Chapter 136 136

Chapter 136 136
Damien's POV

I have been awake for twenty-two hours. I knew that because Lucas told me, not because I was keeping track. I wasn't keeping track of anything except the search. Everything else had stopped being relevant.

We had three teams running simultaneous traces on every property Richard had ever been connected to. Including the Red Moon Pack who claimed to have no dealings with him and Alpha Orland also claimed to not know what his son was doing with his brother.

Two people working through financial records trying to find recent transactions that pointed to a location. One team retracing the route the attackers took into the pack territory to find where they came from. I was coordinating all of it at the same time and moving between reports every few minutes and the moment one thread went cold I pulled it and redirected the people on it to something else.

I have not sat down in several hours. Lucas stopped suggesting I ate something about four hours ago. He tried twice and both times I looked at him and he decided it wasn't worth it. I was not going to sit at a table and eat while Amelia was somewhere I couldn't locate, in danger.

"Alpha." Lucas came in with another update. "The financial trace found two properties in the outer territory registered under a company name connected to Richard. Both are being checked now."

"How long?"

"Thirty minutes for the first one. Maybe forty-five for the second."

Forty-five minutes was too long. I didn't say that because saying it wouldn't make it shorter. "The moment either team has a visual confirmation they report directly to me."

Lucas nodded and went back out.

I turned back to the map on the table. I had been staring at it for hours. I knew every road, route, and possible approach to every location we had identified. I had the whole thing memorized at this point. I was staring at it not because I needed the information anymore but because looking at it felt like doing something and I needed to feel like I was doing something every single second.

"You need to sit down."

I didn't turn around. I knew the voice. "You're supposed to be resting."

Ronald came into the room anyway. I heard him moving slowly, he was still in pain, he was being stubborn about it, and I didn't have the energy to argue with him about it right now. He came to stand beside me at the table and looked at the map.

"She's strong," he said. "I made sure to not tell her mother anything and told her brother to hide everything from her. I've also made sure that her best friend goes on a short trip so she doesn't also get worried. Don't worry about Amelia, I know her so well. She's not going to fall apart in there."

"I know she's strong," I said.

"Then trust it."

"I do trust it." I kept my eyes on the map. "Trusting her strength doesn't mean I should stop looking for her. Those are two different things."

He was quiet for a moment. "You look like you're about to go through a wall."

"I'm fine."

"Damien." He called, "I need you to take care of yourself because I don't want her to get worried when she's found. I have a rough idea on what she's probably going through right now. She is in there thinking clearly and staying calm and making whoever has her very uncomfortable. I know my daughter."

I turned and looked at him.

I said it before I decided to say it. "That wouldn't matter if she's outnumbered and in labor."

The room went very quiet. He stared at me.

I held his gaze. "She's close. I can feel it through the bond. She's been trying to suppress it but I can feel it and it's getting harder to ignore." I looked back at the map. "I need to find her in the next few hours. If we don't find her soon enough, everything would be too late."

He didn't say anything for a long moment. Then he pulled out the chair nearest to him and sat down heavily. I could see him recalculating everything he had just said to me through this new information.

"Then we should find her," he said. "This is my daughter's first time being a mother. It's not going to be easy if she's alone I'm surrounded by villains like them. What do you need me to do for you? I need to be of help."

"Stay in this room and stay on the communication line," I told him. "The moment a location comes through I need someone here who can coordinate the secondary teams while I move."

He nodded. He pulled the communication device toward him and didn't argue about being kept back from the physical part.

I could feel a rough fraction of what she was going through right now. She was in labor and she was alone and she was trying to hold it off and every minute I was standing here looking at a map was a minute longer she was doing that without me there.

I pressed both hands flat on the table. I will kill Richard.

"Alpha."

I turned around. Carla was standing in the doorway.

My first reaction was instant and not good. She was the last person I expected to see in this room and the last person I wanted to see right now. I had about one second of genuine anger that she was here before I noticed her expression.

She looked like someone who had made a difficult decision and was standing by it.

"You need to leave," I said.

"I know where she is," she said.

The room went completely still. looked at her. I had a lot of questions to ask her. How did she even know this and how did she know to come tell me now? Could this be another trap set by Richard for me?

She met my eyes and didn't look away.

"Richard has a property about forty minutes from here," she said. "Off the eastern road. It's not in any records, he bought it through a private arrangement twenty years ago and never connected it to his name officially. I've been there twice. I know the layout."

"How do you know that's where she is?" I demanded.

"Because it's where he would take her. It's isolated, it's prepared, and it's the only location he fully controls that isn't on any list your people would find." She paused. "I've been deciding for the past two hours whether to come here. I'm here. That's what I decided."

I looked at her for another moment.

Then I said, "Why are you helping me? You're the last person I want to see right now."

She was quiet for a long moment.

"Because I spent years thinking I deserved you and I didn't." She said it flatly. "She does. Don't waste it."

I held her gaze. Then she reached into her jacket and held out a small vial. Clear liquid. Small enough to fit in a closed fist.

"He's going to try to poison you before you get to her," she said. "He knows you're coming, he planned for it. He has something that works fast, hits lycans specifically, and he'll find a way to get it into your system before you reach the room she's in." She held the vial steady. "This counteracts it. I had it made three weeks ago when I was still deciding which side I was actually on. Drink it now, before you go."

I looked at the vial and then I looked at her.

"How am I supposed to trust that you didn't come here on his orders to poison me?"

She shook her head, "I'm really here to help you but if you don't believe me, it's up to you."

I took it. I opened it and I drank it and I handed the empty vial back to her.

"I've been poisoned so many years and I survived it anyway. This one wouldn't be any different."

She took it without saying anything.

"The layout," I said. "Tell me everything."

She told me. I was already moving before she finished the last sentence, pulling on my jacket, signaling Lucas through the door, looking at Ronald who had already picked up the communication device.

"Be careful there and do your best to save her. Remember you should also take care of yourself." He said to me before I left and I called Lucas to get the others.