I awoke in a cold, dark room - the air felt damp and reeked of dust and mold. I was disoriented for several seconds before I finally realized that my son was no longer in my arms, and then the panic set in.
Where was my Owen? Where was I?
My first thought was that Archibald had brought me down to the dungeons, but would he really be stupid enough to hide me within the pack? He was many things, but he wasn't stupid. Dean would be able to track my scent much easier within the pack, and someone might hear me. The fact that my mouth wasn't even duct-taped shut led me to believe that I indeed, was no longer in Dark Root territory. However, the chains around my wrists and ankles along with the walls that surrounded me, were preventing me from even attempting an escape.
Not having even an idea of where I was or where my son could possibly be stirred deeper anxiety within me. My heart began to race as my panic rose – the only thing I could try at this point was mind-linking Dean.
But then again, he hadn't mind-linked me, and surely he'd noticed something was wrong by now...
"Dean! It's Archibald – he's taken me and Owen!" I shrieked frantically, urging my mind-link to go through.
Nothing.
No response, no feeling that I'd even been heard.
Had he drugged me? After all, there had to be some explanation for me blacking out between here and Dark Root. That may also explain why I was unable to mind-link.
So, with no other feasible options, I screamed.
I screamed as loud as I possibly could until my throat burned and my lungs pleaded for air. It was a shrill sound, full of desperation and fear, but I continued to scream, mentally pleading for someone, somewhere to hear me.
In the midst of my display of despair, a nearby noise caught my attention. I quickly became quiet and tuned in to the sound, trying to figure out where it came from and what it was. Suddenly, a stream of light came through the room, followed by a low, familiar chuckle.
"Stupid girl," he spat. "Did you really think anyone could hear you? Anyone but me and your pathetic son upstairs? He hasn't stopped crying this entire time – further proof that his separation from you is vital."
No. No. Absolutely not. I would not allow this vile man to have my son! Tear began to form in my eyes, but I fought hard to hold them back. I had to be strong for Owen. I had to get us both out of here.
"Why are you doing this?" I demanded, my voice hoarse from all the screaming.
"You really aren't very bright, are you girl? I've already told you – you're too weak to raise an Alpha, but my foolish son will never leave you on his own. You see, you've made him soft. You've brought weakness upon him. As his father, I have to correct that, and I have to prevent the same thing from happening to my grandson," Archibald lectured.
I was seething at this point. I could feel the anger boiling in my stomach, and although it was a foreign feeling, it insisted to be released.
"You are the weak one!" I yelled, heat rushing to my face. "No strong Alpha male kidnaps a Luna and threatens her while holding her son hostage, all out of fear that one day he will be a good, kind Alpha!"
Archibald chuckled darkly, shaking his head, "Dark Root wasn't built on kindness, you naïve little girl! That's exactly why I have to take you out of this situation entirely – you'll ruin everything our pack was built on and stands for, and even worse, you'll ruin my son and grandson!"
"Kindness is not weakness!" I quickly yelled back, my anger still fueling my outbursts and managing to keep the fear at bay. "I refuse to let me son grow up thinking otherwise!"
He chuckled again, making me cringe, "Well then, it's a good thing you won't be around to worry about it."
Archibald then turned around and leaned over, pulling a large trunk towards him. It was still fairly dark in the room, making it difficult to see what exactly he was doing, but once he opened the trunk, I heard him digging through some objects that seemed to clink and ding like some sort of metal.
"I actually had high hopes for you, Audrey. You're a pretty girl, I knew you'd produce a satisfactory heir despite your size, and with your upbringing, I'd hoped you'd remain meek and subdued, but once I saw my son begin to change...I knew I had to act quickly," Archibald explained as he continued his rummaging.
Seconds later, he stood up straight, showing off a large knife in each of his hands. He had a twisted grin on his face that made me shiver, and suddenly, all of my fire had diminished, and was quickly replaced with tears.
This was really happening. I was going to die.
I tried to tell myself that as long as Dean and Owen were alive, it'd be okay, I didn't really matter all that much anyways.
But I knew deep down, my sweet baby boy needed me...my mate needed me.
My wolf suddenly began to howl within my mind, begging to break free. Perhaps if we shifted, we could break out of these chains. It was the best shot we had, after all. If we did it quickly, we could catch Archibald before he shifted as well.
I remained quiet, knowing I'd need to put all of my focus and remaining energy into this shift, but didn't want to make my intentions obvious at the same time.
My wolf and I both visualized our shift in detail and pushed all of our energy towards it, yet...nothing happened. We tried again, trying to push through any effects of whatever he'd drugged us with.
That's when I realized my wrists were burning.
Through my anger and adrenaline, I hadn't even noticed that my wrists were blistered and nearly raw. Even in the dim lighting, I could tell that they were bright red, my skin suffering terribly from the metal wrapped around it...
Silver.
I was chained with silver, which was prohibiting me from shifting.
I began to curse in my mind out of frustration – something I never did. Was there really no way out of this? I'd felt weak and helpless many, many times in my life, but this topped them all. There was absolutely nothing I could do to save my son or myself.
I was pathetic.
What kind of mother can't protect their own child? And a Luna at that?
So, I did the only thing I could do in that moment.
I closed my eyes, tears beginning to stream down my cheeks, and prayed for the Moon Goddess to have mercy on me.
Archibald began chuckling wildly again, sensing my change in demeanor, "Foolish, foolish girl! Did you really think I wouldn't cover all my bases? I couldn't risk you shifting and breaking out of here!"
Just then, a loud crash came from upstairs, causing my eyes to snap open. Archibald turned and looked towards the staircase, listening intently, but he didn't seem impressed.
"Children," he muttered under his breath before picking up a hard slab of some sort and beginning to run the blade of one of his knives across it, presumably sharpening it up to make his plans for me go quick and easy.
But I now knew that he wasn't as smart as I'd believed him to be.
Did he really think Owen could cause a noise such as that? The only way that would be possible was if he was in a bassinet that toppled over on its own. He's an infant...he wasn't capable of hardly anything at this stage in his life, much less a noise that loud.
Someone was here. I knew it, yet, Archibald seemed oblivious.
It seemed that he was so overly confident in himself and his plans, that his confidence became his blindspot.
He'd let his guard down.
My heart suddenly felt hopeful again. But if someone was here, why hadn't they already come down here? For a moment, I contemplated screaming for help, but then I realized that If it was Dean here coming to my rescue, he probably had a very specific plan and reason for not immediately busting down here.
So, having faith in the Moon Goddess and my mate, I waited a bit longer, remaining silent and holding onto hope.
"I really am sorry it had to be this way dear," Archibald told me as he set down his sharpening block and began to walk back towards me. His demeanor had changed yet again, and he seemed more like his 'usual' self – creepy, but less maniacal.
"I was truthful in saying that I had high hopes for you, but you disappointed me, Audrey...much like my own mate disappointed me," he added.
I froze.
What...was that supposed to mean?
He held up one of the knives and took another few steps towards me, "This should be relatively quick and painless, dear, but the hard part is finding someone else to frame for it...perhaps that brother of yours will do."
Anger began to bubble up in my stomach again at the thought of him framing Trey for my murder. Surely no one would be that ignorant, after all, Trey was in the dining hall with Dean when I was taken.
But if I'd learned anything by now, it was to not underestimate one of Archibald's schemes.
I wanted to lash out at him, but I forced myself to stay quiet. I needed to buy myself time however I could, and if I argued with him, he may revert to his manic ways and simply lunge forward to slash my throat.
Archibald let out a long sigh, although he didn't truly seem troubled, "Well, I suppose this is goodbye, Audrey. It's a shame that my son loves you so much, but I assure you I will get him through this hard time. It'll all work out according to plan, just as his mother's death did. I'll end your little life and find a very thorough way to blame it on your brother, just as I did with my mate...Dean's mother, but of course it was my own brother I sacrificed for that plan."
My heart nearly stopped beating right then and there.
Did Archibald just confess to killing Dean's mother and framing Casper?
I tensed my muscles to keep my jaw from dropping, but holding back my tears was even more of a challenge. How could he kill his own mate? The mother of his sons?
He didn't even have to elaborate – it was the exact same scenario as mine. Dean's mother was good and kind, just as he'd told me, and Archibald couldn't tolerate her having that influence on their sons because he was twisted and sick in the head. So, he killed her and then blamed his own brother, which was believable since Casper had never found his own mate and was infatuated with Dean's mother. It was the perfect scenario...as was mine.
I find out my long-lost brother is the Alpha of an enemy pack, and Archibald can run with the story from various directions.
Lost in my own thoughts, I almost hadn't realized that Archibald was approaching me once again, his knives in hand.
"You...you killed my mother?!" an angry voice suddenly erupted from the top of the stairs.
Dean.
It was him - he was really here! I was right, he had a plan and was waiting it out this whole time.
Archibald quickly turned around, panic written all over his face. He dropped one of his knives in the process, and a large, brown wolf sprinted down the stairs in a flash, grabbing the knife in its mouth and then turning to snarl at Archibald.
Trey.
Dean and Trey were both here to save me and bring Archibald to justice.
I looked back up towards Dean as he began walking down the stairs toward Archibald while Trey had him cornered. The expression on Dean's face was one of pure hatred, and although it scared me a bit, I knew that Archibald deserved every ounce of anger and disgust that Dean was about to unleash on him.
"Dean, son, you don't understand! All of this is what's best for you, for your son!" Archibald pleaded, desperation now in his voice.
"Oh I understand perfectly," Dean started, venom laced in his voice as his muscles began to tremble from anger. "You killed my mother – your own mate, and then you framed your brother for it. That's murder and treason, both crimes which are punishable by death in this pack."
Archibald made a feeble attempt to crawl towards Dean, now understanding that his life was in imminent danger. Trey pounced forward, pinning Archibald's legs with his massive paws, causing Archibald to shriek.
Even in the dim lighting, I could tell that Dean's eyes had gone pure black. He was moments away from breaking, and I wasn't sure that was something I wanted to witness. Archibald deserved whatever he had coming for him, but I still wasn't someone who could handle watching violence. That, and I desperately wanted to get upstairs to my little boy.
Sensing my fear even through his intense anger, Dean's attention quickly turned to me. His angry eyes softened only slightly as he took in my appearance and then stormed passed Archibald to come to me. He kneeled down to my level and pulled me close to him for a moment before turning his head back in Archibald's direction.
"Where are the keys to the chains?" Dean demanded.
"Son, let's just talk about this, hear me out..." Archibald stuttered, still trying to prove his case despite his current circumstances.
Trey growled wildly and Dean's grip tightened on me, "Tell me where the fucking keys are, now!"
Archibald cowered and then gestured in the direction of a large table that sat across the room. Dean wasted no time jumping up and walking over to the table, quickly grabbing the small bundle of keys before returning to my side. It took him a moment to find the right one, but after only a couple of minutes, he'd freed me from all of the silver chains.
Dean took in the state of my wrists and ankles, terribly raw and sore from the silver, and his eyes filled with rage once again.
"Go get Owen and get out of here. Brenna is outside with the pack warriors. They'll get you back safely – I don't want you to see this," he told me, struggling to keep his voice as calm and steady as he could for my sake. He leaned down and pressed a warm, longing kiss to my lips before helping me to my feet and ushering me towards the stairs.
Once at the bottom of the stairs, I quickly made my way up towards my baby boy, scared to look back, knowing that Dean and Trey were about to fully unleash their rage on Archibald.
As soon as I entered the room above, I spotted Owen across the room on a dusty old couch. I frowned, immediately rushing over to scoop him up in my arms. My body ached terribly from the effects of the silver, but I didn't care. I had to get my son out of here.
I scanned his little body over for any injuries and was immensely relieved to find none. I stared down at his precious little face for a moment before leaning down to press a loving kiss to his forehead, and then I quickly spun around and ran for the front door, just as chaos began to erupt below.
As promised, I was met outside by Brenna and a dozen or so pack warriors. Relief washed over Brenna's features when she saw me, and then she quickly ran towards me, pulling Owen and I into her arms.
I let out a long sigh of relief, followed by streams of tears as Brenna held me to her, and in that moment all I could do was thank the Moon Goddess for answering my prayers.
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE - PLEASE READ:
Yessss the update is here!!! I hope you all enjoyed! Only one more chapter plus the Epilogue for Audrey's story to come to an end, can you believe it?! Some of you may have seen on my profile a couple days ago, I asked whether you all would prefer for me to go ahead and finish up Audrey ASAP since we're almost to the end, OR continue my normal routine of alternating between this update and Zahra's update. Most of you agreed that you'd like me to finish up Audrey, so that's what I'm going to do! After her story is finished, I'll begin updating Luna Skylar, and the updates for that story will be alternated with Zahra's. Another thing - if you aren't following me or at least checking my profile frequently, you may be missing important updates about posting delays and such, so I highly recommend you stay in the loop that way! It's a bit frustrating to see people constantly comment on here "please update. when's the next update? update please," when I've just posted a few days before explaining why there's a delay.
Completely irrelevant side note, are any of you into the enneagram? I've gotten SUPER into it over the past month or so - like constant research, books, podcasts, etc. I'm a Type 6 wing 5. If you know your type, what are you? :) This journey has made me begin predicting the types of my own characters LOL!! So, I think Audrey is a Type 4, and I had a hard time deciding whether or not Dean is a Type 8 or a Type 3... but I'm almost positive he's a Type 8. I haven't thought as deeply on some of my other characters just yet, but I believe Ryder is a Type 1 wing 2, Zahra is probably also a Type 8, Zane is a Type 7 wing 8...that's as far as I've gotten so far lol!!! If you know what I'm talking about, feel free to let me know your thoughts, and if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, feel free to disregard!
xoxo ~V