Dwayne POV
Dwayne woke as a piercing scream reverberated around the cave, he recognised the agonised voice as that of his mate. He flew out of his room not bothering with clothes as he hurtled at lightning speed towards the sound. He found himself in his son's room, an unfamiliar scent in the air mixed in with the scent of his son, his mate. He hurriedly lit the candles around the rooms walls, freezing as he took in the scene before him. Both she and his son were gone, he flew into the main cave just to make sure they weren't there, but he already knew the answer, finding it hauntingly empty, he flew back to the room, running his fingers through his hair. He surveyed the damage, a long thick crack ran up the wall cutting through the beach mural as if something hard had hit it with tremendous force, Devante's blankets were strewn out of place as well as his toys littering the room as though there was a struggle, he observed something which shot ice through his veins, a small pool of blood in the centre of the room. He slowly bent down, dragging his finger through the warm sticky liquid and sniffed, as he suspected, it was his son's blood, Dwayne smelt the honey and jasmine scent, feeling hot angry tears sting his eyes as he roared in anger.
Dwayne felt movement behind him followed by the scent of David, Paul and Star, "What the fuck happened bro?" Paul asked. "Mariam and Devante, they're gone." Dwayne growled. "Looks like Mariam and your son put up a fight." David stated, "This must be Max's doing, he must have taken them." David continued. "I'm gonna kill that bastard along with whoever dared to lay a finger on my son or my mate. I will rip their fucking hearts out." Dwayne growled. He felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to come face to face with Marko's agonised expression, "I'm right behind you." He declared through gritted teeth. "We all are." David added. "So, what do we do?" Dwayne asked. "We track their scent." David answered. "We have to be fast, everyone get dressed, meet in the main cave and fast." David ordered as they all moved quickly from the room.
The group gathered moments later in the main cave, "I think we should feed first." Marko was the first to speak, "We'll need to be at our strongest, I know that bastard Max is behind this, I don't know why he's doing this, but I know it has to be him." He exclaimed. "I know it's him too, I have a feeling he just wanted Devante, but Mariam interrupted so whoever he got to do this took her down too." Dwayne spoke, his voice hard and angry. "I'm so sorry man, if I didn't piss him off when he came that time this might not have happened." Paul said mournfully. "No Paul, you're not to blame, Max would have done this anyway, he couldn't stand we did something without his permission, plus Devante is a rare find, he wouldn't let the opportunity to examine him pass." David spoke, "Wait, you're telling me that dick took my son to do some kind of fucking experiment?" Dwayne hissed, "Brother, you know Max well, I don't need to tell you what his plan was as soon as he set eyes on Mariam when she was pregnant." David replied calmly. Dwayne nodded, his shoulders sagging, "I just…" He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I just can't handle it if anything happens to either of them." "Dwayne nothing is going to happen to them, we'll find them, and we'll protect them, I know I will protect them with my life." Marko assured him, the others all nodded in agreement, setting off to quickly hunt before making moves to track the scent that was beginning to fade with every minute that passed.
The scent was barely traceable once they'd reached Max's house, they had been there, but they weren't there any longer. The house was dark, on searching the property they found it empty, wherever his mate and son were, Max was there too. "Guys over here." Paul shouted, waving them over to a small patch of the forest bordering the house. Dwayne sprinted to Paul's side, he could smell Devante's scent the strongest, Mariam's was still faint, but it was there. Paul pointed to the ground, to the reason for his son's scent being so strong, it was another small pool of blood splattered on the ground. It was still warm, so it hadn't been there too long. Dwayne screamed, kicking at a nearby tree, watching as it cracked down the middle and began to sway. "WHY IS HE BLEEDING?!" Dwayne roared, Marko gripped his arms, shaking him forcefully, "Dwayne we have to keep calm, trust me I'm ready to explode but if I lose my cool that's it, I'll end up fucking up and that ain't gunna help nothing. We need to keep our heads. We need to find them." He enforced firmly. David nodded towards Dwayne in agreement, Star was looking out into the forest with hawk eyes, trying to see if she could see anything that might help them locate Mariam and his son.
"David." Star whispered, staring at something in the distance, "What is it Star?" He asked anxiously. "We need to go deeper into the woods, I think I know where they are" She answered. "WHERE?" Dwayne shouted. "You need to calm down Dwayne, let her concentrate." David chastised, Dwayne struggled to get a hold of his anger. Marko and Paul both stared expectantly at Star, waiting in anticipation.
"There's an old abandoned factory deep in the forest. I didn't recognise where we were at first, but it's just come back to me. Me, my brothers and their friends used to come here when we were younger, we used to hear stories of a haunted factory in the woods, we'd always challenge ourselves to find it. Of course, we always felt scared when coming out here, most kids our age were scared of the stories, we also knew Max lived here, you know how he is with kids. Anyway, we decided one day we were going to do it, go all the way, we set off in search of the factory, we did find it, it took us most of the day, but we found it, we broke in through a window, took a look around. I remember it had some kind of lab equipment in it, it smelt awful, like rot and decay. We looked around the place until sun set, that's when we started to hear weird noises coming from another part of the building, we got freaked thinking it was the ghosts coming to get us, so we ran outta there, never looking back." She finished, her face full of nostalgic fear.
"That must be the place man" Paul said, "Let's go" He urged. They took off, sprinting straight into the heart of the forest, their speed and agility meant they'd reach the main area of the forest in no time. As they sped closer Dwayne picked up Mariam's scent along with his son's, it became stronger with every step he took, his desire to kill and maim Max propelled him forward faster and faster, the others were finding it hard to keep up to his pace, but he couldn't stop, he flew forward leaving his brothers and Star behind. "Shit David, he's gone rouge" Paul called to his brother, "We keep together" David ordered. They reached a clearing in the forest, there it was, the old factory that Star had explored when she was younger. They crept closer, slow and silent, their senses searching to pick up any threat they might encounter, when they broached the side of the building, they saw a figure laying motionless on the floor, they sped towards the unidentified figure, Paul winced, "fucking A man, Dwayne's truly vamped out." He stated as they looked down at a vampire's corpse, a hole where his heart used to be. "I have to find Dwayne." Marko announced, sprinting off before anyone could tell him otherwise, unwilling for Dwayne to put Mariam and Devante in further danger on account of not being able to contain his emotions.
After killing the lone vampire, Dwayne had flown onto the roof of the factory, he licked his lips, grazing his tongue over his fangs, he knelt down by a small glass dome which looked down into the central area of the warehouse. Dwayne let out a low hiss as he caught sight of Mariam trapped, bound to a wooden beam, she'd clearly been drugged, her head lolling side to side, he couldn't see his son anywhere. He leant back on his heels, calculating his next move.
