Thank you all so much for the reviews and for waiting so patiently. School has been crazy and I have not had much time to write. I will try to post the next chapter as soon as I can, it is finished but I need to edit it. You are all so wonderful, I hope that you enjoy.
Chapter 25
Jumping into action, Stiles grabs Lydia by the shoulders shaking her awake. As soon as her eyes open, he puts his fingers to her lips, indicating the sound in the driveway. Her eyes widen in fear, grabbing Allison Stiles wakes her, silencing her in the same way. Lydia runs into the girls room, grabbing the emergency bag that she packed that afternoon and waking Jade and lifting Isabel out of her crib, she bundles them in coats, hats and mittens, running into the kitchen, she wraps the cloth carrier around Allison, slipping a sleeping Isabel into it, kneeling she looks into Jade's sleepy eyes, "Jade, I need to you to be really quiet okay, the bad men are here and we are going to have to run from them okay. Now the most important thing you can do is stay quiet and stay with Aunt Allison okay. Just keep running until Daddy or one of the pack comes to get you okay."
"Okay, Mommy. I'm scared." She tries not to cry.
"Oh baby, I am scared too, but you are going to okay, just stay with Aunt Allison and your sister okay. I love you." She kisses her head.
"Okay, they have set up tactical entrance through the front of the house. You should go through the cellar, the back exit of that will get you pretty far into the woods, from there proceed to the meet spot okay." Stiles informs the girls. Nodding, Allison takes Jade's hand, "Ready to run?" The little girl nods as Lydia follows them to the cellar, which is hidden by a false wall, opening it, Lydia kisses Jade's forehead before kissing the top of Isabel's head and hugging Allison. "Take care of them, I love you."
"I will protect them with my life. I love you Lydia." Both girls fought back tears as Allison took off down the stairs and Lydia sealed the door behind her. Taking a deep breath, Lydia rejoined Stiles in the living room, he reached over, taking her hand, "You ready for this?"
"As I will ever be," in her mind she reached out to Scott through their bond, Scott, can you hear me?
In the woods the pack ran tactical drills, each wolf focusing completely on his or her role in this escape plan. Running in formation, they were completely connected and acting as one until suddenly Scott stumbled, falling to his knees he gasped, "Lydia?"
Yes it is me. We are under attack, the hunters have surrounded the front of the house, Allison and the kids left through the cellar tunnel 90 seconds ago, proceed to meet them at meet point C
"Oh God!"
"What, what is wrong?" Derek grabbed Scott's shoulders violently, trying to get an answer.
"Hunters, they are attacking the house. Allison and the girls escaped but Stiles and Lydia are still there. She wants us to go to meet point C."
"We have to go help them," Erica argues.
"Scott, Isaac, Laura, and Erica go get Allison and the kids, get them to safety. Boyd, Jackson, you are coming with me."
"No," Erica butted in, "They have Stiles, I am not leaving him."
"Erica, I need you to get my kids, if they have Stiles, I will need you on an attack team to invade the Argents. Boyd and Jackson are much quieter and right now we need recon." After staring him down, she relented, following Scott to the meeting point as Derek, Boyd and Jackson ran in the direction of the house. As they approached, Derek signaled them to stop, "The Hunters are in the house, we go in, get a head count, drop as many as you can as quietly as you can okay. Do not get caught. We need to know where Lydia and Stiles are and if they are safe. Our goal is to get them out alive, even if that means letting them be prisoners for a few hours."
Entering the house, they break off, following Lydia and Stiles scent, they quickly find that they are no longer in the home, but that the Argents left guards to attack the wolves when they returned. Cutting the power to the house, Derek made his way into the main room, dropping three guards as he went, he noticed signs of a struggle—his girl put up one hell of a fight when they attacked. She fought them in order to give Allison time to get away, she kept the kids safe. Entering his own room, he tried not to drown in the smell of Lydia that permeated the room after just a few days. He could not get lost in that now. Grabbing two bags, he stuck them by the door before exiting the house, rounding the corner and dropping two more Argent guards before running into Boyd,
"The main floor of the house and the rear, right quadrant are clear."
"Second floor, left and the front left quadrant are clear." Boyd answered.
Jackson joined them, "Top right side of the house and the front are clear, do you hear anyone else?" Listening closely, Derek nodded, signaling them to follow him. Nodding that they too heard the heartbeat, the three men closed in on a particularly dark section of the backyard and found the last hunter hiding in a bush. Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, Derek pulled him out, dragging him inside, he threw him to the floor, "Tie him to a chair, we need some information and he is going to give it to us."
Jackson and Boyd followed his orders as Derek made his way upstairs, opening each room, he entered grabbed the emergency escape bags and pilled them at the stairs, after he had collected them all he made his way down the stairs and stacked them by the door. Returning downstairs, he barked, "Search him, make sure he isn't wearing a wire or transmitter," the betas did as they were told, searching the hunter, who yelled and swore the whole time. Spinning on him, Derek growled, "Shut up."
Circling him, Derek picked up the man's wallet off the floor where Boyd had thrown it while searching him, he stated in a very controlled tone, "I am going to ask you one question, if you answer it I will allow you to live. If you do not answer it, or if you lie to me,"
"You'll what, kill me you filthy monster," the hunter, a brunette man of about 30 cut him off.
Walking over, Derek ripped off the man's ear without flinching, "Do not interrupt me," He stated in the same controlled voice as the man screamed in pain, "of course I will not kill you. No I will find your family, your wife and your children," Derek showed him the picture of his family from his wallet, "And I will turn them into wolves and then I will take them to Gerard and allow him to choose if they will live or if they will die." He passed, leaning in close to the man's good ear, "And then he will force you to murder them all; beautiful wife, adorable little boys. Because that is what you people do, you murder all that is different from you—and you call me a monster."
The man had finally stopped screaming, listening to Derek through a haze of pain, "So the question is do you love your family? If you do, you are you going to tell me where Gerard is hiding my very human wife and friend, or are you going to watch him murder your own wife and children?" The only sound filling the room is the wet sound of the man's panting breath. "Can't you just kill me?"
"And leave your sons fatherless, I would never do that to a family if I didn't have to. Now answer my question or I will be heading to 647 Holden Place Dr., hell I can make it there before the moon sets."
Gasping, the man all but whispered, "There is a warehouse, about two miles off of Hwy 12, near Canon Packaging, Gerard is headquartered there, but there are about 30 men with him, he is looking for his granddaughter. Is she your, um, your wife?"
Derek chuckled, a truly frightening sound, "God no. She is also not here and I did not kidnap her or any other ridiculous thing that Gerard told you all."
Grabbing the bags and his keys, he heads for the door, bringing a SUV out of the garage he walks back into the house, "Let's go, bring him with us, if we don't find the warehouse, we head to Holden Place Dr."
"Okay Boss," Boyd says, lifting the man, chair and all.
"Whatever you say," Jackson echoes, impressed with Derek's slightly psycho interrogation routine.
Allison held Isabel tight to her chest; gripping Jade's little hand in hers as she ran with everything in her through the woods. As she felt Jade trip over a raised root on the dark ground, she scooped the little girl up onto her hip, never breaking her pace. Her labored breathing sounded extremely loud in her ears as her blood rushed, and her heart pounded. She could feel her baby beating out his fear against her ribs, protesting to her running and her terror. She wanted to stop and rub her hands over her belly to calm him, but she couldn't stop now. She had to keep Lydia's babies safe as well as keeping her own safe, and Allison knew that if Gerard caught her that all three children would be at risk.
Running blindly, she felt like she would never make it to the spot by the stream that Derek and Lydia had described. She hoped that Lydia had been able to contact Scott and that someone knew that she was going there. She really didn't know what she would do if she got caught or if she had to try to run with the girls on her own. She felt Jade's cold fingers gripping the collar of her sweatshirt, only now realizing that she didn't have a coat. Tightening her grip on the little girl's bottom, she increased her pace, trying to get them to safety, praying that she was going the right way.
It seemed as if the ground leapt out at Allison as she tumbled, falling to her knees and nearly losing her grip on the girls until an arm came out of nowhere and wrapped around her waist. Her baby reacted before she did, kicking hard against the arm, recognizing his father as Scott stood Allison back up. Laura jumped into action, prying Jade off of Allison and pulling her to her own chest. Allison let Erica take the sling carrier and Isabel from around her body and she felt herself melt into Scott's arms as Isaac relived her of the girl's bag.
"Oh thank God," She cried, molding herself into his chest as far as her six month pregnant belly would allow. Scott's hands ran over her hair, down her back and rested themselves softly on her belly, assuring himself that both Allison and his child were safe and in one piece.
"What happened?" Isaac asked.
"We had just fallen asleep, and Stiles heard them come up, he woke up Lydia and I and Lydia got the girls and I out of the house through the cellar while Stiles did recon. They stayed behind to seal up the cellar and hold them off," Her eyes flashed to Erica, who held Isabel tight with a look or worry and fear on her face, "They saved us."
"We need to get out of the open," Laura whispered, nodding, Scott slid his arms under Allison's knees and all of them took off at a full run. Soon the woods began to thin out and although miles had pasted, it had only taken the wolves about half an hour to get there. In the parking lot of an old gas station, in the darkest part of the lot sat an older model SUV; as they approached, Isaac grabbed the keys from the wheel well and unlocked it. Climbing in, everyone was on edge, looking back, expecting hunters to stumble out of the woods after them or suddenly surround the car. When that didn't happen, they took off like a bullet out of the parking lot, heading east, away from the safe house that had been their home for the past three months and towards the cabin that they had all stayed in during Derek and Lydia's claiming.
Lydia came too in darkness, for a moment, she thought she was back in one of her dreams with Peter, but then she heard moaning from her left, turning her head as far as she could, she saw Stiles and knew that this nightmare was all too real. Feeling an intense pull from her shoulders, and taking in Stiles' position, she realized that they were both chained and shackled, hanging from some type of hook in the ceiling of the dungeon that they were in. Lydia's feet did not quiet touch the floor and she could feel her entire body weight putting pressure on her shoulder joints. Raising her head, she remembered fighting the hunters in the living room. Punch, left- right, roundhouse, jump—she had heard Allison's voice shouting commands as she fought with everything that she had to give Allison enough time to get her babies to safety. Everything in her wanted to run after them and escape, but she knew that if they all ran, there would be no one to seal the entrance to the tunnel and it would take both she and Stiles to buy Allison enough time to get away safely and meet up with the pack before the hunters caught up with her. She prayed to every deity she could think of that her children and best friend had made it to safety, even if she died at the hands of the hunters, she needed to know that her children were safe.
Stiles moaned again, whatever the hunters had used to knock them out was wearing off on him as well. As his brown eyes opened and tried to focus, she saw the terror and then almost relief when he saw that Lydia was beside him. She understood that he was happy that she was alive, but also that there was no sign that Allison, the girls or the pack had been discovered. All in all, Lydia and Stiles were human and therefore much less likely to be outright murdered by the Argent hunters than the others were, thus making them the perfect decoys—a plan that Derek had not wanted to buy into until Lydia convinced him that Chris Argent would not allow two innocent human teenagers to be killed. Just then Lydia felt a presence push its way into her head; she was filled with the essence of Scott Mc Call as he all but screamed into her brain, Lydia! Lydia can you hear me?
Scott! She answers.
We found Allison and the girls, they are safe and we are on our way to a safe house. Derek is working to find you.
Oh Thank God! Take care of my babies! Stiles and I are both alive; we are chain up in some type of basement or warehouse. I cannot see any light.
Stay safe, try not to piss them off, we are coming for you.
Seeing her tense and then her relieved sigh, Stiles made eye contact with her, nodding slightly she let him know that the others were safe, he sent her a subtle smirk in response, which she returned. Their plan had worked. Their moment of relief was shattered as they were both hit with 50,000 volts of electricity as the hunters entered the room.