Taken

Chapter 26

A/N :3

Please read A/N at the bottom!

Chapter 26





"What do you mean you lost it?" I asked silently, feeling the rage inside me steadily grow. Ashen hit me with a wary glance, his face still a little pale as he struggled to heal completely and track down Mallory. The news of her being taken had spread fast after my mental stress call and despite Mary's protesting, Ashen had struggled from his hospital bed to come assist.

Knowing of my tempter, he let out a sigh before dragging his hand down his tired face. "I mean the scent suddenly disappeared. They must have shoved her into a vehicle and drove from there." He admitted, shrugging. Despite his shrug, I could see his worry as well. Just like everyone else in the pack, he had grown to care for his current Luna.

Grinding my teeth together, I looked back down to the map I had spread out across the hood of his car. Various other members of my pack surrounded us; only the strongest fighters and most gifted trackers had come, as told.

"Where did the scent end?" I questioned while keeping my eyes glued to my map.

"Right here," he replied, stabbing his finger at a junction not two miles up the road. I furrowed my brows together in confusion, glancing at him.

"That's not possible. If they had gotten into a car I would have caught them on the road." I remembered speeding after them for easily thirty minutes, going well over one hundred miles per hour. "If they were driving down the road, I would have easily come up on them." I stated.

"Unless..." he trailed off, pointing at the green shaded are next to the road on the map.

"The forest," I growled, the pieces falling together in my head. Before he could reply we all heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. I spun around quickly, tensing up even more as the faces of Zack and Kane came into view; my lovely family. They easily slid from the car, both looking slightly flustered.

"I heard the stress call; what can we do?" Kane spoke first. I glared at him while crossing my arms firmly.

"Since when did you care about Mallory's wellbeing?" I questioned harshly, remembering all the insults he had against her. He merely shrugged, but Zack was the one to answer.

"We figured you'd order us to help anyway," he admitted. I huffed, turning to face them and the rest of my pack fully.

"About two miles down the road, Mallory's scent disappeared," I started, giving everyone the full lay out. "We believe she was put into a vehicle and was taken somewhere deep into the woods. I want one track with two fighters and I want you all searching. Kane, Zack, you're with me and Ashen." I stated, narrowing my eyes in on them. Kane shrugged arrogantly again while Zack held up his hands in surrender. Snarling lowly, I turned back to everyone else. "If anyone picks up her scent, do not attack unless they smell fear. You contact me immediately with your whereabouts, understood?" I barked, feeling a sliver of my true alpha leak through.

With nods from them all, I turned back to the map. Resting my hands on the hood of Ashens' car, I let out a deep breath and attempted to strategize. "Ashen," I called out, making sure he was paying attention.

"Yeah?" he appeared at my elbow, staring down at the map like I was.

"How good are you at tracking imprints into the ground?" I questioned, glancing over at him. I saw Kane and Zack making their way over to me, but I focused my attention on the man I actually trusted.

"They don't call me the best for nothing," he gloated, smiling brightly over at me despite his pale features. I hated doing this to him, making him work when he was obviously still trying to recover. But I needed to get my Mallory back and I had a feeling that, no matter what I said, he wasn't going anywhere. "Why?" he asked me.

I was silent for a moment, feeling my brain work. It was obvious we weren't dealing with a gang of idiotic rouges; I would have found them by now if that was the case. No, whoever was behind Mallory's kidnapping knew what they were doing. That being said, I knew they wouldn't head straight into the forest after shoving her into a vehicle; that would make them too easy to track.

"They didn't immediately turn into the woods," I stated quietly. The sounds of my pack members pairing up and leaving drowned out my voice, making it so that only Ashen was able to hear me. "They continued up the road," I muttered, tracing the simple red line on the map with my finger. I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye, seeming to agree with my statement.

"Makes sense," he breathed out quietly. I sensed Kane and Zack come to a stop behind us and I turned to them.

"Any news on Kyle or Luke?" I questioned them, feeling my hopes sink some as Zack shook his head. Hissing out quietly, I raked a hand through my hair as the pressure of my situation pushed down on me. My Luna had been kidnapped and my Beta, along with his twin, was missing in action. The thought of either Luke or Kyle being somehow involved in Mallory's kidnapping angered and saddened me more than anything.

Sighing quickly, I snatched up the map, folding it back up before tucking it under my arm.

"Alright, let's go."

.......



I stared intently at Luke, searching desperately for a piece of the man I thought I had known. I recognized his face; something inside of my told me that the man in front of me was Luke, but the saying 'stranger danger' also seemed to keep coming to mind. I didn't know this man, not truly. I didn't recognize the evil winking back at me from his dark eyes and the cruel smirk twisting his lips was something I could have never pictured on him.





"Why are you doing this?" I asked harshly. His eyes narrowed irritably but I continued before he could speak. "Damien was a friend to you and-"I never got to finish. I figured out pretty quickly that I had said the wrong words as Luke lunged at me, gripping my neck with one hand and slamming me up against the wall.

"Shut up," he snarled slowly in my face, his lips pulled back and his teeth clenched tightly together. I imagined him wolfing out right there and killing me. I knew I could have probably shifted into my wolf to save myself, but for one, I knew Luke was a hundred times more powerful than me and could easily kill me, even in wolf form. Second, I still wasn't quite sure how to shift. The first time I had been in a fit of pure rage. Throughout this whole ordeal, the only thing I've felt strongly around Luke was fear and betrayal; not enough anger to shift.

I was snapped back into reality as his hand tightened on my throat in warning. "Damien was never my friend!" he snapped while bringing his face closer to mine. I swallowed deeply. "He knew, long before he met you, that I wanted to be Alpha. He was the one who encouraged me to be Alpha! And then, what does he do? He goes and becomes Alpha, placing me in second and making me your babysitter." He spat, molding his body up against mine to keep me hauled up against the wall. My feet were no longer touching the ground and I felt my breath quickly being stolen by his tight grip.

Gasping, I reached out and quickly slapped him, my nails scraping against his face. He let me go with a hiss and I slid to the ground while inhaling sharply. I never understood why people in movies didn't just slap the person strangling them; it seemed to work.

I rubbed gingerly at my neck, wincing as I felt the scratch marks his nails had left behind. He let out a dreadful chuckle from above me before crouching down to my level. Harshly, he grabbed my chin and jerked my eyes to him.

"I don't care about Damien and I don't care about you; the only reason you're still able to use your legs is because I want to wait until I get you into the basement to start the torture. The walls here are too thin; he'll hear you scream." I swallowed harshly again and he smirked at the sound, chucking my chin before rising to his feet. My breathing was hallow and choppy as his words sunk in.

He wasn't going to kill me, but he didn't seem to have any boundaries for anything else. I needed to distract him, get him talking about something else; I had to avoid a trip to the basement as much as possible.

"What part does Tyler have in any of this?" I whispered hoarsely. He hummed quietly in his throat and I looked up hesitantly. Giving me another smirk, he turned and strode back into the kitchen. I watched with apprehension as he hunted down a glass before filling it with water and sipping at it leisurely. Letting out a satisfied sigh, his eyes slid to me.

"Tyler has certainly been an interesting pawn to play with. At first, when I ordered him to bite you, he wasn't fazed at all. He was smart back then; he knew I had something he needed back desperately and he was totally willing to do whatever I said. But then he had to go and get a... a freaking conscience." He sneered, as if the thought of having a little bit of principles disgusted him.

"Why... why did he have to bite me?" I wondered. He chuckled coldly, biting his lip almost sheepishly.

"To tell you the truth, that was just for my own pleasure. I could've easily ticked Damien off any other way, but it was the most convenient way. With Tyler in your head, it was pretty easy to keep tabs on where you were and what you and Damien were talking about behind closed doors. It also caused his pretty little mate quite a bit of turmoil too," he mused, taking another small sip of water while I momentarily choked on my own spit.

Tyler had a mate? I realized quickly that it explained everything. Tyler telling me that he would hurt her if Tyler didn't listen. It made sense now; Luke was the he and Tylers mate was the girl.

"But... why Tyler? Why his mate? What is the significance?" I questioned desperately, trying to piece all of the pieces together. He shrugged calmly.

"I stumbled upon his mate during a run after you had arrived. She was about to die from starvation and so I brought her here so that I could just finish her off; less pain, you know." I gaped at him in horror, not being able to believe that I had thought I knew this man. "But, before I could do anything, this red headed male who was in just as bad condition as her came stumbling through the door, demanding that I release his mate. I knew then and there that they could both be essential to my plan." He shrugged again, as if holding a poor girl as blackmail wasn't despicable.

"Kyle? Kane and Zack? How do they tie in to this horrible scheme you have going?" He snorted at my question, rolling his eyes.

"Kyle was the biggest bumbling idiot I had ever had the misfortune of knowing. Luckily, with so little brain, he was easily turned into a pawn to play. After you had shifted and I had dumped you somewhere random in the forest, me and him went out to 'search' for you, or whatever he believed. Anyways-"

"Wait, you're the one who dragged me into the forest after I shifted?" I gasped. He rolled his eyes at me, taking another sip of his water while leaning against the counter.

"Obviously; anyways, I knocked him out at one point and coated him with some of my blood. By the time he woke up I figured he'd be disoriented enough to give you quite the scare. It seemed to work." He chuckled, shaking his head. He paused for a moment, pursing his lips as he thought. Sighing, his next words quickly had my stomach dropping. "Of course, as he became lucid he started asking to many questions and he knew too much. It was actually pretty easy to kill him, despite his huge form."

He shrugged and I felt a small part of my heart detach and shatter. He had killed his own brother for a still position in a pack?

"You're insane," I whispered, fighting off tears. He simply ignored me.

"As for Kane and Zack, they were both eager to help; such a loving family Damien has, eh?" Smirking at his own joke, he shrugged... once again. "I just used them as a distraction to keep Damien busy."

"What about the deal Zack apparently made with someone?"

"Just thought I'd give Damien something else to think over; I'm not very organized and I worried that, perhaps, I'd do something to give me away. I figured, with an injured Ashen and so many other things going on, he'd never catch on." He grinned at me, pride emanating from him strongly.

"You... you hurt Ashen?" instead of answering me, he placed his cup down and started towards me.

"Not the brightest in the bunch, are you?" he sneered, coming to a stop before me. I cringed back into the wall as he reached for me, but I had nowhere to go. "Now, how do you feel about checking out the basement, eh?"















A/N

Welp... Ya, I'm just going to leave it there.

Anyone else kind of starting to not like Luke anymore? If you're not remembering Ashen, he is the man who stumbled out of the woods seriously hurt on the night that Damien and Mallory had their Trampoline date.

Anyways, only a couple more chapters left :'( I'm gonna miss this book.

Did you guys like it? I almost feel like I'm losing my touch :/

Dedication goes to Thirdimpact who made the amazing new cover for Taken. I hope you guys love it as much as I do XD


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Next update: Aug 10