Ch 9 Captives

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:::content warning for the next four chapters– Violence, death, kidnapping, child abuse, sex trafficking, suicide:::

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Luna Camillia Rowan woke up in the stuffy confines of a moving panel truck, still wearing her torn emerald party dress. Her head was resting in Gabe's lap. When she looked up, his palest blue eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, he had been crying. She could hear the muffled sound of other terrified children. She sat up slowly and her wolf whined, she could feel the crust itchiness of dried blood on the side of her face. Sharon, Beta Bartlett's middle daughter was sitting against the wall holding eight-year-old Marion. Her eyes were glazed over with grief because her little niece was dead in her arms. Most of the other children were wounded but healing. Camillia was secretly grateful that her baby sisters weren't here and prayed to the goddess they weren't dead. Polly and Lindie were cousins. Lindie was a year younger than Camillia, and Polly, two, while the others were younger than Gabriel.

"Gabe, can you talk to Trin?" Camillia whispered. Walkers could link a family or coven member over much further distances than wolves.

The blond boy shook his head, "There's a shadow walker with them that's blocking me. He feels like grandfather, we have to get away from him before she'll hear me."

Camillia frowned; she had never heard of a renegade master vampire. Renegades were usually young vapires without a coven, never a royal, and becoming a master took centuries and the loyalty of many. She knew walkers could take power from each other through blood, either by sharing it or taking it during a blood duel.

Could a renegade overcome a master and usurp his power and coven? Camillia wondered, thinking about master vampires and the traditions around them. Surely one would not violate the royal laws to become a renegade, would they?

The halting of the truck had stopped her musing, it wasn't yet dawn. Bright lights from other vehicles shined in, blinding them all as the back door rolled up.

"Get out." A gruff voice ordered them all, none moved.

A scruffy looking rogue in his mortal form jumped into the back and tried to take Marion from Sharon. She looked up at him and her grieving eyes were replaced with her wolf's, she shifted faster than she ever had. In a few heartbeats, her scarlet dress was rags and she was killing the rogue as Camillia, and Lindie pushed the children behind them. Polly was screaming. Sharon mauled two more, as her wolf stood protectively over Marion's body. The floor of the truck vibrated, whining mechanically, then tipped up, eventually dumping the ten children and four teens out into a lighted courtyard. Camillia scrambled to her feet, holding Gabe close behind her. She and Lindie tried to keep the others between them. Polly had fainted. Sharon leapt at several wolves and walkers, snarling ferally, keeping them away. She was a beta she-wolf and a large one, but she was no match for what came. A giant gray warform simply stalked up to her and torn her in half, splattering all of them with her blood.

His eyes burned like embers, as he growled three words, "Surrender or die."

Terrified, Cami murmured the only thing she could to save their lives, "Do what he says."

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:::content warning – Child abuse, violence, sex trafficking:::

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"I need a luna and an heir from an established pack to legitimatize my pack," he told her. "You will be my mate, or I will slowly torture your little hybrid step-brother and the others to death." The wolf standing outside the bars of the cell was scarred but still handsome. He terrified her. The rogue alpha's name was Sigmund Fangston or Fang as everyone called him, he was the illegitimate brother of the Alphas of the Northcrags pack and the Berring Ilse packs. Almost two decades earlier, he tried to kill his father and both his brothers in the power struggle for dominance of the far northern western territories. When that failed, he murdered his mother and both of his brothers' mates and several of their children before fleeing south. In his first trial, he believed he was the reincarnation of one of the mythological Viking war lords and that his every action was justified, then he slaughtered four guards and a Guardian to escape.

Camillia trembled, but she vowed silently, she would not make it easy for him and fight him with everything she had every moment they were together. Fang didn't know she knew who he was, what he'd done. He didn't know she had written a term paper on him and even spoken to his one surviving sister. He was as charismatic as he was cruel, arrogant as he was needy, but she preferred the term insane.

"I won't help you," Camillia tried to sound braver than she felt. "We won't help you. You attacked our pack and killed our parents. My brothers and sister will come for us."

"Your brother and his half-breed mate won't find us," he sneered then he pointed at the cell next to hers. "Show your Luna what will happen to her if she refuses me." Six rough-looking rogues went into Lindie and Polly's cell. The young she-wolves cowered in the corner before they were grabbed.

"No! Stop it!" Camillia shouted as she pressed Gabe's face into her shoulder and covered his ears to block out the sound of her packmate's screams.

"Why are you doing this?" Camillia sobbed.

Fang's eyes held her as he scowled, "I won't have a repeat of the last one. You'll submit or suffer." He walked away. "You have two days, Luna Camillia."

Camillia dragged Gabe to the furthest corner of the cell opposite and crouched against the bars. "Cover your ears and don't look," she ordered the terrified children in the next cell.

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A master vampire came after sunset the next day. He stood beyond the bars and stared at Gabe until Camillia got between them. He smirked then walked away, followed by a beautiful human toddler on a leash. One of the shadow walkers had called him Lord Malak as he left.

"You four are going upstairs."

"Where are you taking us?" Camillia demanded.

The shadow walker smiled, "Just to get cleaned up and properly clothed so you can serve the master his dinner. If you don't, we'll kill the rest of the pups while you watch."

With Polly clinging to her cousin, Lindie whimpered, "Please don't rape us."

The vampire looked at her in disgust. "We would never stick our dicks in a dog like you. Now, move. The master doesn't like to be kept waiting."

They showered quickly, put on the simple, white dresses offered, and went to serve the meal. Standing in the dinning room, Camillia looked around. There was no food on any table or tray.

"Where is Alpha Fang?" Camillia demanded in terror as she realized what the setting meant.

"He is away." The vampire who seemed to be Lord Malak's servant announced as he stood between them and the table.

"I am Luna Camillia Rowan of Darkwood Pack. My family will pay whatever reward you ask if you let us..."

"Silence, bitch." The vampire backhanded her before she could finish, then he kicked her and sent her flying across the room.

Gabe shoved him, clawing his face while Polly screamed. Lindie lunged forward attacking. They were quickly subdued.

"Enough," Malak muttered. "Bring me the blond."

"No, leave her alone," Gabe shouted and struggles while two vampires held his arms.

Lindie pulled away and kicked as she was dragged forward, then Malak held her jaw and looked into her eyes. Lindie suddenly became still. Her eyes were glazed over as if she were in a trance. She laid across the end of the table without being told. The shadow walkers shoved Gabe at Polly and Camillia.

"This is the only thing wolves are good for." Malak fed from Lindie as they were forced to watch.

"Lindie!" Polly screamed for her cousin, and sobbed, begging, "Please, stop. Please, don't kill her."

Weeping, Camillia hid Gabe's face, "Don't look." She didn't want him to see his teacher's daughter murdered but surprisingly Malak stopped. He reached over and patted his pet toddler on the head.

"Why are you being so dramatic? If you don't resist, it doesn't hurt," the second scolded as he dragged Polly forward then enthralled her so she walked on unsteady legs like a new fawn and laid down on the other end of the table. The other vampires took turns feeding from the two girls.

"Come here, young Charlains, it is time you learn to feed properly," Malak sneered.

Camillia clung to him, "Leave him alone. He's just a boy. He's only ten."

Malak smiled evilly, revealing, "I am very aware of how old he is. I was at his fourth birthday party. It was such an interesting night but now it is time he learned to be a proper vampire royal."

"No." Gabe and Camillia refused at the same time.

Malak snapped his fingers with an annoyed look. They took Gabe from Camillia by force and chained her to the wall while they made him watch as another shadow walker fed from Polly.

"That is how it is done, but I am not a monster who would make you feed from your friends." Malak ordered Gabe, "Feed from this human child."

"No," Gabe courageously refused. "I won't feed from the living. I am a day-walker."

None of them had been fed more than a few slices of bread since they arrived so they knew he was hungry. The other shadow walkers taunted him with cups of blood and teased him, but Gabe still refused. Finally, Malak grew bored at the ten-year-old sun-walker's resistance. Malak seized Gabe's arm and bit him. Gabe fell to the floor, and thrashed, then his eyes dilated until they were dark with no color.

"You, Gabriel Charlains will kill the child."

"Stop! No! Gabe, stop!" Pulling at the chains, Camillia screamed until she lost her voice for them to stop but it was useless.

Gabe trembled like a marionette as his body moved to obey Malak's will. He took the beautiful toddler dressed like a doll in his arms. She obediently tipped her head back exposing her neck. Gabe gasped in silent sobs as his teeth elongated then he bit her neck. Tears streamed down his face as he finished then he sat on the floor cradling the dead girl, sobbing, while Malak and the others laughed.

Malak tipped Gabe's bloody, tear-streaked face away from where he gazed at the dead girl. "Once, Fang breaks your foster sister, I am coming back for you, son of Charlains. My little poppet is only the first."

"Why are you doing this?" Camillia sobbed as she struggled against the chains

Malak's second gazed at her with malevolence as he revealed, "To teach you a lesson, Luna. If you don't obey Alpha Fang, you will become a breeder for them and a feeder for us. You will watch every time we make your foster brother kill an innocent until he goes insane. When your alpha comes for you today, submit or suffer the consequences."

They were all taken back down to the cells.

"Where are the others?" Camillia demanded when she saw the third cell was empty. The shadow walkers smirked at her then one made the gesture for money before they walked away, leaving her in the dimly lit dungeon.

Holding Gabe in her arms, she wiped the blood from his face. Camillia redoubled her oath to resist as she tried to sleep holding him in her arms. She failed to save the children of her pack, she failed to save her foster brother from being turned into a shadow walker. She wept for a long time. She didn't move when the door unlocked, then she was dragged out of her cell and away from Gabe.

"Time to have breakfast with your mate, Luna," the rogue teased. She walked stiff legged to face Sigmund Fangston. She was an alpha's daughter, and it was her duty to show him what a real luna was capable of. She was going to make him pay for what happened to Gabe, Polly, Lindie, and the children of her pack.

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Coen twitched restlessly before he got up and left his father's office while Alpha Commander Langley talked about sending in someone for hostage negotiation. Callen glanced at him but stayed. The Guardians' Commander was offering no further help in finding the rogues who took their sister and fifteen others. The trail had just disappeared into the empty zones nearly forty hours ago. Guardian trackers were searching but it was taking too long. Coen went down into the pack house gym in the basement and punched a bag until his knuckles bled.

They knew the rogues were working with renegades, they knew they were in one of three areas, and they knew there was a time limit on the rescue because the rogue Trinity killed said his group planned to sell the captives. But three days after they arrived, they still sat in his father's office and ate pack food and did nothing to save his sister or his mate's brother. He decided that the Guardians were useless and resented that he would have to spend the next four years in their pathetic excuse of an organization. Suddenly there was a shimmer of swirling shadows and Trinity stepped out of the corner.

"It's lunch time." Her arms wrapped around his chest as she leaned against his back. "We'll find them. My grandfather's coven has joined the search."

Turning, he hugged her then murmured, "Cami is terrified. I can feel it."

She nodded then half sobbed, "I can't feel Gabe at all. He's not dead but... but I feel like something horrible happened last night."

He pressed a kiss into her forehead. "We'll find them." He heard a sound then glanced up toward the door but no one was there. Narrowing his eyes, he held her closer as his wolf growled with the need to protect her.