JULIEN

The lights of the room turned on and two people walked in, one of them was the beta hunter that was in charge of bringing me food and he was followed by a tall black-haired man I didn’t recognize. I looked at him curiously, half of his face was covered by a black mask. I knew he was Asian due to his eyes and his skin was awfully pale. He had mullet hair-style, grayish-blue eyes, and a scar crossed downwards in his right eye. He made eye contact with me and shivers went down my spine; he was an alpha.

“Are you sure this is the one?” The strange man said turning to look at the hunter. He had a really deep voice.

“Yes, sir. He matches the description your master gave us.” The hunter responded with a big smile. “And he is unharmed, we were cautious just like he asked.” I was confused by their words. ‘Master? Someone was looking for me?’ 

“I’ll take him.” The alpha said handing the hunter a big suitcase. “It’s all there, no need to count it. Thank you for your services.” The black-haired alpha looked back at me, he took his phone out calling someone. 

I looked at the hunter who pressed a strange button that was next to my tank. A weird liquid started to fill the water, I didn’t know what it was but it was starting to make me feel drowsy. 

“Master, I got him. I’ll head home tonight.” And that was the last thing I heard the mysterious alpha say before everything turned black.

BYRON

‘Are you all in position?’ I said through the pack's link to the rescue team we gathered; formed by beta mermen and wolves. Mason and I were in charge of leading the team since Dad and Layton couldn’t come with us. We had the best warriors of both kinds and our mission was clear: save Julien. 

We were divided, surrounding every entrance of the building. Just a sign and we would be barging into this awful place. After doing some research, we discovered it was a supernatural trafficking ring, these hunters kidnapped innocent people to later sell them in illegal auctions to greedy people; both humans and supernaturals. And yes, it was a mission to save my mate, but it would be like killing two birds with one stone. 

Once everyone was ready, I gave a signal and after turning into our wolf forms, we entered the place. It was full of guards but we managed to knock them down and catch every single one. There were rooms full of omegas, and even betas, from all kinds of supernatural breeds in cages, but Julien was nowhere to be seen. I kept searching every room but still nothing, he was not there. A faint but familiar smell came to my nose.

‘Mate.’ Boris growled and I followed the scent to a room down the hallway. I knocked down the door, ready to fight anyone who was there with my mate but to my surprise, there was no one, just an empty water tank, and his scent still lingered in the room. 

‘Byron, you found him?’ Mason asked me as he walked into the empty room and stood by my side.

‘It’s too late, we were too late, Mason.’ Boris started to whimper and my heart ached, I loudly howled in distress.

~oOoOo~

JULIEN

I woke up dizzy and found myself in a completely unknown room, but this time it was different. I felt something soft under me, I moved around and noticed I was lying in a big bed. I was confused as to why I was there, the last thing I remembered was that mysterious alpha talking with the hunter and now I was in a comfy bed. I tried to get out of bed, but as soon as I touched the floor with my bare feet, my legs failed causing me to fall. The sound of a chain startled me, I looked down at my feet and noticed I was cuffed up against the bed.

“Oh, I see you woke up.” I gasped, I was not alone in the room. I looked up to find a man on the other side of the room, he was sitting on a chair, a book in his hands. He looked around my age and was kind of familiar; by his scent, I could tell he was an alpha.  “How are you feeling?”

I moved my mouth out of instinct, but of course, I couldn’t talk. I moved my hands insecure, maybe he knew sign language or maybe don’t. I bit my lip not knowing what to do.

“I see you are the same. Don’t worry, I know sign language, Julien.” I gasped again. How did he know my name? And what did he mean by me being ‘the same’?

“Where am I? How do you know my name?” I asked him, I didn’t like this at all. It was starting to freak me out. 

“You are in my house and I’m hurt you don’t remember me.” He put the book he was reading away and looked at me with a sad expression. “I’ve missed you, Julien.”

“Who? Who are you?” 

“It’s me, Jackson.” He softly smiled at me. Jackson? Jackson…Where did I hear that name before?… Jack… Wait! Was it really him? I turned to look at him with eyes wide open. It was him… 

~oOoOo~

I had successfully escaped from home and now I was in town, running through the park. I’ve always been bored of staying in my house all day doing the same things: reading, drawing, listening to music, playing the piano, laying in bed, and looking at a fixed point on the ceiling. I was fourteen and I needed freedom. I needed friends, Mikaela rarely came to visit these days and my parents didn’t allow me to go visit him. I was tired so I escaped.

Since it was late at night, some of the guards were too sleepy to pay attention to their surroundings; I even found Miles and Edmund making out on my way out, but they were too busy with each other's mouths that they didn’t notice me. And that’s how I managed to get to the town’s park. There was no one there so I could play all the games. After sliding several times on the slide, I sat on one of the swings. Looking around the place, I noticed some couples walking by. Seeing them holding hands and being all lovey-dovey, made me think if I would be like that in the future too.  

“Hi, can I play with you?” A voice distracted me from my thoughts and I looked where it came from. Standing close to me was a kid, who looked a little older than me; maybe because he was a little taller than I was. His skin was awfully pale but his hair was a dark shade of brown and his eyes were gray, he was kind of cute. I nodded and took out a notepad and pen, I wrote something and showed it to him. 

“Yes, I would like to play with you. My name’s Julien.” He read it and looked at me confused.

“You can’t talk?” He asked curiously and I just nodded in response. “Oh well, it’s nice to meet you, Julien. My name is Jackson but you can call me Jack.” He smiled and I noticed how big his fangs were but I didn’t mind, after all, everyone’s different. 

“Nice to meet you, Jack.” I smiled at him and then stood up from the swing. “So, what do you want to play first?”

~oOoOo~

After that, I remember we played for a while until my parents found me and when I looked back to introduce him to them, he was no longer there. I was grounded for a while and then after having a serious conversation with my parents, they allowed me to go to the lake every full moon and also build my greenhouse; flowers became a big distraction for me at that time. 

I came back to reality and looked at Jackson. He still had those beautiful gray eyes, his face changed a bit and now he looked more masculine, more mature; it was obvious he had a nice body too, but nothing compared to my wolf’s. I missed him so much. Did he know I was kidnapped? Was he looking for me? A lot of questions started to fill my mind. I bit my lip and felt some strong arms grabbing me by the arms, Jackson helped me seat on the bed again. 

“I remember you now, but what do you want from me?” I asked him confused.

“I missed you and I’ve been looking for you for a while.” He smiled and then moved his chair closer to me. He sat and looked into my eyes. “And I want to play with you like we did that day.”

“But I don’t need to be chained to play with you.” I frowned still confused and pointed at my ankle that was cuffed up to the bed.

“Just a precaution, I don’t want you running away from me again.” He looked into my eyes and I could tell he was serious about it, I started to get nervous again. “But anyways, do you want some tea?” He smiled widely and I noticed his fangs were larger.

I turned pale, I was so blind back then: being out at night, pale skin, and large fangs…Vampire, Jackson was a vampire. The man that the hunter and the alpha from before referred to as Master was him. This was beyond friendship, it was an obsession, this man was obsessed with me and he wanted me for himself. I realized I was in a dangerous place and even though I was scared, I had to play along with him for my good.

“Yes, I would like some tea, Jackson.” I put on my best-forced smile and hoped that Byron was going to come and save me from this madman.

~oOoOo~

BYRON

It’s been two days since we last knew about Julien’s whereabouts. The tracker in his collar had gone off and we were all starting to get stressed, mostly me. I was beginning to go feral and depressed at the thought of my mate being in danger, I couldn’t even sleep, I felt drained. I just wanted him back with me. No, I needed him here with me so I could give him kisses, and cuddles. Just breathing into his scent would be enough for me.

“Byron, sweetie. You need to eat something.” Jamie said handing me a plate with some food. I shook my head, never looking away from the screen we had settled in my dad’s office so we could all see the tracking app; the tablet we were using was too tiny and we were many, so with the help of some betas we had a bigger screen now. 

“It’s true, Byron. You have to eat or you won’t have the energy to save Julien.” I heard Henry say, he sat next to me and took my hand, carefully caressing it. “When’s the last time you slept?”

Due to our rescue mission, Eleanor and Henry came every day. Henry was starting to become friends with Jamie, they had similar personalities so that wasn’t a surprise. Meanwhile, Eleanor was trying to not show disgust with the fact that her mate was being friendly with the wolves she despised so much. Dad took Eleanor to another room to talk about something in private but I didn’t care about anything at the moment. I only cared about my mate.

“I’m not hungry or sleepy,” I said to both omegas without looking at them. 

“Byron, how do you expect to save your mate if you are not at your full po—” Jamie started saying but got interrupted.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The tracker was back on, I stood up, looking at where the signal was coming from. Eleanor and Dad barged into the room after hearing the beeping.

“He’s on the outskirts of Lumberg city,” I said looking back at them with a serious face. “We have to get there as soon as possible.” 

“But it’s a long drive from here, we would have to go by plane,” Layton said looking at me. “And even by plane, it would take two days to get there.”

“That explains it all, he was in a plane so the signal got interrupted,” Henry said and then looked at Eleanor with pleading eyes. The woman just sighed and looked at us.

“You can take our private plane, I think you can fit the whole team in there.” She said not convinced but since it was about trying to rescue her son, she couldn’t show her displeasure.

“Perfect, Mason gather the team. We are leaving as soon as possible.” I said to my best friend, he nodded leaving a soft kiss on his mate’s cheek before leaving the room. I looked at the others in the room, Layton, Jamie, and my dad were looking at me with a smile on their faces; except for Layton, but I could tell he was feeling the same. “What? Is there something on my face?”

“You really looked like an Alpha just now, we are proud of you, son,” Dad said giving me a big hug. I looked at Jamie and Layton, and they nodded at me, agreeing with my dad’s words. “I think you are ready to become the pack’s alpha.”

I gasped and then nodded at his words. Maybe I was ready to be the Alpha of the pack but first I had to go and save my Luna.

‘This time I’ll get there on time Julien and I’ll bring you back home.’