Chapter 5: The Silence Of The Allyway

Chapter 5

The Silence Of The Allyway

The silence of the alleyway was shattered the moment Laila pressed the phone to her ear. Her father’s voice did not just speak; it boomed, vibrating through the speaker with the practiced authority of a man used to being obeyed without question.

"Laila! Where the hell are you?" Alpha Tyler roared, his breath heavy on the other end. "Do you have any idea what time it is? People are already arriving at the estate. The guest wing is filling up, and you are nowhere to be found. Get back here right now. You have a marriage to prepare for tomorrow morning."

Laila stood in the shadows of the bar’s exterior, her back against the cold brick wall. The alcohol in her system made her head swim, but her heart was stone cold. "I am not coming home, Dad."

There was a brief, sharp silence on the line, the kind of silence that usually preceded a storm. "I heard what happened," Tyler said, his voice dropping into a tone that was terrifyingly casual. "I heard what Lyra and Davis did. Look, Laila, it was a mistake. A lapse in judgment. But you should not take it so seriously. She is your sister, for heaven's sake. She is young and impulsive. Come back home and let us go on with the preparations. We have a legacy to maintain."

Laila felt a jagged laugh tear through her throat. It sounded hollow even to her. "Not take it seriously? He was inside her, Dad. In my bed. On the eve of our bonding. And your only concern is the guest list?"

"It is a marriage between two powerful packs, Laila!" Tyler’s voice rose again, stripping away the fake empathy. "This is about the Wolfe and Brooke empires. Do not fail us now. Do not be selfish over a small family matter."

"That is the problem," Laila hissed, tears of rage blurring the neon lights of the street. "That is all I have ever been to you. A means to your end. I am the daughter you run to when you need to bag a difficult contract or secure a deal because you know I am the only one with the brains to do it. But the moment I am hurting, I am just being selfish? I am done, Dad. I am done being that daughter for you."

"You are being hysterical," Tyler snapped. "I saw you used your credit card at the Swiss Hotel. When I called the front desk, I was told you barely stayed in the suite for ten minutes before you went back out. Where are you? Tell me exactly where you are before I send the enforcers to fetch you."

Laila opened her mouth to tell him to never call her again, but the words died in her throat.

Movement in the shadows caught her eye. From behind a row of industrial dumpsters, a familiar figure stepped out. It was the spiky haired dude from earlier, the one Kaden’s guard had chased off. But he was not alone this time. Five other men, all looking rough and smelling of cheap adrenaline, stepped out behind him, fanning out to block the exit of the alley.

The spiky haired man let out a maniacal, jagged laugh that set Laila’s nerves on fire. "Oh, look at this. Your knight in the shiny suit is not here to save you now, is he?" He sneered, stepping into the dim light. "What happened? Is he inside flirting with another lady or did he get bored of the rich girl already?"

Laila’s grip tightened on her phone. She tried to step back toward the bar door, but the men circled her with practiced precision, cutting off her path.

"Laila?" her father’s voice crackled through the phone, sounding distant and frantic. "Laila, who are those people? Who is talking? Is everything okay?"

Before Laila could scream for help, one of the men lunged forward with a speed that blurred her vision. He snatched the phone right out of her hand. Laila gasped, reaching for it, but the man dropped it onto the wet pavement and brought his heavy leather boot down on it with a sickening crunch. The screen shattered, the light died, and her father’s voice was silenced forever.

"Now," the leader hissed, his eyes roaming over Laila with a terrifying hunger. "Let us see how much that fancy Alpha really cares about you."

Laila spun around, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She tried to bolt toward the main street, her heels skidding on the damp, oil slicked ground. Fear made her movements clumsy, the alcohol slowing her reflexes just enough to be fatal. Her foot caught on an uneven piece of pavement, and she felt the world tilt.

She fell hard.

Her head struck the concrete floor with a dull, heavy thud. For a second, the night sky exploded into a thousand white stars, and then, the darkness rushed in to swallow her whole. She slumped into a heap, unconscious before her body even settled.

Inside the bar, Kaden had stood up few minutes from the moment Laila walked away. A strange, gnawing unease had settled in his gut, a feeling he usually reserved for impending war.

"She has been gone too long," Kaden muttered to his bodyguard.

"She is just on the phone, boss," the guard replied, though he was already adjusting his jacket, sensing Kaden’s shift in mood.

"No. Something is wrong."

Kaden pushed through the exit door, his senses immediately going on high alert. The scent of fear and cheap cologne hit him instantly. He stepped into the alleyway just in time to see the group of men hovering over Laila’s limp form.

"Get away from her!" Kaden’s voice was not a shout; it was a low, vibrating growl that shook the very air.

The men jumped back, their eyes widening as they saw the lethal fury radiating from the man in the suit. They did not stick around to fight. They scrambled for an old, beat up sedan parked at the end of the alley, piling in and slamming the doors.

As the car screeched away, the men leaned out of the windows, laughing crazily and making mocking faces at Kaden, their tires kicking up dirty water as they sped off into the night.

Kaden did not give them a second look. His entire world narrowed down to the woman lying motionless on the cold ground. He rushed to her side, dropping to his knees without a thought for his expensive trousers.

"Laila," he whispered, his large hands trembling as he gently cradled her head. He felt the warm, sticky dampness of blood at the back of her skull. "Laila, wake up."

His bodyguard was already on his radio, his face a mask of cold efficiency. "Bring the car around to the east alley. Now! We have a medical emergency."

Kaden gathered Laila into his arms, lifting her as if she weighed nothing. Her head fell back against his shoulder, her face pale and peaceful in a way that made his chest ache. He looked down at the shattered remains of her phone on the ground, then back at the woman in his arms.

He did not know who she was or why she was running, but as he felt her faint heartbeat against his chest, he knew one thing for certain. The wolves who did this to her would pray for the mercy of death before he was finished with them.