Chapter 98

Chapter 98: Theo I met up with a few warriors on the way to my office. We had to approach quietly and get ears on what was happening inside.

Mina had told me he was looking for some files but wouldn’t say about what. He was convinced they were in the safe. I didn’t know what he could be looking for, but it didn’t matter. Briggs had to come up with a code that would work or risk harm to Mina.

I mind-linked her to the code, and she managed to get it to Briggs unnoticed. Now, he just had to convince Randall that he figured it out. I took a position outside my office door. There was only one other way out of my office through a window and down a fire escape. I had men watching it in case Randall tried to get out that way. Now, we could just wait for Mina to give us an opportunity.

Like most of the rooms in the packhouse, the office was soundproof. So I couldn’t hear anything that was going on inside. That is, until someone started yelling inside. I couldn’t make out who it was, and I was about to rush in when Mina reached out.

‘Whatever he’s looking for, it’s not here,’ she told me.

She was getting scared. I could feel it through our tether. I couldn’t blame her. Randall had to have been desperate from the start for him to come at the packhouse directly like this. Now that he was coming up empty-handed, he’d be even more volatile.

“Tell them to check the lake house,’ I replied.

‘What?’

‘He’ll never make it there,’ I assured her. ‘But we need to give him Chapter 9: Thu something to get him out of there.’

She must have done it because she said he was coming out a few minutes later. At least, they thought he was coming out. Five long minutes passed and the door still hadn’t budged. Mina didn’t know what he was waiting on, and I started to worry he had figured out we were there.

Our concerns were answered by the sound of an explosion echoing through the packhouse.

Randall was good at setting fires. That must have been the incendiary device we thought he might have planted. I mind-linked the men who were checking the building. Two were in the area of the explosion but were okay. However, flames were quickly starting to move through the lower level. I told Jimmy we were fine and to worry about getting the fire out.

As far as we knew, Randall didn’t know we had already evacuated the building. So he waited a few more minutes for the chaos he would have expected to give him better cover on his way out. The doorknob finally turned.

The door cracked open. There was a pause and I prayed he didn’t catch my scent.

Suddenly, there was a loud grunt, the sound of an impact, and Briggs yelling for us to move in.

I spun around the corner, kicking the door open to find Randall struggling on the floor with a bl**dy nose. Briggs had Mina in his arms on the other side of the room.

“Hey, there, Randall,” I said. Randall yelled as I put my knee in his back, dragging his arms behind him. One of the others handed me a set of silver handcuffs. “You remember me, don’t you? Of course you do.”

Chapter 8: Theo 298 WOLO I grabbed him by the back of the neck, my claws digging into his flesh.

“We’ve been looking for you,” I said, a low growl catching my attention.

I turned to see Briggs stalking toward us. His eyes glowing a bright orange as his wolf came to the surface. His canines and claws extended. I didn’t stop him. In fact, I stepped aside, letting him lift the bas**rd by the throat and slam him hard against the wall. I watched Randall’s face turn red, then a sickly shade of blue.

I would have let Briggs rip him apart then and there under any other circumstances. But Randall wasn’t only guilty of holding Mina. There was something big going on and we needed answers.

“Briggs,” I warned. “Later. We need to question him first.”

Randall lost consciousness and Briggs dropped him like stone. Standing over him, he got himself under control before returning to Mina.

“You both okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Mina said.

“What do you want us to do with him, Alpha?” one of my men asked.

“Find out what’s going on with the fire downstairs, then get him out of here,” I said. “Take him to the precinct and lock him up for now.”

They half-carried/half-dragged Randall out of the room. I went to the office window to look at what was happening outside. I could see smoke coming from the packhouse somewhere, but the lawn seemed to be in less chaos than it had been.

“How did you manage to take him out?” I asked Briggs.

10 010 16:33 Chapter 99: Thea 25 Vauche “I didn’t,” Briggs said, pride resonating in his voice. “Mina did. Where did you learn that move anyway?”

“I’m guessing Ayla?” I said, impressed with how Mina handled the whole situation.

Mina shook her head. “Uncle Jack.”

Ayla’s father. Ayla had told me he had started teaching them self- defense at a young age.

“Do we have any idea what he was looking for?” I asked, taking in the papers strewn everywhere around the room.

“No clue,” Briggs said. “He did mumble something about them not being old enough. So it must be about something from a while ago.

“Well, we’ll find out soon enough,” I said. “I don’t care what it takes to get him talking. But first, we need to figure out how to get out of here. The building is on fire, after all.”

The men who took Randall had mind-linked me, telling me the back exit was clear. We started heading in that direction as I reached out to Jimmy to see how they were managing the blaze.

‘Jimmy, we’re coming out. What’s the status on that fire?’

‘Alpha, I tried to stop her,’ Jimmy said frantically, stopping me dead in my tracks.

‘Stop who?’

‘Ayla,’ he said. ‘She ran in to find Annabelle. The smoke’s too thick. I can’t get to her.

“Theo?” Briggs probed.

16:22 Áo Theo “Ayla’s somewhere inside.”

298 Vouchers I didn’t wait for an answer before bolting back down the hall. I couldn’t get to the front of the building from the back stairs. The stairwell was already filling with smoke as I leaped down them. I reached the bottom near the packhouse entrance but couldn’t see anything. I started to call out for Ayla, which got hard quickly as the smoke choked me.

I tried to feel her through our bond. All I could feel from her was determination. And fear.