Chapter 62

3rd Person

“He has her.” Capsian growled, watching the security monitor as Dramien approached the stage, grinning maliciously at his poor mate. While they watched, the terrifying Alpha circled Viviane like some sort of craven vulture, raking his eyes over every inch of her body. She glared and kept her head held high, looking straight past him when he finally came to stand in front of her.

Chuckling, Damien muttered, “She’s even better up close.” He grasped her chin between his thumb and forefinger, turning her head from left to right while Viviane scowled at him from beneath her lashes, trying to be defiant, but not dominant enough to stare him straight in the eye.

Caspian snarled when Damien moved to study his mark on Viviane’s shoulder. “Ah, not just any Alpha either.” He leered, “You managed to tame Caspian Shaw. My wretched son tells me his power is only second to my own. I’m impressed.”

“Your son?” Viviane hissed.

“Ah-ah, my beauty.” He scolded, “didn’t they tell you never to speak unless you are called upon?”

“They did.” Viviane assured him. “And before you object again, you did just ask me a question.”

Damien laughed, a horrible, mirthless sound, “Oh I do like you. I think you’ll be my new favorite.”

“I don’t know who your son is,” Viviane countered, “but I promise you this, he’s twice the man you’ll ever be.”

“If that was true you wouldn’t be here right now.” Damien informed her coldly. “A true Alpha protects his mate.”

“It wasn’t his fault.” Viviane defended me hotly. “I disobeyed him and got myself caught.”

“I admire your instinct to defend your mate.” Damien declared, sounding like he felt no such thing. “But if you disobeyed he didn’t do a good enough job teaching you to submit. Trust me, I will not make the same mistake. You may be spirited, but I have broken plenty of girls like you before, and you will be no different.”

Caspian forced himself to look away from the monitor and turn off the sound. If he kept tuning it, he’d lose his mind. It was the largest screen in a room whose walls were lined with televisions from top to bottom. Every feed playing across the monitors was a horror film in the making. It seemed like there wasn’t a single room on the brothel not under surveillance, which meant the guards who watched over them saw nothing but abuse from morning to night.

It hadn’t been easy for Caspian, Chase and Marina to get this far on their own. It had required the men taking down every guard in their path before they ever saw them coming. Marina slunk along behind them, trying to stay quiet as they breached the auction house. She’s insisted on coming along, even after Chase locked an extremely irate Kiera in their rooms at the hotel.

They did their best to hide from the cameras as they went, unsure if they were actually getting away with it until they were able to steal a few uniforms and pass themself off as guards. They moved through the building like ghosts, winding their way through the corridors until they found the security headquarters.

Quickly incapacitating the sentries inside, Chase took over the console as Caspian prepared to go after his mate. The trick wasn’t finding her anymore, it was getting to her. “We’re going to reach a point where we won’t be able to hide our presence here any longer. They’ll know they’ve been infiltrated – what we have to do is make sure that they can’t tip off Damien.”

“I’ll cut off the comms channels.” Chase confirmed, “They can call out warnings all they want, but it won’t go through if the radio signals are jammed.”

“I’ll stand watch here.” Marina stated, re-affirming the plan they’d agreed upon to ensure they were all on the same page. “In case anyone tries to check in with HQ when they don’t get a copy.”

“Chase, have you figured out how to get through the secure access doors and elevators?” Caspian questioned.

“I think I’ve got it figured out.” The Beta confirmed. “You need to move, he’s taking her off the stage.”

Looking back to the monitors, Caspian snarled as he saw Damian dragging Viviane, kicking and screaming from the auction dais. He supposed after she’d already given the game away, she’d decided ‘to hell with it’ and was planning on fighting for all she was worth. He felt both proud of her and furious with these soulless Bloodstone wolves.

“Hey,” Chase advised him, feeling his friend’s spiraling energy. “Keep it together man. You can’t help her if you’re out of control.”

“I know.” Casian seethed as he moved for the door. Pausing before he turned the handle, he looked back at his friend. “If I don’t make it –”

“Don’t talk like that!” Chase objected.

“The only way out of this is to fight him.” Caspian reminded him, “I don’t know if I can win, but I know I can give Viviane time to run away. Just get her out of here, and if I don’t come back… just promise me you’ll take care of my girl.”

“You know I will.” Chase confirmed somberly.

“I love you, brother.” Caspian stalked back to his best friend for a final hug.

“I love you too.” Chase professed, patting his back.

Marina intercepted Caspian then, placing her hands on his arms. “I’m sorry for what I said when you two first met.” She confessed. “I judged you unfairly because of what you are, but I was wrong. You were everything I could ever hope for in a mate for my daughter.”

“Thank you.” Caspian smiled, feeling suddenly warmer. Afterwards he took off through the dark hallways, moving as stealthily as he could until he finally reached the public part of the brothel. For the first few floors, he could pretend to be any other patron, and as much as he wanted to stop and help the other mermaids, he simply didn’t have the time.

He caught onto Viviane’s scent near the auction hall, and began following it with such single minded determination he almost gave himself away. When he realized his aggressive charge was drawing attention from a few other shifters, he allowed his pace and began admiring the exhibition rooms as he passed them.

When he reached the first locked door, he paused to say a quick prayer before trying it. Luckily Chase was looking out for him. It opened without an issue, so did the next one, and the next. The first guard to which he came put up a hand to stop him, “Hey, you can’t be up here.”

Caspian scowled and didn’t slow, “I paid damn good money for VIP access, I’ll go where I like.”

“Sir, I’m serious, this is a restricted –”

When Caspian was a few inches from the man, he lashed out and knocked him out with a powerful right hook. He only paused long enough to pull the body into an alcove, then continued down the hall. He snuck up behind two more and bashed them over the head before they could turn around. When he finally reached the elevator, he texted Chase. “What Floor?”

Almost instantly the answer came back, top floor.

He pressed the button, bracing himself for whatever he would find at the top. When the doors opened, it was directly into the penthouse. As the silver doors parted he saw Damien dragging Viviane towards a huge king sized bed. “Viviane!” Caspian roared,

She spun around so quickly his heart stopped in his chest. Her pale hair whipped around her had like a halo, her beautiful eyes wide and terrified. “Caspian!” The fear was palpable in her voice, but just being in the same room with her after all these weeks was a balm to his soul.

Damien turned too, his brows arching in surprise. He moved quickly, releasing Viviane only long enough to flit to the wall and press a red button. Before Caspian knew what happened, a wall of glass surrounded him, separating him from Damien and his mate.

“Oh Caspian,” Damien drawled in a voice that was rough and hoarse. “Did you really think it would be that easy?”

Down in the control room, Chase was frantically going over the controls, cursing violently as he tried to figure out what had happened or how to undo Damien’s strange safe room. And then, just as Damien’s face stretched into the most horrible, sadistic grim he’d ever seen, movement flashed out of the corner of his eye.

“What the hell?” He muttered, zeroing in on the monitor at the bottom left of the wall of screens. The basement level cameras were picking up a live feed that had his heart sinking straight into the pit of his stomach, and anger bubbling up in his chest. The dark room was full of prison cells where the bloodstones were clearly keeping freshly caught mermaids, and there, darting through the dungeon and unlocking cages one by one – was Kiera.