Chapter 91 The Kidnapping
Sophie's POV
The first thing I noticed when consciousness crept back was the smell—cheap air freshener trying and failing to mask the stench of sweat and old fabric that filled the cramped space around me.
My cheek pressed against something rough and scratchy, definitely not the soft leather seats of our family car, and that realization sent my heart hammering against my ribs even before I fully understood what was happening.
The pendant hanging around my neck, the one Elara had given me for protection, burned hot against my skin through my shirt. I blinked hard, trying to clear the blur from my vision as fragments of memory started piecing themselves together in my confused mind.
We had been on a field trip today. The teacher took us to visit the Werewolf History Museum, which had been exciting at first because I loved learning about pack traditions and ancient artifacts. But then the teacher had complained about stomach pains and rushed to the bathroom, leaving us in the main exhibition hall with the museum staff.
One of the workers, a woman with kind eyes and a soft voice, had been showing me something interesting in a display case when I caught a whiff of something sharp and chemical that made my nose burn. After that, everything went black.
Oh no. Oh no no no.
I had been kidnapped.
The word felt too big and scary in my head, like something that happened in movies or the cautionary stories Dad used to tell us when we were little. He had been kidnapped once too, when he was young, and he had made sure all of us kids knew what to do if someone ever tried to take us. Stay calm, he always said. Look for opportunities. Don't panic.
I reached into my pocket with shaking fingers and felt for the talisman Elara had given me, relief flooding through me when I confirmed it was still there.
The van hit a bump that made my teeth clack together, and I heard voices from the front seats—a man and a woman arguing in low, tense whispers.
"This kid should still be out cold," the man said. "You said that stuff would keep her under for at least three or four hours. It's only been forty minutes!"
The woman's response came sharp with irritation. "I bought it from the usual supplier! Maybe we got a bad batch this time. We need to tie her up before she fully wakes up and starts screaming."
"Are you insane? If someone sees a bound child in here, we're finished. The whole plan falls apart."
Their words sent ice water through my veins, and I couldn't stop myself from sitting up quickly, scrambling backward until my spine hit the corner of the cargo area. My voice came out smaller than I wanted it to, high and frightened. "Don't tie me up! Please, I won't move! I promise I'll be good!"
The woman in the passenger seat twisted around to look at me, and I saw that she wore a black mask covering the lower half of her face. Her eyes went cold and hard as she pulled a small knife. She pointed it at me, her voice dropping into a threatening hiss. "You stay quiet and still, little girl, or you'll regret it. Understand?"
I nodded frantically. My whole body trembled as she climbed into the back with me and started pulling different clothes over my head, rough hands tugging my arms through sleeves that smelled like mothballs. She rubbed something dark and grimy across my face, making me look dirty and unkempt, transforming me into someone else entirely.
The man drove us out of pack territory, passing through checkpoints where he and the woman put on fake smiles and waved at the border guards like they were just another normal family on an outing.
After we cleared the last checkpoint and the van picked up speed on an empty stretch of road, I noticed both kidnappers start to relax. The woman climbed back into the front passenger seat, and their voices dropped into casual conversation about splitting payment and avoiding cameras.
Moving as slowly and carefully as I could manage with my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest, I began inching forward across the floor of the van. I kept my breathing shallow and quiet as I worked my way closer to the driver's seat. I squeezed into the narrow space behind the driver.
My fingers closed around the talisman in my pocket, and I pulled it out with trembling hands. Elara's voice echoed in my memory, patient and clear as she had demonstrated the proper way to activate the binding charm.
I reached up slowly and managed to press it against the driver's back, right between his shoulder blades where his shirt stretched tight.
"Freeze!" I whispered, putting every bit of desperate hope I had into that single word.
The effect was instantaneous and terrifying. The driver's entire body went rigid like someone had replaced his bones with steel rods, his hands locking on the steering wheel in a death grip that yanked it hard to the left. The van swerved violently across the center line into oncoming traffic.
"What the hell are you doing?!" the woman screamed, grabbing for the wheel as she realized something was horribly wrong. "Answer me!"
But he couldn't answer because Wang couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything except sit there frozen while the van careened toward disaster.
I threw myself down into the footwell behind the seats, curling into the smallest ball I could manage and wrapping both hands around the moonstone pendant Elara had given me. The stone pulsed with protective warmth against my palms.
The world exploded into noise—tires shrieking against asphalt, the woman's scream cutting off abruptly, and then the devastating crunch of metal meeting metal at high speed.
The impact threw me hard against something solid, and then everything was spinning, tumbling, the van rolling over and over while loose objects flew through the air. Glass shattered somewhere above me, and I squeezed my eyes shut tight, holding onto the pendant.
When the motion finally stopped and the terrible sounds faded into groaning metal and hissing steam, I stayed curled up for several long seconds, afraid to move or open my eyes. But I was alive. I could feel my heart beating, could breathe even though the air tasted like smoke and chemicals, could wiggle my fingers and toes.
I heard engines approaching fast, multiple vehicles converging on the crash site with the kind of speed.
The back door of the van, already damaged from the crash, suddenly fell away completely with a screech of tortured metal. Bright afternoon sunlight poured in, making me squint after the dimness of the cargo area. I crawled out carefully, my legs shaky and unsteady beneath me as I emerged into the chaos of the crash scene.
My hair stuck up in every direction, tangled and full of debris. The dark stuff the woman had rubbed on my face made me look like I had been playing in a coal bin, and my clothes were rumpled and dirty.
Through the glare of sunlight and the blur of tears filling my eyes again, I saw familiar figures running toward me. My cousin Damian was there, along with a woman I didn't recognize and several pack warriors I knew from family gatherings.
I launched myself at Damian and crashed into his chest with enough force to make him grunt. His arms came around me immediately, strong and safe, and that was when I finally let myself fall apart completely.
"Damian!" I sobbed into his shirt, my voice breaking on his name. "Bad people took me! They had a knife and they were so scary and I was so afraid and—"
"Shh, Sophie, you're safe now," he murmured, one hand cradling the back of my head while the other ran up and down my spine in soothing strokes. "I've got you. You're safe. Let me check if you're hurt anywhere."
His hands moved over me with practiced efficiency, checking for injuries. Behind us, I heard pack warriors dragging the kidnappers out of the wrecked van, their voices harsh with barely controlled fury at what these people had tried to do to a pack child.
I peeked over Damian's shoulder and immediately wished I hadn't. The driver lay motionless on the ground with blood covering half his face, his body twisted at angles that looked wrong. The woman who had threatened me with the knife was screaming in pain, her leg bent grotesquely where a piece of the van's frame had pierced through her thigh, blood pooling dark and terrible on the asphalt beneath her.
But I was completely, miraculously fine, without even a scratch to show for the terrifying ordeal. The pendant had protected me just like Elara promised it would, and the talisman had worked exactly the way she said it would when I needed it most.
Damian lifted me easily, settling me against his hip like I weighed nothing at all. "Come on, little warrior. We're taking you to the hospital to make absolutely sure you're okay."