Page 126 of A Second Chance for the Beta
I turn to face her, a bit annoyed that someone sits so close, when my eyes widen. “Ella!” I blurt out, pulling her into a hug.
She wraps her arms around me tightly. “D,” she mutters. “Fuck.”
“I know,” I say.
“Liam told me that she was abducted, and what you found out so far,” Ella says. I can feel her emotions through our bond; they are all over the place although she tries to stay composed. “I can’t lose her, Dante.”
“We won’t,” I say firmly.
She moves back a bit from me, and to my horror there’s a hint of tears in her eyes. I can’t remember ever seeing her cry. “Listen to me,” I say, taking her face between my hands. “I will do everything to find her. We won’t lose her. Ella, you said it yourself; we need to remain calm… or we won’t be of any use to Charlie.”
She nods, swallowing thickly. “What’s the plan?”
“We do have a few options. Richie will play our bait and pretend to work for Imogen.”
“He is a human. Will they buy it?” she asks.
“I’m not sure,” I say honestly. “I—”
“Wait a moment,” she exclaims. “Julianus!”
“Hm?”
“The vampire who accompanied Ari and me! Oh, you don’t know that yet. Short story: he is Silas’s ex-lover, but fucked up. Lived in misery with Aloysius but helped us to convince him that Charlie isn’t his daughter. He left the coven. Aloysius beat him up badly… but… Dante, he is a vampire! I know the man who made the deal with Imogen’s group—it’s Atticus. They all know each other—Julianus probably could pretend to be sent by the coven again!”
I try to make sense of her words and the flood of information she just tossed at me. “Is he of high rank?”
“Julianus?” she asks before nodding. “Yes, he is… was one of Aloysius’s most trusted.”
“But is he trustworthy?”
“I have no idea, Dante,” she says. “My gut feeling says it’s worth a shot, but he is a risk. The thing is, he might be our best option. Together with him, Richie might have an actual chance to convince Imogen’s secret customer.”
I nod, sighing when I turn to the videos. “If only I knew how they found out about the guards’ schedule.”
“Did someone hack into our system?”
“No, Dave made sure that we have top-notch security. We checked for any traces of data leaks, but nothing.”
Ella swallows. “An insider who blabbed?”
“It looks like it,” I say, feeling uncomfortable. I hate to have a traitor here, but this is the only answer that makes sense at this point.
“Maybe I can help,” a voice reaches out.
Ella and I turn around, our agaze falling onto Levi, who is peeking into the room. “You know the answer?” I ask. “Please, Levi, don’t tell me that you—”
“No!” he blurts out. “No, Beta, it’s not me, I swear.”
“I didn’t mean to suspect you,” I say. “But, you said you found something?”
“I analyzed the traces,” he says. “It’s like Alpha Liam, Alpha Elden, and you suspected. Charlie ran and bumped into the twins. However, something struck me as weird. There were small footsteps close to the border. Too small to be from the men who abducted Charlie, Felix, and Dario. We checked the whole area, and depending on our schedule for the guards, the footsteps changed places too.”
“Wait a moment,” Ella steps closer. “You are saying someone is sneaking off the pack grounds!”
“Who?” I ask, completely shocked.
“The teens, of course!” Ella says. “Good job, Levi!” She grabs my hand. “Come. You too, Levi. We are going to Alpha Liam.”
