Chapter 226: THE SHEPERD - II

TRIGGER WARNING :

This scene contains references to child abuse and assault. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

There were fifteen girls in total, huddled against the damp wall, their thin shoulders trembling. Most couldn’t have been older than ten.

“Please don’t harm us,” one of them cried, her voice high and breaking. “Please… please call my daddy. He will give you money if you want.”

Kirill raised his gun, sweeping it across the room as if to measure the distance. “Good, they can talk,” he muttered. “This will make our next task easy.”

Zaley immediately pressed a hand to the barrel and pushed it down. “Lower it.”

“What? I wasn’t going to shoot,” Kirill protested, arching a brow.

“You pointed a gun at them.”

“Not to kill.”

“Still.” Zaley’s voice was like steel. “Not helping.”

Kirill exhaled sharply, but he obeyed. “Fine. You deal with the kids. I’ll sweep ahead.”

Once he was gone, silence hung heavy. Zaley moved forward slowly, his hands away from his weapons, lowering himself to one knee in front of the bravest of them—a girl no older than eight. She stood in front of the others, arms outstretched like she could shield them from monsters twice her size.

His chest tightened. For a moment, her outline blurred, and all he saw was Lilly—his daughter—standing there with that same fire in her eyes, ready to fight the world with hands too small to even form a fist. And beneath that vision, a shadow crept in: Layla, at that same age, trapped in a place like this. Frightened. Alone.

He swallowed hard, forcing the images away, forcing himself to breathe. He couldn’t break here. Not in front of them.

“For how long have you been here?” he asked softly.

“Many days,” she whispered, her lip trembling.

“Don’t worry.” Zaley’s voice almost faltered, but he caught it, smoothing the edges with calm he didn’t feel. He glanced around at the rest, their wide eyes waiting for him to finish. “I was ordered to come here to rescue you.”

The little girl blinked, and suddenly tears spilt down her cheeks. She seemed older than the others, maybe ten, maybe eleven. Old enough to understand.

“Who ordered you?” she demanded through her sobs. “The police? My dad?”

Zaley hesitated. Lying wouldn’t help. So he gave them truth, rough and unpolished. “My woman. She told me to come. But I’d be here anyway. I’ll make sure you all get home.”

The girl’s shoulders stiffened. She stepped back, shaking her head violently.

“No. No, the other man said the same. He said he was here to save us. He took Nancy.” Her voice broke, and she hugged herself. “She never came back.”

Zaley froze. He didn’t need details to know what that meant. His knuckles whitened against his knee as fury burned under his skin.

This place wasn’t a lab. Not anymore. The walls were too old, the corners too dusty. It felt more like a storage ground, a holding place for children too small to fight back.

And somewhere in these rotting walls, a man had lied—had walked in here with promises, and walked out with a little girl who never returned.

Zaley’s breath left him slowly, like smoke leaking from a fire that refused to die. He raised his head, meeting the eyes of the frightened children.

“You’re right to be afraid,” he admitted. “But I am not him. I don’t take lambs away to break them. I came to take you home.”

As he said it, his gaze caught on the smallest girl in the corner. Barely two years old, sitting apart from the others. Her tiny arms were dotted with red marks, little punctures, the skin raw and bruised.

Zaley’s throat tightened. He didn’t need to ask. He knew.

“She always cried,” the older girl whispered, following his gaze. “So they gave her needles. She doesn’t cry anymore. She doesn’t make sounds at all now.”

For a second, Zaley’s mask cracked. His chest heaved, his fists trembled. He saw Lilly’s little hands, how she clung to his shirt when frightened. He imagined those same hands bruised, silenced by drugs until her voice was stolen from her throat.

It almost broke him.

Almost.

But when he turned back to them, his expression was steady, unyielding. His voice carried the weight of a promise carved in stone.

“No one touches you again. Not while I breathe.”

"Then you should take Rose to the hospital first. She is sleeping there." The girl pointed at a door. "She has been bleeding since yesterday."

He closed his eyes momentarily, remembering the guard's words from earlier.

"Where?" His voice was thick with emotion.

Her voice crackled, "Between her legs. It was the same guy who took Nancy and came and took Rose. He returned her. But she is very scared."

With that, everyone cried in the room.

Even Zaley.

Though he didn't tear up, though he didn't make any sound, he could feel that damn organ in his chest, breaking.

Kirill stood at the door, listening, and for the first time in years, he teared up.

"I won't say I am a good guy. But I am better than these monsters." He muttered.

"Can you recognise the guy?" Zaley asked the girl, and she nodded her head.

He stood up and took Rose, who was burning with fever in the other room, in her eyes.

By the time they went back, the men of Veyrith or who are left of them, were tied with ropes and were on their knees.

Kade turned around and his eyes zeroed in on the girl in Zaley's arms, who was barely seven years old.

The older girl walked close to him.

Watching the men tied on their knees might have given her courage. She stepped in front of him, scanning through the crowd.

"He is not here," she announced before Zaley could ask.

"Then he might be dead," Zaley replied.

"I am taking the girls first. Collect everything and head back to Ylumia. I want headlines about this on the news tomorrow." He ordered them and looked at Kirill over his shoulder.

"What did you find?"

Kirill didn't smirk like he used to when he achieved something. "Evidence. They stored way too much data. It's enough to bury them all."

The choppers came to take the girls away from Veyrith.

"Why did they keep them here?" Kirill muttered.

Kade's eyes darkened as he watched the choppers leave. "For the men."

Three words.

One sentence.

It broke something inside Zaley one more time.

"They are kids." Someone growled in rage from behind.

All Zaley could think about was his girls.

What if they did the same to Layla?

What if Emma had taken Lilly away?

What if...?