“Hierarchy?”
“Yes. You’re our Queen. Our wolves would be antsy, natural order to protect. Same as with Ryker, natural order to obey what he says. You will be a distraction to us. So for the love of the Moon Goddess Reika, listen to your mate,” Tate says.
“Whatever!” I tell him, folding my arms across my chest.
“Did you not see all those cars pull over? You think they did it for a pit stop? No! They pulled over because instinct tells them to protect their Queen! Ryker has marked you. Hierarchy would even make us go against him for you now!” Tate snaps at me.
“Watch yourself Tate! Don’t forget who you are speaking too! She doesn’t understand.” Ryker snaps at him.
“And that’s exactly the problem Ryker! She doesn’t have any idea of the influence she has over our kind! She goes down there, she could get us all killed!” Tate snaps at him and Ryker sighs, frustrated.
“She will be fine! Ace and I will stay with her,” Tyson says, reaching over and gripping my hand, he squeezes it softly. I press my lips in a line before nodding.
“If Lucy is down there, we will find her. If it is safe, we will call for you to come down,” Tate says as we hit the dirt road.
I watch as Ryker’s eyes glaze over, before Tate pulls off the road slightly. The four cars behind us tearing up the side and going ahead of us before Tate moves back to the center of the road following.
“Ace, up! And stay alert!” Ryker says as the brick building comes into view. My heart thumping in my chest, knowing we are so close. So close to freeing them, yet also nervousness seeping into me. What if everything Tim said was a lie, though I doubted it was, but still something felt off. My senses are tingling and on edge.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” I whisper, and Ryker looks at me.
Tate too, looks over his shoulder at me, and gives me a nod.
As we pull up men were jumping out of cars, Aamon also misting here and appearing out of thin air
“Stay here. Once we clear inside you can come in, but you don’t enter the basement till we say,” Ryker says, kissing my head. I give him a nod, Ryker and Tate jumping out of the car.
“Promise to stay with us Reika, you don’t leave our sides,” Ace says yawning.
” Can we at least get out? My back is killing,” I tell Ace and he nods, opening his door just as men start running into the building. A few running around the sides to the back. I lean against the car stretching.
Amanda wandering around sleepily makes me worry about her, even she feels off. Aamon, Ryker’s Demon friend walks over to me, leaning on the car. “Let me guess? You’re here to watch me?” I ask him.
“Maybe I just like your company,” He retorts and Tyson scoffs beside me.
Ryker
The moment we stepped into the building I was on edge, something felt amiss. Everyone glanced around at the building we had been through multiple times, yet it was completely deserted. Nothing, here but yet I felt we were being watched.
Making our way to the basement where the cells are, everyone filed into the room. Tate and Drake walk into the cell next to Reika’s old one, Lucy’s cell. We looked at the bed and it was bolted to the floor, they yanked it, yet no door, the bed didn’t even budge. The tiles on the ground here make it impossible to see any opening. I feel along the edges of the frame tossing the mattress off it, feeling for a lever, anything that might prove Tim was right, that it was a door. Yet I felt nothing. Looking around the cell, the camera in the corner was blinking and I turned to look at the desk.
“Check the security footage for this room,” I tell them and Elias, Tate’s Beta walks over, turning the computer on when suddenly we hear the sounds of locks being opened. Tate jumping out of the way just as the bed lifts from the floor and slides across the ground where he was standing. I look at the camera in the corner.
“They are watching us. They know we are here,” I tell Tate, pointing to the camera above his head.
“Why would they open it?” Elias says, walking over and sticking his head in and looking at the stairs that had now been revealed.
“Because it is a trap. Why else?” Drake says walking around the bed, to the top of the stairs.
“What are you doing?” Tate asks, grabbing his mate’s arm.
“Trap or not, I am not leaving those kids down there!” he says, and Tate lets his arm go nodding.
“Move, I will go first,” I tell him not wanting to risk him dying because he walked down there unknowingly, and Lana would kill me if something happened to him. As soon as I put my foot on the top step, the steps light up, blue lights running down the length of them. Yet I could see no end as I descended down them. Drake behind me, followed by the others. I counted 50 stairs before my feet hit solid ground. A corridor lighting up, lights flickering overhead down a long concrete corridor to a huge steel door. Music was playing, and I could see little caged speakers on the roof, the noise getting louder and almost deafening.
So loud we had to use the mind-links to communicate. “I don’t like this,” Drake says as we all walk toward the steel door. I mindlink one of the warriors still above ground. “Brace that door so it doesn’t swing shut once the last one is headed down,” I tell him.
“Yes Alpha. Already onto it.” He replies. We got to the door just as it swung open toward us. It opened onto some sort of steel balcony and staircase, looking down we could see corridors and corridors of glass cells.