“Come inside,” the man said and turned to walk into the house. The crowd stood aside to let Katya and her mother follow him. Emma followed right behind them.
“Where have you been?” the man asked Katya who was shaking like a leaf. Tears were cascading down her cheeks.
“Calm down, Lucius.” The mother said. “She looks very scared.”
“Let her go with her mother,” Emma told the man. “I’ll tell you everything.”
“And who the hell are you?” he asked.
“Emma Greenfield,” Emma said. “Can we talk in a more private place? This girl has been through a lot. She needs to shower and get some rest.”
The man glared at Emma for a while, before turning to Katya’s mother. “Take her away,” he said. “You, come with me.”
Emma followed him. They went through a long hallway. At the end of it was a door which he opened. Inside was a study. There was a shelf with a number of books, a couch and some chairs.
“Sit,” he said.
Emma went and sat on the couch.
“Now tell me everything.”
“Are you the alpha?” Emma asked.
The man tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. He was probably surprised at her audacity. He sighed and sat on a wooden chair. “I am. My name is Lucius Bradford. Katya is my only sister.”
“Oh,” Emma said, staring at him. She had not noticed the subtle resemblance between him and Katya. He had the same ocean blue eyes and thin lips. Emma stared at the lips way too long, imagining how they would feel during kissing. She shook her head to get rid of the lustful thoughts. She had just parted with Ken, for goodness’ sake.
“What is wrong with you?”
Emma smiled nervously. “Nothing. Honestly, I was a bit mesmerized by your looks.”
The man stood up and started to move towards her but he bit his lips before sitting back down.
“I’m sorry for the inappropriate remarks. I’ll tell you what happened. Four days ago, Katya left the pack. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be moving out alone because of the ongoing war between vampires and werewolves in the region. Since she wasn’t going very far, she decided not to bother anyone. Her cousin Marianne was feeling so much pain and needed some herbs. The healer was not around so Katya decided to go and get them, despite Marianne insisting that it would be okay. A few meters away from here, she met two vampires that were prowling around the woods. They captured and kept her for four days.”
“And where do you come in?” he asked, his expression still blank. Emma wondered if he believed her at all.
“I’m a rogue, have always been. But two weeks ago, alpha Axel of Venom pack killed my boyfriend and kidnapped us. He turned us into slaves in his pack. I was able to escape on the night of the full moon. Since I didn’t have anything, I decided to go down south. I have friends there who might be able to help me. I was on my way when I came across Katya and the vampires. She was tied to a tree. Her clothes were wet. I couldn’t leave her so I attacked. Katya and I were able to defeat the vampires and she led me hear. That’s why I’m here.”
“Is it really true?”
Emma nodded.
“What did they do to her?”
“She made me promise not to tell you everything,” Emma said, her eyes getting wet. “All I can say is her life will never be the same again. Poor girl. I hope that she’ll get all the support she needs.”
“Did they…?”
Emma was silent.
“I take it that means a yes,” he said.
“Were you able to kill them?”
“Katya killed the young one who molested her,” Emma said. “We knocked down the older one but we were in a hurry. We forgot to finish him off at the end.”
Lucius stood up and went to stand by the window. He pulled the curtains aside and looked out, lost in thought. Emma looked around the room, wondering what was in the man’s mind. Would he go after the vampires if he knew them?
After some time, Lucius came back and sat down.
“I guess I owe you a lot, don’t i?” he said. “If it wasn’t for you, our Katya would never have returned. The vampires have got more reckless lately. There have been a number of kidnappings and most times the victims are found dead. We wondered if she had run away because we didn’t want to think of the possibility that she had been taken by them. We didn’t dare to think she might be dead. We tried searching for a while but it never yielded any results. You don’t how glad I am that she’s back. Thank you so much, Miss Greenfield.”
“Call me Emma,” she said.
Luscious nodded. “I will give you guards to take you to the pack you’re heading to. I will make sure you get there safely. Is there anything else I can do for you, Emma?”
“Actually, there’s something I want more than to reach west crescent pack. When my boyfriend was killed, I insisted we wait longer before burying him. My friends wanted to leave immediately but they stayed for my sake. That’s how we ended up getting caught. I was able to escape but I left all of them at venom pack. If you could help me defeat Axel white and release them, it would be great.”
Luscious narrowed his eyes. “You have done us a great favor, Emma but I think you’re asking for too much there. I really appreciate your help but you know that Axel is stronger than us. Besides, he is far off. We’ll never be able to defeat him.”
“You have to help me,” Emma insisted. “I will never be happy as long as my friends are stuck there.”
“No.”
“Okay, we can get reinforcement from West Crescent pack. Their alpha’s twins owe me a favor.”
“I don’t think we want to get involved in this.”
“Please think about it,” Emma said. “I’ll wait for two days.”
The man sighed. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I may not do it.”