Chapter 170 Kaden's POV
The battle at the pack house lasted hours.
Wave after wave of Erebus followers came at us. They fought with the desperation of fanatics, throwing themselves at our defensive lines without regard for their own lives.
"Hold the line!" I shouted, cutting down another attacker. "Don't let them break through!"
Marcus fought beside me, his movements precise and deadly. "They are trying to push past us! Trying to get to the forest camp!"
"I know! That's why we can't let a single one through!"
We fought in the darkness, illuminated only by the fires burning in parts of the destroyed pack house. The sounds of battle were deafening screams, gunfire, the clash of weapons, the howls of wolves in combat.
My muscles burned and my wounds bled but I couldn't stop and couldn't let them reach Elara and Adrian.
"Alpha! They are flanking us on the east side!" one of my warriors called out.
"Redirect half our forces! Cut them off before they reach the forest!"
We adjusted our formation, blocking every attempt to break through our lines.
Hours passed and the attack was relentless but slowly, gradually, we started to push them back.
"They are retreating!" Marcus shouted. "They are falling back!"
"Don't let them regroup! Press the advantage!"
We chased them into the forest, killing stragglers, making sure they couldn't mount another assault.
Finally, as dawn began to break, the last of the Erebus followers disappeared into the wilderness.
"Count casualties." I ordered, breathing hard. "And check the perimeter to make sure they are really gone."
The count came back worse than I had hoped. Twenty-three warriors died and forty more were injured.
But we held them off and prevented them from reaching the forest camp where our people sheltered.
"Return to camp," I told the exhausted warriors.
"We need to regroup and tend to the wounded. Prepare for the next attack."
We made our way back through the forest, moving slower now carrying our wounded and our dead.
As we approached the camp, something felt wrong.
Too quiet where were the sentries? The normal sounds of people going about their morning routines?
"Spread out," I ordered quietly. "Something is not right."
We entered the camp cautiously, weapons ready and found chaos. Tents knocked over supplies scattered people standing around in shocked groups, whispering urgently.
And someone was screaming. In pain, terrible, agonized screaming.
"What happened here?" Marcus demanded of the nearest person.
"It is Luna. She is ... she is torturing the elders. We tried to stop her but she wouldn't listen."
My blood ran cold. "Where is Adrian?"
The person's face crumpled. "Taken, he is gone. Elder Miriam drugged Luna and Kara. Took the baby while they were unconscious."
I ran toward the screaming.
Found a tent that had been converted into a makeshift interrogation room. Guards stood outside, looking uncertain whether they should intervene.
I pushed past them.
Inside, three elders were bound to chairs, two were unconscious, their faces bloody. The third Elder Rowan was screaming as Elara stood over him.
She had a knife and she was using it.
"Where is my son?" Her voice was cold and dead , nothing like the woman I knew. "Tell me where they took him!"
"I don't know! I swear I don't know!"
Rowan sobbed. "Miriam planned this alone! She didn't tell us!"
"Liar!" Elara made another cut deep, precisely the kind of cut that caused maximum pain without killing.
"You're all in this together! You supported using my baby as bait! You wanted this to happen!"
"No! We wanted to negotiate! not have him stolen! This wasn't the plan!"
"LIAR!"
"Elara!"
I moved toward her. "Stop, this isn't you."
She turned to look at me. Her eyes were red, not from crying. Actually red like something inhuman was looking out through her face.
"They took him," She said flatly. "They drugged me, knocked me unconscious and when I woke up, my son was gone."
Kara rushed in behind me, limping blood ran down the side of her head from where she'd been hit.
"Alpha! Thank God! I tried to stop her but she wouldn't listen-"
"Tell me what happened to everything."
Kara explained quickly the heat of the water. Waking up to find Adrian gone and Elara unconscious with a head injury.
"When Elara woke up, she was... different, her eyes turned red. She started hunting down everyone who supported Miriam's plan, dragged them here and started torturing them for information."
"How long ago?"
"She has been at this for two hours. Won't stop won't eat won't rest just keeps hurting them until they talk."
I looked at Elara at the blood covering her hands at the dead expression on her face.
"Elara put down the knife."
"No, not until they tell me where my son is."
"This isn't the way-"
"This is exactly the way! They know something! One of them has to know something!"
Her voice rose to a scream. "MY SON IS OUT THERE! WITH MONSTERS! AND THESE PEOPLE HELPED MAKE IT HAPPEN!"
"I know and we will find him but not like this."
"Then how? How do we find him? They have had him for hours! Hours, Kaden! Do you understand what could have happened to him at that time?"
The thought made me sick but I forced it down and focused on what I could control.
"We interrogate them properly to get real information, not just pain-driven confessions."
"I tried that! They won't talk!"
"Because you're torturing them! People will say anything to make torture stop! You need me to do this. I know how to make people talk."
She stared at me with those red eyes then, slowly, she lowered the knife.
"Fine, make them talk but if you don't get answers in the next five minutes, I'm taking over again."
I turned to Elder Rowan. "Who else was involved in Miriam's plan?"