Shaun’s POV
It had been close to three years since the destruction of Bloodbath pack, and still, the smell of death hadn’t completely left the air. The atmosphere held a lot of darkness, as though every negative thought and feeling that had occurred there had been permanently etched into the very fabric of the pack’s territory. It was no longer a pack, because calling it such would have indicated that people still inhabited it, but based on what we had been told and knew, none had been left alive aside from the slaves that had been taken.
We stepped down from the carriage that brought us, taking in all the ashes and broken, dried-up skeletal corpses lining the earth. Some were too small to have belonged to adults and internally I recoiled from the gruesome sight. Father hadn’t been a good man, but now, I could see the true extent of his wickedness. Many claimed that after the loss of mother he practically lost his mind, going on senseless rampages out of paranoia, but I didn’t think he’d have stooped so low as to murder innocent children. There was no justification for his actions, and maybe his death wasn’t the worst thing to have happened to him. He was never the same after mother died, so death might have been just the escape he had been searching for.
“Where do we start looking?” Seth asked, his breath forming a light mist in the chilly night air.
Stars dotted the night sky above us, beautiful and beckoning, but unfortunately for us, we couldn’t indulge ourselves in staring at it. It was like it merely existed just to tease us about what we couldn’t do.
“Anywhere, and everywhere,” I said, stepping deeper into the land of cold, dead hands. Everywhere I turned, there were remains of a person who had met an unfortunate end in the pack at the hands of my father and his men. Although people often spoke about terrible things that had happened to Bloodbath, I never understood just how bad things had been. Seeing it was an entirely different experience, and one that shook me to my core.
How much pain would Lucy have felt seeing her people go through such pain and suffering? How had she managed to not run insane living with the very man that had been the cause of it all? The more questions I had, the more I was convinced of my total stupidity in treating her badly. She had deserved none of it at all.
We went deeper and deeper, treading through ashes, sand, and dead plants. Eventually, we reached the residential area of the pack, where homes were huddled together, forming a unified collection of buildings. At the center of those smaller homes, sat a building bigger than the rest, and clearly belonging to someone of high status.
We slid past the crevices the houses offered for passage, some of which had been further degraded by years of misuse. Vines and webs sat within many of them, making the territory look like a ghost town. It sent shivers up my flesh, calling forth goosebumps.
We got to the largest building after close to twenty torturous long minutes of walking and pressing forward. We could have used the carriage, but we didn’t want to make our presence too obvious, although I was sure that the sender of that letter was likely already waiting for us.
“This must have been the Alpha’s house,” Seth whispered, voice still carrying with the wind regardless. “It’s more polished than the rest.”
I nodded in agreement, but said nothing. I just wanted to skip to the part where we found Lucy and took her home. She might not have been the type to ask for help, but I knew that she needed us.
“We are not alone, ” said Scott. “I think there’s someone close by.” He leaned his head to one side and looked at the other side of the building. Seconds later he looked back at Seth and I, looking a little irritated. “That’s why this place has been smelling weird since I got here. More than one person is watching us and they are getting close.”
“What do you mean, Scott?” I asked, pushing open the door that had been left bereft of a proper working hinge. This particular building was truly different from the rest. We didn’t check the other homes, not because of a lack of curiosity but because truly, there seemed to be no reason to have done so. These houses were empty and lifeless, and no one wanted to dwell in places that reeked of so much death.
We went deeper into the house, inspecting all that we could, without knowing exactly why. None of us questioned what we were doing, but maybe that was because it was obvious from the onset that this particular house looked so different from the rest that we couldn’t have merely passed it by without at least looking at it.
I picked up a picture frame coated with so much dust that I had to use my hand to clear away all the dust. Once I could finally see the picture, my heart flew into my mouth. I recognised the golden-blonde hair and sea-blue eyes that had pulled me in the very first time I had seen her.
Lucy, years younger, stood between her parents, smiling widely at the camera. A young man not much older than she was stood beside her as well. He shared similar features with her as well, making him clearly her brother. A family that had been torn apart by a crazed Alpha seeking answers where he wasn’t going to find them.
Slow, intentional clapping came from somewhere nearby, getting louder with each passing second. “So nice of you to finally join us, we’ve been expecting you.”
I growled. “Release her now. We’re the ones you want, so let her go.”
“No. Lucy is very fine where she is, remember that you’re here on my terms.”
Scott jumped forward with a hiss just as someone jumped into the cool, quiet moment, aiming to attack. He dodged sharply and grabbed the person by the neck, before slamming the person into the ground with a loud crash.
Seth and I got into fighting mode. This had been expected, but things had been masked so well that we hadn’t been able to sense their presence. Still, it didn’t stop us from getting ready to fight.
More masked men poured out from deep in the house, wielding bows and arrows as they thoroughly surrounded us in seconds.
Seth moved closer to me until our backs were pressed together. “What’s the plan now, Shaun?”
“We fight until we find Lucy, and we aren’t going to give up on that. These men don’t look all that tough.”
“Yes, but something doesn’t feel right at all because none of them look strong enough to take us on-shit!” He dropped to the side, barely escaping the torrent of arrows heading for us.
But I wasn’t as fast, and one embedded itself in my thigh, sending flames of pain through my entire leg. I dropped to a knee instantly, shocked from the level of pain that one arrow could cause, and then it occurred to me.
This was what had happened to Lucy when she had taken that arrow that was meant for me. That was why she had been screaming so much that they had to sedate her.
Two thuds sounded nearby and on turning to see the source, I saw that Seth and Scott were already on the ground, squirming in pain too. They had been shot as well, with the deadly arrows sitting in their flesh.
This hadn’t been the plan. With this new development, how were we going to rescue Lucy?