Page 21 of Escaping Wildfire
“Jordan…it’s Mara.” She cried, “They’ve killed Mara"–
“Give me the phone!” We heard an unknown male voice yell at Jasmine before the line was cut.
GEMA
“We’re pulling up at the gate now, we can ask the guard if anything’s up.”
The boys had called us, apparently worried about something at the pack, which made my concerns rise. I dialed my parents while Jasmine was on the phone. The boys were right, no answer.
We pulled up to the gate, and a man I had never seen before came up to the car. Before we could say anything else, he opened the door and unceremoniously yanked Mara out of the car.
She didn’t even have time to defend herself before he snapped her neck and threw her body to the side. Jasmine screamed as the man got into the car with us. “Give me the phone!” He snatched away Jasmine’s phone, hung up, and threw it out of the window. “We’ve been waiting for you two. Alpha will be glad to know you’re finally here.” He put his seatbelt on and started driving.
Jasmine and I were too scared to say anything. I was pretty sure she was still in shock about seeing this man kill Mara, and I felt the panic start to overtake me. He had said alpha, but I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to like whatever alpha he was referring to. Did Wildfire finally come for us? Could he be talking about Alpha Marek?
As we turned the corner towards the pack house, we could see the chaos from far away. Wildfire warriors had some of our pack members on their knees and others were unconscious, at least I hope they were just unconscious as I could see that bodies littered the floor. I recognized some of them as our pack warriors. I looked around to see if I could find Alpha or my parents, but I didn’t see them.
The man parked the car, and he roughly pulled me out of the back seat before dragging me to the other side and pulling out Jasmine. I grabbed onto her hand as he pulled us to the front door of the pack house.
There, I finally saw my parents, on their knees on the front porch of the pack house. I looked closer at the scene before me, and my heart broke inside of my chest. Annie, Felix, and Miles were also on their knees beside my mother, but Rodrigo was standing behind them, restrained by two warriors as he struggled to get free.
On the other side of my parents, Jade was sobbing over her father’s lifeless body, blood pooled underneath him. Luna Christina lay beside him, equally still.
“Mommy!” Jasmine yelled beside me and tried to run to her mother, but the man stopped her before she could move.
“Alpha, I have the girls.” A man with blonde hair and steely blue eyes came up to us. He lifted Jasmine’s chin and examined her. “How old are you?” Jasmine stayed silent, so he asked again.” She stared at him coldly through her tears and remained silent. He suddenly reached out and slapped her hard. My father growled and made a move to get up, but a guard pulled him back. “When I ask a question, you answer me. Now let’s try this again. How old are you?”
“I’m 16.” Jasmine spit out.
“On your knees, with the others.” He shoved Jasmine towards her family, and she went over to Jade, wrapping her up in her arms as Jade continued to sob.
He came towards me next. “How old are you?”
“I’m 17.” I kept my head down, not wanting to look up into his cold eyes.
“When do you turn 18?” He lifted my face, gripping my chin tightly enough for it to hurt.
“Next month”
“Perfect.” His mouth turned up into a wicked-looking grin. “On your knees, girl.” He shoved me down and gave me another grin.
“Bring the Beta.” He yelled over his shoulder as he walked into the pack house. The guards suddenly pulled my dad to his feet and took him inside.
I shuffled over to my mom, and she grabbed me as soon as I was close enough to her. “Mami, que está pasando?” (Mom, what’s going on?).
“Wildfire. That man is Alpha Marek, and the one who brought you is his Beta. They showed up around dinner time and killed most of our warriors before coming for Alpha and Luna.” Tears trailed down her face as she talked. “We tried to fight, but they injected us all with wolfsbane, not enough to really hurt us, but just enough so that we can’t shift right now. Rodrigo keeps trying to fight, so they’ve given him extra doses.”
A guard yanked my mother back by her hair, “You two, keep quiet over here. And someone shut that little girl up, I’m tired of her wailing.” He motioned at Jade.
“Hey, let go of her. Don’t mess with these two.” The Beta came and stood in front of me and my mom. “Alpha has plans for them.” He licked his licks lasciviously before giving us a smirk, and my stomach turned at his implication.
A few more minutes passed before Alpha Marek stepped out with my father walking behind him, no longer restrained by the guards.
“Alright, let’s pack it up.” He motioned towards us. “Put them in a car, they’re all coming with us. Be extra gentle with this one though, I need her to stay pretty.” He pointed my way, and the look he gave me made bile rise in my throat. “Knock the Gamma out, I don’t need him causing me any more trouble.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone!” My father yelled at Alpha Marek.
“I said I wouldn’t kill anyone else…not that I wouldn’t hurt anyone.” He punched my father in the gut and shoved him to the ground when he doubled over.