[ Towards the northern cliffs where the land met the ocean ]
Kieran and Vera were headed straight towards the docks...but this part ...was too quiet.
Waves crashed with a violent rhythm somewhere in the distance while a strange frosty chill had settled on the adjacent land.
The stench of rancid and wasted oil...and salt filled Kieran’s nostrils.
Massive cranes loomed like giants overhead, creaking softly in the wind. Most looked like they hadn’t been in use for a long long time.
Rusted shipping containers lined the roads. They almost looked like gigantic tombstones. Why? Because the place seemed dead. Too still !
There was a faint hum of some machinery that echoed through the iron framework of the old gantries, but not a single worker was in sight.
The place did not just look deserted,it looked deliberately abandoned.
"This is it," Vera said softly, crouching low behind a stack of old tires. "This is where they said..." Her voice trailed off as Kieran stood up behind her, eyes scanning the shadows, senses sharpened to the point of pain.
His claws hadn’t fully retracted. "Tell me again," he said, voice low yet like thunder. "What could we find here that’s worth saving your ass?"
Vera didn’t turn around. "Answers! The missing girls...Because think about it...this place isn’t monitored like the rest. No patrols. No guards. Just cargo shipments and mercenaries."
"And this smuggling...are you certain about your sources?" Kieran glared into her back.
" No! I am not going to lie. All I have are rumors. I told you already.That’s all I have at the moment, Alpha."
"Rumors can get you killed,remember that as well...until and unless it turns out to be a solid proof, " he snapped.
Vera kept her posture low.
Kieran took a roundabout way. His steps were heavier but controlled. He still stayed behind her...close enough to kill her if she made one wrong move.
The closer they got to the docking bays, the weirder the air felt.
It wasn’t just the lack of light.
It was the absence of imperfection.The place looked meticulously woven to look irrelevant.
And the sound... there was something...another faint mechanical hiss and something else... metal dragging across metal. A groan.Then...a sharp, muffled scream.
Vera froze. Her eyes widened. She turned slowly, her voice barely a whisper.
They ducked behind a shipping crate stamped with an unfamiliar sigil...black wings over an X.
The air was colder here. The wind blowing from the sea, carried a strange tang. Not just salt.
They rounded the container and stopped.
This was where all the action was. It was abuzz.Very unlike the deserted forefront.
It looked like a loading zone that stretched out towars the ocea , dimly lit by flickering floodlights. A group of men patroled the area. They had no uniforms, no markings, just muscles and weapons.
They caught them unloaded something from a covered truck.
They were not crates.They were cages.
" Fuck!!!What the fuck is this," he growled, his voice no longer restrained.
Vera’s lips parted in horror." Ssshh! Keep your voice low, Alpha! It seems is a full scale market.The rumours weren’t fake...but holy fuck...what the heck..."
"Are those... children?" Kieran’s voice dropped into a deadly hush.
He saw hands. Pale. Clawed. Tiny.
A truck in front of them had just rolled forward, and another was reversed into place.
A large man with a heavy coat and half burned cigar stepped into the shadowy light.
Vera’s whole body went rigid. "That is Vance."
"Positive.Look at the scar that runs down his right eye...They nicknamed him the One eyed monster...quite apt,I can now tell!" Vera let out a strangled scoff.
The man barked an order, and two guards moved to open one of the cages. Something inside snarled.Too loud. Animalistic.
Kieran felt the beast in him rear up in response. It wasn’t Autumn...he could sense that much. But whatever was inside that cage was delicate as well... and it’s life was waning.
"I need to get closer," he muttered.Vera reached out instinctively. "No..wait. That’s suicide."
"And standing here and doing nothing is MURDER," he snapped.
A heavy best of silence followed.
" Alpha! You said we would observe first.."
"That was before I knew they were moving actual fucking kids in cages like livestock! Fuck it...kids????!"
Before she could answer, a second scream rang out. Louder. This time it wasn’t cut off. Nor did it belong to a child. This time it was female.
Because that scream...That one could have been Autumn for all that he knew...
Vera lunged after him, tripping him before he burst forth from the clearing.
" Alpha! Calm down! Think with your brain... you can’t charge in... there... look. There is an opening there. We can take a better look from the other side. Come on. Let’s move this way! "
They did and their eyes fell on...matted hair. Blue lips. A girl was sobbing in silence as one of the guards checked her restraints and marked something on a clipboard.
"Number seventeen," the guard muttered. "Shifter. No mark. Resistance level moderate."
Kieran’s hands balled into fists.He knew he was about to snap. What the fuck was going on under his bloody nose?? Such an organised racket and none of the packs knew?
Then something else caught his attention.
A small device in the guard’s pocket blinked with light.
Vera joined him silently, face pale. "They are tagging them with suppression tech. That is why we can’t scent them properly."
"Where can the manifest be?" Kieran asked, breathing hard through his teeth.
"There should be one close by. But we might need to get closer. You really want to go in there, Alpha?This might be a death trap! " she whispered.
Kieran turned to her, eyes glowing faintly amber.
"No.I don’t want to go in...I want to burn this place to the fucking ground."
" It seems like Vance has eyes everywhere. And I heard worse about his buyers."
Kieran’s nostrils flared. "What kind of buyers?"
Vera hesitated. "The kind who pay in blood."