*Maddox*
Before I say anything more to Poppy or Seth, who is standing in the doorway now, his hand grasping the wrist of the woman I believe is responsible for all of this, I tell the wolves I have sent out to look for Isla the address they should be running toward. Since they are all in wolf form, they will not have any sort of GPS, so I give them quick directions. What road they need to take, how to get to this cabin I see on the map marked as, “Secluded spot, perfect for death.”
“What’s going on?” Zabrina asks, trying to yank free of Beta Seth’s grip, but he doesn’t release her.
I need to hurry. I don’t have time for her bullshit right now, not when Isla is in a cabin some two hours away, dying of poisoning from wolfsbane and being tortured by silver chains.
Still, I have to ask this bitch some questions because she may know information important to me finding Isla in time. Is she really at this location? Or is this another one of her fucking tricks?
“What is this?” I ask Zabrina, holding the map out in front of me.
“How the fuck am I supposed to know?” she replies. “I’ve never been in this room before.”
“Liar!” Mrs. Dixon says, and Zabrina turns toward the woman in the hallway. “Who the hell are you, bitch?” she asks, but it’s clear that she knows exactly who the woman is.
“Alpha, I let her in here three times. She said she was the Luna to be, and you gave her permission to enter. She said you didn’t have a spare key yet!”
“She’s a lying fat cow!” Zabrina says, looking at me again. “I’ve never been in here before, and I have no idea what that fucking map is! I’ve already told my father that you’re harassing me! He has powerful friends, you know?”
My hand closes into a fist at my side. I want to slap the fuck out of her, but I don’t. “Zabrina, I know you’ve been in here! You were in here earlier today!”
“No, I wasn’t!” she argues. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
I take another step closer to her. “I saw you, Zabrina! How do you think I knew where to go?”
Her eyes enlarge, but then she blinks a few times, and says, “You’re just trying to blame your whore running away on me. You didn’t see me in here this morning. You have no idea who was in here.”
I tilt my head to the side. “This morning?” I repeat.
“Yeah,” she says. “You just told me you saw me in here this morning. But I was having breakfast with my entourage. They’ll vouch for me! Even your own fucking maids saw me in the dining room.”
I can’t help the smile that creeps onto my face as once again I’ve caught her in a lie. It’s surprising to me that someone so fucking stupid thinks she is such a mastermind. “Zabrina, I never said when it was I saw you in here. By telling me that you weren’t in here this morning, you’re only pointing more guilt at yourself.”
Her eyes widen, and her mouth drops open for a second before she says, “Uh, you did, too, say that.”
“No, he didn’t, you stupid bitch!” Poppy chimes in. I give her a look, but she doesn’t back down. “Fucking bitch!”
“Yes, you did!” Zabrina says. “Besides, even if you didn’t, and I know you did, that’s the only time you could’ve seen me because you’ve been gone all day!”
“How do you know that I didn’t think I saw you when I came back home?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “Because… I wasn’t in here then so you couldn’t have.”
I can only stare at her. She knows then that her idiocy has incriminated her.
Taking rapid steps toward her, I back her up as Seth stares her against the wall. “Now, you listen to me, and you listen good. If you want to keep your head on your shoulders, you’re going to tell me right now where the fuck Isla is. Is she in this house?” I ask her, holding up the map.
“Y-yes,” she stammers. “But it wasn’t me. It was Private Wylie! He’s a spy! He made me do it!” she says, her eyes wild as she realizes she can’t get out of this now.
“And how much wolfsbane did you give her?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I’m not sure. Quite a bit!”
Again, my hand is a fist. I have never wanted to punch a woman as desperately as I want to cram my fist into her stomach.
“Did you assholes mess with any of my other cars or just the one that broke down on me today? I swear to the Moon Goddess above, if I have car trouble going to find her, I will sever your head from your neck with my own bare hands!”
“Only the one!” she yells, and I know that Seth is already getting my car for me as I speak.
I don’t think there’s anything else I need from this bitch, so I say, “I need you to come with me, Seth. Call someone to meet us downstairs to take care of her.”
“Yes, sir,” he says, and we start moving out the door.
“Mrs. Dixon,” I say, “come along. You’re in trouble, too.”
“Yes, Alpha.” She is weeping, as she should be.
Poppy follows. “Do you want me to summon Mystic?” she asks me.
“Yes, please do.” Our pack healer will need to come with us. “Make sure she brings the antidote, plenty of it. I assume Private Parker is with Isla?” I ask the woman Seth is dragging toward the stairs behind us.
“He is,” she says. “But you’ll be wasting supplies taking them with you for him. He’s already dead.”
I turn and look at her, wondering if I could make her trip and fall down the stairs and call it an accident—and a day.
Before we even reach the staircase, I see Alpha Jordan coming up, along with several of the guards he has brought with him. “What is the meaning of this?” he demands. “Unhand my daughter, this instant!”
“Your daughter has just confessed to being a coconspirator in the kidnapping of my Breeder and the murder of one of my guards!” I tell him.
“That’s preposterous!” Alpha Jordan says, making himself as big as possible as he blocks my way. “My Zabrina would never!”
“She did,” I tell him. “There’s no need to try to lie for someone who’s already confessed!”
“Daddy!” she says, beginning to sob, “Private Wylie forced me to! He said he’d rape me if I didn’t go along with it!”
“You hear that?” Alpha Jordan says. “My daughter is the victim here!”
“Get the fuck out of my way,” I warn him. I’m not afraid of him or the three guards he has with him.
“You can’t seriously think—”
Alpha Jordan’s words are cut short when my fist meets his jaw and knocks him backward. He stumbles into his guards, and then the four of them fall down the stairs, landing in a heap on the first landing.
Shaking my hand out, I ignore Zabrina’s shouts, not of, “Daddy are you okay?” but of “Daddy, get up and save me!”
We step over them, and then I make my descent as quickly as possible, headed for the garage. Commander Weston is there to take Zabrina away, along with a few of my guards. “Lock her up, and make sure that you don’t leave her, Weston. I trust you not to give in to her beguiling ways, but no one else!”
“Yes, sir,” the middle-aged, happily married commander says to me, and I hear Alpha Jordan’s voice booming behind me, threatening that this means war.
I don’t care at the moment. He can call in all of his allies, I’ll call mine, and we’ll rip each other’s throats out on the battlefield. But that’s for another day. For now, I need to get to Isla.
“He doesn’t leave,” I tell Weston, and he nods in understanding. More of my guards are already streaming down the hall toward the scene.
We make our way to the garage door, and I see Mystica standing there, a concerned look on her face. She is old enough to be my mother, and sometimes, she acts like she is. “I’m so sorry, Alpha,” she says in her soothing voice.
“No need for that, yet,” I assure her, and Seth and I head out the door with her.
We are about fifteen yards away from the garage, a large building near the south side of the castle, when I realize Poppy is with us. I turn and look at her, and she says, “You need me.”
I have no response to that, so I keep walking.
“Where do you think the car they drove out there is?” Seth asks me.
“They probably ditched it, thinking it would be easier to sneak back in as wolves.” We move to an SUV near the back of the garage, one I am fairly certain no one will have messed with. I grab the keys off the hook near it and toss them to Seth. I’m in no state to drive.
Climbing into the passenger seat, I wait for him to start the vehicle and then punch the address into the GPS.
“You will arrive in two hours and twenty-seven minutes,” the robotic female voice tells us.
“The fuck we will,” I say. “Seth… drive like your life depends on it.”
My Beta doesn’t need to be told twice. He peels out of the garage and tears down the road driving so fast, the guards barely have a chance to get the gate fully open even though I’m certain he’s warned them that they need to open up.
As we drive through the night, I can’t help but send messages to Isla, even though I know she can’t hear me yet. We aren’t close enough at the moment. But with Seth driving twice the speed limit, pushing the car, and the road, to their limits, we will be there soon enough.
“I’m coming, baby,” I tell her using a mind-link that is currently useless. “I’m coming, baby, and I’ll be there soon. Hold on, Isla. Please. I know it hurts, but hold on. I’m bringing help. I’ll be there soon!”
I keep repeating that over and over and over again. Soon enough, the GPS ticks off that we have ninety-nine miles to go.
“Isla,” I say, “can you hear me, baby?”
In my head, I hear a weak voice say, “Maddox… the boat’s here…. I’ll be safe now.”
I have no idea what that means, but it makes my blood run cold. All I can do is scream, “Isla!!”