Beyond Beta's Rejection

Harper

Marcus, Alex and I moved to the other side of the room so we could give Tommy and Louise some sort of privacy. I was trying to listen out for Elias. I was concerned about him going after Damien on his own. The guards here seemed too easy to take down, and I highly doubted that Damien was the one in charge. He may have been an Alpha rank, but he was one of the most snivelling sorry excuses for a werewolf that I had ever seen.

Marcus paced outside the door to keep watch but I could tell that he was full of nervous energy and he kept grumbling to himself. I looked at Alex and nodded towards the couple still huddled on the floor, and then the door. He got my hint, and we joined Marcus outside the room.

“This was way too easy,” I whispered, and they both nodded.

“Yeah, I don’t like it,” Alex said. “I didn’t have much to do with the inner workings when I was younger, but I am certain that they were way more organised than this.”

“You knew about this place?” Marcus asked and Alex shook his head.

“No, I had no idea it was here.” He looked at me. “It was mostly Colton and Damien who dealt with that side of things. I think that I hadn’t earned that trust.” Marcus nodded and then looked down the hallway again. He paced halfway down and then back up. I watched him with a raised eyebrow. He was acting like an animal trapped in a cage.

“What is wrong with you?” I asked, and he looked down the hallway and back up at me.

“I think you are right,” he said, coming closer. “I think there are more here. I can smell the fire.” He inclined his head in thought. “Strange though,” he said.

“What’s strange?” I asked, apart from apparently he could smell fire that the rest of us couldn’t. I was starting to wonder if we needed to get him to a doctor or something.

“Well, there is clearly a fire going here, but I don’t remember seeing any smoke, or any chimneys for that matter.” Marcus looked back down the hallway again. “Maybe I should go check it out.”

“Hold up,” I said. I wasn’t about to let him go looking for some phantom fire, or walk straight into a trap, not by himself anyway.

I popped my head into the room to tell Tommy what the plan was. I knew he would be okay to protect Louise.

“Hey, we think there might be some more people here,” I said. Both Tommy and Louise looked up. Louise nodded as she wiped away some of the tears on her face.

“There is,” she said. “I think there are some girls captive here. I heard crying a few times.”

“Do you know where exactly?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“No, I’m sorry. They pretty much didn’t let me out of this room.” Then a look of disgust crossed her face. “The only person I really saw was Damien.” She turned to Tommy, “Did you know that the bastard actually thought that I was carrying his child, where the hell would he get an idea like that?” Tommy growled and pulled Louise closer.

“Harper,” Marcus whispered. I glanced over and saw he was getting really restless. I nodded and turned back to Tommy and Louise.

“Stay here,” I said, “We won’t be long.” Tommy nodded and pulled a struggling Louise back into his lap.

“I should go and help,” she protested and Tommy shook his head.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “You can stay right here.”

“You aren’t the boss of me,” Louise countered, and I smiled as I turned back down the hallway, leaving the couple to argue. Alex grinned as we headed down behind Marcus.

“I don’t envy him, my sister can be such a handful,” he said. I grinned back. Louise had always been independent, being Luna to a pack, and a new mother, wasn’t going to stop that.

We followed Marcus around the corner and down another hallway. Colton had told me that the underground rooms were kind of a warren of hallways, but they all seemed to lead back to the same point. We rounded another corner and came across some stairs leading up, which must have been the main exit. I looked up the stairs, but all seemed quiet still. Marcus barely glanced at the stairs and headed down another hallway. Alex threw me a concerned look, but I just shook my head and followed him. He finally stopped in front of another door. I looked up at him and he nodded.

“The scent is really strong from here,” he said through a mind link. I still couldn’t smell anything but nodded, anyway. He held up three fingers and counted them down. As he counted on the last one he kicked the door and we all rushed into the room.

The first thing I heard was a lot of screaming. Then I saw someone rush at me. I reacted on instinct and grabbed the guy, and using his own momentum swung him into the wall behind me. I saw Alex easily take down the other man in the room. Once I was sure we didn’t have any other guards to deal with I looked into the room. It was a long room that had several small metal beds, eight from initial count. At the end of the room there was a group of terrified looking girls. They looked like they ranged in age from young teen to early twenties. There was one of them who looked older though. She seemed to stand in front of the girls, like she was protecting them. She still looked scared but had a defiant look on her face.

“Hey,” I said, holding my hands out to show that I wasn’t a threat.

“My name is Harper,” I said, and the woman looked at me, a look of shock crossing her face. Then she looked behind me again. I glanced behind me to see what had her attention and saw Marcus standing stiff in the doorway, the look of shock on his face.

“Marcus, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“Mate,” I heard the woman mutter behind me and my eyes widened. I looked back at her and then at Marcus again. Then I looked at Alex and we both grinned. It was all clicking into place now. The fire scent that only Marcus could smell, and the strange agitated energy that he had been showing.

Marcus seemed to come out of his trance and rushed forward and I stepped out of his way as he scooped the woman into his arms, burying his head into her neck and inhaling deeply. The woman wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as he lifted her from her feet. I grinned at the newly connected mate bond between the two, before looking back at the other more startled girls.

“Hey,” I said to them the woman pulled away from Marcus and growled at me, putting herself between me and the girls. I held up my hands again and looked at Marcus for some help.

“I promised we are here to help,” I said. Marcus took his new mate’s hand, and she flinched but then looked up at him.

“Harper is right, we are the good guys. You are all safe now. Whatever has happened is over,” Marcus said as he slowly pulled her towards him again. The woman looked between him and me. I smiled and nodded, and tried to appear as unthreatening as I could. I saw an edge that she held in her blue eyes begin to drain away and her face relaxed in relief. Tears slipped from her face and she allowed Marcus to take her into his arms again. I stepped forward slowly towards the girls. They all looked over at the woman and she nodded. That seemed to be enough for them as they let Alex and me help them back to the beds.

We helped the ones who needed it find footwear and began herding the five girls out of the door, followed closely by Marcus and his mate. The girls moved mostly in silence with the occasional sob here and there. I felt the buzz of the mind link and opened up to Elias.

“I got Damien, but he was almost on pack territory,” he said, “Can you tell Tommy to send some guards and we will take him straight there.”

“Will do,” I said through the link.

“I felt something from Marcus, like a burst of energy,” Elias said and I grinned.

“I’ll explain when you get back to the house,” I said and closed the link just as Tommy and Louise came around the corner and met us by the stairs. I relayed the message to Tommy who nodded and sent a link to two of his warriors just as we reached the top of the stairs, with Alex taking point this time. We headed out of the building, past a couple of dead guards and towards where we had left the cars. It was going to be tight for space with all the girls but we would make it work. Greg Henderson appeared beside the cars as we reached them and confirmed that they had also found several rooms with both drugs and guns stored in them. Tommy nodded and instructed him to pick a few warriors and keep guard until The Council could take control.

We headed in silence back to the pack house. I saw Elias as we pulled up. He was just walking out of the woods with a pretty messed up looking Damien being dragged behind him. Elias had a satisfied look on his face that made me smile. He nodded to the guards who were holding Damien and headed over towards me. I got out of the car to meet him halfway when he looked behind me; the colour draining from his face. I glanced around to see Marcus helping his new mate out of the car with such a gentle grace. I smiled and turned to explain to Elias. But the look on his face stopped me short. He stared behind me.

“Lily,” he said, disbelief in his voice. I looked around at the woman as she gasped. She was staring straight at Elias with an identical look to his. My eyes widened as I recognised the name Elias had used. The name of his dead sister.