Rob POV

"You can torture me as much as you want!" my mother screamed. "I don't know where their hideout is on purpose. Terry will sell both your brat and your whore! I'm sure many will be willing to stick their cocks in her to see if she can give them such a special offspring!"

Mikkeli sank his claws into her neck; Roseanne screamed but didn't move. I didn't scream or move, yet I felt this overwhelming sadness. 

No matter what she had done, she was my mother. 

She was my mother, and her dead child was more important to her than her two living ones. Because of her, my mate and my child almost died, and till the very end, she showed no remorse. And yet she was my mother... I held sobbing Roseanne in my arms and felt tears running down my face too.

The chaos when we came back was unimaginable. The moment I felt Kyle dying, Mikkeli tried to reach Hannah and failed, and that's when both of us knew that we had been lied to and failed to protect those we had sworn to protect.

Kyle could stay awake for only a few minutes before he went to sleep again. Making sure that his alright, I left him in the care of Gideon and went to the Alpha's study. 

I knock and enter.

Mikkeli glares at me, but I see nothing but despair on his face. My mate and child are safe, and his not.

"Kyle has woken up but sleeps again. Gideon said that since he had woken up, he should be out of danger. Thank you so much," I say, looking at David Nightingale.

Besides him in the room are Gamma, my sister, Dalton, and Hayden, with his arm in a casket and head warriors. Marc is still in the infirmary. When the hunter's unit surrounded them in the forest, he protected Hayden when Gabriel forced Hank into the trunk. He is wounded but will be better.

I sit next to Dalton as Hayden starts talking again:

"I notified the Council, and they are full of remorse. They admitted that Blythe personally asked to be assigned to the Black Moon case, and they thought it was strange that he was so persistent, but they didn't find it suspicious. Instead, they instantly put a bounty on Blythe's head and promised to notify each pack in the world that has happened, so I think everybody will be aware of Hannah's disappearance."

"I notified all my allies, and everybody will be on high alert, but I'm afraid we can do only two things now," says Mikkeli. "Patrick, you are in charge of the team looking into the black markets bidding 24/7 since now. The moment they start bidding on Hannah and our child, I must know. David will help you with that. Dalton, prepare the search teams. Kyle suggested once that they could hide in an abandoned mine or factory, we have checked the closest ones, and we must check every single one of the rest in the state and later in the country. All the warriors must be prepared to leave if necessary in a matter of minutes if we find something. Hayden, you are in charge of the pack till I find Hannah."

Scared, I haven't seen my Alpha so frightened as he is now. The door suddenly opens, and little Rosie enters crying and screaming that she wants Hannah. Mikkeli instantly takes her into his arms and tries to shush her, for now, in vain. 

Celia POV

As I limp after Terry to wherever he takes me, I try to look around as much as possible. It seems we are in some abandoned factory. The building is old and rusty, it stinks with garbage, and I don't know what else. It's cold in here.

 We walk slowly because I limp, and Terry doesn't comment on it. I still shake, but more than on Terry, I'm focusing on Hank. As he has taught me, I focus only on him, and somehow I can feel his heartbeat, pain, and relief because he can feel me too.

"Celia?"

I raise my head, noticing that I stopped walking, Terry looks at me, and for a brief moment, I almost believe he is concerned. But why would he? What does he want from me that he went to all this trouble to get me? I don't answer him and start walking again. There is no point in trying to escape at this point. I can't leave Hannah or my mate, no matter what.

Terry waits for me and later lets me into the room, which probably used to be an office of this factory we are in before. But I think Terry probably lives here now, even though the conditions are pretty spartan. In the corner of the room lies a big Italian mastiff sleeping soundly. Terry points in the direction of the old couch, and we both sit, although I try to scoot away as possibly far from him as I can.

"You look good," he starts, but I interrupt him:

"What do you want from me?"

"I just want my sister back. I want to look after you. I want..."

"You wanted me dead. What changed?" I ask, watching his every move. I don't trust him not to hurt me; I'm still shaking.

"It wasn't like that, Celia. I've never wanted to hurt you, but I failed to protect you, and I am so sorry about that. Celia, I know you are afraid of me, but I won't hurt you ever again."

"Then way then? Why did you let them do that to me that time?" my voice is shaking too, and I wrap my arms around myself. He makes a move as if he wanted to hug me, but I move away from him, so he stops.

"Grandfather was furious, Jordan was furious, and I wasn't strong enough to stop them; I didn't have the position and influence I have now. I was too weak to protect you, and I'm sorry, Celia. I know it doesn't change anything, but I'm sorry. You were just a child, getting pregnant wasn't your fault, but grandfather didn't see it that way."

"Because he wanted both me and my child dead, he never cared for me, he never loved me but you..." my voice breaks, and I feel tears on my face. " You, I trusted, and you left me to die."

He shuts up his eyes, and I see his fists clenched, his knuckles almost white.

"What have you done with Hank?" I ask, and he stands up, furious.

"Why do you care about the fucking rapist after everything he did to you! They are the fucking monsters, and they destroyed our family!" he shouts, which makes me press myself more into the couch. My breath gets shallow; I have no idea what he's going to do now.

But he stops the moment he notices how frightened I'm and scouts next to me; he makes a move as if he wants to touch my face, but that makes me cringe hard, so he stops again.

"I won't hurt you, Celia; you are my sister. I promised mother to look after you," he says in a strangely thoughtful way. Even though I'm scared as hell, I look at him. He seems genuinely sorry, but that doesn't make me any less frightened of him.

"What happened with them?" I ask, realizing that he mentioned mum. "You said you knew what had happened with them. Tell me what happened."

He stands up and moves a little from me, it helps, and I feel a little better.

"I was with them when they died but couldn't force myself to tell you the truth. I couldn't force myself to tell anybody the truth. So I snicked out that day from the house to hang out with my friends, not from the clan, and it was the time when we were forbidden to leave the settlement alone because there were many bands of rogues traveling around, and our parents went to look for me. Dad wasn't happy when they found me in a bar drinking and smoking with the fake I.D. So he made a scene and dragged me out into the streets. And I... I was drunk and angry... and at that time not very obedient," he says but doesn't look at me.

I remember that time. Terry was 15 and in the middle of his rebellious age. He used to argue a lot that time with dad.

"I was shouting that I don't need him to behave as a father since, for sure, he is more interested in hunting and killing wolves than in raising me. I was loud, very loud, even though he told me to keep quiet. Some rogues in their human form heard me. Dad noticed and pulled me by force into the car. But they followed us, and when we were passing an unhabitual area, they attacked us."

I close my eyes; I remember how it worked. Hunters kill the rogues or attack packs. But, especially for rogues, we were more significant danger since they no longer lived under the protection of the pack. So if they heard Terry, they took the chance of attacking the one hunter's family. So it was three enemies fewer for them.

"They pushed our car down the hill, it made a few lapses and... and mum got stuck in it, and we couldn't get her out, and they were coming so, dad... Dad told me to cross the nearby river so they couldn't pick my scent and climb the nearest tree with leaves thick enough to hide. He could've run with me but didn't want to leave mum, so he stayed and gave me as much time as he could to hide. The rogues looked for me too, but they didn't find me. And you know why parents were never found? Because they were eaten. I buried what was left of them!"

At that moment, I cry openly. I knew they were gone, but hearing what happened made it more painful. Terry's face is empty, he has robotically told me all this. I remember what Hank told me about his parents and how he had to listen to them being murdered. Just like Terry, he was sitting there hearing our parents being murdered.

"Celia, you are here because I want to..." but my brother is interrupted by the entrance of Jordan.

"This Blythe is too full of himself," he says, but Terry gives him a stern look.

"We still will have some use of him, and he will know if the Alphas who take part in the auction can be trusted. Blackwood won't be just sitting idly when we will try to sell his mate and child." He says.

"Why do you want to sell Hannah?" I ask, but Jordan gives me a furious look.

"Blackwood took everything from us, making us crawl underground like rats! So it's fair that his bitch will sponsor the restoration of our clan! And you whore..."

"Celia is my personal matter, just like the Beta is my personal matter. I made it possible for us to get the Luna of Black Moon and forced Blythe to help us. I'm in charge, Jordan because you are too old for it anymore," Terry hisses."You will stay away from our cargo, or I make you pay".

Hank POV

My legs are wobbly, and standing isn't easy, yet I try to. I don't want to put too much pressure on my tied arms. The basement I'm in stinks, and yet I don't smell any blood but my own, suggesting that it isn't the regular hunter's hideout but something that had to find quickly to stay unnoticed.

I whimper in pain as one of them pulls the injection out of me. Another dose of silver makes it so difficult for Greyson to heal me. The stab wounds in my stomach aren't fatal; the son of the bitch had wanted to torture me, not kill me, and he knew how to do it.

I'm good at controlling pain; nevertheless, I gave the bastard the satisfaction of screaming, at least not the satisfaction of begging him to stop. I kept asking about Celia; he was angrier and more vicious every time I did it. He knew how to make it as painful as possible.

The hunter who gave me a shot leaves without looking at me, but Gabriel Blythe enters. If I weren't so weak, I would at least try to hurt him, the fucking traitor! However, the way he looks at me is no longer confident; he seems irritated.

"Why did you do it? You were in Council; you were set for life? So why the hell did you do it?" I ask weakly.

"At first, because of the blackmail. Terry Nightingale knew that my brother became the Alpha because he staged his previous Alpha's death with Terry's father's help. Don't look like that, he was a fucking bastard, and he deserved that end. But if anybody found out, my brother would be executed, and my carrier would be over. At first, Terry only wanted me to find a way to get Celia and his family out of your pack quietly. I wasn't expecting her to agree to mate with you. Nightingale was furious. "

I can imagine, but still, it doesn't explain burning all the bridges behind you as Gabriel did.

"After that, I told him I was done, but then it turned out the child your Luna is carrying is one of a kind. Terry's snitch in your pack informed us that her child is immune to the silver."

Rob's mother, of course, had to be the one to stage all of this.

"So imagine how much we will get for selling both her and her kid," Gabriel smirks.

My blood runs cold. What he has just said means that they have Hannah here too? Shit, who else have they taken? Do they also have my kids here? Has Jordan already raped Danny in another room?

"Who else had you got?" I ask, trying not to sound too desperate.

"You, your mate, and Hannah. Terry also wanted your daughter and that orphaned boy, but my people didn't find them. But they left lots of poison in your packhouse, so who knows how many from your pack died there. Still, Nightingale shouldn't be so full of himself, he has only twenty-five people here, and I have ten, so I still can make it work to my advantage."

Hate, pure hate, runs through me, but I know I can't do anything, at least not yet. I am so helpless; the only thing I can do right now is to wait. Waiting for Mikkeli to save us or for the opportunity for me to strike.

Gabriel leaves me, and I try to focus on Celia. I can feel she is frightened, but that's the most I can get from her.

The hours pass, and every part of my body starts aching more since silver started working. I've been through tough things before, but never before I've been a cornered animal without any chance of escaping.

And that's when I feel the fear because I know Celia is coming closer. Soon the door to my prison opens again, and three people enter, including Celia. Part of me feels relief that I can see her, but another part is frightened because I know the predator's look and how the two men look at her.

"Happy now? You can see that your mutt is alive," one of them says, pushing Celia more inside; she doesn't trip because the other grabs her by her elbow. I want to get to my mate to stop them from being so close to her.

The one who holds her pulls her closer to himself and wraps his arm around her waist.

"Since you've fucked with the mutt willingly, I guess you like it hard and in the doggy style," he sneers as Celia tries to push him away from her.

The cold fear settles in my stomach, I know what they will do, and I have no way to stop them.