Chapter 156: Betrayed by One of Our Own

Chapter 156: Betrayed by One of Our Own
Dana’s POV

After the information Mr. Khandi gave us, we didn’t waste a single second. We moved immediately.....fast, alert, and ready for anything. Our footsteps echoed as we walked deeper into the outskirts of the city, searching for the warehouse that supposedly held everyone captive.

Damian and Alex had already called a few trusted boys from other school who were willing to help. This wasn’t something we could joke with, all hands had to be on deck. Lives were at stake.

“Who are the betas in the school again?” I asked as we trekked down a narrow, dusty path.

“Zade is a beta,” Damian replied, his tone sharp, focused.

“Marcus too,” Kyle added.

I nodded slowly, my mind racing. “So, who do you think might be involved in this?”

I kept replaying everything, trying to connect the dots, trying to force the puzzle into a picture that made sense.

“Marcus is out of it,” Alex said instantly. His certainty surprised me.

“But Zade is a suspect,” I said, my voice low.

“No way!” Alex argued immediately. “Zade doesn’t have that kind of mind, or the capacity, to carry out something this big.” He laughed a little, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He was trying to brush it off, but the situation was far too serious for jokes.

“So who then?” I asked, frustrated. “These people fighting for equality, they’re betas, not alphas. So why go this far?”

“We can’t know until we get there,” Damian said with a shrug. “Let’s just stay alert.”

We kept walking for what felt like hours, asking questions, listening to the wind, following every tiny clue. Finally, we met an old man sitting beside a wooden stall. Damian approached him respectfully and showed him the small map Mr. Khandi drew for us.

The old man squinted, then lifted a trembling finger and pointed ahead. “A warehouse, a very big one,” he muttered. “Belongs to one influential wolf in this area.”

That sent shivers through all of us.

Influential, that meant power. And power meant danger.

We thanked the old man and moved forward quickly. Damian made a short call to his boys.

“We found their hideout.”

My heart was pounding so hard it felt like my chest was vibrating.

When we finally reached the warehouse, it was massive, larger than any warehouse building, larger than any training ground I had ever seen. The place screamed secrecy, danger, and something deeply wrong.

We took deep breaths and quietly tiptoed toward one of the side entrances. The rusty metal door creaked the moment Damian touched it, and we all froze. But after a second, he pushed it open gently, and we slipped inside one by one.

The inside was dim, dusty, and smelled like old wood, fear, and hopelessness.

The first person we saw made my heart drop.

“Mrs. Tricia?” I whispered.

She was tied to a pillar, looking weak, tired, and dehydrated. The moment her eyes landed on us, she burst into sudden tears and screamed our names.

“Dana! Damian! Alex! Help! Please!”

“Hide!” Damian whispered urgently, pulling me behind a broken stack of crates. Her scream had echoed too loudly. Someone must have heard it.

That fear punched me straight in the stomach.

Because the next voice we heard, the one shouting at her, made my entire body go numb.

It was a voice I recognized instantly.

A voice that should never have been here.

“Mrs. Tricia, shut up!” the voice snapped harshly.

My heart collapsed.

No way.

No, it couldn’t be.

I slowly raised my head, peering over the crates.

“Marcus?” I gasped, my voice trembling.

He froze mid step the moment he saw me. His eyes widened in pure shock and horror, like he hadn’t imagined he’d get caught.

We all stepped out from our hiding place, slowly, painfully, like approaching someone we never expected to betray us.

“Marcus, how could you?” I screamed, my voice breaking. “Mrs. Tricia is even your relative.”

He swallowed hard, his body shaking. Shame washed over him like a wave.

“Dana, I..... I didn’t know it would get to this point,” he stammered.

“You didn’t know?” Damian shouted furiously, stepping toward him.

“It was supposed to be a peaceful demand!” Marcus yelled back desperately. “But Zade and his father, they kept pushing us.”

My heart skipped. “Zade??” Damian snapped before I could.

“Yes,” Marcus whispered. “The whole petition for equality, it was his idea. I only joined because I thought it was something that the school would handle amicably. I thought it was harmless.”

“You thought?” I stepped closer to him, my eyes burning with betrayal.

“Marcus, we defended you.” I yelled. “We said you could never do something like this. Even though you’re a beta, we trusted you, and look at you right now, standing here, admitting that you thought."

My voice broke on the last word.

He couldn’t look any of us in the eye. His head hung in shame, shoulders trembling.

Kyle, Damian, and Alex rushed past him toward the cluster of people tied together, teachers, students, staff. They began untying them quickly.

The sight broke something inside me.

Seeing our own schoolmates.... wolves we used to spar with, laugh with, study with, sitting helpless, frightened, and betrayed by the very people they trusted, it shattered me.

This wasn’t rivalry.

This wasn’t school drama.

This was cruelty.

Just when we freed the last teacher, a cold, commanding voice cut through the air.

“Stop right there.”

We all turned toward the dark opening at the end of the warehouse.

And there he was.

Zade.

Standing tall, confident, and surrounded by a group of boys, betas he had manipulated, boys who looked ready to cause chaos. Their expressions were smug, grinning as though they enjoyed watching the unfolding tension.

Zade’s eyes locked on mine steady, emotionless, chilling.

“Leaving so soon?” he asked with a smirk.

A wave of coldness washed over me.

So it was him.

The petitions.

The uprising.

The kidnappings.

The chaos.

Zade stood there as if he owned every shadow in the room.

Damian growled under his breath. Alex clenched his fists. Kyle’s eyes darkened dangerously.

But I felt a different kind of emotion.

I felt betrayal.

I felt horror.

I felt heartbreak, not romantic, but the heartbreak of someone watching their world crumble because someone they once knew chose destruction.

“Zade,” I said quietly, stepping forward. “How could you do this?”

His grin widened.

“Oh, Dana. Don’t act like you didn’t see this coming.”