Chapter 28
1344 Words
Gwen
I ran barefoot through silver-frosted woods, branches tearing at my gown, moonlight casting long shadows across the snow.
“Wait!” I called out, breathless.
Ahead, two figures danced just beyond reach—one black as night, the other a soft shimmer of red fur. Achilles and Akira. I could see them clearly in this place. Could feel them.
They didn’t speak at first, only turned their heads back to glance at me.
“Please,” I gasped, stumbling as my legs burned. “Don’t leave me again.”
“You’re not ready,” Akira said gently, slowing for a moment.
“I will be! I’m trying—I’m trying!” I cried, arms outstretched.
Achilles’ golden eyes pinned me in place. “You hide, Gwen. You obey. But you haven’t fought. You want us to wait for you, but you’re not strong enough to keep up.”
“No—” I dropped to my knees in the snow, sobbing. “Don’t say that. Please don’t leave me.”
But they were already fading into the white, their shapes dissolving like mist in the moonlight.
I woke with tears streaming down my face.
Cain
Gwen’s expression from the Winter Ball haunted me—empty eyes, a smile forced under threat. It was all I had been able to think about since that night. I tried to pull myself out of my thoughts and focus on the raid.
Cole tapped a few keys, rewinding the footage Jacob had smuggled out of the brothel. “Karl’s men are in deep. Every visit’s logged with encrypted IDs, but we caught at least three of his top enforcers in the lounge. That puts them there while Omegas were being trafficked.”
Cash leaned over, his own monitor glowing. “I traced payouts from a private account under Terrance’s name to at least six shell corporations registered to known brothel locations. He’s not clean.”
Derrick let out a low growl, arms crossed. “Gwen doesn’t know.”
“And she can’t,” I said flatly. “Not yet.”
Cole looked to me. “It’s now or never. We can get the girls out tonight. Jacob’s given us enough of a layout so we're not going in blind.”
Derrick nodded. “I disabled their surveillance feed. Gave it a loop with the last few hours. They’ll never know we were there.”
I glanced at the map of the building, then at the open comm line to Jacob. “Tell him to be ready. We move in fifteen.”
Third Person
The air around The Crimson Den shimmered with frost as three wolves approached through the tree line, their coats cloaked in darkness, their eyes burning gold.
Moving as one, Cain, Cole, and Cash breached the side entrance with a silent snap of lock and hinge.
The guards were killed swiftly and silently. The three men shifted back to their human forms, taking the guards clothes to cover up.
Inside, the scent of fear lingered thick in the air—Omega musk layered over damp stone and too-sweet perfume.
Cole led them through the halls, claws silent on tile, senses heightened.
In the basement, they found them.
Twenty-one Omegas locked in rooms with no light, no bedding, and broken spirit in their eyes.
Cain nudged one girl gently. She flinched but didn’t scream.
Jacob’s voice came through the mindlink. “Main lounge is still occupied. Three Alphas, one Beta—they’re talking about shipment numbers.”
Cash growled. “Record it. Everything.”
“Already on it.”
Cole lifted the door to the first room off its rusting hinges. Cain and Cash followed, ushering each Omega out carefully, slowly, trying to keep the girls silent. The girls knew.
They knew this was a rescue.
Upstairs, Jacob stirred the pot.
“Alpha Black of Crescent Tide,” one of the visiting Alphas said, raising a glass. “Your contacts at Middle Moon have been generous.”
Jacob smiled, disguising the disgust in his gut. “We’re all just trying to make our packs strong.”
He raised his own glass, knowing that every word was being recorded and streamed to Cole’s server.
Outside, Cain watched as Karl’s enforcers—those who hadn’t been caught in the sting—fled into the woods once word got out.
Cole’s drones caught every second.
“Got ‘em,” he said in Cain’s mind
Cain looked back at the girls huddled in blankets behind him.
Justice was coming.
And this time, no one would stop it.
Gwen
The knock on the door wasn’t gentle.
It was a demand.
Karl stepped into the suite without waiting for permission. The cold winter sunlight glinted off the gold insignia on his coat, his expression tight.
“The wedding is happening today,” he announced, like he was ordering an execution.
My breath caught.
Justin stepped out of the bathroom behind me, towel slung around his waist. “Today?”
Karl’s jaw clenched. “This afternoon. Get ready.”
He left without another word.
I turned toward the window, my heart racing. My hands trembled as I gripped the sill. This wasn’t nerves. This was dread. Cold and sinking. Crushing.
Why now? Why today?
The Omegas came in after breakfast to help prepare me. They whispered while pinning my hair and lacing up the gown—quiet murmurs they didn’t think I could hear.
“Did you hear?”
“A raid…”
“Rescued over twenty girls from a brothel—just two territories over.”
“Apprently they're pointing fingers at Alpha Karl, too."
The words twisted around my spine like thorns.
A raid. A brothel. Karl’s name.
And suddenly my rushed wedding made perfect, terrible sense.
They were hiding something. Covering it up with flowers and vows.
I stared at myself in the mirror.
White lace. Pale lips. Pale skin. A corpse in a crown.
I was being buried, not wed.
“Akira,” I whispered in my mind. “Please, please come back. I need you. I can’t do this without you.”
But there was only silence.
Justin
My father was pacing.
We were in his office, the blinds drawn tight, his fists clenched around the back of a leather chair.
“We lost five smugglers last night,” he said. “Gone. Escaped. Or captured.”
I stayed quiet.
Karl turned on me, eyes wild. “Do you understand what that means? If one of them talks—if even one of those girls remembers a face or name—this whole thing burns.”
“And the wedding?”
“We move it up. We control the story. Gwen becomes yours, legally and publicly. The rumors will fade in the face of this alliance. Perception is more powerful than truth.”
I smirked. “She’s nearly broken already.”
“She needs to stay that way,” Karl snapped.
I didn’t mind. I liked her silent. Defeated. Her fire had become an annoyance, and I’d almost snuffed it out completely.
Soon, she’d belong to me in every way that mattered.
Gwen
The music began.
The hall was packed again—Alphas, Betas, politicians from all the major packs. Faces watched behind masks, but they couldn’t hide their eyes.
Judging. Expecting. Celebrating.
I was shaking.
The train of my gown dragged behind me like chains.
My knees felt like they would give with every step, but I kept walking. One foot. Then another.
“Please, Akira. I’m not strong enough on my own.”
No answer.
Justin stood at the altar, smug and waiting, wearing a tuxedo and the kind of smile that made my stomach twist.
Karl was just off to the side, his arms crossed like a satisfied general surveying the battlefield.
My lungs refused to draw air.
Every step toward Justin felt like sinking into a grave.
When I reached him—when his hand reached for mine—I collapsed.
The world spun into black before I could even feel the ground.
- Writer
