed him."

Aunt Patty looks at me, her eyes unmoved. She's dead set that there's no changing Quill, but that's why I have to try at least. As we approach the loft again, a pungent scent hits my nose, and I groan. "What is it?" Aunt Patty asks, stopping before going up the stairs. "Nothing, I think it's a dead animal." I tell her. "I'll see what it is." She nods, and heads up, while I turn and walk into the small alley beside the loft.

There's a body lying on the ground, and rats spewed all around, their blood is what is making my nose ache. "Hello?" I ask the body. Maybe the person fainted at the sight of the rats and needs help. Walking closer, I gently push them over and that's when I immediately stand up, and move away. The body, the brunette hair caught in the street light. The way his eyes hang open is exactly what happened to Cat, except this body is different.

His chest is ripped open, and his guts are hanging out as if something ripped into him, and left him to rot. "Hey, Alpha." A female voice calls out at the mouth of the alley. The female rogue stands there, and raises a gun firing it off.

Something hits me, it's about as small as a bee sting but when I look down, I see there's a dart stabbing into my chest. When I look back at her, I see her image starting to shift and sway, slowly doubling into two. "No." I groan and turn around, trying to run but the feeling in my legs is fading, and I brace myself against the wall. Every step takes more, and more energy out of me, but I can see the light outside the loft is still on. If I can just make it to the door, I'll be safe. "Help!" I call out, but it's weakly above a whisper.

There's another figure standing in my way, and it's the male rogue. He's also holding a gun and fires it. It hits me square in the shoulder and I fall back, breathing heavily. Both of them hover over me, their faces distorted, and their voices gurgling as I start losing more and more feeling throughout my body. "You're not getting away this time." The female threatens, as hard as I try to move, the most I can do is look over at the loft, reaching my hand out, then watch it fall as the last thing to go is my sight.

"Heinrich! Heinrich Marsden! Get out here you coward!" The shouts startled everyone in the living room. Dad looked over his shoulder, while he was in the middle of showing me his wolf claw. He looks at mom, and I turn and see her look back at him with a nod. She wraps her arms around me, and dad and the rest of my uncles get up and walk over to the front door.

Pulling away from Mom, I chase after him. "Brom!" Mom calls out to me, but the rest of my cousins follow, as we press our faces to the window. There's a man outside, and dad stands in front of him. "You and your family think you're so tough. How about a challenge?" He demands. "I win, I get your status and your women and your house and the kids? They'll learn what it's like at the bottom of that harbor."

Hands grip my shoulder and spin me around again. "Brom, you shouldn't be watching." Mom tells me. "But mom . . ." She looks out the window and so do I. "If I win." Dad announces. "I'll tear off every claw you have, and you'll learn what it means to threaten an alpha's family."

Mom pulls me away from the window, even as I fight against her to see what happens next. They made the rest of my cousins go up to our rooms, but I was the only one allowed to stay downstairs with mom. She cleared the kitchen counter, made me get the first aid kit, then we hear the door open. Uncle Leroy walks in holding dad's arm around his neck, carrying him in.