CHAPTER 73

"Why do I've to be on the run with you?," Adele screamed at her father. She could finally manifest the panic and anger that had been rising in her for the last forty eight hours.
She could not deny she had been thrilled when she saw Shana bundled up and making the journey with them but at the same time, she had been scared of what Asher would do when he finally caught up with them. And she was certain he would, as certain as she was that the sun would rise tomorrow.
When that happened, she did not want to be on the side she was right now.
Worst thing was, her father looked as clueless as she was about what was really going on.
When he had barged in on her to pack a few of her things, he had looked scattered, like he didn't really know what he was doing but just had to do it. All her questions had been met with vague answers. Then he had hurriedly led her off the territory, all the while looking around nervously. They had come to a black, tinted van and he had pushed her in roughly.
And then, she knew exactly what was going on.
And there was Shana and Elise. Shana was passed out and tied up while Asher's housekeeper sat comfortably with the driver at the front, whom Shana recognized as one of the bodyguard she had seen at Asher's house. She recognized him because then, he had stood out to her. He happened to be her kind of man with his hulking build.
Discovering that Asher had so many enemies around him had not been much of a surprise, considering the hostility that had always been the norm of his life. But seeing they were people he trusted with his home was a big shock for her, especially his housekeeper. The woman was too good with her acting skill. All these while, Adele had believed she truly and wholly liked Asher.
"What are you gawking at?," she had snapped at an open-mouthed Adele. "You should keep the judging look to yourself. We are all in the same boat after all."
Adele had closed her mouth and averted her gaze as the driver took off.
"Why the sudden rush?," her father had asked angrily.
"Turns out my Alpha couldn't wait anymore," Elise replied.
"He wanted to wait then he doesn't want to all of a sudden. At least, I should have gotten a warning. Leaving the way I did is going to raise suspicions," Thomas had said worriedly.
"It's not just going to raise suspicions, it's going to be confirmation that you are involved in all these and who cares? Asher isn't going to be alive for much longer anyway," Elise answered with a scary smile Adele never saw on her face before. Appearances could really be deceiving. "You just have to wait for it to all pan out."
Adele had doubted that but she kept her opinion to herself.
"I should have gotten a warning. I'm not really prepared for this," her father had muttered under his breath again.
"Stop whining like a child. My Alpha does whatever he wishes whenever he wants to. He answers to no one but himself," she stated clearly, looking at Adam in the rearview mirror. He had not said another word for a long moment after that.
"Does he know?," he had asked much later.
"What now?," Elise had snapped back at him, making the driver give a snide laugher. Adele had wanted to bash his head against the dashboard for that, but she reasoned if she was going to die, she did not want it to be from a car accident because she was struggling with the driver of the car.
"Does he know that she's no longer of any use to his plans? I'm afraid I never mentioned to him that Asher later found out about her identity," her father had said.
Even to Adele, he had sounded so lame and cowardly, visibly scared of whomever they were talking about as his hands shook slightly in his laps. If she could hate him any more, she did at that point in time.
"That means nothing, trust me. She's still as valuable as ever, if not more," Elise had answered with a knowing smile.
"I don't get what you mean," Thomas said stupidly. "We both know he wants nothing more to do with her. Taking her means nothing to him. We can still go back now before it's too late."
"Seems to me like you are scared and having second thoughts. Correct me if I'm wrong but all these started with you in the first place. You can't back out now," Elise fired back at him.
Nothing much was said after that. They kept driving into the night, then it was morning and they were still on the road for the better part of the morning. Adele dozed on and off. Finally, they arrived at their destination.
Adele soon found out it was another territory of wolves but she could not explain why they were there.
"I still don't know what you meant when you said she's more valuable now," Thomas said nodding towards a still passed out Shana.
"You are even slower than you look," Elise had scoffed. She looked like she was not going to say more. Then she had dropped the news on them. "Shana is pregnant."
"I couldn't leave you behind to face all the criticism," her father finally answered her, bringing her out of her thoughts.
"Really? You want me to believe that?," she asked. "Are you saying you are ok leaving Mark behind to face it all on his own?"
"He can handle it and Asher would never have a doubt that he had no involvement in this. The same can't be said for you," he replied calmly.
Normally, he would be shutting Adele up but he felt as unsure as she did. He was fully regretting involving Collins in his plans. He should have been patient enough to get a wolf that he had some sort of control over, not one with a freewill and as dangerous as Collins.
The man exceeded his expectations in all ramification. To think he even had Asher's housekeeper on his side. Thomas had been as surprised as Adele when he saw the woman in the van but he had only done a better job hiding it.
He wondered why Collins had not simply had Elise kill Asher instead of going to all the trouble but then again, he reasoned the cold-blooded wolf simply wanted to claim the trophy for himself.
"Asher is going to come and when he does, no one would be spared," Adele pronounced ominously.
"My fear exactly," Thomas replied to himself.
The plan was no longer his and from his point of view, it was too messed up not to have loopholes that Asher could use against them.
He wished he could talk to Collins but he had not seen neither hide nor hair of him since his arrival. He was just left simmering on his own.
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All the confirmation Asher needed that his mate had indeed been kidnapled arrived that very evening.
It came in form of a bloodred sealed white missive, lying right at his front entrance. When he saw the letter just lying there, his reaction was to run in the direction of the unknown scent he had picked up. But he had ran and ran until the smell faded away and again, he was left with nothing.
He retraced his step back to his home, where a curious Armando was waiting for him staring at the strange letter.
"Somebody was here," Asher said accusingly. Despite the round the clock security, someone had still managed to slip past it all. Goes to show how much loophole he had around him. No wonder he had done a poor job of protecting his mate.
"I noticed," Armando replied,clenching his fist at his side. Knowing Armando, he was probably having the same thoughts as Asher and blaming himself for what happened.
Asher went to the door and picked up the letter carefully. He held it to his nose and took a long whiff of it but there was nothing, just the smell of paper. He tore open the seal quickly, dreading what he was going to find written inside.
As he stretched out the note, something else dropped down but he ignored it, staring stupefied at the words boldly scribbled on the paper;
"DO NOTHING OR THEY BOTH DIE!!!"
His hand shook angrily as he clutched the edge of the paper.
Do nothing?
How was that even possible when his woman was in danger? And the effontery dropping the message on his doorstep was an insult on its own. He felt like he was seeing red as he crumpled the paper angrily, then he threw it as far as he could. It did nothing to dull his boiling temper.
Like he had suspected, they also had Elise and they were using her and Shana to tie his hands.
"My Alpha?" Armando said urgently.
"What?," Asher snapped angrily, turning to see the other wolf holding out a miniature photograph.
He snatched it out of his hands to look down at it and his heart stopped beating.
There in the picture was his mate, tied up and gagged. He wasn't sure if she was simply sleeping or passed out. But the picture was clear enough for him to see the bruising on her skin and it pained him thinking of how she had gotten them.
She looked in total disarray and she had been dragged off with the barest clothes covering her. Asher thought of her alone, cold and scared at the mercy of heartless, greedy beasts and his blood boiled.
The picture had a red marking on her forehead and another one on her abdomen, both similar to the red seal of the letter.
He understood what the mark on the forehead meant. It was the threat from the handwritten letter. It meant Shana would be dead if he did anything. But what he could not understand was the reason for the large, red marking at her abdomen.
Or maybe he did but he could not bring himself to accept the truth as cold waves of fear and panic attacked him.