Ivory

TWENTY-EIGHT*

Twenty-Eight:

Kieran

Austin was the one who found her. He told us that her wolf was calling for him and he didn't even think about it twice before taking control of the situation and ordering us what we needed to do in order to get in.

Noel would hold down the patrol guard, Zander and I would hold open the bars while he ran in and got her out safely. Teagan would stand as a monitor in case anymore guards tried to come in and the betas and warrior wolves of each of our packs would be standing ready if we needed back up.

Brettly had decided that he couldn't come and vouched stay back and look after the packs, but I didn't believe him. In my own humble opinion he was probably banging his fake Luna senseless while trying to drown his sorrow in a bottle of rum. Just like he did when my sister ran away the first time.

What we didn't expect were all the other werewolves that were trapped in the cage, none of which being Brooke. There were at least eight and they all looked close to the brink of death.

We had begun walking away, Natalia with her arms around her mate or support before she went rigid. "What about Brooke?" she whispered, her eyes searching frantically across the people in our crowd.

"No one can smell her and I can't reach her through the link," Zander explained, looking like he was on the edge of a panic attack. I knew how he felt. Sure, he probably had a stronger connection to her than I did, but she was my twin, baby sister and I needed her to be safe for me to have any shred of sanity.

Distinctively my gaze swept over the circle of cages and settled on the centre piece. The walls were made of mirrors and the roof was come shape. It was a fair size, taking up most if the sidewalk space.

Suddenly an idea popped into my head. "What's in there?" I asked, nodding towards the building.

"We don't know," one of the were's that we saved answered. "They went in with plates of food and came out with empty plates. I assumed that it was a cafeteria, or something like that."

I studied it a bit more before I noticed a certain part of the mirror closer to the bottom was rattling, but it was getting weaker and weaker every second that I watched it.

My instincts took over as I ran towards it with Zander and Keith close behind me. Without hesitation I kicked the door in, which startled the people who were sitting in front of monitors with sandwiches in their hands. I quickly snapped each of their necks as they advanced towards me with needles in their hands. I didn't care if they were innocent to this, anyone who got in my way had a death wish.

I ran up to the only other door in the room and kicked that open as well. It opened up to a lion’s den looking place. Rocks and sand were everywhere and the walls that were mirrors on the outside were windows inside.

My gaze ran over every square inch of surface area before it landed on a huddled figure close to the window. I ran over to her and my gut jumped to my throat and heart fell to my stomach.

She was covered in blood red splotches, but her arms were worse. Her wrists were basically black, where the silver cuffs were attached, and it was red all the way up to her shoulders.

I wanted to picker her up, but I knew that while she was wearing those cuffs I would be affected as well. I behind me at Zander and he seemed to understand. He disappeared and reappeared a few seconds later with two pairs of gloves and what I would guess were a pair of socks.

He handed me one pair of the gloves and pulled the other one on himself. He knelt down beside her and together we lifted her arms and pulled the socks under the cuffs, creating a layer of fabric between her skin and the silver. It wouldn't stop her from being affected by it, but it would make the red splotches disappear from her skin.

Her brows smoothed out and she relaxed in my lap. I picked her up and cradle her in my arms. We ran out of the building and met Teagan and Austin as well as the other escaped werewolves.

On our way we out, I saw the rogues that I killed. Blood pooled around their bodies, which I knew would never have happened with a broken neck. Steaks were protruding from the centre of each of their hand. Not silver or laced in wolfsbane, just simple wood steaks. Slashes were cut across their backs, making their blood seep through their torn shirts. Not only that, but oozy, posy stuff was dripping down their wounds and mixing with their blood.

But, none of this made sense. A dead werewolf was dead. There was no point in trying to hurt them further. What would staking their hands and cutting their back accomplish?

I couldn’t think about it for long. As a pack we escaped back into the shadows and ran to the front gate if the zoo.

But this felt wrong. It felt... easy. Far too easy. If rogues wanted something they kept it with all they had. They would sacrifice a few of their own if it meant that they would keep what was theirs. I felt uneasy as the gates came into view.

And as though my suspicions were confirmed, a dark figure jumped in front of us onto the pavement. We stopped short and they created a defence barrier between him and Brooke. The laugh that came from the man’s mouth made my grip on my sister tighten. He was getting her, not again.

"Calm down, Trenton," the man's deep voice said, but it made me feel anything but calm. "You can take her with you. You saved her fair and square."

I didn't relax at his words. No one gave up that easily on something that they wanted. No noble warrior would do that unless they had another motive.

He turned around, but stopped to look back at me over his shoulder. "But be warned that when he wants something, he will go to any length to get it."

As he disappeared in stared down at my sweet, in corny little sister. And I couldn't help but wonder; "Why would the Rogue King want her?"