Chapter 50

ELEANOR

Today had been great, and I felt like Rebecca and I grew even closer after our shopping trip.

We were on our way back home, but the streets were starting to fill with both people and traffic. We ended up stuck for nearly half an hour.

“We should have left town an hour ago,” I muttered.

“Yeah, but we did have fun, right?” Rebecca asked me, and I nodded my head.

~Well, that’s true.~

We passed by a lot of clothing stores when I spotted a flower shop.

“Can you stay here while I quickly buy myself some flowers?” I asked Rebecca as I looked at the traffic ahead, which wouldn’t move for another ten minutes.

“Okay,” she said, so I quickly got out and jogged to the flower shop.

“Hello, ma’am. Can I help you?” I turned around and spotted an old lady standing behind me with a warm smile on her face.

“I want some flowers for my husband,” I said.

“Do you have anything in mind?” she asked me, but I shook my head.

“I’m not sure what would be good. I want flowers to convey my love,” I told her, and she nodded her head.

“You could always go with classic red roses,” she said.

My eyes briefly looked out when I saw that the traffic was starting to move.

“Okay,” I told her.

“Give me five minutes, I’ll get you the bouquet,” she said.

I waited at the counter until the woman appeared with a massive bouquet of red roses. “Is this okay?” she asked. I nodded, paid quickly, and rushed out just as traffic began to clear.

“Wow, that’s one huge bouquet,” Rebecca said as she weaved through traffic. “Planning a surprise for Beta Costa or something?”

Her teasing made my cheeks flush.

“I’ll give you all the details tomorrow,” I told her, and a shy smile formed on her face.

“Okay, but I want the juicy details,” she said, and I shook my head.

Within fifteen minutes, we were out of the busy town and merged onto the quiet highway. Rebecca was driving in silence while I was browsing through Instagram. “Ellie.”

“Hmm.”

“Doesn’t that man look familiar?” Rebecca asked me.

I looked up to see Benjamin at the side of the road. It looked like his car had some issues. “Should we stop?” she asked me.

“That’s Benjamin from the pack. He helped save those kidnapped girls. Let’s stop and see what the issue is.”

She slowed down and soon stopped behind his car. Both of us got down and walked toward him.

“Miss Amato,” he greeted as he bowed to me.

“What happened to your car?” I asked him.

“I’m not sure, ma’am. It just suddenly stopped, and I’m still trying to figure out what the problem is.”

“Oh, did you call anyone from the pack?” I asked him. He shook his head.

“My phone is dead. And I’m not able to reach anyone through the mind-link either.”

“Oh.” Something didn’t feel right.

“I’ll go to the pack and inform someone about your situation,” I said.

I grabbed Rebecca’s hand and started walking back, but I only managed to take two steps before my back collided with something hard.

I briefly looked at Rebecca to see that fear was written all over her face. I turned around and saw two muscular men standing with blank looks on their faces. As the breeze blew past us, their scent wafted into my nostrils, and it nearly made my heart stop.

~Rogues!~

“~Ellie,~” Rebecca mind-linked me while my brain was working in overdrive to try and make sense of the situation.

I turned around and saw a smirk on Benjamin’s face.

“There’s no escape, Eleanor. Please get inside without making a fuss,” he said as he opened his car door.

“~We have to run, Ellie,~” Rebecca said, and even though it didn’t look possible, I knew that I wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Okay,” I told him out loud, and for a moment he looked surprised.

I held Rebecca’s hand and started walking toward the car while my eyes scanned everything around us.

“~The rogues aren’t moving closer, so right as we act like we’re getting in the car, we will dash into the forest. Okay?~” I asked Rebecca.

“~Okay,~” she mumbled.

As we got closer, Benjamin stepped aside and opened the door wider for us to enter. In a split second, Rebecca kicked him where the sun doesn’t shine, and we ran into the forest.

We were running deeper into the forest, but footsteps were following us.

“Run, Rebecca!” I yelled as I pumped my legs harder.

Suddenly, someone tackled me from behind, breaking my stride as we crashed to the forest floor. Before I could react, the man had me on my back, tying my hands behind me with swift, practiced movements.

“Do you think you can outrun me, Eleanor?” the man whispered in my ear.

It was Benjamin.

“I was the head warrior of that good-for-nothing pack, Eleanor,” he said.

I tried to wiggle my way out of his grasp, but his hand pressed harder against my back.

“~Ellie, don’t strain, we might lose our baby.~” I heard Erica’s voice in my head, which made me stay as still as a rock. I had completely forgotten about that.

“~Can we still shift, Erica?~” I asked her.

“~No, Eleanor, we’re still early on in the pregnancy. If we shift, there'll be a high chance of having a miscarriage~,” she warned me.

I looked up to see that Rebecca had shifted into her wolf and she was fighting with the other two rogues who had shifted as well.

“Kill her and then come,” Benjamin instructed as he pulled me up.

My eyes widened in panic as I saw that Rebecca wasn’t able to fight them off. She was already bleeding from her stomach.

“Rebecca!” I yelled when I saw a rogue jump from behind her as he bit a large chunk out from her shoulder.

She couldn’t stand there anymore as she shifted back to her human form and fell on the forest floor.

“Ellie?” she choked out. Tears fell down my cheeks as I saw her struggle to breathe.

“Should we kill her, boss?” one of the rogues asked as soon as he shifted.

“Just let her bleed out. We have to get this one to the boss,” Benjamin said in a dry tone, and then they dragged me out of the forest.

“Don’t take her!” I heard Rebecca whisper, while I tried my best to break free, but it was no use.

As we got back to the car, one of the rogues quickly made his way to the passenger seat and took out a syringe that had some sort of clear liquid inside.

He handed it to Benjamin.

“Please, don’t!” I yelled as I struggled, but he held me down and injected the liquid into my bloodstream.

“I don’t want to take any chances.”

That was the last thing I heard as everything around me turned black.

BETA XAVIER

My happiness was soon crushed as reality sank in.

I have to find Eleanor before those bastards do something. I was about to leave the house when my front door opened, and Marquez stepped in.

“Did you find anything?” I asked him, and he nodded his head.

“None of us were alerted when Benjamin left the pack because someone tampered with the CCTV cameras.”

“Who did it?” I asked him.

“We’ve arrested the person who tampered with them. You’ll probably want to come outside and see for yourself.”

He walked outside with me right behind him. I was momentarily shocked to see Jade. Her lips were busted, and there were bruises on her face and arms while she was held down by warriors.

I marched closer toward her and held her jaw in an iron grip, which made her wince.

“I’m only going to ask you one question, and I want you to give me the truth. Understand?” I asked her in a deadly calm voice.

Her eyes swarmed with fear, so she quickly nodded her head.

“Why did you do it?”

“Xavier, it was always meant to be you and me. I know you still love me, but that bitch spoiled everything. So, when Benjamin approached me saying that he could get rid of her, I agreed to help him,” she blurted out while tears streamed down her cheeks.

I couldn’t control the anger that was bubbling within me. All I saw was red, and I desperately wanted to kill her, but I knew that now was not the time. She might have more information.

For treason against the pack, she should be punished accordingly.

“Lock her up in a cell. And get our best man on interrogation. I want to know everything she does,” I commanded the warriors.