Serge's POV

I had commanded my new thrall to tell us everything that he knew and then I had let a number of people question him, really anyone who thought they might have something worth asking. He told us a lot about where the eastern wolves trained, but to my disappointment, he did not know where the eastern king kept his head quarters.

Then that same Friday we had a glorious, unexpected breakthrough.

Nicholas called me and had me come over to his office. I did not have time for that, but I understood that he wanted to get Elise back as much, of even more than I did. There was something in his voice that kept me from getting frustrated by his request. He did not sound hostile, he sounded hopeful.

I did as he asked.

As before, the secretary waved me past and she did not even bother to question my presence. I found Nicholas' door wide open. Before I even stepped through the door I heard her voice.

"It's Elise, I'm alive. The eastern king has me in Toronto, I think." Her voice washed over me. "No matter what happens to me, don't give up. He's evil."

Then a click, and a beep, and she was gone.

"Play it again," I requested, my voice a bit raspy.

He did, twice more. She was alive and we had something to work with. I stared at Nicholas' office phone like it was the holy grail while I let the relief and hope swirl through me.

I was still terrified for her, but at the same time pride welled up inside me. Her voice was more steady than I could have hoped for. My brave Elise had not given up.

Then we were joined by Austin, apparently he had also been called. Nicholas played the message again. Austin grinned widely. "I think he may have miscalculated when he stole Elise," he said.

Unless the king had been trying to give added incentive to the Trifecta to push him to his knees and rip out his throat, he had indeed.

Nicholas invited us to sit down. I shut the door and we began to strategize.

* * *  *  *  *  * * *

The next day was the busiest day I had ever experienced. We tried to keep our plans to ourselves, but our people were beginning to notice something was happening.

I did not want to think it was possible, but I still worried there might be more traitors in our midst. I could not help but regard my own people with suspicion and I hated the feeling.

Nicholas, Austin and I ordered our people to keep quiet just in case there were more leaks and to stay calm. We kept our story simple, that we were preparing in case the eastern wolves had something up their sleeve and that we were going to search more thoroughly for signs of our lost people.

There was a knock on my office door.

"Come in," I said.

Tabitha stood in front of my desk. "I want to go, too."

"How do you even know about it?"

"Sean told Jodi."

I had not even known they had gotten back from scouting. "I thought Nicholas and I told everyone to keep their mouths shut," I grumbled.

She crossed her arms. "You know I'm not a traitor, Serge."

"Regardless, you're a normal human, Tabitha," I pointed out.

She frowned. "I don't care. I'm your best shot and I've spent a lot more time in the south than most of you."

"You won't be able to wander around carrying rifles, Tabitha."

"I could carry something."

I frowned. I did not want to flout the law more than I had to, but if she was so determined I decided to allow it. "Fine. Get what you need and be ready by three."

Hopefully I would not come to regret the decision.

I left Dan as acting leader and met my crew at the airstrip, an eclectic bunch designed to cover any purpose we imagined that we might need, from Doctor Fischer and my thrall to the best warriors from all our packs.

We met in Sioux Lookout and loaded up a trio of vans with all the supplies. We had considered flying, but it was impossible considering much of our cargo would only cause difficulty in commercial airports. Instead, we drove the Sioux Lookout Highway and headed to the Trans Canada, then we threaded our way through to Thunder Bay and further south. We stopped only when necessary to gas up the vans and eat. People took turns driving to let the others sleep and we drove through the night.

I took a turn behind the wheel of the vehicle. Tabitha and Brock were sleeping in the back seat, and my thrall was huddled in the corner of the passenger side. I had already asked him for every detail I could imagine and he had been more than forthcoming, but while I kept my gaze on the dark highway, I was struck with another question.

"Derrick, why do you serve the eastern king?"

He flinched at the sound of my voice. "I'm so sorry, but what choice do we have? He's the king of werewolves."

"He's not our king," I said.

"He will be. I don't like what he wants, but sometimes there's no other choice. I'm sorry."

I had already heard his long mournful descriptions of his guilt. He reacted so much differently than Elise under the curse. He did not have her terror, although he had undoubtedly been terrified when I had bitten him.

That meant that Elise's fear had likely been caused by me. I still did not know what I had done exactly to make the curse react like that to her, but Derrick showed very few signs of fear. Perhaps Professor Alexi's hypothesis that it was my emotions when I realized what I had done to her that had caused the difference between her and other thralls.

He was obedient to my commands and the commands of my pack, he seemed to be wracked with near constant guilt, and he could not meet our eyes in much the same way as Elise had not been able to. His avoidance of my gaze seemed to stem more from a deep shame rather than pure terror.

If Elise had been like him, would she have been better off? Was guilt less painful than fear? I was not sure. If only I had never hurt her in the first place.

My own monster of guilt reared up inside me and I pushed it down. She wanted me to forgive myself and besides, I needed my focus. There was no other way for me to get her back and I would keep looking for a way to get her back while there was breath in my lungs.

I would return her to her family and to my side no matter what the cost.

The trip was long and exhausting. Traffic was terrible on parts of the highway during the day on weekends, and there was construction frustratingly often over multiple kilometers. Every time we were delayed my patience retreated further. We did not have much time. Nick and Austin would try to buy time when the messenger came for our response, but they would be able to delay only so long.

When we finally got to Toronto after a full twenty-four hours of travelling, I regretted that we did not have more time to recover ourselves and properly plan our assault on the king.

Lucian had narrowed down which buildings seemed likely, and Tabitha and a couple of fighters had gone to scout the locations. They had returned, bearing the information that he could smell the presence of werewolves.

It was good enough for me. We set ourselves up in a hotel about a ten minute drive away. I took a room to myself.

Lucian did some more digging and managed to find the floor plans of the building, which was exactly why we had brought the human along. It would be better if we could get in without tipping off the easterners.

Everyone met in my room and we went over the plans and tried to think of a strategy.

It was Matthias'ss idea that chilled my blood. "Why don't we catch someone coming out, use your magic on them and then we have them help us get in."

Derrick shuddered at the idea.

"No," I said. I had used the magic quite enough and the power was far too tempting. It felt so good. I wanted to do it, which was enough of a warning that I should not. Had Nicholas felt the same euphoria when he had used his magic on his prisoners? I had not dared ask. I did not want to have to admit to him how one part of me had liked the feeling of power considering what I had done to Elise.

We continued arguing long into the night, until we were as close to satisfied as we were going to get.