Chapter 134 134

Chapter 134 134
Damien's POV

The alarm went off and I was already moving before Lucas finished his first report.

Three points. That was the first thing that told me this wasn't random. A random attack hits one border, maybe two if they're coordinated enough. Three simultaneous points meant planning. It meant someone who had studied the layout of my territory and identified exactly where to apply pressure to cause maximum confusion.

I hit the first point with six of my warriors and we cleared it in under four minutes. It was way too easy. That was the second thing that told me something was wrong. The fighters at the first point were good enough to look serious but not good enough to actually hold anything. They went down fast and pulled back fast and it felt like exactly what it was a distraction.

I didn't stop to think about it yet. I moved to the second point. The same thing happened there also. It was loud, visible and there was enough fighters to create chaos and draw attention, and pull my people toward it. But not actually trying to break through. They were making noise. They were making me look in their direction.

I was at the second point taking down the third fighter when it clicked completely. They weren't trying to destroy anything. They were trying to scatter us.

Every coordinated response we had pulled people away from the main building. All alarm and urgent report with all point of pressure had moved warriors outward toward the borders. The pack house itself was getting emptier with every minute this went on.

I stopped moving. I stood in the middle of the fight at the second point and I did something I almost never do in the middle of combat. I went still and I thought.

This wasn't the plan Brian told Amelia about. That plan was four days away. This was different, faster, messier, less perfectly set up. Richard had changed his timeline. He moved early and I hadn't seen it coming and my people were scattered across three border points right now.

"Amelia!!!"

I turned around. I started moving back toward the pack house. Fast.

I got through on the communication line to Lucas. "Pull back from the third point. Get everyone back to the main building now."

"Alpha we're still engaged at—"

"Leave it. Pull back. Now!"

I was running. The pack house came into view and the outside looked wrong immediately. This particular place which wasn't the main one, wasn't as guarded as the main one. Two of my door guards were down. They were not dead, I checked as I passed them, they were breathing but down. Something had already been here.

I went inside. The corridor was quiet in a way that corridors aren't quiet when everything is fine.

I moved through it fast checking every room, every corner. I found three more of my people down. Same as the guards, alive but unconscious. Whatever they used worked fast and clean.

I got to the room where I had last seen Lucas. He was on the floor. I dropped down beside him and checked him. He was breathing and his pulse was still strong. Same as the others. They were knocked out, not killed. They didn't come here to kill people. They came here for one specific thing.

I already knew what that thing was before I stood back up. I went to our room. The room was completely empty.

I stood in the doorway and looked at the space where she should have been and felt something go through me that I don't have a clean word for. It wasn't panic. I don't panic. But it was the closest thing to it that I have ever felt in my life. Fear.

Amelia was gone.

It's my fault, I underestimated them too much.

......

Amy's POV

It was a trap. I should have just known. I needed no one to tell me what was going on and how this much was a trap set by Richard just to get me. We got attacked the moment the main warriors rushed away. We might have underestimated him too much but it wasn't over anyway. I got two of them.

It wasn't easy for me since I wasn't much trained but thanks to my Lycan bloodline, I was stronger than most of them. Yet, I didn't want them to know the pregnancy was making me a little weaker than before. Or else they wouldn't have been able to get to me.

The first one came through the window. I heard the glass before I saw anyone and I was already moving when he came through. I caught him with my elbow across his jaw before he fully straightened up and he went down hard. The second one came through the door about three seconds later and I used the momentum from the first to spin into him and drive him into the wall.

I'm pregnant, not helpless. Those are two different things. The third, fourth and fifth came in at the same time. That was the problem.

They were also being very deliberate about how they moved toward me. Nobody was throwing punches. Nobody was grabbing roughly or going for anything that could cause direct harm. They moved around me carefully, almost gently, like they had been specifically instructed that I was not to be damaged.

That made it worse actually. If they were just trying to hurt me I could have used that. People who want to hurt you are predictable. People who have been told to deliver you intact are patient and they will just wait you out until the numbers work in their favor.

Maybe it indeed worked in their favor. I was starting to feel weak and my vision was blurry. Maybe this is the moment where I say, damn this pregnancy. I felt something press against my neck and then I didn't feel anything at all.

....

I woke up and checked my surrounding. They indeed moved me from where I was to an unknown place. I did three things immediately without moving.

I checked my body first. Everything hurt in the dull way that comes from being carried unconscious somewhere, but nothing felt seriously wrong. My hands were restrained in front of me which was better than behind me. My feet weren't bound. I was sitting against a wall on a hard floor and the surface under me felt like concrete.

Then I listened, extending my super hearing abilities to know my surroundings.

Two voices outside a door to my left. One set of footsteps moving periodically, it seemed like there was a lot of security around me. Somewhere further away, what sounded like a larger group, lower voices, less difference. There wasn't a lot of noise outside or anything else and then I realized. We were somewhere removed from anything populated.

Then I looked around the room again. The room was plain. Concrete walls, one door to my left, no windows. A single light source from above. The door had a gap at the bottom and I could see the shadow of feet moving past it occasionally. He was already treating me like a prisoner.

I sat there and I took all of that in and I kept my breathing steady.

I was not going to panic. Panicking was not useful. I was not going to make myself predictable. What I should do now is to think.

I counted what I had. Hands restrained but in front of me, which meant I had use of them if I needed it. My lycan strength was still there, I could feel it. It's just that it's restrictive a lot right now and this is why they captured me in the first place. If I use my abilities too much, I would get weak thanks to the pregnancy taking out my vitality.

I didn't have a way to communicate with anyone outside and even if I wanted to use the mind link, it wasn't working because I think I'm way too far from Damien. There was no backup within immediate reach and no way to tell Damien exactly where I was.

He most probably wouldn't be sitting right now waiting for me to come back. Knowing the kind of person Damien is, everyone else is in trouble until he finds me. He's going to mobilize all forces and use all the powers he has to take me back. All I need is to hold on for me and the baby.

I thought about the baby. I was close to my due date.

I needed to keep myself safe enough so that nothing goes wrong. And my child isn't going to be the sacrifice for anyone's ambitions to power. I will end him before he touches my baby.

I was not giving birth in this room. Whatever they wanted from my child, whatever Richard thought he was going to do with the power connected to my bloodline, he was not getting it here. I would hold on for as long as my body would let me.

The door opened. I kept my face neutral and looked up slowly like I had just been sitting here completely unbothered. Which I had been, but I wanted them to see it.

Two guards. They looked at me and then at each other and then back at me like they expected something different. More distress probably.

One of them set down a water bottle and a small amount of food and left without saying anything. The door closed again. I looked at the water for a moment.

I wasn't going to touch it. Obviously.

I went back to calculating. The building had at least one additional corridor based on the echo of the footsteps. The door to my left opened inward which meant it was harder to use as a weapon but easier to push through if the lock failed.

I ran through every scenario I could think of.

If Damien found the location in the next few hours, that would be the best case. I stalled, I stayed calm, I kept the baby exactly where the baby was, and I would wait.

If it took longer, I would need to find another option. I wasn't going to just sit here indefinitely. I was mentally working through the second scenario when the door opened again.

I knew before I looked up that it wasn't a guard this time. The footsteps were different. They were actually familiar.

Brian walked in and crouched down in front of me so we were at eye level. He looked at me with that expression he used to wear when we were younger and he wanted me to think he was being reasonable. I used to find it convincing. I didn't anymore.

"You should have just chosen me, Amelia," he said. "This didn't have to be this hard."

I looked at him.

I thought about my dad with a wound in his side. I thought about Damien's parents' names on a list of people who were murdered because they did the right thing. I thought about the plan that killed an entire royal bloodline and stole two people from me before I even knew they existed.

I kept my voice completely even.

"Where is your uncle, Brian?" I asked. "I'd rather deal with the real problem."

Something shifted in his expression. He probably couldn't believe that I was ignoring him now to ask for his uncle. That felt good.