Crossing Paths With The White Wolf

Gonzalo POV

at me.

I felt scratching in my head. I could hear Dario whimpering and feel an excruciating headache he was making worse. I felt the sparks on my back and my eyes snapped open as I remembered what happened and I'm just thankful to see her violet eyes looking down "Hey," She said softly. She is sitting against a concrete wall and we're on the hard floor. "Want to let go of my leg?" she asked and I looked down to see the tight grip of my arms around her leg. I removed them as I sat up and began to look around but was distracted when she started rubbing the spot. "Did I hurt you?" I asked.

"Well, according to the guard that was here when I woke up, they couldn't pry me out of your grip even unconscious, so Armand ordered them to put us in the same cell," she said, and then lifted her shirt a little. There was still some reddening along her abdomen. Guilt crashed into me. "I'm so sorry, Kassie. I-" I started.

"Shh. You were unconscious Lalo. If anything, I'm glad we're in here together if I had to be back in this hellhole," She said as she looked around.

"Where are we?" I said as I tried to communicate with Dario. I could hear his whimpering as he tried to push through but there was a block. I was guessing there was wolfsbane in whatever they shot me with along with the tranquilizers. I looked around the concrete cell. It was small but long. We were at the very back. There was a small toilet that better resembled a latrine. A small sink stood next to it. There was no bed or blankets. My right leg was chained to the wall, as was Kassie's left leg.

"The Estate dungeon. I think Karissa and Braden are somewhere down here too. I saw them bringing them down when I was coming to...I think. It's a little blurry." She said while rubbing her forehead as if to clear the cobwebs.

"How long have you been awake?" I wondered.

"A few hours. I-" she looked away.

"You what?" I looked at her guilty face suspiciously.

"I've gotten a bit of tolerance to certain drugs over the years. Hazards of an assassin." She said sheepishly. I understood what she meant pretty quickly. She's gotten drugged enough to have developed a resistance. That's why she woke up before the rest of us. I pulled her to me and hugged her. I can't believe our plan fell apart so easily, but I guess it was a half-baked plan to begin with.

"We need a plan, Lalo." She whispered after a few minutes.

"I know. How long have we been out?" I asked.

"A few hours. They had a shift change only 30 minutes ago, so it's around 7 am unless they've changed it recently." s**t. We only had 17 hours to get out of here in time for the full moon. "Can you sense if Helios is close?" She asked.

I shook my head. "I think my dart had wolfsbane. Dario is alert, but unable to communicate." I looked down and tried to shift my hand but wasn't able to. "I can't shift yet either." I informed her.

"That might just be the chains," She pointed to them. "I guess we have to wait. Someone should come down and tell us what's happening eventually. Do you think the others are alright?" She asked nervously.

"I'm sure they are fine. Your mother seemed to know we have the protection of the American council for another few months so they wouldn't kill a large convoy that has the permission to be out and about on council business." I reassured her.

We fell into silence as we thought about what would happen in the next 24 hours. My only concern was Dario being able to push through at the moon's peak to mark Kassie tonight. Everything else, as far as I was concerned, could take a back seat.

About an hour later, we heard movements from further down the cell. "How dare you keep me in this filthy cell? Paolo, I am your Queen. You will let me out this instant." Karissa's voice could be heard, but as much as I could tell she was trying to sound stern, the fear was clear in her voice. "Kassie? Braden? Gonzalo? Are you guys here? Where is my sister?!?" She shrieked. Was she having a panic attack?

"I'm here Karissa. Gonzalo and I are here. Are you OK?" Kassie asked.

"No, I'm scared. What are we going to do?" Came her reply.

"I don't know yet." Kassie answered truthfully.

"I'm sorry Kassie. I shouldn't have gone to see you. I'm so sorry." Karissa broke down.

"It's OK. We'll find a way out of this. Just sit tight and don't stress too much. I'm sure Braden will wake up soon. I saw him brought in." Kassie answered. "Just calm down."

"OK." Karissa ends meekly and after a minute, we sit back down on the ground.

"What kind of security do you guys have here?" I asked her quietly.

"Aside from guards, there's always the personal guards for the king and queen. The dungeons are reinforced concrete and steel. The chains are spelled to suppress magic. No shifting, no compelling. No personal gifts can be used. Aside from electronic surveillance, there's also always an assassin or two in the city, but considering it's us, I wouldn't be surprised if Armand hadn't recalled them all back."

"What can we expect from this supposed trial?" I asked.

"A mockery." She snorted.

"Yeah, but who's going to be there? Where does it take place? What happens after?" I said, trying not to show that I was as worried as she was.

"It's usually closed trials. The King and Queen, the 5 council members, the defendants and whoever is presenting the evidence. In Karissa's case, I would imagine a bunch of high ranking vampires will be present as witnesses."

"Do we get a defendant?" I questioned.

She snorts. "No. This isn't really a democracy. We'll get to say something, but that's about it or rather Karissa as she's the accused. They may decide to give us time to present our proof if they aren't convinced, but I wouldn't count on it. It's pretty much a mockery of a system, though people usually aren't brought before the entire group. Usually, minor things get dealt with locally by representatives all over the globe that are chosen by the King and Queen," she explained. "Once we're convicted?" I pushed on as I let my brain try to find an opening for us to escape.

"They would put us back down here and then, depending on the sentencing, they would put us in a magical jail or we wait for execution. Lalo, I am pretty sure my mother will insist on prompt execution. If they agree, we will be taken to a cliff not far from here to be executed tonight."

"That is probably our best bet then. We need to be out of here before midnight." I grabbed her hand. "Kassie. I wish I could give you the romantic moment you deserve when I finally mark you. I wish I could do so many things differently so we weren't faced with the real possibility that we won't make it out of here, but I hope you know that even if I am unable to give you that romantic moment, I'll fight like a bastard to make sure that we make out of here in one piece. You will be mine. I will not let anyone stop me from claiming you. I need you to promise me that you will fight too."

"I promise Lalo, I won't let them tear us apart." She vowed.

I saw the determination and fire in her eyes and took a deep breath and took my shot. "I want you to feed from me."

"Lalo, I-" She started.

"Kassie, you're our best chance here. I'm a good fighter and I can defend myself well enough, but there's no one that matches your skills, muñeca. I need you at your top strength. Feed from me. Let me give you that strength." I grabbed her hands. She thought about it for a moment before she finally nodded. I let out a breath I'd been holding and started getting close to her. "Not right now. Closer to the trial," She whispered while she kissed me. I nodded and I pulled her into my lap. I just wanted to hold her. I looked at her neck for a long time as I felt her relaxing. Dario. I really hope you clear the wolfsbane long enough for us to mark out mate. - I said to him. I could feel him still whimpering as he fought against the effects of it with renewed effort. Gonzalo POV

"Queen Karissa?" Braden's voice could be heard from our left.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"I'm here!" Karissa answered and they began talking.

About 20 minutes later, we heard a door open.

"Armand, you vile creature! How could you do this to me?! I am your Beloved! Did that really mean nothing to you?" Karissa yelled and Kassie tensed next to me.

"You brought this on yourself, Karissa. Murdering your own father? Plotting against our people? I thought you cared about your people. You always pretended to protect your sister and you gave her up like a guinea pig? Where you really that jealous that you were my father's second choice for me?" Armand responded. I scratched my stubble. Either he's an extremely good actor or he really doesn't know anything. I looked over at Kassie, who had the same confused look on her face. Karissa, meanwhile, kept arguing with Armand. "You know what you did. I saw you walk out of father's room!" She shrieked.

"Are you serious right now? Why would I kill our past King? You were caught trying to kill our past Queen. You were the one with the large withdrawals from the coffers and the emails about the experiments. You're going to pay for all of your crimes." Armand's voice was growing louder and louder as he spoke.

"Armand," Kassie called as she stood up. I followed suit and saw the king come into view.

He shook his head, "I told you to come home. You helped her, now you're going to pay for her crimes too." He said before we could say anything. "I tried to shield you from her jealousy, you know. I pretended to hate you. I tried to humiliate you. I thought at least if she saw I didn't care about you, she would move on and we could be happy together. I didn't think we would ever fall in love, but I thought...a partnership at least. For the betterment of our people. Now you're both going to die and I'll be nothing but a footnote in history."

"Goddess, you can't actually possibly think she did this, do you?" Kassie asked as he banged her head against the bars.

"I've seen the proof with my own eyes. I saw your father's body," he countered.

"Does that strike you as something that she would do? Didn't you watch her throw up when I broke her guard's nose when he tried to hurt Adrien all those years ago?" She said as she looked at him in disbelief. "A-all the proof..." Armand stuttered.

"Was fabricated by our psychotic mother. f**k. You're dumber than you look. At least before, I thought you were an evil genius," she said, frustrated, making me snort.

Armand's face went red with anger and the veins in his temple popped. "I am still your king and you are nothing but a disgraced princess. You will face your trial and the consequences at sundown." He hissed and left. "s**t, I shouldn't have lost it." She whispered.

"Who is he close to?" I asked as I analyzed the exchange.

"I don't know. I never really interacted with him very much. Why?" As she tried to pace the small cell as best as she could without tangling our chains.

"I think he's being manipulated and not just by your mother. He doesn't seem to know her well. He didn't even call her by her name," I answered.

"I don't know anything about him" she sighed.

"Karissa, who is King Armand close to?" I called out.

"His father and his brother." She answered back.

"Does either of them know the Queen personally?" I pressed.

"His father serves on the council," she called back. I turned to Kassie, who had a surprised look on her face. She either didn't remember this detail or it was new.

"Just rest for now, we'll know more at the trial." I told her and tried to get as comfortable as we could. We must have fallen asleep because we were startled awake by Karissa demanding blood to feed. I looked over at Kassie. I could feel her hunger through the bond. I gently pulled her to me but was interrupted when one of the guards threw a bag of blood towards us before leaving again. I took the bag from Kassie and shook my head. I pulled her back onto my lap so she was straddling me. "Let me feed you mate." I asked softly, leaning my neck to the side.

**

**Sebastian POV**

**

Helios was about to lose his s**t, and that was saying something. I don't know if it was just the fact we had lost Gonzalo and Kassie or if he was also feeling the effect of being away from Natalia since they hadn't been apart in months. Hell, I missed Theo. I wish we could have brought him.

I don't know how we didn't see it. The fucken tire strips on the road. Three cars ended up rear ending and another flipped. We were held back for an hour and a half before we could get new cars delivered by a neighboring pack. By the time we arrived at the location, there was only the car Gonzalo had driven. We lost them and we had no way to know where they had been taken. The general consensus was that they likely took them to their Estate, but where was that? The vampires were very secretive about it. We tried calling Adrien, but his phone was going straight to voicemail.

So now, we were waiting for Evergreen to find us a location. All we knew was that it was somewhere in Sicily from Gonzalo's story, so we had taken the first flight and rented new vehicles. It was almost sunset and Evergreen had still not found anything concrete. Helios' aura was getting darker and darker the longer we waited. He had always felt somewhat guilty about how we found Gonzalo the first time. Even I was getting really anxious, but my aura was not that of an Alpha and several of our warriors were already sweating and baring their necks anytime Helios paced by them. I needed to calm him down, but that was usually Gonzalo's job.

Helios suddenly stopped pacing when my phone rang. He was in front of me in almost an instant when I saw the caller ID was from an unknown number. I answered carefully. "Hello?"

"Sebastian? Are you in Italy yet? I tried calling a few hours ago but it went to voicemail?" I heard a familiar voice.

"Adrien? Where the f**k have you been? I called you like 10 times," I said, putting him on speakerphone.

"I've been on the phone keeping track of the king's movements from some sources. It ran out of charge. Kassie and Gonzalo got taken. My source tells me they are getting a trial and execution tonight. You need to get to Italy." He spoke rapidly. "We are already in Sicily, but we don't know where the Estate is." Helios answered for me.

"You'll never get into the Estate. They have really tight security set up right now because there are too many important people there. Your best bet is the execution grounds. I'll send you the ping. You need to get there. They will take them there," he answered. "We should have brought you with us. We should have known we needed an extra vampire that knew the layout." Helios grumbled.

"Yes well, apology accepted. You don't have a lot of time. They will kill them at midnight." Adrien said before hanging up.

Shortly after the call ended, my phone pinged. I opened the text message and forwarded it to all of our assigned drivers. We had less than 3 hours to get there. The location was about an hour's drive. We would have 2 hours to be ready. I looked up at the moon and sent a quick prayer of protection for Gonzalo. I hope they actually make it there.

We found a good vantage point downwind of the location Adrien gave us. I hated this. Actually, I just f*****g hate fighting on cliffs. Couldn't they pick an open f*****g field in the middle of solid land?

I heard Helios' growl from behind me as I scouted the entire terrain. His aura reached and engulfed me. I looked back at him and everyone was baring their necks as his eyes were slightly out of focus. He was talking to Ezequiel and whatever he had said was not good.

When his eyes cleared, I bowed my head slightly to him as he looked at me. Right now, he was my Alpha and I showed him the proper respect. "Get closer. Grab another two with you. Whatever happens, you need to give Kassie and Gonzalo space for him to mark her at midnight." He ordered.

"What why?" I said, confused.

"Because if it doesn't happen, Kassie could die. I'll make sure Gonzalo knows we're here." He growled.

"What if he's got wolfsbane in his system? We won't be able to link?" I asked him.

Helios smiled at me for the first time in the last 24 hours. "We weren't always werewolves, Sebastian" he reminded me before he pulled something from his pocket. I couldn't stop the matching smile that appeared on my own face when I saw what he was holding. "When you hear it, attack. I'll send a Colibri beforehand to make sure he knows we're around."

I nodded and grabbed Isidro and Thomas and started making my way closer. We found a spot with enough cover for the three of us and waited. I tensed when I suddenly heard a rustling from above us. Something dropped in front of me. No, not something. Someone.

"YOU!" I growled in surprise.