CHAPTER 254

CHAPTER 254
Nathan's POV

The moment we burst through those warehouse doors and saw Liam standing next to Mia, every rational thought fled from my mind. All I could see was red - pure, burning rage that my mate had been taken by this bastard who'd been pretending to be her friend for months.

He kidnapped her. He actually fucking kidnapped her.

"Step away from her," Xavier growled beside me, his alpha dominance radiating through the warehouse like a physical force.

But what happened next made my blood boil even hotter. Instead of running to us, instead of showing relief that we'd found her, Mia stepped between us and Liam like she was protecting him.

"Wait," she said, holding up her hands. "Just wait. Let me explain."

Explain? Explain what? That she's defending the man who drugged and kidnapped her?

"There's nothing to explain," I snarled, pushing past her reaching hands. "This piece of shit took you against your will."

"Nathan, please, if you'd just listen-" Mia started, but I wasn't in the mood to listen to anything.

Sean and I grabbed Liam by the arms while Xavier moved to secure Mia. She was clearly in shock, probably suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something worse. Her brain wasn't working properly right now.

"Let go of him!" she shouted, trying to break free from Xavier's grip. "You don't understand!"

She's defending him. She's actually defending the man who kidnapped her.

"Mia, he's messed with your head," I said through gritted teeth as we dragged Liam toward the exit. "You're not thinking clearly right now."

"I'm thinking perfectly clearly!" she protested. "If you would just stop and listen to me for five seconds-"

But I couldn't listen. Not when she was acting like this. Not when she was protecting our enemy.

Xavier made a quick decision that none of us liked but all of us understood. He pressed a pressure point on Mia's neck, and she collapsed into his arms, unconscious.

"Did you have to do that?" Sean asked, though he looked relieved that she'd stopped fighting us.

"She wasn't going to come willingly," Xavier said grimly. "Not while she's like this. We'll explain everything when her head clears."

When her head clears and she realizes what this monster did to her.

We took Mia home first, laying her gently on her bed and making sure she was comfortable. Xavier stayed with her while Sean and I dragged Liam down to the basement of our temporary safe house.

The basement was perfect for interrogations - soundproof, isolated, with plenty of space to work. We chained Liam to a chair in the center of the room, and I had to resist the urge to start beating him immediately.

"So," I said, circling around him like a predator. "The mysterious Liam finally shows his true colors."

Liam looked up at me, and I was surprised to see resignation in his eyes instead of fear or defiance.

"I meant her no harm," he said quietly. "I told her everything. She knows the truth now."

"The truth?" Sean laughed harshly. "The truth is that you're a lying, manipulative bastard who's been playing us all from the beginning."

"You don't understand," Liam said. "There's so much more going on here than you know."

"Then enlighten us," I snarled, my fist connecting with his jaw hard enough to snap his head to the side.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but he didn't cry out.

"I'm the Alpha of the Shadowmoon Pack," he said, spitting blood onto the concrete floor. "Everything you think you know about me is wrong."

"Shadowmoon," Sean repeated, his face going pale. "The pack that was banished from the Council."

"The pack of murderers and rogues," I added, hitting him again. This time in the ribs.

"We were framed," Liam gasped, doubling over as much as his restraints would allow. "Twenty years ago, we were framed for crimes we didn't commit."

"Right," I said sarcastically. "And I suppose you have proof of this?"

"That's what Mia was going to help me find," he said, looking up at me with desperate eyes. "The real criminals, the ones who've been using our reputation to commit atrocities."

Xavier appeared in the doorway, his face grim. "She's awake," he announced. "And she's not happy with us."

"She'll get over it once she realizes we saved her from this psychopath," I said, throwing another punch that caught Liam in the stomach.

"I never hurt her," Liam wheezed. "I would never hurt her or the children."

"You kidnapped her!" Sean roared, taking his turn at beating the truth out of our prisoner.

"Because she was going to leave!" Liam shot back. "Because you three bastards convinced her that I was dangerous!"

"You are dangerous," I said, grabbing a fistful of his hair and yanking his head back. "You're the leader of the most feared pack in North America."

"A pack that's been hiding in exile for twenty years, trying to survive while everyone hunts us like animals," Liam said, his voice breaking. "Do you have any idea what that's like? What it does to people?"

Before any of us could answer, we heard footsteps thundering down the basement stairs.

"Where is he?" Mia's voice echoed through the space, filled with fury and determination.

She appeared at the bottom of the stairs, her hair disheveled and her eyes blazing with anger. When she saw Liam chained to the chair, his face bloody and swollen, she let out a sound of pure rage.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouted, pushing past Xavier to kneel beside Liam's chair.

She's doing it again. She's protecting him again.

"Mia, get away from him," I ordered, but she ignored me completely.

"Are you okay?" she asked Liam softly, her hands gently examining his injuries. "Can you move your fingers? Any sharp pains in your chest?"

"I'm fine," he said, though it was obvious he wasn't.

"No, you're not fine," she said, shooting a murderous look at the three of us. "They've been torturing you."

"He's the leader of the rogue organization that killed our father!" Xavier exploded. "He deserves everything he gets!"

"No, he's not," Mia said firmly, still checking Liam's injuries. "He's not the leader of the organization that's been terrorizing the packs."

The basement fell silent except for the sound of Liam's labored breathing.

"What do you mean he's not the leader?" Sean asked slowly.

"I mean exactly what I said," Mia replied, her voice cold as ice. "The real rogue organization has been using his pack's reputation as a cover for their crimes. Liam and his pack were framed twenty years ago, and they've been living in exile ever since."

I felt like the ground was shifting beneath my feet. "That's impossible."

"Is it?" Mia challenged, standing up to face us. "Think about it. Have any of you ever actually seen proof that the Shadowmoon Pack committed those crimes? Or did you just accept what you were told?"

The question hung in the air like a bomb waiting to explode.

Because now that she mentioned it, I realized we'd never actually seen any concrete evidence. We'd just accepted the official story, the same way everyone else had.

"If he's innocent," Xavier said slowly, "then who's behind the attacks? Who killed our father?"

Mia looked at Liam, then back at us. "That's what we need to find out. And we're not going to do it by beating him to death in your basement."

Could we have been wrong all this time? Could we have been hunting the wrong enemy?