Chapter 176 Damian's POV
I moved through the Dark Moon Pack house as quietly as possible, trying to appear like I belonged here.
Xavier had left me in a guest room to rest and prepare for Erebus's arrival. But the moment he was gone, I had started planning my escape route.
The problem was that the entire compound was crawling with guards. Erebus followers everywhere, armed, alert, ready for battle.
I made my way to the window and looked out at the courtyard below.
What I saw made my blood run cold.
Hundreds of fighters assembled in formation. Weapons being distributed. Vehicles being loaded with ammunition and supplies.
This wasn't just an attack force, this was an army. Organized, disciplined, ready to wipe out the Blue Moon Pack completely.
I had called Kaden to warn him, and told him what was coming. But I knew the truth: fifty warriors couldn't hold off this kind of assault.
The Blue Moon Pack was about to be destroyed. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Unless I could find a way to sabotage the attack from the inside.
I checked my watch. Xavier had been gone for twenty minutes. He would return soon to check on me. To make sure I was still playing the role of dying man waiting for salvation.
I needed to find Kira. Figure out if she had any ideas. Any way we could help from here.
I slipped out of my room and moved through the hallways, staying in the shadows. Avoiding the main corridors where guards patrolled.
I had hidden Kira in a detached storage room on the far side of the compound. Away from the main activity, somewhere she could wait without being discovered.
I found the room and knocked quietly three times, pause, two times, our agreed signal.
The door cracked open. Kira's face appeared, tense and worried.
"Damian. Thank God, I heard explosions. What's happening?"
"They are mobilizing, full assault on the Blue Moon Pack. At least three hundred fighters."
I slipped inside and closed the door behind me. "We have maybe thirty minutes before Xavier realizes that I'm not in my room."
"Thirty minutes to do what? We are trapped here, surrounded by enemies."
"I know, but there has to be something we can do, some way to help."
Kira paced the small room, thinking hard. Then she stopped suddenly.
"The cave, the torture cave where they held me, where they held Kaden's warriors."
"What about it?"
"When Elara and I escaped, we didn't get everyone out. There were prisoners too weak to move, too broken to walk. We had to leave them behind because we didn't have time or resources to save them all."
My stomach twisted. "You are saying there are still people in that cave? Being tortured?"
"Yes. Dozens of them, maybe more, people from different packs, captured, broken, forced to convert to Erebus's cause."
She grabbed my arm. "But Damian, not all of them have converted yet. Some are still resisting, still fighting. If we could free them, if we could break them out-"
"They would fight against the Dark Moon Pack from the inside. Create chaos, disrupt the attack."
"Exactly it is not much but it is something."
I considered it, the cave was heavily guarded. Getting in would be dangerous. Getting out with prisoners would be nearly impossible.
But if we succeeded, if we could free even twenty or thirty fighters who still had loyalty to their original packs, it could make a difference.
"How do we get to the cave without being seen?"
"There is a back entrance through the old maintenance tunnels. I found it during one of my escape attempts."
Kira pulled out a piece of paper and started sketching quickly. "Here, this is the layout. The tunnel entrance is here, the cave is here. Guards patrol in shifts, changing every hour."
"When will the next shift change?"
"Twenty minutes."
I checked my watch again. "That gives us a small window to get in during the confusion of the shift change. Free as many prisoners as we can arm them, get them fighting before anyone realizes what's happening."
"It is insane."
"All our best plans are insane."
Kira smiled grimly. "True, so we do this?"
"We do this but first, I need to know are you sure you can go back there? To the place where you were tortured for fifteen years?"
Her smile faded. "No. I'm not sure the thought of going back makes me want to vomit. But those people in that cave, they're going through what I went through.”
“And if I can end it for them, give them a chance to fight back, then it's worth facing my nightmares."
"Okay. Then we move fast in and out before Xavier notices I'm gone."
We spent the next ten minutes reviewing the plan. Memorizing the layout discussing contingencies.
I kept checking my watch. Twenty-five minutes since Xavier left, Twenty-six. Twenty-seven.
"We need to go now," I said. "Before-"
The door burst open.
A man stood there, one of Xavier's top lieutenants, Vane.
I recognized him from my time in Dark Moon Pack. Cruel, suspicious, loyal to Xavier to the point of fanaticism.
"Well, well," Marcus said, his hand resting on the gun at his hip.
"The dying doctor, sneaking around meeting secretly with a rescued prisoner is so interesting."
"I was just-"
"Don't lie to me, Damian. I have never trusted you. Not when you lived here before, not when Xavier welcomed you back so easily."
He stepped into the room, blocking the exit. "I told Xavier you were playing him. That your sudden willingness to join Erebus was too convenient.”
“But he wouldn't listen. He is so blinded by the idea of having his brother back."
"I don't know what you're talking about-"
"The fake curse marks on your body, the way you move, is too strong for a dying man. The secret messages you have been sending."
Marcus pulled his gun. "I have been watching you since you arrived. Gathering evidence and now I have all I need to prove that you are a spy."
Kira tensed beside me, ready to fight.
But Marcus wasn't alone, three more guards appeared in the doorway behind him. All armed, all ready to shoot.
"Xavier is going to be so disappointed,"
Marcus said. "He really wanted to believe in you. Wanted his brother by his side, but you have betrayed him, betrayed Erebus, and that means you die."
He raised his gun, aiming directly at my chest.
"Any last words, traitor?"