23. Captured (part 2)

-2 days later-

James´ P.O.V.

Fuck, I can´t believe this happened. Everything was so perfect and now here we are, both our mates hurt and one of them completely alone and scared. I am so fucking angry and at the same time, I want to cry so bad. Noah has already had a breakdown yesterday, where he locked himself in the attic and started throwing heavy furniture to the ground and against the walls to get rid of his unending frustration.

In the last days, we have been at three of the packs that Aiden could have potentially lived in before. Always searching every inch of the house, not being able to sleep these nights.

The guilt and worry is eating me up from inside. I should have gone with him when he got the bandages. I´m his Alpha, my role is to protect him and Luke at all times. And ...I failed.

I´m quite exhausted but we have to keep going. Luke had been sleeping for most of the time these past two days, he needs it to be able to recover from that terrible head wound of his.

When we came back to our house, I brought Luke to our pack doctor after the Beta at the gathering had already done the first aid. Wilder and were already searching for a trace of Aiden´s scent, determined to find him. They came back at 2 am the next morning, exhausted and devestated. The pack doctor gave me some medicine for Luke to take in order to help him sleep. We can´t have him be as restless as we are right now and we need to make sure that he at least is safe and healing properly if we can´t do the same for Aiden.

I´m currently sitting on the bed with Noah next to Lukes sleeping form, inspecting his head and putting a new bandage on when Wilder barges through the door.

"The forth pack won´t let us in to search for him. They´re the Red Moon pack.", he says, his brother coming in after him. Caleb, Christian and Jamie have slept over at our house since that night of the gathering, trying to help us with everything.

"That means war. We have to attack", Noah says determined.

"Already on it. We have father´s and Alpha Henry´s pack on our side, as well as ours and Alpha John´s pack", Caleb says, looking at his phone while reading off the list of pack names.

"Father always had problems with that pack. Alpha Terrance is ruthless. Father´s tried to take him down for years but could never give any evidence against him. If we find Aiden there... we have permission to kill those in charge." Wilder add, a hard look on his face.

"When are we attacking?", I ask.

"As soon as possible, we can be ready at midnight, so ten hours until we have the warriors ready and in position" Caleb answers and we nod towards each other.

I just hope we´re not too late...

-meanwhile-

Aiden´s P.O.V.

I have been in darkness for this whole time I´ve been here. The only time when I get to see light is for about 30 seconds at a time, when Alpha Terrance opens the door and comes down to punish me. I don´t really know how long I´ve been here but it must be several days... I don´t know anymore, I´ve lost all sense of time. And I´m starting to belive that I´ll never see the sunlight again.

I´m so hungry and my stomach really hurts. My lips are dry and I think I´m starting to hallucinate from dehydration. I can´t think straight anymore and the pain is almost unbearable. He has hit me with whips, with his fists and with his belt. He hit me so hard once that I thrwe up next to the bed. For a brief moment I thought I was going to suffocate with the gag still in my mouth. It hasn´t been cleaned up and the awful smell of stomach acid lingers in the air.

I´m too weak to care though, my body violently jerking once in a while from being so cold. The gag has come off a few hours ago when he came downstairs and threw water in my face. I tried to get as much water as possible into my mouth but that would never be enough. He´s teasing me, reminding me of my position and about how worthless I am and I can feel myself slipping back into my state of mind I was in when I was here before. Show no emotion, be quiet and submissive and it won´t hurt as bad.

Right now, I´m mentally preparing for my death. I was so extremely afraid of it and cried so much but now, it seems like I can´t cry anmore. The dehydration won´t allow it and I´m too weak to try.

My lips are probably blue and my teeth have been chattering for quite some time now. My body is sweating even though I try everything in my willpower not to because the sweat will only make me colder but it´s the fever. I´m helpless against it.

I close my eyes, trying to breathe normally and with a sore throat, I very quietly begin to hum that song that Julia taught me, the song I always sang when I was hurting back then. It obviously sounds terrible right now but in my mind it is my mother who sings it with me and in some way, it soothes me as I let the beautiful, sacred memories I have of my mates begin to form in my mind.

Is this how it ends? Is this death? I never thought this moment would come so soon but I always knew that I would have to go eventually but there had always been that tiny spark of hope. The hope of living a life that is happy and a life with my mates that would end in peace. I guess it just wasn´t meant for me...