Chapter 107: Taken

Slowly, the world came back to her. Light. Sound. Then shapes and smells. It smelled like fragrant wood and polish. The seats were covered in plain fabric. It wasn’t a royal carriage, but it could have been a basic transportation carriage used to transport families between cities. The world rocked violently, jostling her against the side of the carriage. She groaned at the pain in her neck. Where was she? The first thing she saw was silver and black shackles around her wrists, connected by a short silver chain. They felt heavy, but her whole body felt heavy. Had she been drugged, or was she just exhausted?
"...Adolph?"
She looked up and across her but the face there was not who she was expecting. She froze. She didn’t recognize him or the woman sitting beside him. Their eyes stared at her unblinking and they were unnaturally still.
*Vampires.*
Her heart sped up in fear. A scream built and stopped in her chest expanding almost painfully, but she held back. She had to keep calm. Freaking out would do no good. The bit of self-defense that she knew would only be useful if she could get away and there was no way to escape the carriage easily.
She regretted deciding to go to the hospital. If she had just given in to Adolph’s desires, she wouldn’t be in this position. She’d have to apologize to him when they were reunited.
“Who are you and what do you want? Where am I?”
They didn't answer but continued to stare at her. The man tilted his head and narrowed his eyes with a curious expression.
“Are you not going to answer me?”
The woman lifted an eyebrow at her and her lips lifted in a little defiant smirk.
She didn’t need them to speak. The fact that they didn’t could mean that they had been ordered not to or were simply disdainful of her. Either way, they had been ordered not to hurt her. She stared at them in silence. They didn't speak and seemed to only be there to keep an eye on her. The carriage rocked and rattled as they went over a particularly rough patch.
The road turned rougher as if they were leaving a road and traveling through the uncleared forest. Were they? The carriage had no windows, so she couldn’t see, but it would make sense if they wanted to avoid being tracked easily. It wouldn’t stop Adolph from following them or keep him from being able to find the trail, but it would buy them some time.
She eyed the walls of the carriage looking for some sort of clue. It wasn’t usual for a carriage to not have windows if it was used to transport people, so it was more likely that this was a transport carriage for merchant goods.
Eden came to mind immediately. Was he waiting wherever they were going?
When the carriage stopped, she readied herself to try and run. She might not know exactly the way to get back, but she could figure it out. She could've been out that long, a few hours at most.
The man stood and opened the door of the carriage. The woman stood next and took her by her arm, pulling her out of the carriage with her. Her grip was firm but not painful. It seemed like they weren't going to try and hurt her. What did they want? Why did they take her?
She could only imagine that it had something to do with her new position as Luna and her connection to Adolph. Did they work for the vampire queen? Was it Eden?
The woman pulled her through the camp as her heart raced. Vampires And werewolves were everywhere moving quickly around the small camp on each side of the path they took towards a tent in the back. it was the only time that didn't seem to be being broken down. It seemed nicer than the other ones but not by much. The woman opened the tent and nudged her inside.
“Don't try to leave this tent.”
“And if I do?”
She gave her a vicious grin and didn’t answer. The flap closed in her face and Laurel turned to look around the tent, searching for something to help get the shackles off and to get free. She could see the silhouettes of people stationed on each side of the tent and flopped to the ground with a huff. She had to get out of here. She had to get back to the werewolf kingdom and warn Adolph.
She pulled at the restraints trying to get them to break or at least crack, but they didn't even creak. She didn't know what they were made out of but they were a lot stronger than the average shackles.
She shifted into her wolf form hoping that they would be too big to hold on to her, but they shrunk with her change in size gleaming as if they were laughing at her attempt to escape. She shifted back to her human form with a growl of frustration.
Cuffs like this were the work of magic. Whoever was working with these people had a witch or something like that on their side. She didn’t know any magic and magic had been lost to werewolves for centuries. She sighed. Her best chance, for now, was to wait until there was an opening of some sort, a lapse in attention on her, to try to escape. Maybe she could find a rock that could help her get the shackles off or wet her wrists enough to slip out of them.
She watched the four guards for a while, listening to the sounds of the camp. They didn't seem to be planning to stay for long. People were hurrying around carrying things and loading up carts.
“You heard the order! Hurry up and get those boxes loaded!”
“How much time do we have?”
“Not much, just hurry up. If we can get out of here within the hour, we’ll have a better chance.”
Someone shouted, “Move out of the way!”
Something clattered to the ground.
“Hey!”
“ Where is he? this wasn't part of the plan!”
“I can't let you–!”
“Out of my way! By order of the general!”
“Make me!” Someone shouted back. “No one cares about the general!”
Who were they talking about? Was the general Eden or someone else?
Someone hissed and there was a clatter of something being knocked over outside. One of the guards darted away from the flap of the tent towards the sound and the clang of swords and shields filled the air.
“Filthy traitors!” Someone yelled. “Kill them all!”
“After the general first! You three around this side!”
The other three guards rounded at the tent, and she took the opportunity to creep towards the back flap of the tent and run into the forest. The flash of fire lit the path she took. She glanced back for a moment, seeing figures still packing boxes and hauling them onto carts. A group of vampires was dragged and forced to their knees.
She turned back to the path she was taking as a sword was raised over their heads, poised to cut off their heads.
“Over there!”
“Don’t let them escape!”
She pushed herself to run faster away from the camp. Whoever was escaping wasn’t her problem. She hoped whatever the struggle was, it would keep them occupied enough for her to get far enough away.
How long would it take for Adolph to find her at this point? The shackles made it impossible to run at her top speed, but she couldn't have been farther than a few hours’ ride away from the city. She doubted it would take long to find her if she just bought Adolph a bit more time.
She reached out through their bond, calling Adolph, but she got no response. Was she too far for him to hear or feel her? She wasn’t sure. Her bond with Basil hadn’t allowed her to communicate with him as it was too weak. She didn’t know much about a true mate’s bond. When the sound of the fight seemed to disappear into the sounds of the night, she stopped running, searching for a large boulder or something to break the chains.
She sat down in front of a large boulder and laid the chain over the stone. Grabbing a rock nearby, she struck the chain as hard as she could, but the rock crumbled in her hand. She cursed and went to look for something else to use. She found a thinner rock to wrap the chain around, sliding it back and forth against itself, hoping that the friction and pressure would weaken them.
“Somehow, I'm not surprised that you managed to get away.”
Her heart lurched at the voice, and she turned slowly to look up at the figures stepping out of the shadows of the trees.
It was Eden.