Saving Ari



Von’s POV

The more I thought about it, the brighter my fury burned. How could she do this to me? After everything we’d been through? Every shred of trust, every ounce of loyalty I’d invested in Amra, turned to ash in my mouth. My vision swam with red; the primal urge to vengeance clawing at me. I would find her. Now. And she would pay for her betrayal.

Snarling, I turned back to the trucks, ready to return to the pride, when I felt a firm grip on my arm which halted me mid-stride.

I snarled at Garren. “What?”

“Your Majesty,” Garren said, his voice laced with a calm that contrasted sharply with the storm raging within me. “We don’t have time for this.”

I whirled on him, claws bared, fury distorting my features. “Don’t have time? Amra is a traitor! She’s the reason we’re still searching for Ari, she was the reason Ember is dead. She lured them away and back into Jasper’s arms. Amra was the reason Ari and Amber were locked in that Playhouse dungeon, the reason Jasper had the chance to slice Ember’s throat . He kept Ari alive, and it kills me to think what might be happening to her. We need to deal with her right now!”

Garren’s eyes held mine, unwavering, despite the inferno burning within my own. “I understand your rage, Your Majesty,” he rumbled. “But vengeance won’t bring Ari back. And right now, finding her is paramount.”

“Amra has to know something.”

“And, if she is in it that deep, she’s already passed on information about our movements.”

His words, though laced with empathy, were like a bucket of iced water thrown on my simmering rage. He was right. As much as I craved to confront Amra, to make her pay for her deceit, Ari’s life hung in the balance. Whatever Amra knew had likely already been disclosed.

“Amber cuffs.”

“We don’t have time,” Amree said. “As much as I’d like to torch her to a crisp, we...we have to find Ari.”

“With no clues?”

“He said mages gave him that injury,” Garren said. “Maybe we can trace their magical signature and get a read on where they might have gone.”

I clenched my jaw. “Why can’t we do the same for Ari?”

Amree shook her head. “Amber cuffs keep a magical signature contained. There’s no trace of her to track.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I forced myself to rein in the fury. I nodded. I hated it, but they were right. Going back now might expose everything, or make things worse, and waste time we didn’t have.

“Garren,” I rasped, my voice hoarse with controlled fury. “Tell everyone to double the search efforts. We need to leave no stone unturned.”

Garren nodded curtly, his expression grim. “Consider it done, Your Majesty.”

They spread out and I stalked back to the truck. Amra’s betrayal stung like a viper’s bite, a venomous wound that demanded action; but not now. Now I had to focus.

Reluctantly, I climbed in.

“Get every available warrior out there. We searched for every village, every cave, every corner of the continent. Ari was nowhere to be found ,we left no stone unturned, understand?”

Amree placed a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll find her.”

Her words were solemn, but not comforting. We might find her...but, in what condition?

We set up camp at the base of the mountain and made a makeshift war room. We were all weary, the weight of failure pressing down on us like a physical shroud. There had been nothing else in the mountains. I turned over Jasper’s words and everything we already knew, repeatedly in my mind, but there wasn’t a single clue in his words.

Gathering my warriors, I scanned their grim faces, searching for a flicker of inspiration, a shred of new information.

“We have nothing,” I rumbled, the words heavy with despair. “No sign of Ari, and no clues about her captors.”

A collective growl of frustration rippled through the room. Ryker, his face etched with worry, stepped forward.

“Do you need something?” I asked without looking up from my computer.

“Your Majesty.” He sighed. “We’ve questioned every informant, scoured every den. There’s no trace of any recent trafficking activity.”

The news sent a fresh jolt of despair through me. If they weren’t using the channels we searched, where were they taking Ari? What was their ultimate goal? Frustration gnawed at me. It was as if they’d vanished into thin air.

“But there has to be something,” I growled, slamming my fist on the table. “We can’t just sit here and wait! People had to have been going missing since she went missing. Where? How? What have we gotten from Konor?”

Garren shook his head. “Nothing. He’s keeping his mouth shut, as are the rest of them.”

“Since he’s gone on about how Ari deserves everything she’s gotten…not likely.”

“Her mother?” I asked growing more frustrated by the moment.

“Same.” He said , his voice was mall like he didn’t want to tell me this news.

I growled. “We need to regroup, to analyze the information we have, however meager it may seem. Any luck on the mages?”

“Amree is still working on it.” Garren pulled out a map and spread it out.

The warriors assembled around the large map that dominated the center of the circle. Every known incident’s location was marked, but there was nothing that made sense. The silence of the night was broken only by the rustle of parchment and the occasionally frustrated growl. We traced the paths, the timelines, and everything else we had; but nothing panned out.

Hours bled into one another, the flickering torches casting long, distorted shadows on the walls. Every avenue we explored led to a dead end. Just as despair threatened to engulf me once more, a voice broke the oppressive silence.

It was Amree.

“Wait,” she said, her voice a mere whisper. “There’s something…”

She pointed to a seemingly insignificant mark on the map, a small, forgotten village nestled in the foothills of the mountains. The terrain was harsh. She traced the route leading away from the village. It was a path that sank south, toward the sea.

“We haven’t gone further south, along the shore. We know they were picking up people for sex, but what if they were taking them beyond the continent?”

A jolt of something akin to hope surged through me. It was a long shot, but in the scheme of things, did it matter if it was?

“Get ready,” I declared, my voice ringing with newfound purpose. “We ride south at dawn. We may not know where they’re taking her, but it’s the only place we haven’t checked. It’s as good a place as any to start.”

A collective roar of approval erupted from the warriors, and I hoped that we’d be able to make some headway before it was too late.

*

Alpha’s POV

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, the harsh hum of the lamps momentarily faded into the background. Tonight’s test subject was proving to be…troublesome. The initial capture hadn’t gone as smoothly as planned, resulting in a less-than-ideal specimen. A low moan from the examination table drew my attention. I was ready to move on to my newest capture and the demi-spirit experiment.

“It’s not going well,” my assistant said, clearly disappointed. She shook her head.

The young woman on the table shuddered again. Her skin rippled. The woman’s amber eyes flickered open briefly before fluttering shut again. Then, she started to convulse.

Disappointment gnawed at me. This woman was supposed to shift now, but she wasn’t shifting at all. The drugs weren’t working. Maybe she needed pain, too.

“Electrocute her.”

My assistant hit the button. The woman’s body jolted from the current, her back arching off the table. She screamed, but it did not produce the desired effect; she did not shift. Either she was resisting, or she was one of those shifters who could not be compelled. The bear had been broken easily enough. She yanked at the straps and chains. She was bleeding all over the table.

“How are her vitals?” I asked, my voice low and amused.

My assistant Lanny glanced at the diagnostic display before turning back to me. “Stable for now. But the head trauma…it’s unpredictable. She’s not shifting. There’s no sign that she will either.”

I huffed. “Has her shifter spirit left her?”

My assistant Lanny blinked. “Wouldn’t she die?”

“Perhaps she already has.”

At least, to me, anyway.

We were delaying the fun for this, but we needed to hurry this along so we could go back to work. I was sick of being delayed; delay, the very word itself sent a tremor of frustration through me. I could taste it, having a demi spirit of my own, and all the hell I would wreak across the continent with it.

Especially if it was a war god demi spirit.

I leaned closer, scrutinizing the woman’s unconscious form through the glass. Her breathing was shallow, ragged. Her face, though marred by scrapes and bruises, held a hint of beauty. It made me hard. I should have fucked her before we put her on the table.

An idea, audacious and risky, flickered in the back of my mind. A gamble, yes, but one that might just salvage the experiment.

Glancing at my assistant, I saw the question forming in her eyes.

“Prepare the secondary serum,” I instructed her, my voice firm. “We’ll induce a temporary stasis and pick it back up later...if necessary.”

She hesitated, concerned about etching lines on her normally smooth brow, “But, Alpha,” she began, her voice laced with apprehension. “The secondary serum is untested on shifters. The potential side effects could kill her.”

“We’ll pick up another one. Prepare the serum. Now.”