Chapter 33: Iron Soldier

DIEGO

I sat across from the very heavily pregnant she-wolf, watching her sleep, waiting for her to wake up so I could talk to her, seeing as I was getting nowhere with that bastard in the other room.

My knuckles were raw from punching him, and still nothing. Radio silence from the prick. Speaking of, a noise from the other room informed me that said bastard was awake. I strolled in.

“Good morning, sunshine. How are we today?” I sneered at him. He groaned and tugged on his chains that I had him strapped to the wall in. Kind of barbaric, I knew, but desperate times and all that.

He lifted his head slightly to look at me. “Go to hell, you son of a bitch. When my pack comes, you will pay,” he snarled, a dumbass smirk on his lips.

My fist met his face with a satisfying crunch, and he groaned again.

“Suck a dick, you piece of shit. I know you’re a rogue, so no one will come for you. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy using several methods of getting the information I want out of you.”

His eyes widened when I dragged out the word ~several~ and darted over to my collection of “toys,” let’s leave it at that, which I planned on using to get what I wanted. They widened even more.

I smirked at him, satisfied with his response.

Standing up straight, I strolled over, picked up one of said “toys,” and began twirling it in my hands, walking toward him with a deranged look on my face.

Didn’t get the name Iron Soldier for nothing.

He tugged on the chains again, his eyes wild with panic. “I don’t know anything, man. I’ve told you. Please, please don’t kill me.

“My mate—she’s pregnant. I’m all she has, and I didn’t want to, man, I swear. But this bitch, this crazy bitch, man, she’s packing some serious juice.

“She came to our pack, and she took my wife, and she forced me to do what she told me. I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t stop myself even if I tried. They were just kids, man!

“I’m gonna be a father. I would never hurt kids, but she said—she said she would kill my mate and my child in front of me. So I did it. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Please, please don’t do this.”

I punched him. “Shut up,” I snarled at him and punched him again. He was out cold this time. I cursed and stormed out.

Ignoring the now very awake and very terrified she-wolf trembling on the couch, I stormed outside into the forest, taking out my phone.

I dialed the number of the only person whose voice I wanted to hear at that very moment before I did something stupid.

“Diego! Baby? Are you okay? Where are you?” My heart rate slowed, and my breathing calmed the instant I heard her voice, my angel, my Liv.

“Hey, babe. I’m okay; I’m not hurt. I just wanted to hear your voice, that’s all.” Silence. My heart rate picked up, and panic set in.

A couple of sniffles and then, “Diego, come home, please! I can’t do this alone anymore. Gia is still the same.

“Kol is drinking himself practically to death, and Mom, Diego, my mom is so sick, and I’m worried about you. You’re on this mission alone, and I can’t face losing you too. Diego, please.”

If you listened very carefully, you could have heard the sound of my heart shattering. I sank to my knees and hung my head in shame.

Here I was on a murder mission to avenge my sister, and I’d left my mate alone to deal with everything, not knowing if I was alive or dead, on top of trying to hold my family together while it crumbled to pieces daily.

“I’m sorry, Liv. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I—I’m almost there, Liv. I can feel it.”

She sniffled again. “How much more time do you need?”

I breathed a sigh. “A couple of days, maybe a week, tops, angel. I’m onto to something. I promise you I will be home safe soon.”

“Tell me about your lead. Kol said you had one?”

I glanced back toward the cabin. “I—I have a rogue wolf hostage, and I’m questioning him about what he knows.”

“Why do you think he will answer you if he’s rogue?”

I sighed and gulped down the guilt building in my throat. Before I met her, I’d been ruthless. Neither hostage would have lived the night, but with her, I was different now.

I cared; I was hesitant. I wasn’t angry anymore. “I have his pregnant mate too,” I whispered, closing my eyes tight, waiting for her reaction.

“YOU WHAT? DIEGO JULIAN GRAY, YOU RELEASE THAT POOR WOMAN IMMEDIATELY.”

I winced as she screamed my full name on the phone. “Yeah, but Liv, if I can just get the information out of him, then I—”

“THEN NOTHING, DIEGO. HOW COULD YOU? YOU WILL RELEASE THEM, DIEGO, IMMEDIATELY!”

I flinched at the anger coming from her. I was the angry one; she was the calm one; that’s how it worked. But I nodded, then remembered she couldn’t see me nodding, so I spoke.

“Okay, okay, okay, Liv. I’ll let them go.”

“Please, Diego, tell me you did not hurt that woman?!”

“I never touched her, babe, I promise.”

“Okay, good! I’m going to go check on Gia. I love you Diego, always.”

“I love you too, angel.”

I turned to go back inside when my phone buzzed again—an unknown number. “Hello?”

“Hey, Diego? It’s Ash!”

I sat on the porch and smiled. “Hey, Ash. How’s it going? How’s your pup? Any improvement?”

Last we’d spoken, Ash had mentioned that his son was in the ICU ward of the pack hospital, his body too small to support itself.

“He’s doing much better now. He’s developing nicely. He’ll have to stay in ICU a bit longer, but Marie and I are hopeful he will recover. We’ve chosen a name, actually; that’s why I called you.”

“Oh yeah? What did you guys decide?”

I heard him shuffle like he was nervous. “Ah, well, we decided to call him Gray after you and your family. To thank you all for everything you guys did. We owe everything to you.”

Now it was my turn to shuffle. Before we’d left for home, Mom had rounded up the best healers, and father and I had gotten the best doctors, both human and wolf, to help Marie and the baby.

“I’m honored, Ash. Thank you, and”—I choked back tears—“and I know Gia would be too.”

“How is she?” A question I had asked so many times before.

“She’s the same, Ash. No improvement, but no decline either. It’s like she’s trapped elsewhere and can’t escape. How are things with the pack?”

He laughed. “Blooming! Most of the mated she-wolves are pregnant! After what your sister did, everyone is so grateful to her! We’ve never had so many pregnancies all at once.”

I chuckled softly. “I’m glad for you all, seriously.”

He went silent for a moment before he spoke again. “I’ll never forget it, you know?”

Curiosity drove my response. “Forget what? Ash, what exactly happened over there?”

“You really want to know?”

I nodded then remembered again. “Yeah, Ash. Tell me everything.”

He took a deep breath and started. “Well, when we first got there, it was chaos because some of the rogues we had killed were lurking; guess they weren’t ready to die.

“I tried to calm everyone down, but then when Gray appeared in my arms, I lost it, knowing my mate needed me, and I wasn’t there for her.

“Then she appeared out of nowhere, shining a brilliant white, almost instantly blinding. Everyone was calm. She demanded that the rogues move on into death.

“It was like watching zombies. They all walked through this arch one by one. She came to me first, her eyes full of sorrow. I think she knew, Diego, on some level that she might not make it back.

“She pointed to an arch behind her and told us to walk through it, that everything would be okay. I asked her about my son, could I take him with me.

She just looked at me silently, a single tear rolling down her cheek, and then she took his tiny hand in hers and kissed it, whispering a blessing of some sort.

“She told me to take him with me and to cherish him.”

I wiped the tears from my eyes, scoffing a little bit. That was so Gia. “What did she whisper?”

He took another breath. “‘Before you, all your dreams. Around you, all who love you. Within you, all you need, for you are safe, you are loved, and you are wise. Blessed be.’”

“But that’s not all, Diego. I noticed something. She was following me to the arch.

“She was coming back with us when out of the corner of my eye, I saw this figure, a dark-looking figure, and I noticed our surroundings changing.

“It went from beautiful gardens with a river to a barren wasteland with a fiery sky, and she turned away, Diego. When she saw the figure behind us, she knew who it was.

“Whoever it was, because when she turned to me, she was angry. She pushed me through the arch and closed it.”

I stiffened. I’d only ever heard one place described like that before. “Ash, are you sure that’s what you saw?”

“Positive, Diego. Like I said, I will never forget that as long as I live.”

I glanced back into the cabin, everything clicking into place. “Ash, thank you for that. I need to go. Please pass on my greetings to your family and pack.”

I hung up after he said goodbye and rushed inside. The pregnant she-wolf was nowhere to be seen. I charged into the back room.

She was kneeling in front of him, terrified at the sight of me.

Without saying a word, I tore the chains off the walls and released him. He landed on the floor with a soft thud. “Please don’t hurt us,” she whispered.

“Actually, I need your help. If you are willing to give it. My sister has been taken, and I need your help to find her.

“In exchange, I will offer you a place in my brother-in-law’s pack should you both wish to take it.”

They looked at each other silently, and he nodded before passing out again. “Okay, we will help you. What do you need?”

“I need you to take me to where this crazy lady held you captive.”

The she-wolf just nodded silently, accepting the food and water I was handing her.

I left the room to give them some privacy and looked out into the forest. I knew where Gia was.

She was in limbo.