Chapter 138
RYDEN
“I could use a good massage. I feel like I just tore every ligament in my body.”
I chuckled at Nora who tried to stretch her back. “Me, too. We’ve only been here for a few days, but I felt like training for the whole year.”
“You missed Amelia, do you?”
“Every fucking time. Every time I felt like I was gonna fail in the training, I thought about her. I didn’t want to disappoint her.”
“Yeah, me too. At least you have someone to go home to.” She must have lost her appetite as she started stabbing her meal.
“Hey. You have a home. You have a pack waiting for you. I think it’s about damn time to join the pack again.”
“Really? Are you sure it’s a good idea?”
“It’s a good thing I’m the alpha, and I will decide what’s good for the pack, and yes, if that’s what you want.”
“Thanks. I would love that.” She looked around. “I wonder how Amelia fits into this. She was skinny when she left that day, and she came back stronger and better.”
“I have a feeling she and Ren didn’t start here. So if she can do it, so do you.”
“Really? Where?”
“Don’t know, and I don’t ask.”
All of a sudden, I heard hushes from behind us.
“Where’s Amelia, by the way?” Nora asked.
“I think she’s on assignment.”
“We should go home after this meal. We don’t have training on weekends.”
“That’s the plan. I need to see my mate.” I stood up. “Let’s go. Let’s order some pizza from home.
“Yeah. Good idea,” she agreed.
We took our plates and stuck them on the table cart. I watched an agent call another agent in the cafeteria. They seemed to be in a hurry to leave or there was an emergency or something.
“What’s going on?” I asked someone, an agent who followed the other two.
The guy ignored me.
“Ensigns!” The guy who called someone earlier snapped his fingers at us. If this happened outside this premises, I would gladly break his fingers.
“Yeah?”
“Come with us.”
Nora and I followed him, entering a door.
“Whoa.” Nora stared at the room filled with screens and computers. It looked like a monitoring room or something. It had live feeds from the traffic cams with red dots on the maps. My guess was those red dots were agents on the ground.
The guy was the head operator with the name Hawk on his uniform asked, “When was the last time you had contact with Amelia?”
“Two days ago before she left, why?”
“I can’t answer you that.”
“Is my mate on a mission?”
“That’s classified.”
“I may be new here, but you’re asking about my mate as if she’s in danger. What’s going on?”
“What classified you didn’t understand, ensign? You’re not an agent yet. Know your place.”
“Great. Thanks for the heads up.” I looked at Nora. “Let’s get out of here.”
“You can’t go home.”
“And why is that? I’m not an agent yet. I’m on a break. My training will due on Monday, and I have a pack to tell that their luna is missing. If you wanna stop me, good luck.” I grabbed Nora and walked out of the room.
“Do you know where to go?”
“We’ll figure it out.” We went to our room and changed from our training uniforms to our clothes. We hadn’t gotten out when a guy around Ren’s age came.
“I’ll take you home.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“You’re Ryden freaking Braxton. If you trust Amelia and Ren, you can trust me. I sneaked all the time to bring chocolate bars. Chocolate is not allowed here as you know. Follow me.”
We entered the elevator like everyone else. It took a while till it stopped on the ground floor. After we checked out with our fingerprints, we followed the guy outside. It was already dark. The sun just sat down.
“What’s your name?” Nora asked.
“Mason.”
We followed him to walk for a few meters. I understood the seclusion, and this place was probably protected with cloak and magic and used portals to go places to places, but if Mason could go out and enter, what was the point?
“Follow my steps exactly.”
“Let me guess, booby traps?”
“Yes. From a distance, you see nothing but mountains.”
I did look, and he was right. Now it looked like a mountain, not a facility where trained agents fought against criminal supernatural beings and threats like demons and Lucius.
We rounded the rock as we followed Mason, and then there was a beat-up car.
He got into the passenger’s seat while we just stared at him in surprise.
“Unless you wanna walk ten miles to the city, then good luck.”
“Ten miles? Where are we exactly?”
“Just get in. I’ll tell you on the way.” He gestured to the backseat.
We had no choice but to get in. Better than walking.
After almost half an hour of ride, I asked, “Where is that SEO located exactly?”
“No one knows. It changed all the time to protect the headquarters. Once you pass the tests and you get your badge, you’ll get the coordinates.”
“How come you know where it was?”
“It rotates the same spot every month.”
“How fitting.” Nora snorted.
“I’m not an agent. I work in the cleaning services. My parents and my grandparents, too. It runs in the family.”
“You can just drop us at any bus station,” I told him.
“There’s a diner one mile away. I’ll drop you there. You can call Amelia. Your phone will work by now.”
“Yeah. It’s scary there was no phone services in that area,” Nora said.
He was right about the diner.
“Thanks, Mason.” I shook his hand as we got out of his car.
Once he drove off, I dragged Nora into the diner and found a bathroom.
“What are you doing?”
I motioned Nora not to talk until I checked our clothes for trackers. I found one in my jacket pocket, and she had one in her jeans pocket. I flushed them in the toilet.
“What’s going on, Ryden?” Nora was scared, and I was too, and I feared for Amelia’s life out there.
“I don’t know yet, I have a feeling our phones are bugged, too. I want to call Ren or Zarah to portal us, but we might be caught.”
“Oh, my Goddess.” Nora’s eyes widened. “Is that?”
“Zarah’s portal. They’re in danger.”
“Are you sure it’s Zarah’s? How did she even know where to drop the portal?”
“She can track our rings and only one way to find out. Let’s go.” I grabbed Nora and walked in. We ended up in the same familiar living room.
“Why are we back in Southampton?” Nora asked.
“Hey, baby.”
I turned around as soon as I heard that sweet and warm voice behind me. “Amelia, I missed you.”
She ran in my direction and threw herself at me. I caught her and lifted her so I could kiss her hard.
The kiss was quick, but at least I knew she was safe. I looked at her, and she had blood on her shirt. “What the fuck happened to you? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I still heal quickly, but yeah. We got into an accident.”
“We? Who’s we?” Then I caught an unfamiliar strong male scent. My wolf stirred and growled. I could feel the fire rolling inside me until she placed her hand on my chest.
“Calm down. I can explain.”
I looked over her shoulder, and I saw a tall man standing behind me, the same man we had been hunting. Lucius.