Traitor
Just a little more, come on. I glanced at the door and strained my ears to catch any footsteps. It's clear. I swiftly yanked my hand and my thumb dislocated with a loud and sickening pop. I cringed and listened again hoping that no one heard the noise.
Jace had left again granting me a short reprieve from the pain and questions. I wasn't sure how long I'd been here, I passed out too infrequently to keep track of the light that filtered in through the window.
I gritted my teeth at the pain from pulling my hand through the less than stylish metal bracelet Jace had so kindly given me. My arm felt limply to my side. It was more than a little bittersweet, it hurt from being held up and holding up my body weight for so long but having it down hurt as well.
I pressed the heel of my hand against the ground to pop my thumb back into place. That hurt like a bitch. I reached up to dislocate my other thumb to repeat the process. When I was finally free from the shackles I struggled to not pass out and reminded myself I had to get out of here. I crawled to the bars of the cage and used them to hoist myself up to my feet. Getting the cage door was the obstacle I'd been thinking on every time Jace left me alone.
They, whomever they are, had solved it for me. They'd fed me once which meant they wanted me alive for the time being, but they fed me chicken. Chicken with the bones in it. It took some time but I'd chewed them down enough that it'd hopefully do the job if I was careful. I spit the bones into my hand. Picking the lock on the cage couldn't be rushed. If I messed up I was screwed.
The door opened. I resisted the urge to celebrate and stumbled out of the cage. It was hard to walk, they'd been injecting me with Wolf's Bane so even breathing hurt. My original plan was to use the window but now I doubted my ability to pull myself out so I'd have to use the door. I knew the door was left unlocked, I never heard the click of a lock when Jace returned from his trips.
I slowly twisted the knob and opened the door. It revealed a set of wood stairs with another door at the top. My brows furrowed. Why would a house be built with doors at the top and bottom of basement steps? I look the door I'd opened and noticed bits of plaster dust that still clung to the metal hinges. They'd added the bottom door in. I shook my head to clear it but instantly regretted it because a wave of dizziness fell over me. I rocked uneasily as I waited for it to pass before climbing the steps.
I cringed when the first step creaked and made sure to test the rest before putting my wait on them. I reached the top and prepared to open the door but froze when I heard voices on the other side.
I couldn't make anything out but it sounded like they were arguing, one was male and the other female. I waited with my heart pounding erratically in my chest. Sweat rolled down my back stringing where it made contact with the cuts Jace have made with a dagger coated in a liquid form of Wolf's Bane. It hurt like a bitch but I liked the idea and hoped to see if made the herb could be mixed with the metal instead of having to recoat the dagger after each use.
I closed my eyes and inhaled hoping to smell anyone other than Jace. I caught only two scents. One was unfamiliar but held the distinctive scentless mark of a Rogue. It belong to the male, it had a masculine edge to it. The other made me eat my hopes about Jace. The female's scent was definitely not a Rogue. Where her scent should have held a missing link it held the scent I'd been surrounded by for the past week. It had Silver Moon's mark.
My old pack has a traitor. My hand tightened around the door knob in anger. The voices started moving closer and a part of me hoped that they would open the door so I could let the female taste the anger I felt. Then the voices faded. They'd walked past the door and left the room. I waited for a full thirty seconds after they left to open the door.
I was assaulted with the extreme use of wood paneling. Every wall was wood paneling but the floor was a faded blue shag carpet that looked like it was nailed down and fitted over the room. I could have been standing in an undecorated living room if not for the rudimentary lab. The sickly-sweet scent of Wolf's Bane burned my nose. I looked for a way out. The obvious way was up the three steps to the foyer and out the front door but that was the way the voices went so I went the other way to a closed door.
I didn't waste time being cautious anymore, I needed to warn Grant and the others. I went as fast as I could, opening the door to reveal a tiled room with cots lining the walls and another door to the outside. I took it and half-ran half-limped towards the trees.
I tried shifting once I reached them but I couldn't. I cursed mentally. The damn Wolf's Bane. The herb affects actual wolves, it's poisonous to us because we are half wolf. It attacks that half of us. Right now it forces me to remain in my human form and keeps me from opening a link.
I heard a commotion from inside the house and took off running again. I crashed through the forest when one thought repeating over and over in my mind. Get to Grant, warn him of the traitor in his pack.
Each step hurt, each time I fell was agony less only to getting back up to run once more. It felt like hours before I came across the smell I knew almost as well as my own.
Tristan.
I pressed forward, more walking than running by this point. I have to warn Grant. I have to warn them all.
I could see him now, him and Trina. I stopped before reaching them. The world waved back and forth preventing me from moving further. Or perhaps I was the one moving.
Tristan reached out with three arms and three hands. His mouth formed a word I couldn't hear over the sound of my blood pumping in my ears but it looked a lot like my name.
"Tristan, there's someone in Silver Moon working with Rogues. Warn Grant that there is a traitor within his pack." I'm not sure how clearly I spoke or how much they understood but as soon as the words left my mouth everything just fell away.
~*~*~*~
Beep. Beep. Beep.
All Grant could hear from the medical room was the steady beep of the machine monitoring the beating of his mate's heart. His hands rested on his knees curled into white-knuckled fists. His very being itched to barge through the door to see his mate. Jason Greyson sat opposite of him ready to stop him the moment he tried to do what he longed to, or maybe help him.
Tristan Morald paced back and forth in front of the door and the two Alphas, on every pass he stopped to glance at the opaque little glass window in the door. He looked half crazed each time and it didn't sit well with Grant. Katrina was his mate, not Tristan's. Grant didn't like the clear to see love between the two but he knew if he said something to his spitfire of a mate she'd rip his head off and sew back onto his ass.
"She'll be fine," Trina Greenfield said softly from the chair she'd curled up in. She was hugging her knees to her chest and rest her head atop them. "She's been through worse."
That didn't sit well with Grant either. Nor did the other two men seem to take it with good graces. She sighed and turned her attention back to the door. They'd all been waiting for hours. They weren't the only ones of course. The rest of the Fire Light visitors sat in the general waiting room with Kate Greyson's blood family and a few others from Silver Moon. Lily Greyson stayed with them to do her best to keep them calm.
"Could you stop pacing," Grant said finally snapping.
Tristan spun on his heel mid-step. "Or what?" he challenged. "You'll have your daddy come fight for you?"
Grant stood with shaking fists. "I can fight you myself in my sleep."
Tristan snorted. "You could barely fight a wet sheet of paper. It amazes me that you can actually call yourself an Alpha." The men each took a step towards the other so they stood mere inches apart.
Jason put his hand on Tristan's shoulder. "Tristan that's enough."
Tristan shook his hand off and growled. "It's his fault that this happened, Jason! Or do you not care about your little sister!"
Trina looked up at those words. She'd said nearly the same words to him this morning. "Stop," she said softly.
They ignored her. "Don't you accuse me of that," Jason growled. "She is my family."
Tristan gave out a harsh laugh. "Yeah, family. You're the same family that forced her to come back here!"
"You can't force Kate to do anything," Jason argued.
Another harsh laugh. "You could. Kate is loyal to a Goddamn fault. She may make threats about leaving but you and I both know she looks up to you like the same way Trina looks up to her. She'd do anything you ask of her. You took advantage of that. You never should have asked her to come here. You knew how much she hated it, hated him." He jabbed a finger at Grant.
Grant growled. "What is it with you and my mate? She belongs to me, not you!"
"You're a fool if you think she belongs to anyone, let alone you," Tristan snapped.
"Stop!" Trina shouted wedging herself between the three men.
"Trina move," Tristan growl preparing to move her himself.
She slapped his hands away. "Stop. Kate would knock your heads together if she could see this." That got them to back off. Trina turned to Jason. "You said you wanted proof. Kate got it."
"What?" Jason asked.
Trina glanced at Tristan before she spoke again. "I didn't really hear most of it but the gist of it was," she turned to look at Grant, "your pack has a traitor."
"And here I thought you were the less judgmental of them," Grant snapped. "But you accuse my pack of housing a traitor?"
"They are not my words," she snapped. "They are the words of your mate. I assume that means something to you."
She look to Jason for conformation. He nodded, "It means everything. Did she say anything else? Does she know who it is?"
She shook her head, "I don't know. It was hard to understand and she..." Trina swallowed the hard lump in her throat, "she sort of just collapsed right after that."
"We should get to work," Tristan said.
Trina looked at him confused. "Work?"
He nodded hard faced. "We won't get to see her for a while so we should find the mutt that turned her over the Rogues in the first place."
"You're talking about one of my pack members," Grant growled.
"Yes," Tristan said. "Your pack member the traitor. You must be so proud."
"Tristan," Jason hissed in clear warning.
Trina shook her head at him. "Jason go tell Lily what you and Tristan will be doing." He studied her a moment before leaving to do as she told. Trina pulled Tristan aside once their Alpha had departed. "Tristan, you need to stop."
He glared. "This morning you were guns blazing and-"
"You talked me down," she cut him off. "You're purposely antagonizing Alpha Adams."
"This is his fault!"
She narrowed her eyes at his interruption. "Fighting him won't help Kate. More importantly it's not a fair fight, you know that."
"An Alpha against a trainer? How is that not fair?"
Trina scowled. "Quit interrupting. It doesn't matter whose fighting but rather the reason they're fighting. Grant Adams would fight because Kate is his mate but you would be fighting because you love her." He kept silent. "I'm done."
"That would give him the upper hand then," Tristan said immediately.
"Why?" she questioned cynically. "Because mate means a love stronger than all the rest?" She snorted. "Don't try to sell me that line because Tyler's already tried and it didn't work. Mate and love, the two aren't even remotely close. The bond, the love you and Kate share far surpasses even the love between Lily and Jason. They could always break their bond with a rejection but the bond you have with Kate there is no power in Heaven, Hell or Earth, there is nothing that could ever hope to break it."
He stood there stunned by the strange creature before him. "When did you become so wise?" he heard himself asked. He'd always thought of Trina as naïve, the world always seemed to astonish her but the girl in front of him was far from naïve.
Trina glanced at the door they'd all kill to go through. "I had a pretty good teacher." She sighed. "Go help Jason track down the person responsible for Kate being taken. I'll stay here and let you know when we can see her."
Tristan dipped his head in a nod and left her and the Silver Moon Alpha to their waiting.