Kieran and Vera stuck to the shadows between containers...their steps soundless though Kieran’s breathing was too loud.
Luckily nobody noticed which meant Mango’s masking spell was working just fine.
The deeper they went, the louder the screams grew.
But Kieran didn’t see the girl anymore.All he saw was Autum.He saw her in a cage.Saw her chained.
"She is pregnant, for fuck’s sake...She is pregnant..."
Carrying his children.
And she was fragile with her powers locked up. Mango had warned him that the pregnancy wasn’t going to be easy. He needed to find her...and fast because...she wouldn’t even be able to scream if these... These monster ( had her? No! No! He didn’t want to think...But he did...)
He squeezed his eyes shut.His body locked.His body kept acting on its own.
Vera grabbed his wrist before he could lunge again. "Wait."
He nearly tore her arm off. "Let. Go."
"It is not her!" Vera hissed. "Listen carefully!"
The last scream faded and another came...but this time, it was followed by laughter. Rough.
"Fresh stock," a man’s voice jeered. "This one’s got fire. Vance will break her quick."
Kieran’s claws unsheathed.
Vera’s grip tightened. "If you run in now, you will get her killed." Kieran froze.
" We need to see first." Vera added.
He wanted to rip her throat out.
"Quiet." His voice was a blade.
Then they saw a guard pull out a device from his belt.It was a small, needle tipped rod. It hummed with a sickly blue light.
The girl’s (who was marked as Seventeen) eyes widened. "No.Naii!!NO! Not again! PLEASE..."
The guard jammed it against her throat.
Her scream was inhuman.
Her body convulsed, spine arching, fingers clawing at the air as the device clicked...she collapsed, twitching, her sobs reduced to whimpers.
The guard grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. "Better. Now, let’s see if you learned your lesson."
He snapped his fingers.
Another guard stepped forward, holding a rusted metal box.
"Oh my fucking Moon...what in the...," Vera choked.
The girl’s whimpers turned to screams. "NO! NO, I CAN’T!!!"
"You will," the guard said calmly. "Or we will make you watch as we skin the next one alive and then increase your dose and try once more...you want that?"
Kieran’s vision blurred.
Every single one of those screams made Kieran jump up in attention... because any of them could belong to...Autumn ( whether or not he wanted to think that way). But what if she had fallen into the hands of these butchers...No!!
The girl was shaking, weeping...yet she reached into the box.
The rat screeched.She bit it without an afterthought...ate it... gagged but chewed it through.
Even Kieran’s stomach turned.
Vera’s hand clamped over her mouth as she stopped herself from throwing up!
Then the girl was chained upright to a metal post bolted into the ground...arms spread, neck arched unnaturally.
But now...the girl didn’t struggle anymore.She was paralyzed.
"They have drugged her," Kieran whispered, his voice fraying with disbelief. "Some kind of... nerve inhibitor."
Vera nodded grimly. "Paralytic venom. Vampire derived. Works best when taken from a live hunt. Makes you feel everything... but you can’t move. Can’t scream."
They let her hang there for awhile hitting and tapping several spots... possibly checking for reflex. Found none.
So next, the girl was yanked off the hook and she dropped like discarded meat. Her body spasmed as they injected her with something else ..a thick blue serum. Moments later, she was still motionless but her eyes had shot open.
"Is this what they call frostbind?" Vera mumbled more to herself."It preps the body for extreme cold.The Rogues talked about it. I thought it was their drunken tales...Damn! I was...Fuck! This shit’s real? " She kept shaking her head. "It makes the organs shut down, but not die. Keeps them... fresh."
They lowered her into a coffin like box lined with ice. Metal clamps locked down. A barcode like something was slapped across the side like some fucking shipping label.
"Ready for export," a voice yelled."Next boat should be here in twenty minutes," he called out. "Lot of pressure from the buyers tonight. They want them in the ice boxes before sunrise."
Vera inhaled sharply. "They freeze them... for transport. Some clients like to unbox them ’crispy’."
Kieran leaned back against the crate, knuckles white. " How long have you known about this? "
" Since I had been scavenging in this area with those rogues... But I swear on my dead parents Alpha... I had no idea about this reality until today. I thought it was one of their many bullshits! Those bastards rarely made sense, I swear! "
A moment passed between them that weighed too heavy. And then...
"I am following that shipment." He didn’t look at her when he spoke.
Vera nodded her head. "This will be risky as fuck. But if you are going...I am coming as well," She added quickly.
"No." His answer was instant.
"No!" His voice was a whip crack.
She stepped into the moonlight so he could see her properly. "If this is what I let thrive in the dark...even without knowing...I should at least try to...and if there is any chance...that if..." She was clearly fumbling for words. " If there is even a tiny chance that Autumn is in the hands of monsters like them because I didn’t say something sooner..."
She dropped to her knees.
"Then I deserve worse than death. I don’t want to be forgiven, Alpha. I don’t want redemption. I just want to help get her back. And if I die doing that...then maybe it will mean something."
Just the wind over the water and the soft, distant chug of a ship engine warming up.
Kieran stared at her.
Then reached forward, pressing his fingers against her temple.
The snap of static in her head told her everything.
He had reinstated her access to the Pack mindlink.
"Vera! One wrong move and...," his voice echoed in her mind.