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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

GRACE

I resist looking at the body as we make out way back to the waterfall cliffs of base camp, the other wolf dragged against his will and still knocked unconscious.

I try to gaslight myself into thinking that he deserved it, and whatever happens to the wolf still alive will be worth risking it all to save Leo.

I mean, he was trying to do unspeakable things to me.

But I’m also being held captive by alphas, not unlike the butchered white fox hiding under the palms.

“That’s not the way home?” I say, again slipping up, calling that place home.

“We aren’t going to camp, we’re going to town,” Leo says, and for once, his usually jovial tone leaves no room for argument. I nod, still shaking, the blood on my black dress wavering as I fight back tears and bile.

I’ve seen worse, so why is this shaking me up so bad?

We take much longer than usual to get there, because we’re dragging dead weight and I’m not nearly as fast. By the time the sun is a flat, orange-red disc in the sky, we can barely see the skyline.

But again, Leo doesn’t take the path I think he will.

He takes the smooth path fate lead me away from the first night I was fully awake on the island.

“A tunnel?” I say out loud, overgrown ivy and vegetation disguising the pit as something natural.

We emerge from the darkness to something that is actually worthy of the title of basecamp.

Masked men are everywhere, but there’s only alphas here.

Some are training, boxing sandbags that look ready to pop from one well placed punch.

Others are sharpening flint into arrows and sculpting daggers.

It’s a war camp, and at the center are Raphael and Leo.

To say they’re shocked to see us when they finally spot us approaching wouldn’t do it justice.

If the situation wasn’t so grim, I’d laugh at Raphael’s slacked jawed awe and Nakao’s eyes popping out of his skull.

He probably gets dressed on special occasions exclusively since this man seems more than comfortable having his dick swinging around in front of his men. So whatever is going on, it’s big.

“Don’t ask me why. Just know it was an emergency and I had no choice but to bring Grace along with this traitor.”

Why is Nadège here? I wonder, and fight against a surge of jealously that her pack trusts her enough to show her what is obviously a secret meant for their elite. Besides Aaron, I don’t spot another beta in the gathering crowd.

She rushes up to met, waddling a bit, smiling broadly. We hug, embrace lingering, and she pulls away after kissing my cheeks.

“It’s been too long, Grace,” she says in surprisingly fluid English.

“It has. I hear you’ve been studying,” I joke back in French and she’s cheesing.

“They keep me under constant surveillance. Wherever they go, I go,” she says, tone wistful, and I can’t tell if she hates it, loves it, or feels indifferent. I get the sense it’s a mix of all three. And I understand on a spiritual level one omega captive to another.

“I know the feeling,” I say, and kick myself instantly. One day, I’ll learn to keep my jealously in check. Of course she’s not getting special treatment. If anything, she may be on a tighter leash than me, even if her’s is invisible, and collar non-existent.

“Attention!” a faceless voice shouts, before every alphas snaps up.

Nakoa steps off of the wooden platform, and his pack parts in a wave of deference, heads slightly bowed but none taking a knee.

And it’s not lost on me that Emilio stares straight ahead.

Not cocky or threatening, eyes gleaming with respect.

But still, even Raphael tilts his head to Nakao, and he can bend metal.

It makes me wonder what he can do to stand so tall in his presence?

The hell is going on here.

“A live apex wolf? You took him down, Leo? Took him alive?” he says and my mouth flies open.

“A-A-Apex?” I stammer, and Raphael looks down at me with a look filled with wonder.

“Yes. We haven’t caught one alive. Ever,” he says and Leo’s grin is manic.

“Not me! Our pack princess took him down for me,” Leo declares and I gulp, audibly.

He did try to bite his tongue off before Leo knocked him out

“He speaks French?” Nadège asks in English, and her second alphas, was it Marquis was it?--

“See so,” he says with confidence. It takes me a second to realize he’s trying to say ‘seems so’ in French. At least his heart’s in the right place.

I turn my attention back to this supposedly super strong apex alpha and then my gaze drifts to Nakoa, who is looking right at me. He flicks his wrist ever so slightly, and to my shock, I jerk forward. One step, two steps, three.

What the fuck!? I think, horrfied as he… pulls me towards him!

I stop just out of read, and he wipes his bloody nose. When did my alpha’s nose start bleed. Turning to the man on the ground, he says in an even tone, “Speak.”

He doesn’t move, even when Leo kicks him in the chest and Raphael kicks him in the head. I try to turn away, but again, it’s like a force forces me to watch. And when I look up, once again, Nakoa is watching me.

Telekinesis? Is that his supervillain power? It doesn’t seem that far fetched give the fact most of them have one.

“Speak!” he bellows and my knees buckle, falling into Nadège’s side at the same time she does mine, our opposing heights and weights just enough to offset each other so we don’t fall to the ground.

Oh no, it’s much worse. Pheromone poison, I think, terrified by how sour Nakoa’s pheromones smell.

I’ve heard about it before, and read about it in books, apex alphas who’s peheomones are so powerful they can control other alphas.

And not just the commands they can make an omega follow in the midst of their heat.

They can order around completely sane alphas akin to full-fledged mind control tactics.

This level though, I thought to be a fairytale.

But sure enough, Serge speaks. Most of it sounds like gibberish at first because the ex-bodyguard teeth are cluttering so hard, but then Serge’s pronunciation slowly becomes intelligible to me.

I repeat what he says, and the raucous crowd gets quieter and quieter until I’m sure you can hear a pin drop in the woods.

Most of what Serge reveals doesn’t seem like it means anything, locations to boats and weapons and food and other things that aren’t here.

He references locations in New York, Toronto, Ottawa, Québec Paris, Torreón,Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing, Lagos, Cairo, and Accra.

It’s a mindnumbing list of useless information.

But he keeps repeating a word, a phrase really, that sets everyone on edge.

Blue Fox.

I’m not sure if it’s a code, or a person, but everyone, including my remaining pack mates, seem on the verge of going feral.

Between their combined pheremones and Nakao’s, my nose starts bleeding.

I wipe at it, dizzy and boarding on faint.

I look up and over and frown. Shit! She’s bleeding too, and that can’t be good for a pregnant woman.

Nadège tenses beside me, leaning away from me and into her apex, Emilio’s, arms, who strokes her head. She reaches out, and grabs hold of her loyal beta, Aaron, and slowly the rest of her pack envelopes her.

I want to hold onto something, and someone, and suddenly Rapahel is there, holding my hand, and Leo is resting his head on mine. But it’s not enough. I feel like I’m going to die under the stren of Nakao’s power.

“Who else knows where the Blue Fox’s den is?” Nakoa asks, breathing so hard his chest rumbles.

“No… ahhhhh…” Serge convulses in his bindings, the ropes digging into his flesh as he flops on the ground like a fish. I wonder if his mind is collapsing like a black hole behind his rolling eyes?

“Who is Noah?” Nakoa shouts and a wave of energy pierces me and the crowd. I nearly topple over from the force.

“ No one,” I clarify because the last sound was just a groan, not a name, and Nakoa is going to kill us from the force of his invisble rage. “He said no one else knows where the Blue Fox’s den is.”

Satisfied with this, slowly, the poisons retreats that has so thoroughly seeped into the air, and permeated my flesh.

“Good girl,” Nakao says with a truly manic grin, his eyes wide, dull gray disc, nose bleeding profusely.

He turns to the apex alpha he’s been interrogating and whisper, “I’m done with you.”

I can’t tear my eyes away as he turns his head ever so slightly, and the wolf bashes his skull against the bricks. He lifts his head up, and down, up, and down, up, down, up, down, down, down, down, crack!

“Haah!” I gasp as Serge’s head splits and then he goes limp. Dead.

Nakoa, my alpha who has faked his bond, forced him to kill himself. I look down at my trembling hands. I helped him make that man commit suicide.

Now I know why Nakoa carries virtually no scars out here.

“Pack Bravo and Delta, you’ll take over night patrol. Charlie and Echo? You’ll be in charge of preparing our way to investigate this new signal. Everyone else, get to work stacking weapons, medical equipment, and ancillary supplies. Next month, we taken the northern half of South Shore.”

Leo grins the same unhinged grin and Raphael just… stares at me like he doesn’t know what to do with me anymore.

Nakoa comes closer and closer and then he reaches up and grabs my neck. I say my prays, but then I hear a satifisying snap. But it’s not my bones nor my final release onto death.

He’s releases me from my shock collar.

“My sweet omega. You’re not just a good girl anymore. You are the best thing to ever happen to me, and to us.”

Nakoa waves his hand over the crowd and shouts with enough for to make my ears ring, “She is worthy! With this information, we have all that we need. We will not raid the North or take a section. We will rule from coast to coast!”

The shout is deafening and this time I do reach up to shield my ears as Nakoa grasps my bare neck with his left hand.

I peer up as Raphael hesitantly covers my hands with his own, muffling the crowd further.

Nakoa, still sporting his manic grin, reaches for Leo and wraps his arm around his neck, kissing his head.

“Our pack princess saved Leo, and made that bastard give us the location of Blue Fox!” he adds as they cheer and cheer.

“Rammed this dagger right into the bastards throat!” Leo shouts, and he’s lying because I barely cut his hand before freaking out, but I appreciate him embellishing the truth since it sets the crowd on fire with louder cheers.

“You deserve to be free, no, when without you, we would all still be in chains.!

He looks meaningfully at nadege and then back at me.

“Pack princess.

“Warrior princess!”

Leo smothers me with kisses after he lifts me up, catching me by surprise so I can’t stop him, before running his tongue against the side of my neck.

“My fierce warrior princess. My fated mate.”

Well, I guess I succeeded in winning Leo over to my side.

Is it fun to scheme against him?

I guess

What you could really piss him off by fucking me right now

He has a jealousy problem

You don’t say

You’re into more subtle forms of mind control, huh?

And what gave me away?

Oh maybe how you made an Apex alpha bash his fucking hidden and then pretended like I was on the path to controlling you for weeks .

One of us!

Nadège claps gracefully like she’s witnessing a coronation

“This isn’t a fifth of his power. I’ve seen him make an apex turn his knife against his pack!”

“ Quoi! ” Nadège gasps in disbelief and I can’t even comphermerd

That isn’t a quarter of what he has at his disposal? Did I just hear Leo right?

Nakoa can effectively control another alpha’s mind. An apex!?

I laugh and Nadège squeezes my hand, staring at me with her soulful eyes. And I can tell she feels the same way. No wonder Raphael’s been laughing at me. If this is the case, we’ve never had a deal.

No, it’s worse than that I think, as I follow the river of blood leaking from the dead wolf’s head. I’ve been far more delusional than I could’ve ever imagined.

I swallow back my tears and straighten my shoulders, playing my part as their future pack queen. But a part of me is dying inside.

Because now I know without a shadow of a doubt that I never stood a chance.