Chapter 45

Olivia

It didn’t take us long to realize that the first warehouse was not what we were looking for. After several minutes of scoping the area out and not receiving any signs of movement, we decided to move on. I checked the map on my phone and, sure enough, we were about three hours away from the next one. Sighing, I fell back in my seat and massaged my forehead. The more time we wasted, the more anxious I got.

The ride had become silent somewhere after our conversation on Elena being Abbott Franklin's ancestor. It made sense that she had been the witch working for Penny all this time, concocting the potions for her. What I was more curious about was how long. I’d never seen Penny’s wolf form, not even a fang or colored eyes, and Elena couldn’t have been much older than I was— maybe three or four years. When had it all begun?

She’d loved Lucien for the longest time, which was how long exactly? I wondered how they met—Penny and Elena. When had the relationship between them started? It was obvious now that she was the one behind everything, the three of them: Penny, Elena and Mason. They’d been planning to overthrow Lucien from the get-go.

If Lucien had reciprocated Elena’s affections, would she still have sided with his enemies? Would she have told him, had done all she could to protect him from their claws? I had no idea; love made people do stupid things.

The three of them were blinded by a certain type of emotion. Penny wanted revenge, Mason was driven by his deep envy for his brother, and Elena was driven by rejection. If you asked me, I wouldn’t know which was worse. All I knew was that they needed to be stopped.

Xavier drove in silence, but I knew he was deep in thought. He barely visited the villa so it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t know of the uprising. From what I’d heard, the Zen wolves and the Luna wolves had been at opposite ends of a stick for as long as anyone could remember, which was a surprise because Lucien and Xavier were almost as close as brothers. Apparently, their fathers had been sworn enemies and the boys had formed a friendship on that common ground, which had gradually blossomed into brotherhood.

I wondered what he was thinking. Was he as scared as I was? Did he want to rip Penny apart as fiercely as I did? No. I figured the person he was itching to kill was Mason, just as I knew Sydney couldn’t wait to get her hands on Elena. They had been best friends, but apparently the friendship had been one-sided because Elena had not thought twice before betraying her.

I could understand how she felt, seeing as I felt the same way about my mother.

My mother.

I scoffed lightly. Penny was nothing to me anymore. The pain and hatred I now harbored for her in my heart was like none I’d ever felt before, and that was saying something because I was not someone who thrived very well on hate.

In some hope-springs-eternal thinking, a part of me wanted to believe it was a lie at first. That Sydney had got it all wrong somewhere or had probably seen wrong. But I knew she hadn’t.

“Are you sure we’re on the right track?” Xavier asked, interrupting my thoughts.

I peeked at my phone and nodded, “Yeah. In fact, I think we’re here.”

He pulled a left, leading us into a long pathway surrounded by tall trees. It gave off an ominous vibe, like the sort of place a serial killer would bring his victims. The pathway led into a clearing and there it was: the second warehouse. I prayed this was it because if it wasn’t, the next one was another five hour drive and I would sooner kill myself than endure another hour of silent, raging thoughts.

When we were a short distance away from the warehouse, Xavier turned off the engine and scoped out the area. As my senses had become sharper since the pregnancy, I focused my attention to my ears, listening for any signs of movement. There were none.

I forced my sinking heart to remain afloat, steadying my heartbeat.

“I don’t hear anything,” Xavier muttered.

“Me neither,”

“I don’t feel anything either,” Sydney added.

“That’s because you’re not supposed to,” Ginny announced before stepping out of the car. The three of us watched in silence as she walked past the car and closer to the warehouse.

I sat still until my curiosity got the better of me before I hastily alighted. Xavier and Sydney followed, and in no time we were flanking Ginny.

“What do you mean?” Xavier asked.

Ginny treated his question with silence, then she stretched her hands towards the warehouse. “Someone used magic to make it seem like there’s nothing here,” she finally said.

I was still confused when Sydney whispered in awe, “Oh fuck, yes. It’s a mask.”

I met Xavier’s eyes and read the confusion there, hoping he recognized the confusion in mine too. We let Ginny mutter a spell, taking steps back. Before we knew what was happening, Sydney was saying the same thing with outstretched arms. The louder their words got, the thicker the air.

It must’ve been several minutes before I noticed the spark in the air. From a spark grew a small hole. The spark around the hole was a bright yellow and, gradually, it got bigger.

I instantly understood what Ginny meant. This was what we had been looking for. If Ginny hadn’t felt a slight interference, we would have been none the wiser to the fact that this was the warehouse she had seen in her vision. Someone had used magic as a barrier to deceive us, to make us believe that we were searching in the wrong place.

Most importantly, Lucien was here and now that the barrier had completely disappeared, I could feel his faint heartbeat.

My knees almost gave way.

“Wow,” Xavier muttered, “the witch is a fucking genius.”

I snorted my laugh. “I know.”

I heard the movements so loud and clear they were almost deafening. I could smell fur—wolf fur. I could sense excitement, fear, anger, agitation. What struck me most was that I could sense anticipation.

“They know we’re here,” I said.

“Damn right they do,” Xavier added dryly. “I’m in the mood to kill.”

I wasn’t. I just wanted to take my husband home, but even I wasn’t dense to not know that until the threat was out of the way, we would never sleep easy. I marched forward, the rest of the rescue squad following behind me. My hands began to sweat and my heartrate picked up. It would be the first time I would be seeing Penny since she'd drugged me and kidnapped Lucien. I prayed for the patience to not charge at her, because I would kill her.

Lucien’s men—now Penny’s—lined up as the four of us entered the warehouse. It was dim but I could see just fine. A few yellow bulbs provided little illumination, but as we went further, the lighting brightened. My eyes searched left and right, looking for Lucien. I was met with stares from people I once trusted, people I once led. Disgust filled me. As I walked further, my gaze connected with Mason’s and the smirk he gave me made my hands itch to slap him across the face.

“Asshole,” I heard Xavier’s deep rumble from behind me.

Even though the warehouse was packed with people, there was no sign of Elena or Penny. I kept walking. They had to be around here somewhere. Then I noticed the reason my heart was beating like a talking drum.

In the middle of the large warehouse, there was a ring, an actual fighting ring. It wasn’t much, but it was big enough for combat. A large yellow bulb hung from somewhere, dangling just a few feet above the top rope of the ring.

A lone body lay in the middle of the ring on its stomach, bloodied and sweaty.

I gasped.