Filed to story: Claimed by My Ex’s Alpha Brother
Answering, “Matt,” I said. “It’s empty,” I blurted out, not really knowing what to do, feeling the threatening panic swelling my chest and needing my friends’ advice more than ever.
But Matt’s voice was frantic through the speaker, “Emily’s home was attacked.” I could hear the terror in the way Matt’s gruff tone.
“Is she okay?” I gasped, dread pooling through me.
“I’m on the way to the hospital. She’s wounded and unconscious,” he trailed off, then added, “but her pulse is strong.”
Pain clawed through my chest, and tears pricked my eyes.
No, no, no, this isn’t happening. This isn’t meant to happen.
“What about Betty?” I asked in another hurried gasp. I couldn’t hold back the panicked question. After Stephen had come to see me mid-week and explained that Magnus seemed edgy, we’d all agreed that having Emily take Betty to her place in Philadelphia, where Stephen had never been and that had even fewer links to me, would be safer for her.
But somehow, Magnus knew where they were.
My heart felt like it would explode as Matt confirmed my worst fears. “Magnus’s men took her before I could get there, Lina.”
Panic made my knees weak and my legs quiver. I wobbled toward the sofa.
Not only did Magnus have my mother, he had my daughter.
Lina
I was taking sharp, shaky breaths. I didn’t know how long it had been since Matt had hung up, his desperate tone telling me that he’d let me know as soon as he had news about Em’s condition.
Nausea swirled through my stomach as I felt my world disintegrating around me. But I was pulled out of the sinking feeling that was taking hold as my phone once more glowed. I looked at it, expecting to see Matthew’s name again, but the screen was lit up with the name Magnus Blackthorn. I stared at the buzzing phone in my hand as if it were a hornet, each thump of my heart accentuating my fear.
I swallowed hard, my palms clammy as I accepted the call, the chill of dread curdling in my stomach.
“Lina,” Magnus’s voice slithered through the receiver, smooth but laced with menace.
“Magnus.” I forced the word past my clenched throat, nerves juddering through me. I tried to grasp what was happening and how everything had gotten away from me.
“I warned you not to play tricks on me. I trust you’re aware I’ve taken the liberty of relocating your mother to ensure she’s safe…for now.” His voice deepened, lowering like thunder rumbling beneath darkened clouds.
“So, what do you want? Do you want me to congratulate you and your son on playing me so well and uncovering all my plans?” I challenged. I didn’t actually believe Stephen had sold me out, given what he was hiding himself and what I had on him. But I needed to know whether Magnus suspected him.
“Oh, my son doesn’t deserve your praise,” he said. “It was Blackthorn’s security team who unearthed your digital secrets. We found a bug on the Blackthorn network, and my team traced it back to the company Hardwire. My team bugged Hardwire’s network in turn, intercepting communications between them and a company that I believe you’re familiar with, Luna Remedies.” A flurry of contradictory emotions charged through me. I was shocked that I’d been unmasked as the owner behind the shadow company, but I was relieved that Magnus didn’t seem to realize Stephen was working against him. I ferreted that thought away. As much as I’d said I didn’t need Stephen’s help and I could do this alone, I was beginning to see how wrong I’d been.
“What a busy woman you’ve been these last few years, eh, Betty White?” Magnus continued, his voice low and dangerously calm. “It’s a shame the real Miss White had to suffer for your schemes. And it would be even more of a shame if the real Betty was affected because of her mother’s tricks.”
My skin crawled as he reminded me of what he’d done to Emily and that he had my daughter. Suffocating fear wrapped itself around me, but I forced myself to breathe through it and try to understand what he was saying.
So, others besides Stephen had been tailing me. They’d investigated me and unraveled my secrets. Magnus knew I was the mastermind behind the shadow company that had been sabotaging Blackthorn Corporation these last five years. Before, Magnus had been dangerous, but now that he knew, he was lethal.
“If you want to see your mother and daughter alive, you’ll comply this time and give me what I want,” Magnus ordered.
Trying to buy for time, I asked, “What do you want?”
“I told you not to play games with me,” he warned.
The next moment, I heard a high-pitched scream of pain in the background.
“Mom!” I yelled, recognizing her even as her voice was edged in pain.
“I have it!” I shouted. “I have the lockbox.” My voice trembled, just like my hand, as I barely managed to keep the phone against my ear. It was shaking so terribly.
“That’s better. I would have thought you’d be more respectful after what you know I did to your friend. Any more tricks and it will be your daughter incentivizing you s-“
“No, please,” I begged, hating the way my voice shook, my chest twisting as I imagined all too vividly Betty crying out in pain instead.
Panic clawed at my insides, my wolf desperate to break free with the thought of her pup in harm’s way. My thoughts raced back to the last few days-Stephen’s warning about Magnus echoing too late in my ears.
“What happens to them is entirely up to you. Bring the lockbox to the location I will text you in the next hour. You’ve tested my patience for too long, Lina. If you want your daughter in one piece, you’ll bring the lockbox to my facility. Alone.”
The line went dead, leaving me with the hollow echo of his cruelty. The depth of my despair was suffocating.
The sharp bite to his tone kept crashing through my head, scratching at my fraying nerves and deepening the dread in my stomach. All I had in the way of leverage was the lockbox, but as soon as I delivered it, there was no reason for him to let us go.
I knew it was a trap, but I had no choice but to walk into it. He had my daughter and my mother. As I tore upstairs, I felt out of my mind with impatience. I needed to get to them.
Now.
I clutched my phone as I charged along the hall to my bedroom. My fingers itched as I thought of Stephen. Part of me ached to call him. He’d tried to warn me, but I’d shut him out. But Magnus had said to come alone.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I couldn’t risk alerting him and putting Betty or my mother’s life in jeopardy.
I wrenched up the floorboards in the corner of my bedroom where I’d hidden the lockbox. Grabbing my car keys, I ran downstairs and out to my SUV, ignoring Etta’s shout behind me.
Each moment pulsated with the weight of losing my entire family. I couldn’t afford to fail.
Half an hour later, I arrived at Magnus’s facility, situated in a deserted neighborhood along the riverfront. I stepped out of my SUV, my footsteps mingling with the muted sounds of the river lapping against the concrete bank.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?