Enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
"Just as a fever makes cold feel colder, love can make loneliness feel lonelier."
~Invisibility, Andrea Cremer
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Chapter 46

Elsa sat in a chair with her head braced against her hands, in utter shock not just over the kidnapping of Anna, but the news of what had happened to mom. Spencer and Dom sat next to her, the former with his hand placed gently on her back in an attempt to comfort her. Dad was nowhere to be seen. Loren had announced that he was at mom's side. Speaking of mom...

Mom was on life support and in a coma from blood loss and shock. She'd already gone into cardiac arrest and while no one said anything, none of us expected her to make it through the night.

The room we were in was completely silent. No one spoke a single word. Eyes flitted around, whether because they were doing so unknowingly or whether they were checking on other pack mates, I'm not sure. I was in wolf form. After seeing my mom, telling her who I was, and now knowing I was going to lose her, I felt that I should at least tell a few people in the pack who I was, the ones I knew wouldn't mind if I came back. That mostly consisted of Thea, Riley, and the possibility of Noah. Noah had always been pretty neutral between me and Hunter, never choosing sides in the battle for alpha position, but I hesitated with him for the fact he'd been Hunter's beta ever since I left. He'd most certainly choose sides now.

Babatunde entered the room, clearing his throat. "Thank you for meeting me here. After this battle, we are moving the Academy to a new location. From there we will determine how this breach of security happened and how to prevent it again. We will also be throwing all available resources into finding the main base for the Hunters in order to launch an assault that will shatter their ranks, power, and organization."

"What about rescuing my sister?" Elsa asked. She looked up at Baba with blood-stained eyes. "My sister is in the hands of the enemy. We are not just going to sit around and wait for them to kill her are we?"

"No. We'll figure something out in the upcoming days on how to-"

"You will do it tonight. There's no waiting when it comes to rescuing my sister."

"Elsa's right. Anna doesn't have days. They'll torture her for information about the Searchers and then they'll kill her once they have what they need. Anna can last a long time but not if the torture is continuous. At most, we have a three days to rescue her, four at most," Dom spoke up.

"You're not going to rescue her by yourselves. There's a price on your heads the Hunters would love to collect," Babatunde protested.

"They're not doing a great job on the 'collecting' part now are they?" my sister countered.

"Elsa, your dad said to trust Babatunde on the matter. He's already spoken about-"

"You're really going to trust the word of a man who's distraught with grief over his dying wife?"

"Elsa!" Hunter exclaimed. "Be quiet! Now! An alpha to an omega, that's an order and you better listen to."

Elsa stood up, face red with anger. "I'm not arguing this an omega. I'm arguing this as Anna's sister, as her twin. She's you sister too, Hunter. I know she's been gone most of our lives but surely you haven't forgotten that."

"I told you to stop!" Hunter barked. She let out a small snarl at him. "The omega doesn't get a say in any of this."

"Then what the hell is the point of me being here? What the hell is the point of this meeting?"

"To figure out what we're going to do about the Hunters. If you don't want to be a part of this meeting, then go!"

Elsa walked off. I don't think Hunter had actually expected her to do so but he didn't quite understand her reasoning. He hadn't been the one who had held his little sister in his arms when she had nightmares of seeing her sister die when she hadn't been there in the first place, and might I mention it was an exact version of how Anna had 'died'. Hunter didn't understand that Elsa and Anna weren't just attached because they were sisters, they were mentally attached whether they fully comprehended how much or not. I'd figured that out when I heard Elsa had felt her sister's 'death' before she was even told, so I figured her fear of her sister's life wasn't just because Elsa didn't want to lose her twin again, but because she knew without knowing that Anna was in deep trouble.

"When you decide to rescue Anna before she dies, let me know," Dom said.

"Why am I getting the feeling she's going to go after her sister by herself?" Shiloh mused once Dom had left the room.

"Because she's thinking about it," Hunter said. "I should go talk to her."

I growled when Hunter moved. Lily spoke up for me. "I think my alpha is saying he'll go speak to her as he's not the one she's mad at."

"You showed your face to me, Stark. Why won't you show it to them?" Loren inquired curiously.

"You saw Stark in human form?" Hunter queried.

"He was trying to help Arya when I found her. Elsa came to him when she'd discovered Anna was missing."

I simply bared my teeth at Loren, trying to convey to him that it wasn't important at the moment. I trotted off towards my sister. I followed her scent down to Anna's dungeon where she and Dom were in a heated discussion, but not in an angry sort of way, an excited way.

"How are we going to get there? I don't think there's any Weavers who would make a portal for us to go through," Elsa remarked.

"Tiana's out of the question. What about your aunt Adne?" Dom asked.

"No, she wouldn't do anything my dad was against."

"What if Caleb asked her?"

"That would mean getting my brother involved and I don't want to do that. He's walking on thin ice with my pack anyway."

"I don't care," I said, stepping out from the shadows. "If you two know where Anna is, I'll get Spencer and Lily and I'll find a Weaver and we'll go there."

"Wha- are you serious?" Elsa stared at me with hopeful blue eyes.

I knelt in front of her. "I made you a promise little sister. I told you I'd never let anything happen to you or Anna again. I'm not letting those Hunters kill her nor am I letting Babatunde tell me what to do when the life of a pack member is at stake." Turning to Dom, I asked, "You know where they're holding her?"

"She left a note. I don't know how she knew where they were taking her but I trust her that she's not leading us into a trap. It was in code. Something only I could figure out. She knew I'd find it."

"Good. Get some rest. We'll go get Anna once I've gotten everything squared away. That'll be a few hours at most."

"That's better than days. A lot better. I'll go to my room, get my weapons ready. Elsa, you want to come and practice at the shooting range?" Dom inquired.

"I'll meet you there. I need to talk to Caleb," She replied. He smiled understandingly at her and left. Once he was out of the room, my sister said, "I'm so sorry for what I said earlier, about dad and mom and I know you were the last to see her and that you the one that found her and for me to say something like that-"

"Elsa!" I interrupted her rambling. She stopped, trying to catch her breath. "I'm not upset over what you said. You're right. Dad isn't thinking clearly right now. Mom most likely won't make it through the night. If she does it'll be a miracle. And while I want that miracle to happen just like we all do, we need to be realistic about the situation. We, personally, can't do anything more to help mom. But we can help Anna. We're going to help her. I'm not breaking my promise to you Ice Princess."

"Are you sure you don't want to come back and challenge Hunter for alpha position?"

I chuckled. "I'm sure. But you're still always welcome to join my pack. We could live in Estes. We've already decided to build a hotel there."

"But you'd have to be in hiding from our family the entire time. That's no way to live."

"So I wouldn't hide. Loren didn't recognize me. The only ones I'm worried about recognizing me are the ones I was really close to."

"Caleb. That was practically everyone. If Loren didn't recognize you, I doubt the others will."

"You think they've wondered if I'm actually Caleb?"

"Maybe Hunter has but as for the rest of the pack, I think they think my loyalty to you is because of Spencer."

"Hunter would kill me if he knew I was back. Maybe he's forgiven me for all I've done but that doesn't mean he wants me back."

"There's only one way to find out."

"After the war, okay? We need him focused on killing Hunters, not me."

Elsa laughed. "Fine. But after the war, seriously, consider talking to the pack."

"I will. You get up to your room. I'm going to go make preparations for our rescue mission." Elsa gave me a hug. Just as she was about to go up the stairs, she stopped and said, "We'll get Callie too if she's there."

I smiled. "I know. Now go get some rest."

She dashed up the stairs. I didn't expect her to actually sleep. She wouldn't sleep until Anna was back in the Academy, safe and sound. I got up and went back to the meeting room. No one was in there. I went my room where I found Lily and Spencer chatting.

"Hey, how's Elsa?" Spencer asked immediately.

"Good, now that she's going after his sister," I replied.

"She's doing what?" Lily demanded.

"She and Dom are going after Anna."

"They can't go alone! They need a pack with them."

"That's why I'm going."

"I'm going. Definitely. When do we leave?" Spencer queried.

"Once I find a Weaver willing to get us there. Dom already knows where Anna is."

"I'm going as well," Lily declared.

"Good. But let's not tell anyone else about this. They don't know we're going and if they do, they'll try and stop us."

"I can't exactly blame them for wanting to."

"Me neither. This is going to be dangerous. Extremely dangerous."

"Since when is anything we do not dangerous?" Spencer said drolly.

"Point taken. All right, get some rest if you need some. We'll be leaving in a few hours."
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Spencer

We all met in Caleb's room. Dom and Elsa came together. Both smelled like gunpowder. Dom told me he'd been teaching her how to shoot, and like her twin, was a natural at it. She grinned up at him. Caleb had managed to get a guy named Han to be our Weaver. The guy was shrimpy looking but he had this glint in his eyes that told me he packed a lot more punch than what it seemed.

"Here," Dom said, handing a photo to Han. "This is the entrance to the building. Should help make Weaving more accurate."

Han took it, studying it carefully.

"Where is that and why is there snow?" I asked.

"That's Norway where the snow never really melts," Dom replied. "We were there a couple of times."

"There's no trees to hide behind," Elsa remarked.

"No, but there's plenty of stones and rocks and snow drifts. You can change into white wolves can't you?"

"Yes," Lily answered. "The Laroches aren't the only ones with that power."

"Right..." Dom said sheepishly. "Okay, the building has two stories above ground, about five beneath. Naturally, Anna will be on the very bottom floor because they're not going to make it easy for us to get to her. There's guards at each entrance. Lily, Caleb, how comfortable are you with causing a distraction?"

"There's no one better. Why?" Caleb said.

"We're going to need to lure a majority of the Hunters out so that there's less inside that Spencer, Elsa, and I need to take out. I can get us past most of them without being seen but in some cases, it'll most likely be unavoidable."

"I can join Lily and Caleb. I have a few tricks up my sleeve," Han said mischievously.

"Good. We'll need all the tricks we can get. It's not as heavily fortified as other places because of its top secret nature but these are elite guards so be on guard. I'll have Elsa howl once we're out with Anna, and Callie if she's there too, and we'll rendezvous here." Dom pointed at a massive boulder. "That means that Han, you'll have to separate from Caleb and Lily at some point to weave a portal for us to get through back to here."

"Roger that," Han said. He pulled out his tool and wove a portal. We hopped through one by one. I shifted into a wolf mid-air. We landed quietly on the snow, crouching down behind rocks.

"Lily, Caleb, Han, you're up," Dom whispered. The three of them darted off. It was hard to keep up with where they were going so I gave up, waiting impatiently for our chance to go inside. Elsa was shifting from foot to foot, also biting at the bit to get going.

The cue came soon enough though in the form of a multiple explosions on the other side of the building.

"Come on!" Dom whispered. He dashed off, hunched over to avoid being seen my guards rushing out of the building. Elsa and I were on his heels. We arrived at a side door which Dom hot-wired open. He ushered us inside. "There's an elevator two rooms down but it's safest if we take the stairs. That way we can't get stuck."

Dom pulled out a gun, creeping along the wall. I heard footsteps but none that seemed to be coming our way. I kept watch on the rear, Elsa the sides, Dom the front. If anyone attacked us, we'd be prepared. It didn't take long for someone to find us but Dom knocked him out before he could attack us. Dom dragged the body over to a closet, motioning for us to come in. We did as he asked. He started taking off the guy's uniform. Elsa and I shifted.

"Why are stripping the guy down?" I asked.

"I have an idea. You two wait here. I need to go find two more of these outfits. Be on guard. Just because this is a utility closet doesn't mean no one will come in here in the middle of a battle. I'll knock four times before coming in. I'll be back." Dom put the uniform on over his clothes and disappeared. Elsa and I tied up the half-naked guy in some wires we found. If he woke up, one of us would knock him unconscious again. Elsa and I then hid in a corner so if anyone did come in, we'd have the element of surprise.

"So what exactly do you think Dom's doing?" I inquired.

"Either he's getting two more uniforms, one for me and one for you, or he's backstabbing us and leading the Hunters straight to us."

"That's a comforting thought. If it is the latter, are we just going to wait to be killed or are we going to do something about it?"

"There's stuff in here that would make good Molotov cocktails."

"How do you know how to make Molotov cocktails?"

Elsa shrugged. "You wouldn't know it but Barry's a bit of a pyromaniac. I don't know where he learned to make one but he taught me and I thought it might come in handy one day against the Hunters."

"What do we need?" Elsa ordered me to grab certain things off shelves. There was only enough material to make two, one for each of us. We found two lighters as well, holding onto them tightly. Hopefully they worked. If they didn't, we were screwed.

The two of us waited with bated breath. I kept glancing at my watch. It felt like we waited an hour for Dom to show up but it was really only about seven minutes. He'd brought back two uniforms, one for me and one for Elsa, just like she'd predicted. He'd even gotten us some massive guns that I had no idea what kind they were. Once we were all dressed, we headed to the stairs. Thank god the uniforms came with helmets that covered up half our face. That way almost no one would recognize us. Troops marched past but ignored us. My heart sped up every time they did though.

The trip down five flights of stairs was not fun when your life was literally on the line and your heart felt like it was going to beat out of your chest and you could be recognized at any moment. Somehow, by some miracle, we managed to get down without anything bad happening.

"Okay, Anna should be at the end of this corridor. I'll go get her. Elsa, Spencer, you two check the rest of these cells, make sure there's no other Guardians."

"Anna's not here down here," Elsa said. "Her scent isn't down here."

"They might've masked it," Dom suggested.

"No, she's not down here in the cells. I caught her scent on the floor above though."

"You're positive?"

"I know my sister's scent. I know she's not here. If it makes you feel better, check the cells, but I'm going to check upstairs."

"No, I trust you. Let's go." The three of us headed to the flight above us. It was a network of hallways and rooms. Elsa lifted up her gun, stalking forward. Dom and I followed in suit. She led us to a room in the middle of the hallway, opening the door quietly. Stepping inside, her gun was immediately knocked out of her hands but a black wolf. Elsa yanked off her helmet.

"Anna!" Elsa hissed. "It's me!"

The black wolf shifted instantly. Anna Laroche enveloped her sister in a hug before demanding, "What are you doing here?! All of you?!"

"We're here to rescue you," Dom said.

"Aren't you a little tall for a trooper?" Anna said with a smirk.

He smiled. "All right princess, let's get you out of here."

"You know you three could've gotten yourselves killed!" Anna chastised.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Elsa asked.

"No. When they kidnapped me, I convinced them I'd been collecting information on the Searchers so I could go back to the Hunters and give it to them. They believed me after some convincing. You're lucky you got here sooner than later though. I was about to blow this place."

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"I mean I've been rigging this place with enough C4 to bring it down and anyone in it. The activation button is on this remote." She showed it to us. "It would be a massive blow to the Hunters. They have a bunch of top secret projects here. The reason they brought me here was because they didn't think anyone would find me here. I'm assuming you got my message Dom?"

"I did, but if I hadn't followed Elsa down to your cell, I never would've found it. We need to get going. Caleb, Lily, and Han won't be able to create a distraction much longer."

"Then you really did arrive just in time. I was just about to leave."

"Is Callie here?" Elsa asked.

At the name of my pack mate, Anna's expression turned murderous. "That traitor? No. She's at another building. I don't know where. She left practically right after we got here. She's the reason the Hunters knew where the Academy was. She's the reason they knew where Hunter was going to be the night his drink got spiked." Turning to me, her voice softened as she added, "I'm sorry Spencer. I don't like Callie, but I know she was your pack mate. I'm sorry she's... doing what she is."

"I knew something was wrong the moment she came back. I just didn't expect this..." I admitted.

"We'll let Babatunde know what's happening we get back," Elsa said, rubbing my shoulder.

"Let's go," I said. Anna was the first one out the door. None of us had heard the Hunters coming down the hallway. The only thing we heard was their gunfire. Bullets hit Anna. She stumbled back into the room, collapsing in Dom's arms. Elsa slammed the door shut, pushing a desk in front of the door. We knelt down next to Anna who was trembling with pain.

"How many bullets hit her?" I questioned.

"Five I think. None hit her in any major arteries or anywhere dangerous but she'll die if we don't get these wounds stitched up. No amount of Guardian blood can stop this.

"I have an idea. Dom, can you carry her?" Elsa asked, seeming strangely calm in the midst of all this.

"Yeah, why?"

"These vents must connect the rooms to each other right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"The Hunters are expecting us to be in this room. But what if we crawl through the vents into the other rooms and escape that way?"

"That could work."

"Spencer and I each have a Molotov cocktail on us. We can throw those to give us some time to get to the stairs. From there on we'll just have to make a run for it."

"I saw some trucks on the first floor. We can get in one of those, slash the tires of the other vehicles, and escape that way, pick up Caleb, Lily, and Han on the way," I said.

"Awesome, let's go." Elsa went over to one of the vents and yanked it off like it was nothing. She backed herself into it. Dom gently lay Anna in front of the vent. The Laroche twin tried to stay as silent as she could despite the pain she was in but a few whimpers still escaped. Dom gently pushed Anna into the vent while Elsa pulled, wiggling her way backwards. I got in last. Elsa kicked the other vent open with her foot. We crawled out into the next room. The four of us repeated the process another four times before we decided it was safe enough to enact the plan. Dom lifted Anna in his arms.

"Guys, we're in the armoury," Elsa remarked. "Spencer, grab as many weapons as you can strap on. We're going to go out guns blazing."

We started grabbing random weapons off the walls. I went for the guns. Elsa grabbed some strange weapon that looked like a cross between a gun and those things that shot baseballs at you. Everything in here was loaded so thankfully we didn't need to grab ammo. Once Elsa and I had armed ourselves to the point we could take on half the Hunter army by ourselves, she took out her Molotov cocktail. Warning us to get ready, Elsa ignited the cocktail, opened the door, and threw it down the hallway. The explosion rocked the building. Dom ran out of the room, already turning the corner at the end of the hallway by the time the Hunters got their wits about them. Elsa and I dove behind the wall, getting ready to shoot at them. My girlfriend pulled out the weird looking from earlier, aimed, and fired. The power of the weapon knocked her back but she regained her composure almost instantly as another, even bigger explosion shook the building. Now it dawned on me what it was.

"When did you learn how to work a grenade launcher?" I asked.

"Just now," she replied.

"I love you," I laughed as we got up and bolted down the hallway. The Hunters straggled behind us, only shooting at us right when we got to the stairwell. Dom was halfway up the stairs. Elsa and I made it to the third floor when we heard the Hunters enter the stairwell below us. I grabbed my Molotov cocktail, ignited it, and threw it down at them.

"Nice one!" Dom yelled over the ruckus. The four of us made it to the top floor, making a beeline for the cars. Dom put Anna in the back of one while Elsa and I shot the tires out of the other nine. Then we hopped in. Dom floored the Hummer out into the open field. Elsa sat in the backseat with Anna, giving her blood; I sat in the front with Dom, helping him find Lily, Caleb, and Han.

"Over there!" I pointed at two wolves running for their lives with Han on some sort of ATV. I decided not to question where he got that from. They were a good distance away from the Hunters but my alphas were tiring, slowing down. Dom pulled alongside them.

"Get in!" I shouted. Lily, Caleb, and Han didn't need to be told twice. They leapt into the back, narrowly avoiding landing on Anna. Han rolled back into the third seat. Lily and Caleb were hunched over Anna, demanding to know what happened to her. Elsa explained while Dom put the pedal to the metal, getting us as far away from the Hunters as possible to give Han enough time to weave a portal, for us to jump through it, and then close the portal. Dom only deemed that safe enough when he couldn't see the Hunters in the rear view mirror anymore.

Han jumped out of the trunk, weaving a portal while Caleb, Lily, and I backed out of the way so Dom and Elsa could get Anna out of the back seat. Dom carried her.

"Portal's ready! Hurry! Hunters are almost on top of us." Dom went through first, followed by Lily. Elsa was supposed to go next.

"Elsa! Hurry!" Caleb barked.

"Wait!" she exclaimed, jumping up on top of the Hummer. She pulled out the remote Anna had been holding earlier and pressed the button. I thought the Molotov cocktail and grenade launcher had caused big explosions. Those were miniscule compared to the sight the C4 caused. I could see and hear the explosion from almost three miles away.

"What the-" Caleb began.

"Anna rigged the place to blow up. We got to her just in time. She asked me to do it. Come on!" Elsa jumped through the portal. Caleb and I followed. Han was last. The moment he was through, he whirled around and slashed the portal, closing it.

"What the hell is going on here?" a familiar voice demanded. We turned around to see Loren Hess and Shiloh McKay. We'd landed in the meeting room.

Where the entire Laroche pack was standing, staring at us.

"Anna needs medical attention," Dom informed. "She's been shot at least five times, maybe more. Possibly by wolfsbane bullets. The reprimanding can wait. Right now, she needs to be taken care of."

"Dom, take Anna to the infirmary," Babatunde ordered. "Starks, Elsa, Han, you stay here."

No one argued. No one said a word.

"Elsa Felicity Laroche, how dare you risk the lives of others and the safety of this pack?" Shiloh demanded angrily.

"The people who went with me volunteered," she argued calmly. "It was originally going to be me and Dom alone but Stark wanted to help us and his pack joined in. Yes, our lives were endangered but we put ourselves in that situation. I didn't ask any of them to do that."

"Caleb better kill all three of you for letting our sister go on that mission," Hunter growled, glaring at me, Caleb, and Lily.

"Who's to say Caleb didn't know?"

Hunter turned to her. "Caleb knew?"

"He did," Lily piped up. "He told us to help her. He helped himself."

"You saw Caleb?"

"Yes."

"Why would he approve of you going on such a dangerous mission?"

"He told me he had a promise to keep."

"What promise would that be?"

"Making sure nothing happened to me or Anna again."

"That's a stupid promise. He can't keep an eye on both of you all the time!" Caleb snarled viciously at his brother, as if to say, 'I'll rip your throat out if you say that again'.

"Is no one going to talk about the big ass explosion in the background?" Noah remarked.

"Anna and Callie were taken by the Hunters because Callie was their spy in here, not Anna. Anna convinced the Hunters that she was a spy just so she wouldn't be imprisoned. When we found her, she had rigged the entire building with C4 that could be detonated with the push of the button. When we were trying to escape, Hunters shot at us. Anna took the brunt of it. Elsa took the detonator from her sister and before we left, set off the explosion. According to Anna, it was a top secret, highly valuable base. The fact that it's destroyed means that it's a blow to the Hunters, their resources, and their defenses," I explained. "If anything, we just did more right now than we have the entire year we've been hunting them."

"So you just risked your lives to save someone who wasn't in danger at all?" Noah pointed out. "Smart. Seems you all overreacted."

"No they didn't," Ember said. "We assumed she was in danger as well. If I had known Elsa was going to rescue Anna, I would've joined. Like Elsa, I don't want to lose my sister again."

"But she wasn't in any danger!" Noah argued.

"You don't know what you're talking about! It doesn't matter that she wasn't in danger! We all thought she was!"

"Enough!" Hunter barked. "It's beside the point whether Anna was truly in danger or not. The point of the matter is that you-" he pointed at Elsa. '-went on an unapproved mission that could've gotten yourself killed when you're already walking on thin ice from the last stunt you pulled sneaking out to see the Starks. You remember what dad said if you put another toe out of line?"

"Of course I do," Elsa responded stiffly.

"Then why the hell would you risk that?! Why would you risk everything you have to go and save Anna!"

"Because you don't leave family for dead! We already let her die once Hunter and damn it, I can't go through that again. I barely got through it the last time! You know that! So don't criticize me for being selfish right now." Elsa's voice was trembling with anger, sadness, and a bunch of other emotions I couldn't place.

"You're not the only one who lost a sister Elsa so stop acting like it! We all lost Anna that day but I'd rather have one of you alive than having neither of you!"

"I know that! But what you don't know is I felt Anna die that day. I felt her leaving our pack and I wasn't even there. I'm tethered to her in a way no one can understand. The only one who came close to understanding that was Caleb which is why he made that promise to me. You've always said the pack comes first. Anna is our pack. We had a duty to rescue her."

"When we talk about duty to the pack, we talk about the pack as a whole, not as individuals. You don't get special treatment because you're a sister or a brother or a second."

"No, only if you're an alpha," Elsa fired back. I wondered briefly if she was referring to when she, Josilyn, and Sebastian had been kidnapped a few weeks ago. We'd rescued them a few hours later at Hunter's insistence that we get them out of there. He'd pushed for the rescue the same way Elsa had; he'd gotten his way because he was alpha. Elsa was being criticized because she was the omega. It didn't seem right.

"We hadn't had a full attack on us that day," Hunter snapped. "We just went through hell, mom's practically dead in the infirmary, half of us are beaten up, and you have the audacity to compare that day to this? No, it's nothing like that."

"I'm unscathed from this past battle! So is Dom and Spencer and Lily and Caleb. We could've done it if you'd trusted us."

"I don't trust you! Any of you!"

"And I don't trust a pack who's willing to leave a pack member for dead, regardless of the circumstances or consequences. So you know what, Hunter? Tell dad what happened. Let him go through with his threat. Because you and I both knew this day would happen sooner or later."

"Hunter, what is she talking about?" Josilyn whispered worriedly.

"What threat is she talking about?" Shiloh asked, just as confused as his daughter. Hunter said nothing. He strode over to Elsa.

"With me. Now," he ordered. Elsa met his fierce gaze with one of her own but she went off with him.

Riley whistled. "I thought they were about to attack each other."

"Who do you think would've won?" Dmitri asked.

"Elsa. She was way too fired up."

"Hunter's an alpha though. He's much stronger than her and he's already nearly killed her."

"But she wasn't angry then."

"Are we really having this discussion?" Gracie interrupted. "Shame on you two."

Riley and Dmitri hung their heads in embarrassment.

"Is it true that Caleb's alive?" Thea inquired. Every head turned in the room to face me.

"Yeah," I said. "He's alive."

"And you know him?"

"That's why Elsa had been sneaking out to see us. We were her tie to him."

"Does she know where he is?"

I nodded.

"Do you know what the threat is she was talking about?"

I nodded again.

"Ren is going to kick her out of the pack, isn't he?" Josilyn said softly.

"Ren wouldn't kick out his own daughter. He's too protective of her," Loren said.

"You're talking about a guy who called it treason to continue looking for his run-away son," Shiloh retorted.

"That was different. Caleb was a smart kid. He could handle himself and he obviously didn't want to be found. Anna was in danger being with Hunters whether they believed she was getting information from them or not. They would've figured out her plot sooner or later and killed her."

"Are you agreeing with Elsa?" Melinda asked.

"I'm agreeing that we needed to go after Anna right away, and not wait. I don't agree with her going off with the Stark pack and that Dom kid."

"Dom's the reason we found Anna in the first place and the reason we got into the building unseen. Elsa's the reason we got out." I dove into that part of the story.

"She's reckless. She's willing to put the whole pack at risk just for her sister," Noah mumbled.

"And you're telling me you wouldn't do the same for Josilyn?" Ember snapped.

"Enough. This bickering is pointless. Go to your rooms. I must go speak with Dom. Han, meet me in my office in an hour."

We filed out of the meeting room. The arguing continued. It was the most heated between Ember and Noah. Thea was talking quietly to Riley. I caught them mentioning Caleb's name but I didn't ask them about it. I opened my bedroom door but stopped when I saw Caleb trotting off. I turned to Lily.

"He's going to see Arya."

"Ren will attack him if he's already heard about how he went with us to rescue Anna."

Lily grimaced. "I know. So does he. But I don't think he cares."
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Such a long chapter. Holy cow. Well, hope you liked it :)