Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 174: To Trust or Not to Trust

*Mark*

“Miss Rose sent a message.”

The words of the messenger running from the car toward us hit me right in the heart. “Rose sent a message?” we all repeat in one way or another. Our mission to storm Alpha Stephen’s castle looking for her has momentarily been put on hold. Unless, of course, this messenger says she’s being held within the castle, which I doubt at this point.

He is out of breath, and the fact that he is panting is annoying all of us as we wish he’d just spit it out, whatever it is.

“Use the mind-link if you have to!” Tristan shouts at him.

But by now, he seems to be able to breathe again. “She’s being held captive in Alpha Kane’s castle,” he finally says, still doubled-over.

“Alpha Kane has her?” Reece presses. “You’re certain?”

“That’s what she said.” He’s able to straighten up a bit. “That’s the message her parents received.”

We all look at one another. Can her parents be trusted? After all, they were never kind to Rose. We wouldn’t put it past them to join with Kane to make things difficult for us.

“I don’t understand why they suddenly care,” Tristan says, looking at Reece and I and then back to the messenger.

“Yeah, it’s just not adding up,” I agree. “They have never shown an interest in Rose before.”

“Maybe this is just a ruse, arranged by Alpha Stephen, to get us to leave his castle without looking inside of it.” Reece scratches his chin in deep thought. “Not that I necessarily think that Stephen is smart enough to come up with that.”

“This is true,” Tristan says. “It’s not like we can even tell for certain that this guy is from Rose’s parents’ pack.” He hooks a thumb at the messenger.

“Excuse me, sirs,” the man says. “I hate to interrupt, but I am from Rose’s parents’ pack.” He shows us the shoulders of his uniform, which contain the emblem of the Elm pack. “But more importantly, I can assure you that it’s real. I overheard the Luna and Alpha discussing whether or not to try to locate the three of you–well, the four of you.” He looks around, as if he is confused that one of us is missing, and another pang hits me. We do miss Eli and are worried about him, though Rose is our primary concern.

“Go on,” Tristan prods. “You overheard them saying what, exactly?”

He nods, as if bringing his thoughts back around. “I overheard them saying that they need the money, and they were told by whomever delivered the message on Miss Rose’s behalf, if they didn’t get her back to King Gene’s castle, they wouldn’t be eligible for the payment for her Breeder services that is due soon. So, you see, it’s not concern for their daughter that had them sending me over to find you. It’s greed. Now, surely, that must make sense to all of you.”

Again, we exchange glances, and the messenger, who seems sincere, and a little bitter, looks ready to dart back to the waiting car and get out of here. After all, he and his driver have just driven through what is about to be a war zone.

“I think we should move to Alpha Kane’s castle,” Tristan says. “We can leave some of our warriors here to surround Alpha Stephen’s castle and make sure that he isn’t a threat, but the three of us should rush over to Alpha Kane’s and see if Rose is truly there.”

“If she is, I will personally rip his head off,” Reece says, his eyes narrowing.

“I’m gonna tear his dick off and shove it down his throat,” Tristan adds, and I am left wondering if he will do that before or after Reece rips his head off.

They both look at me, like they are waiting for me to chime in. I can respond only, “I want him dead, too. I don’t care how it happens.”

Turning to the messenger, I say, “Thank you. You can go.” Normally, I would offer someone like this a tip, but I don’t have any money in the pockets of the sweatpants I’ve been handed.

Tristan signals to one of his men who is standing nearby, and the assistant steps forward with some bills that he hands to the messenger. That makes his face light up. “Thank you kindly, sirs,” he says before heading back to the car.

“He may not actually go back to his pack with that kind of a tip,” Reece notes.

Tristan shrugs. “If what he says is true, and Rose is at Alpha Kane's–alive–and we can save her and the pups, then that guy deserves a hell of a lot more than that.”

I definitely agree with him. We hold our soldiers at bay as the car turns around and heads back the direction it came from.

“All right,” Tristan says as the car roars away. “We need to get to Rose as soon as we can. Let’s just leave a few smaller units here to inspect the castle and keep Stephen from leaving.”

“Sounds good,” Reece and I tell him. I contact one of my commanders and give him the plan, then, I order the others to follow me.

Less than five minutes after the messenger from Rose’s home pack drove away, the three of us have shifted, and we are running swiftly to Alpha Kane’s castle. The battle is already underway there as we sent a lot of our warriors in that direction because we thought there was a good chance Kane had her. This is just further proof that Barbara is lying.

As I am running through the forest, dodging bushes and fallen tree limbs, I send a mind-link message to Adam. “Keep an eye on Barbara,” I tell him. “We are pretty sure that she lied to us about Alpha Stephen having Rose on purpose. She seems to know that Rose is at Alpha Kane’s castle. I’m certain she’s still working with Alpha Kane.”

He sounds exhausted when his voice fills my mind. “All right,” he says. “I’ll keep an eye on her. King Gene seems to be suffering from dementia. Most of the things coming out of his mouth now don’t even make sense.”

I am sad to hear that anyone is suffering from that awful disease, but considering his mother obviously has it, I’m not too surprised. “Keep an eye on him, too. He might decide to do something stupid.”

Adam replies, “I’m afraid it’s a little too late for that. He’s always doing something stupid.”

I know that to be the truth as well.

We spend a couple of hours running, and then the sounds of battle hit our ears. Up in front of us, I see the top of Alpha Kane’s modest castle jutting out of the mountain top and know we are almost there.

Rose is here. I can sense her.

“I’m coming for you, baby!” I tell her, not using the mind-link because I’ve been unable to reach her, but I’m telling her with my heart and soul.

I will find her, I will make sure she’s safe, and then, I will make Kane pay.