Abducted

~ Chapter 10 ~

Flashback – Two Years Ago

             “Alright everyone, listen up!”  Beta Black said as he walked to the front of the group.  “I know things have changed.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, Alpha Davis had to remain in pack territory.  Reeves, you will be taking command of Group One for the raid!  Whalen, you are stepping in to assist Taylor take out the security system.  All others are staying with their team.”  Murmurs went up through the raiding party at the confirmation that the Alpha was not with them.

             “Silence!”  Gamma Curtis growled.  “Everything else is staying the same.  We have done this before!  You all know your roles.  We stick to the plan no matter what!”

             “Are there any last-minute questions?”  Beta Black asked.  No one said anything.  “Good, I’ll take that to mean everyone is good to go.  Keep in mind that this raid is the closest one we have done to our own pack lands.  We need to be flawless.  Get some rest, we will move out in three hours to get into place.”  Everyone dispersed to their tents.  The raiding party was at a campground again.  It was their standard operating procedure for the raids.  Pick a small campground at random where the owner would be paid off to let them be the only people on the property during their stay there.

             Three hours later, Beta Black sent a mind link to the raiding party,

             “Let’s move!”

             Everyone gathered around the vehicles.  This time only Team Three would ride in the vehicles.  The others would shift here and travel on foot to the target as they were staying closer to it this time.  One by one, they went into the woods and shifted.  Running at about half speed it took them a little over an hour to reach their rendezvous point.  Once there, they stayed in the shadow of the trees.

             About forty-five minutes after Team One and Team Two had arrived, Gamma Curtis sent Beta Black a mind link to let him know Team Three was in position with the getaway vehicles on the far south side of the target pack territory.  Beta Black sent their scouts to the pack perimeter to make sure things were as they should be.

             “Beta, something is up.  Their guards are not where they are supposed to be.  It appears that everyone is gathering at the recreation facility on the West side of the packhouse.”  Warrior Heart reported back.

             “Ross, Becker, report!”  Beta Black commanded.

             “East side of the territory is quiet.  Guards are not here either.  The houses over here are all dark.”  Becker replied.

             “South Side is crawling with guards.  Looks like something went down over here.  The guards are all on edge.”  Ross reported in.

             “All three of you stay where you are.  Heart, I’m coming to you.”  Beta Black said.  He opened up the mind link to the entire raiding party.  “Everyone hold your positions!  Stay silent!”  He said as he stealthily made his way through the forest to Heart’s location.  Once there, he took a few minutes to assess the situation himself.

             “You’re right, something is definitely up here.”  Beta Black whispered quietly to Heart.  “Stay here and keep watching.  I’ll provide further instruction once I have assessed the full situation.”  Heart nodded and shrunk back a little further into the cover of the trees.  He could still see everything clearly.

             Beta Black made his way slowly to where Ross was sent.  There was definitely more action over here.  Beta Black stopped abruptly and sniffed the air.  Rogues!  He calmed his breathing and continued to Ross’ location.  Ross did not even flinch when Black crept up beside him.  A testament to his training.

             “Can you smell them?”  Ross asked through mind link.  Not wanting to risk being heard by the guards.

             “Yes.  How many?”  Beta Black asked.

             “I’ve been unable to count.  They have at least three prisoners.  Several more were killed and are burning in that fire over there.”  Ross pointed to a large fire that was just catching to the North West of the packhouse.

             Beta Black opened a mind link with Gamma Curtis and their Head Warrior Reeves.  “There was a rogue attack here today.  We need to get our pack out of here.  We will not be completing our objective today.  I’m keeping our scouts here.  Get everyone back to the campground!!”  He commanded.

             He re-opened the mind link with warriors Heart, Ross, and Becker.  “You are all to stay where you are and keep watching.  We will not be attacking tonight.  The rogues have seen to that.  The rest of the teams are going back to base to wait for further instructions.”

             Beta Black and the warriors watched from the shadows of the forest for the rest of the night.  Everything slowly became quiet as the fire burning the dead rogues burned down.  All of the pack members were still in the recreation facility.  At dawn, just as the sun was starting to come over the horizon warrior Heart broke the silence over their mind link.

             “Beta, warriors are coming out of the recreation facility now.  It looks like they are starting to sweep pack lands.”

             “Everyone, maintain your positions!  Remain completely still.  They haven’t discovered us watching them and it needs to stay that way.  The lingering smell of the rogues from the attack yesterday should mask our smell still.”  Beta Black replied.

             Another 2 hours went by as each home and building was cleared by their warriors.  Then, pack members slowly started to emerge from the recreation building two families at a time and were escorted to their homes.  By noon, things appeared to be back to business as usual with pack activity.

             Previous scout missions for the Crescent Moon pack provided information that the evening meal was always attended by all pack members at the pack house.  Then families would take their infants and toddlers to the pack nursery for the night before heading back to their homes.  All of the infants and toddlers were kept watch over by the pack nannies over night.  This allowed their parents to get a peaceful and restful sleep for the upcoming day ahead.

             Beta Black was pleased to see that this is exactly what was happening again today.  Pack members were starting to go to the packhouse for the evening meal.  He opened up a mind link with Gamma Curtis.

             “Things are going smoothly at Crescent Moon today.  All activities appear to have returned to normal again.  We will strike tonight.  They won’t be expecting another attack so soon.”

             “Yes Beta!  I will make sure our warriors rest this afternoon so that they are fresh for the raid tonight.  I will wait for your command to move out.”  Gamma Curtis answered immediately.

             Back at the campground, Gamma Curtis was speaking with the owner and trying to explain that they needed the campground longer than originally planned.  The owner refused to continue keeping the campground closed to other people as it was a Friday night and a long weekend, and he was fully booked for people to start arriving mid-afternoon.  No amount of money was going to convince him to stay closed.  Gamma Curtis notified Beta Black about the next hurdle they would have to overcome.

             “Beta, I approached the owner of the campground to secure our private use of it for an extra day.  He is refusing to allow it and says we have to be gone by this afternoon as he is fully booked for the long weekend.  How would you like me to proceed?”  Gamma Curtis asked.

             “Have Taylor and Whalen hack into his system and cancel all of the reservations.  Send out communications to all of the people booked in.  Make sure they re-direct his phone lines and email to handle all of the complaints so that they don’t go to the owner.  We can’t have other people there.”  Beta Black commanded.

             “What about the people who may already be on their way here?  We might not catch them all in time.”  Gamma Curtis asked.

             “The main entrance is hidden from the office with the long driveway.  Have two of our people block the entrance.  Chain it closed.  Make up a reason why they can’t be there.  Make it something credible like bacteria in the water, or a pack of wolves is nearby.”  Beta Black replied before cutting off the mind link.

             Gamma Curtis sent two warriors up to the fence with instructions to barricade the entrance and got Taylor and Whalen working on the tech side.  It was not long before angry emails and phone calls started to come through.  He also stationed a warrior in the woods not far from the entrance in wolf form with instructions to howl if the warriors at the gate had any pushback from people arriving.

             The rest of the afternoon and early evening passed by relatively uneventful.  The raiding party was starting to get amped up for their mission.  Eager to complete it and start heading home.  At 9:30pm, Beta Black sent a mind link to the raiding party.

             “Everyone move out!  We are completing this tonight!”  He ordered.  The raiding party quickly got with their teams and headed back toward Crescent Moon.  Beta Black ordered his scouts to maintain their position as he went to where the raiding party was to arrive, and he waited for them there.  The hour went by quickly.

             “Alright, everyone listen up!”  Beta Black got their attention through a mind link.  “Yesterday afternoon, Crescent Moon was attacked by rogues which caused us to not be able to complete our mission.  Things here today seem to have returned to normal based on what has been observed.  We are hitting them tonight.  They are still going to be on edge after the attack so you must remain hyper-aware of your surroundings and everything that is happening.  We cannot afford another setback.”  Beta Black informed the teams.  “Everyone be ready.  We move on my signal.  Go to your locations!”  Beta Black commanded.

             The raiding party all stayed hidden in the trees as the pack members slowly left the packhouse to return to their homes for the night.  They watched as the guards did a perimeter sweep, but they were doing it earlier than their schedule called for.  Gamma Curtis opened a mind link with Beta Black.

             “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?  They are not following their usual schedule.  Probably because of the attack.”

             “I see it.  We will watch longer to get the timing of the patrols before we move.  Keep an eye out.  We are raiding tonight no matter what.”  Beta Black replied.  They continued to watch for another two hours and had the timing of the patrols figured out.  Beta Black opened a link with the raiding party.

             “Ok, we’ve all seen their new patrol routes and have the timing figured out.  Team 1, be ready to move on my signal.  Make the diversion count!”  Beta Black commanded.  He waited another five minutes before giving the signal.  Reeves launched into action with Team 1.  All of them in their wolf forms to make the patrol guards shift.  Once they were occupied, Beta Black gave the signal for Whalen and Taylor to take out the security system.  Their first step was to disable the raid siren that was installed this afternoon to alert the pack to an attack.  Once that was done, they moved on to the other security equipment.

             It took longer than planned for Team 2 to get into the packhouse.  Once inside, they were met with an unfamiliar layout.  There had clearly been renovations completed recently that they were not aware of.  This would make it more difficult to locate the nursery.  Beta Black ducked just before a large log whizzed past his head from across the room.  The Luna was standing in the doorway and had clearly just thrown the log.  If the Luna was fighting, that meant the Alpha was not in the house.  He must be outside fighting with the guards.

“Seize her!”  Beta Black commanded.  Taylor, Weber grabbed her quickly and Heart held a cloth with chloroform over her mouth to knock her out.

             “What do we do with her now?”  Weber asked.

             “We keep her with us.  We can use her as a bargaining chip if we need to.”  Beta Black replied.

             “We should have made her tell us where the nursery is before we knocked her out.”  Taylor stated.

             “You think she would tell us that information?  She’s the Luna!  No, she will serve us better as a hostage.  We will find the nursery.  Let’s go.”  Beta Black was clearly annoyed that Taylor thought she would give up the location of the children.  He stuck his nose up in the air and partially shifted to allow his wolf nose to take over.

             His eyes flashed when he caught the scent he was looking for.  Diapers.  “This way!”  He commanded.  Team 2 followed him through the packhouse to what looked like a dead-end hallway.  “There!”  Beta Black pointed.

             “Sir, that’s a wall.”  Taylor stated.

             “Taylor, do not argue with me.  That is the entrance to the nursery.”  Beta Black snarled.

             “How do we get in then?”  Taylor asked.

             “Go push on the wall, see what happens.”  Beta Black suggested.

             Heart quickly went to the wall and pushed on it.  It moved easily on the left side, exposing the entryway to the nursery.  The door slammed shut and they could hear something being rammed up against it from the inside.

             “Get into that room, NOW!”  Beta Black roared through a mind link.  Team 2 pushed against the door together and were able to get into the room relatively easily.  Once inside, they had to deal with more warriors, who were not supposed to be there.  All of these issues were slowing them down.  They needed to get out as fast as possible.

             With the warriors taken care of, the nannies were next.  The fastest way to deal with them was chloroform, so that is what they did.  According to the pack roster that Ice Moon had, there were supposed to be more that thirty babies and toddlers in the nursery to choose from, but there was only ten.

             “Grab them all!”  Beta Black commanded.  “Then let’s get out of here!”

             “Beta, there seems to be a hidden tunnel in the closet that leads down.  It could be an escape route that will get us out of here!”  Whalen reported.  “It is not on any of the blueprints that we have, so I can’t be sure.  But if it is an escape route, they would want to keep it quiet, and it would take time for their warriors to get to the other end of it.  They’d have to know we took it first.”  He continued.

             Beta Black debated it for about 30 seconds.  “Alright, Ross, Whalen and Taylor you are staying with me.  We will be leaving through the front door where we came in.  The rest of you, take the children and the Luna through the tunnel and get to the vehicles!  Move, now!”  He commanded.

             Everyone immediately started to move.  Once the team was all in the tunnel, Beta Black closed the door and turned to the three warriors he selected.  “Ok, now let’s get out of here.  We might die on our way out.  Try not to.  If you are injured and can’t make it out, make sure you take your pill before they question you.”  And with that, Beta Black went charging out the door into the hallway just as more warriors were arriving.

             They were not expecting to see him, which gave him a small edge.  They were all in human form.  Beta Black shifted as he started running down the hallway followed by his warriors who did the same.  They trampled the shocked warriors on their way past and bolted out the front door of the packhouse.  Once outside, it was chaos everywhere.  Pack members were running around screaming.  There did not seem to be anyone in charge.  They used this to their advantage and bolted into the forest as fast as they could.  Once there they kept running.

             “Sir, what would you like us to do?  I have Team 2, the children and the Luna all loaded into the vehicles.  Are we waiting for you?”  Gamma Curtis asked through a mind link.

             “If you have them all secure, get out of here!  Make sure the Luna is in a separate vehicle from everyone else and she goes in the opposite direction.  Pump her full of wolfsbane and whoever is driving her wears a mask so she can’t identify them later.  We will meet you back at the campground!”  Beta Black replied and closed the link.  He kept running and howled as he went to signal Team 1 to leave as well.

* * * * *

Three weeks later

             “We got the ten children as the mission called for, but this time we lost five warriors!  That is unacceptable!  We now have five more families without a father.  We need to do better.  We cannot lose pack members!  I know there were extenuating circumstances with this raid, but casualties on our side are never going to be accepted.  And a Luna was kidnapped!  What where you thinking?  You could have easily left here there, unconscious!  You are lucky that she was found alive where you left her.  Had she not been this would have been even worse!  You are all dismissed!”  Alpha Davis finished lecturing the raiding party three weeks after their return to pack territory.  This raid did not go well at all.