Chapter 13: Marcus Abducted

 Elena spent the next eighteen hours learning to sense pack bonds from a distance while her body recovered from the transfusion, but she could barely focus for more than twenty minutes before exhaustion took over.

Katerina taught Elena long-range sensing, explaining that silver wolves could feel pack bonds across entire territories, but Elena's newly awakened abilities were only a few hundred feet.

Marcus left for Seattle with two other pack members to gather supplies for the facility assault, and Elena was training with Katerina when Dante's phone rang with a number that made him frown.

He answered on speaker, and Isabella's fake concern made Elena cringe.

“I'm calling as a courtesy between the alphas,” Isabella said. Your Beta entered Cross territory without permission, so I detained him under regional law. If you want him back, negotiate."

Dante said, "Marcus wouldn't violate territorial boundaries without authorization," with controlled anger. "He's where?"

"Safe and unharmed for now," Isabella said. "He was carrying enough weapons and tactical gear to suggest he was planning something aggressive, and I can't have armed Blackwood wolves in my territory without explanation.

You must retrieve him within six hours or I'll assume he threatens Cross pack security."

Elena knew the call ended before Dante could respond, so she knew it was a trap to separate him from his pack before Viktor's deadline or force him to rescue against territorial law.

Marcus wouldn't have accidentally entered Cross territory, so Isabella's wolves either ambushed him on neutral ground or gave him false supply location information.

"We can't leave him there," a pack member said, but Dante already shook his head.

"Exactly what Isabella wants," Dante said. "She knows we're hitting Viktor's facility tonight and is trying to make me choose between my Beta and stopping his deadline. If I get Marcus, we miss Viktor. Isabella can influence the tribunal if I don't go."

"Then we send someone else to get him," Elena said, raising herself from the training mat despite dizziness. Someone Isabella won't expect."

"You can barely stand," Dante said. "Your condition prevents you from entering Cross territory."

“I wasn't volunteering myself,” Elena said. Was thinking about David. He's Viktor's hybrid, so Isabella won't consider him a Blackwood asset. He can retrieve Marcus without violating territorial law because he's not your pack."

Marcus's brother had been in a secure room under guard while the pack decided what to do with him, and David accepted the proposal immediately. He said, "Isabella doesn't know I'm stable enough to think for myself." "If I play it right, she'll think I'm another rabid hybrid, and by the time she realizes I'm not, I'll have Marcus out."

The plan was risky, but it was the only way to avoid abandoning Marcus or satisfying Isabella. Elena tried to train while waiting for news as David left within an hour with a small tracking device under his skin in case something went wrong.

David hadn't spoken in six hours, and Dante was about to attack Cross territory when Elena's phone rang with a video call from an unknown number. She answered and Marcus's bloody face appeared on screen, with silver-laced chains around his wrists preventing his wounds from healing.

Marcus called "Elena," his voice rough. Don't believe David's claims about Viktor's facility. This is a trap, and Isabella has worked with Viktor from the start."

Isabella appeared behind Marcus with a knife to his throat, her smile freezing blood. "Did you think I'd let your rescue attempt succeed?" Isabella asks.

David is my asset since Viktor created him. Every piece of information he gave you was meant to trap you."

"Where's David?" Dante insisted.

"Right here," Isabella said, and the camera panned to David standing beside her with empty eyes, obeying her like a puppet. Victor's control serum works great when activated.

David has been lying to you for 24 hours, and now you'll walk into Viktor's facility thinking you're surprised when you're actually in a kill box."

You want what? Elena asked, knowing the answer.

"I want you to surrender to my custody now," Isabella said.

"I'll release Marcus and reveal Viktor's facility if you come to Cross territory unarmed. Refuse, and I'll send Marcus back to you broken while Viktor releases his hybrids into Seattle as planned."

"Don't do it," Marcus said before Isabella intervened. "She exaggerated her intelligence. Viktor's deadline is real; surrender now or lose Seattle and the tribunal."

Isabella pressed the knife harder against Marcus's throat, causing blood to pool around the silver blade. “You have two hours to decide,” she said. After that, Beta loses body parts and Viktor's countdown continues.

Little silver wolf, choose wisely."

Elena stared at the blank screen after the call as her mind raced through impossible calculations. She'd risk captivity if she surrendered to Isabella, who might not release Marcus or provide real intelligence. If she refused, Marcus would be tortured and possibly killed as Viktor's deadline approached.

"We're not negotiating with her," Dante said, but Elena could sense his uncertainty. Isabella wants you more than stopping Viktor, so she'll let Seattle burn for your bloodline."

"Then we hit both locations simultaneously," Elena said, planning as she spoke. "Split our forces and attack Cross territory to rescue Marcus and hit Viktor's facility with the rest."

"We don't have the numbers to fight two battles at once," a pack member said. Viktor has twenty guards and thirty-two hybrids, while Isabella has thirty wolves. Both locations would outnumber us."

From the doorway, Katerina said, "Not if we have help," looking stronger than after the transfusion. Other packs should hate Isabella's territorial ambitions. Dante may have enough allies if he asks for favors."

Elena could tell Dante was stressed as alpha after alpha refused to get involved or demanded concessions that would weaken Blackwood pack's position while he was on his phone making calls. Regional politics were complicated, and most alphas wouldn't risk their packs for Dante's mate issue.

The mysterious sender who warned Elena about the tribunal sent another message to Elena's phone: "The south wall of Isabella's estate is weak. Service entrance. At 2200, guard rotation changes. You have 10 minutes."

"Someone's helping us," Elena told Dante, showing the message. "Someone who knows Isabella's security details and wants us to succeed."

"Or someone who wants us dead and is feeding us false intelligence like David," Dante grimly said. "We can't trust anyone's information without verification."

"Then we confirm," Elena said. "Scout Isabella's estate and confirm guard rotation. Use good intelligence. If false, someone is actively trying to kill us."

The scout confirmed the guard rotation as described, proving either the mysterious sender was real or the trap was sophisticated enough to include verifiable details. Dante decided to split his pack into two teams, with him rescuing Marcus and his most experienced fighters attacking Viktor's facility.

Dante shook his head when Elena said, "I'm going with the Viktor team."

"You're recovering from the transfusion," he said. "Your condition precludes fighting."

Elena said, "I don't need to fight." "I must be close to sense and disrupt Viktor's hybrid control. Viktor controls his experiments with artificial pack bonds, if David was honest. I alone can break those bonds."

Dante looked like he wanted to refuse, but Marcus's torture was ticking and they had no time to argue. "You stay in the car," he agreed. "You coordinate from a safe distance and only engage when necessary."

Elena rode in an armored SUV with five of Blackwood's best fighters to Viktor's facility while Dante led the Marcus extraction team to Cross territory.

The mysterious sender's messages stopped, either because they'd helped enough or succeeded in manipulating.

Elena received a video call from Viktor twenty minutes from his facility. She answered and saw him in a control room with monitors showing hybrid cages behind him.

"I know you're coming," Viktor smiled. Isabela told me about your assault plans in exchange for a share of the hybrid serum when I perfect it with your genetics. Except for enough explosives to level a city block, the facility you're approaching is empty.

The real facility is three miles east, and I've activated Seattle's hybrid release protocol. You have thirty minutes

to surrender or watch the news coverage of thirty-two rabid wolves in Pioneer Square."