Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 215: Blood in the Wreckage

*Eli*

Leaving Rose once again is heartbreaking, but knowing that my son—and the other pups—are out there with some crazy woman is just as unbearable. I’m thankful for Shelby because at least there’s one very trusted friend who can be there with her while she waits for us to return with the pups.

And we will return with the pups—or die trying.

‘Shelby’s with Rose,’ I tell the others in the mind-link as I race toward their location. I know that information will help put their minds at ease as well.

‘We just took a southwest turn,’ says Reece. ‘The scent is getting stronger now. We’re definitely on the right path.’

‘I doubt I’ll catch up with you, but keep giving updates, and I’m right behind you,’ I say. I’m running at full speed in my wolf form, but the other Alphas are doing the same, and they have quite a head start on me.

‘Stop!’ says Mark.

I don’t want to stop, but the way he says it makes me feel like it’s the right choice, so I slow down a bit while he continues, ‘We’ve hit a road, and there are tire tracks, so they’re in a car. If you’re not far and can head back for a vehicle, you can meet up with some of my warriors and cut them off.’

I nod, even though no one is around, while I make a complete U-turn and run top speed back to Mark’s castle.

‘I’ll send word ahead to have vehicles and a team ready,’ he says. ‘We’ll keep going in this direction.’

Luckily, I haven’t been running long, so it’s only about five minutes until I’m back at the castle, and as expected, Mark’s pack is ready with a group of vehicles and a bunch of determined-looking warriors. I jump in still in wolf form, and an assistant hands me clothes from the backseat, which I change into as the driver takes off.

“Alpha Mark has given us directions,” the driver says. “I know these roads well. If they’re on Rural Road Five—that’s the dirt road Alpha Mark found the tire tracks on—then it’ll be easy to head them off if we go to Highway Seven.”

I nod as I throw the shirt over my head and completely trust that this man knows where he’s going. I’ve been to Mark’s territory before, but it was a long time ago, and I certainly didn’t memorize the roads.

‘What’s going on?’ asks Rose in my mind.

I’d hoped she would sleep longer, but apparently not. She’d drifted off after I’d rubbed that herbal salve on her chest that the nurse had handed me, and it did seem to calm her quickly. I guess in her panicked state, the effects hadn’t lasted long.

‘I’m in a vehicle now,’ I tell her. She certainly has every right to know exactly what’s going on in the search for the pups—for my son and the others. ‘The other Alphas found tire tracks on a road, so some warriors and I are looping around to get ahead of… whoever it is that has the babies.’

‘Retta,’ she says. And before I can ask, she continues, ‘Retta is a part of my parents’ pack, and I used to go to school with her. She was mean then but acted like she’s nice now. She fooled us…. She fooled me into thinking that she was a different person now, that my parents had sent her to help with the pups. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted her, but I just wanted to believe—”

‘Baby, it’s okay,’ I say to her. ‘You’re a kind soul, and you want to believe the best in people. There’s nothing wrong with that.’

‘But it got our son stolen!’ she says. ‘It got all the pups kidnapped, and now they’re with that bitch, and who knows who else?! Eli, she wouldn’t have taken them if there wasn’t something in it for her. Someone, somewhere has offered her money for our babies, or she wouldn’t have done what she did. I just know that someone dangerous has them! Eli, who would it be?’

‘I don’t know, baby,’ I say. ‘But I promise we’ll get all the babies back safe and sound, then we’ll catch this Retta person, and whoever paid her, and lock them away forever.’

‘After I get a piece of her,’ she says.

‘I know how you feel, baby,’ I say. ‘Let’s just get the pups back safely first, and then we’ll worry about that evil woman later. She’s not important right now.’

‘Eli, I—”

‘I know, Rose,’ I say. ‘I know.’ She doesn’t have to finish that sentence. There’s really no way to use words to explain this feeling we’re all having right now anyway. Panic is a part of it, and anger, and rage. But none of those words really do justice to the feeling you get when your child is missing, and someone very evil has a hold of them.

It’s a nightmare.

“Which way does this road lead?” I ask. I completely trust the driver, but I just feel like I need to get more information right now. In a situation where I have no control, I need as much information as I can get.

“It goes north for a bit before it meets up with Highway Seven,” the driver says. He has an understanding tone in his voice. He knows how horrified I am right now, even though he can never completely understand. And he knows his Alpha is in the same state that I’m in right now. “From there, it makes a big loop before heading back in the direction of Rural Road Five. That gives us enough road that there’s no way they could have passed us. We’ll run right into them, with Alpha Mark and the others closing in on them from behind. We’ll cut them off for sure.”

“Thank you,” I say. The assistant in the backseat hands me a bottle of water, which I happily accept. The other Alphas have been running for a long time. If I can keep up my strength and stay hydrated, I’ll be in the best shape of all the Alphas to take on whatever is waiting for us when we cut off Retta and the pups. After all, if there was a car waiting, and that means she has help. If it’s another Alpha, I’d better be ready to fight hard.

I have a few ideas about who that might be, but I’ll wait and see for myself.

It felt like forever, but I’m sure it wasn’t really that long before we reached the highway and started circling around to get back to the dirt road Retta had escaped on.

‘Any news?’ asks Rose in my mind.

‘Nothing yet, baby,’ I say. ‘But we’re getting closer. We had to drive around for a bit so we could be in a position to cut her off. As soon as I know anything, I will tell you, sweetie.’

‘I know you will,’ she says.

Eventually we reached a dirt road that slowed down our progress quite a bit as the driver worked to avoid as many potholes as he could.

‘There’s something up ahead,’ Tristan tells me in my mind. I can tell that the message is only going to me and the other Alphas, so I’m very nervous about what he’s found out there if he doesn’t want to tell Rose.

‘What is it?’ I ask.

There’s silence for a while, and I swear my heart isn’t even beating. ‘Tristan?’

‘It’s… it’s a car wreck,’ he says.

At that, a boulder drops in the pit of my stomach, and my heart freezes. So much flashed before my eyes—how I’d arrived just in time for little Ethan’s birth, how I’d brushed back his little tufts of red hair while his little eyes looked up at me, how I’d sit and watch him sleep, how I’d watch Rose’s beautiful face light up when she held our son.

I just can’t… I cannot have lost him–not now. Not ever. My heart would rip into shreds.

Moments later, we round a corner and see the same scene up ahead that Tristan had described. The car looks crushed and for a moment, I can’t even breathe.

‘Tristan?’ I say. ‘What do you see?’

He doesn’t have time to answer because I have already jumped out of the vehicle, before it even comes to a stop, and ran over to the wreckage. I stand there for a moment in about the same level of shock as the other Alphas as we assess the situation.

In the front seat is a woman that I quickly recognize as Barbara, slumped over and bleeding against a deployed airbag. The passenger side door is open, and the seat has what must be splotches of blood and broken glass all over the place. But it’s empty… whoever had been there is clearly gone.

But there is one thing there that makes my stomach churn.

A blue, empty, baby blanket--covered in blood.