Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

22. Road trippin' 🌶️🌶️

RILEY

The next 15 hours were pretty intense for everyone. They found Amy as she attempted to flee when she realised just how badly she had screwed up. It turned out that she had stupidly played right into the hands of the kidnappers, who had approached her weeks before they took Natalia. In fact, she was the one who had also given them information on Natalia's usual running routes, leading to her injury with the trap.

Her confession was not easy to extract but from what I understood, seeing as I was not allowed to join, Rafe had used a fair amount of Alpha coercion and commanding to get her to talk.

The depths of Amy's desperation had become clear once she had revealed that the reason she helped those guys kidnap Natalia was because they had promised her to eliminate the old Alpha Macalister and to provide her with a mating potion for Rafe, enabling her to finally achieve her dream of becoming Luna.

Luckily, neither her, nor the kidnappers were smart enough during their meet-ups because their rendez-vous took place in crowded places with plenty of cameras around, which allowed us to obtain the license plate of the kidnappers. It was just a matter of a phone call for my contacts in London to get me the information that I needed with the plate's details. Unfortunately, the van was a rental, taken out by a Jaden Jones, a fake name. Nevertheless, using the description I had provided them with, as well as the databases of known aliases, my contacts were able to narrow down the location of one of the guys to an area in Buckinghamshire, just north-east of London. We then provided them with a description of the mansion where Rafe had been held years earlier and left them to pinpoint the exact place where Natalia was held. Either way, we had a long drive down to London, so they could work further on that as we made our way.

"I am not going to try to stop you, sis, as I know that you are stubborn just like mother and that there is no convincing you otherwise once you have set your mind on something!" Lucien said as he hugged me goodbye.

"You are right, Luc. I have to do this!"

"I know. Just be careful, will you. And watch out with those three, Aurelie- I am not sure which one I trust less around you!" he said as he tilted his head to where Callum, Aiden and Rafe were standing.

"I'm a big girl, Lucien. I can handle three cocky boys." I smiled as we let go.

"You are amazing, Riley! Please take care of yourself and come back in one piece- this little one is already excited to meet his aunty." Anna rubbed her growing belly as she embraced me as well.

"I will. Can't wait to meet him or her either. We should be back in 2-3 days anyway, so you will barely realise that I am gone. Plus, I can't be away for too long or Mr. Beta here will ruin all of the pack's warriors with his terrible discipline." I nudged Connor, making him laugh.

"It's called motivation, Riley- I still have so much to teach you." He gave me a kiss on the cheek and a wink. "Don't do anything too wild with those three. Or just don't do anything I wouldn't do......which, let's be honest, leaves you with a hell of a lot of things to try."

"Shut the fuck up, Connor!" Lucien interjected and I burst out laughing. I hadn't realised it until now but I had grown attached to this place over the past few weeks, and the thought of leaving it behind, even for a short while, was making me miss it already.

I grabbed my bag and started walking towards my travel companions for the next couple of days. Aiden met me half the way and grabbed my bag, much to Callum's displeasure while Rafe rolled his eyes.

"So, how did you get Cyrus to agree to you coming along?" I asked, knowing how uninterested Aiden's Alpha had been in involving his clan in anything that did not affect them directly.