(Olivia’s POV)

No one else painted moonlight flowers like that. It was uniquely hers.

Overwhelmed with excitement, I threw myself against the gate. The chains rattled loudly as I tried to get a better look at the mural.

“Mom,” I whispered desperately. “You were here. You were really here.”

This was proof. My mother had been here. She had lived here long enough to paint an entire wall.

But why? What had kept her here for five years?

Suddenly, a hand grabbed me and pulled me into the shadows of a nearby moon gate. I gasped, ready to fight.

“Quiet,” Theodore’s voice whispered urgently in my ear. He pressed me against the stone wall, his body shielding me from view.

His scent enveloped me – pine and leather and something uniquely him.

His small stature was surprising but I knew looks were deceiving. Each arm was extremely defined but the purpose of a gamma was to protect the luna and blending into a crowd was part of that.

He wasn’t walking aggressively. His hands were swinging around his side but his palms were facing up as if he was saying he wasn’t a threat. “Alpha Alec?” He asked finally as he came to the entrance of his territory.

Taking a step forward, I looked directly into his eyes. “That’s me.”

He took a minute to look behind him before he turned back to me. “I know why you are here and I can assure you, we are not the enemy.”

“Your alpha kidnapped my luna and my daughter.” I started taking a few steps towards him.

“For my alpha’s sins I will surely pay but please just listen!” He pleaded as I came up to him. Wrapping my hand around his neck, his feet left the grass.

“NO!” I heard a women scream in the distance. Looking behind him, I saw her fall to her knees in agony.

The guy tried to look behind him but I kept him facing forward. “Please! Just listen to me before you kill me!” He struggled to get the words out.

Putting him back on his feet, it took everything in me to not just snap his neck. “Better make it good.”

“Alpha Anthony left us.” He coughed as he tried to talk.

“Left you?” Colt asked as he stepped forward.

“Yes. He denounced his ties. Alp- Anthony abandoned us. Two helicopters left for something and only one returned. The warriors that went said he kidnapped your luna and daughter. However, he took them on a different helicopter somewhere else. The n was to bring them back here and force you to sit down to discuss a peace treaty. He knew you were bigger and we didn’t stand a chance if it came to a war but when he didn’te back, I knew. It was only a few minutes ago that he denounced his ties to this pack.”

I was shocked. He yed his own pack. He lied to his warriors about what was going to happen. “Where is my luna and daughter?” I asked, half way not caring about their alpha problem.

“I don’t know sir. However, we do not want to fight. We know we will lose and we want to preserve our lives if possible. I am out here, hoping you would consider sparing us. The entire pack, women and children included are in therge gym. We have no weapon and we ask that you grant us pardon. You can have free rein over the pack house and over Anthony’s office. The pack is lost and unsure what to do. We need an alpha but we don’t want to die for the sins of Anthony. We surrender to you and are willing to listen to your direction in exchange for our lives.”

“You don’t know where he took Kristen?”

“I don’t but like I said, you can go to his office and look at it.”

“What is your name?” Colt asked. He sounded just as confused as we were.

“Oliver.”

Grabbing his arm, I pulled him with me. “If you are lying, you will be the first to die.” I growled as we marched our way inside. “Understood.” He said with more confidence that I expected.

“Where is the gym?” Colt asked.

“To the left.”

The woman stood up. Tears ran down her face. It was clear she wanted to run to him but he must have been telling her to stop because she backed up and let us pass without issue.

The pack was a ghost town. Not a single soul was walking around. No one was in windows looking at us. The packhouse was visible on the right. I had to double look but there was a pile of guns, ammo and who knows what else in front of the steps. Almost like they deposited everything in attempt to not get killed.

“Right there.” Oliver pointed to a ratherrge building that was shaped in a big circle. The dome had a clear ss top but it was how every single door was opened wide. The closer we got, the more I could see people huddled together in the center of the floor. Their warriors were standing guard but as promised, no weapons.

Only their soft cries and whimpers were being heard as we walked inside. The men all straightened their backs but bowed in respect. “We mean no harm.” One man who was brave enough said to me.

Women wereying on top of their children as if to shield them from me. “None of us wanted Ann to begin with and none of what he did was a reflection on how we felt.” Oliver whispered as I looked at Colt.

We shared a look before looking back at the people before us. “Jace?” I looked around for him.

“Yeah?”

“We are going to look at Anthony’s office. Stay here and guard everyone. Wait for my instruction.” “Okay.” He didn’t dare argue with me as I took Oliver and headed towards the packhouse.

“Time is running out if he took Kristen to a different location.” Colt muttered.

“She is still alive.” I said with full confidence.

“Better be.” Colt’s wolf said.

“You don’t have any idea where they might be?” Jerking Oliver up the steps of the packhouse, he lead us towards the office.

“I don’t. I swear. I will pledge my allegiance to you right now if you want to prove my innocense. We didn’t know what he was nning.”

Oliver showed up the door but it was locked. Handing Oliver to Colt, I took a few steps back before using all my strength to kick the door down. It was probably a little much but it was more to get some frustration out.

His office looked to be ransacked. Papers were on the floor, folders were opened but my eyesnded on the shredder that was full. “Did someone else look in here before we got here?” Colt asked.

“No. This was honestly how his office looked all the time.” Colt put Oliver against the wall. To Oliver’s credit, he stood straight with his hands folded in front of him. He didn’t move or even look at the door.

“This is just trash. Brochures on a beaches?” Colt tossed them to the side and kept going. “Here is folders on each of our packs.”

That caught my attention. “Anything interesting?” I mean, we all had them so it wasn’t very unusual.

“Yeah. This is a had written schedule.” Colt handed me a piece of paper.

“That’s Vivian’s handwriting.”

“Where is Vivian?” Colt looked at Oliver.

“Oh, um…” Oliver looked panic for a second. “I think she was with Anthony in that helicopter. I know for a fact she didn’te back with the one. I even asked the pilot where they all were and he didn’t know.”

“She had been keeping tabs on you guys since the beginning.” Colt pulled out more stuff. It was details about our basic lifestyles. How much she watched Adalynn, when we liked to shower or what foods we ate. There was a written diagram of the floor n.

“She must have watched us program our fingerprints and put her own in there. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any possible way for her to get Adalynn out of the panic room.” I tried to rationalize it.

“Kristen must not have known because if she thought Adalynn was safe in the room, she wouldn’t have opened it.” Colt kept going with my thoughts as if we were one.