Chapter 16 - Elena

The silver chains weakened Elena further and further by the minute. The biting, burning pain of it was excruciating. And soon, she could not hold her head up, for the aching in her neck from doing so was too much too bear.

Leaning back against the pillar, she breathed only a half-breath of relief. It took some of the agony away, barely.

What it didn't take away was the horrid feeling in her gut that something was about to go terribly, terribly wrong—that somehow, though she hadn't realized she had it in the first place, she was going to lose everything. Again.

She couldn't go through that, not again, not now that she had felt the sheer heartbreaking agony of being ripped from not only her mate but also the very last threads she had to him.

Against her eyelids she saw all the horrid things that might happen. Might she open her eyes to find blood pooling beneath her, feeling the agony of losing yet another child, one she hadn't even realized she was carrying? Somehow, that made it even more difficult a thought. She hadn't even had the time to connect, to learn what their flutterings in her belly felt like or feel the way they kicked when she was trying to rest.

The images cut her deep, and she tried to open her eyes to keep them from her mind. But eventually they closed again. And then she saw yet more terrible things. She could practically hear Hanson's dying screams as Christopher got his hands on him, dragging him before her just so that he could torture her with his death before doing whatever it was he wanted to do with her.

Then there was the rest of the pack. What was he going to do to them if she didn't somehow figure out a way of freeing herself to warn them? What would he do to Eddie, to Jack, to Bonnie? There were children in Nightstar, so many children. What would he do to them?

Christopher didn't seem like the kind of man to let another pack's children live just because they were children. He had already talked of killing the one in her belly. Killing living, breathing children would be even easier than that for him, though a well-aimed blow to her stomach might well do the job.

Bile rose in her throat just at the thought of it. She wriggled at the need to escape only to feel the fresh biting of the chains as they moved.

"Fuck!" she growled through gritted teeth.

"Psst!"

Elena froze. What the fuck was that?

Her ears pricked.

"Psst!"

When it came again, she somehow managed to find the strength to move her head, swift as a snake, up to the hayloft.

There, clutching on with his hands, head hanging over the edge, was Eddie. Elena blinked, her eyes just as sore as the rest of her body, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"What the fuck are you playing at?" she hissed up at him, her eyes darting to the barn door, ears straining to listen for the guards outside. She knew they were there. She had heard them laughing away earlier, talking about the stupid bitch they had captured so easily in the woods.

Elena's stomach had churned with the knowledge that she was that stupid bitch. But when she escaped this place, when she regained her strength, she was sure as hell going to make them regret their laughter.

Nobody threatened her family, nobody threatened her, nobody threatened a child of hers without paying dearly for it.

"Isn't it obvious?" Eddie whispered, drawing her attention back to him. "We're here to rescue my baby sister, as usual."

We're? Elena thought, but at the very same moment, another head popped over the edge of the hayloft. A mixture of emotions rushed through her all at once. Shock, surprise, excitement.

Why did Hanson have to be so damn handsome? His red-blonde hair glowed in the dappled light that filtered through the age-worn roof. There was copper in his close-cropped beard. And even from this distance, his eyes glowed a brilliant golden-green as if his wolf was seething just beneath the surface.

The she-wolf inside her could sense him. She whimpered and wriggled, trying to escape, but the silver was holding her, too, and she was just as weak as Elena. Growing weaker still by the minute.

"Get out of here!" Elena protested. If she died here, that was her own problem, but if Eddie and Hanson lost their lives because of her, she would never forgive herself. And if Christopher was as easily read as she thought he was, he would make damn sure she lived long enough to regret it. "Christopher might be back here any moment!"

"Good," Eddie said, swinging down from the hayloft as if it were only a two-foot drop rather than ten. He walked across the barn as if he had not a care in the world and Hanson dropped down behind him.

"You fucking idiots. Go!" Elena hissed under her breath. She craned her neck, listening beyond them for the guards. It was then that she heard voices. This was all going to be over the second those guards came inside. It wasn't about whether or not Eddie and Hanson could hold their own. It wasn't about how many they could kill before they were taken down themselves. It was simply a case of numbers. Christopher's pack was too large. She had heard so many of them already.

"Don't worry, El, there's a distraction well underway out there," Hanson assured her. Elena's heart raced at the way he called her El, and Eddie shot her a cruel warning look. If she hadn't been so weak, she might have kicked him as he crouched down before her.

"Keep your mouth shut," Eddie hissed at the omega, "and look for something to cut these chains with."

Hanson glowered at him for only a moment before following the order. Elena was sure as hell going to make certain that once she had recovered, these two were going to sit down and have a real heart-to-heart, get everything out in the open and stop being such damn bull-headed pricks.

She had her child to think about now. She wasn't about to have its uncle and father bickering at every time they even looked at each other.

Child? Uncle? Father? All three of those things made her feel all kinds of strange. The fact that she was already even thinking of the situation like that made her realize one thing for sure—there really was a child growing inside of her. She had felt these maternal instincts before. They had been her first sign that she was even pregnant. She had felt them from the very first weeks, jumping at even the smallest threat to herself and her unborn child.

And look how that had turned out. She felt weak with the idea that anything like that might happen again.

"El, are you alright?" Eddie asked, and it was only then she realized she had closed her eyes, her head lolling to one side. She felt a hand cup her cheek and lift her face. "El, can you hear me?"

"Don't talk so loud," she growled at him, forcing her eyes open. "The silver. It's poisoning me."

Eddie wasted no time. He reached around her, grabbed hold of the silver chain and tugged, hard.

Elena bit back an agonized scream even as Eddie snatched his hand away. The scent of freshly burned flesh hit her nostrils.

"Idiot," she barely managed to growl the word.

Hanson returned then while Eddie was clutching his injured hand, blowing on it to take the sting away.

"This place is stripped bare, but there was a shed we passed on the way in," Hanson said, gesturing over his shoulder. "I think there could be something in there."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Eddie snarled at him, and through slitted eyes Elena saw the hatred he threw at him in his glare. "Go and find something! I am not leaving my sister!"

This time, Elena did manage the strength to lash out with her foot. She growled at him low in her throat, "Grow up."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the grateful look Hanson gave her before he silently headed off to do her brother's bidding.

The distance that grew between them was painful. It was as if there were an invisible tether holding them together, and the further away he got, the tighter it became, urging her to follow. There was just one problem, the chains. And somehow, they burned even more as he walked away.

Again, she lashed out at her brother with all of the strength she had left. It was very little, and she only managed a glancing blow this time.

"Would you quit doing that?" Eddie demanded, tapping her foot away easily.

"Would you stop being such a hard-ass with him?" Elena glowered at him. It was difficult. The pain in her head was growing by the second now. She wasn't sure she would be able to hold on to her consciousness much longer. "Why are you being like that with him, anyway? I've seen you give new omegas a hard time before, but this takes the cake."

"I don't like the way he's been sniffing around you," Eddie snarled.

Elena bit back laughter. "You're kidding me? He hasn't been sniffing around me!"

Elena thought for a second of the night they'd shared together. Sure, they'd had sex then, but there had been no sniffing around each other, either before or after. In fact, he had been avoiding her like the plague ever since that night, and it pained her to think on it now. What if they had missed out on what little time they could have shared together before all of this blew up in their faces?

"Besides," she continued when Eddie said nothing, just glowered at her. "Even if he was? What's the big deal? He's your packmate. Surely, I'd be better off with him than someone like Jason."

Her throat constricted to say the name. She hated to talk of him like that, or at all, for that matter, but she had a point.

Eddie rolled his eyes. "I always liked Jason."

"Stop with the bullshit!" she bit back at him. "You never liked Jason."

Eddie smirked at that, and if she hadn't been bound, she might have hit him.

"He was a bit of a tool," Eddie shrugged. "But I tolerated him for your sake."

Without thinking, Elena growled, "You shouldn't speak ill of the dead like that."

The shock on Eddie's face was immediate. He rested back on his heels, staring at her, open-mouthed.

"Elena, what the fuck happened?" he demanded, his voice choking. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The lump in Elena's throat grew larger, harder. There was a lot she hadn't told him, including the fact she had miscarried her mate's child. That was something she never intended to tell anyone who didn't already know. Enough people had been pained by that knowledge.

Shaking her head, she bit her lip for a second before she answered, "It's too painful to talk about."

She was saved by any further questions as Hanson appeared suddenly over the edge of the hayloft, hopping down just as before. This time he carried with him a pair of huge bolt cutters.

"Are you guys done with all your chin-wagging, because it's time we got the hell out of here," Hanson said. If he had heard anything of their conversation, he certainly didn't mention it.

Instead, he handed the bolt cutters to Eddie, and quick as a flash removed his t-shirt.

"What the hell are you—" Eddie began, but before he could finish, Eddie crouched down beside Elena and wrapped his t-shirt around the chains so that he could hold onto them.

"Would you quit your staring and get cutting?" Hanson snapped back at him.

Elena tried her damnedest not to look, she truly did, but Hanson's physique was too beautiful not to be admired. He was muscle upon muscle, his chest, shoulders and arms all tensed as he held the chains as taut as possible for Eddie to cut through. Elena bit her lip as she fought the urge to run her fingers through the blonde-red hair that covered his pecs.

She had felt that hair tickling her, felt that muscle rippling against her as he had made love to her. She had smelled the sweat that they created together as they writhed in pure ecstasy. And though she was weak as hell, her heart skipped a beat, a thrill rushing through her. In fact, it was just the thing she needed to keep hold of her consciousness just a little while longer.

The sight of him distracted her so that before she knew it, she was freed, flopping to one side as it turned out the chains had been the only things holding her up.

Before she knew what was happening, she was plucked up into huge, strong muscular arms that held her tightly to an exceptionally bare chest. Again, her heart raced. The smell of him was intoxicating. It made her blood roar in her veins, and though it would take some time for the silver burns to heal, she felt just a little stronger.

"Let's get you out of here," Hanson whispered in her ear.

"Give her here," Eddie argued, and he appeared opposite Hanson. She was suddenly the only thing between them, and from the look in her brother's eyes, that was the only thing stopping him from lunging at Hanson.

"Eddie, we don't have time for this," Hanson ground out, and Elena saw the way his jaw clenched.

"She is my sister," Eddie said, never blinking as he levelled his eyes with Hanson's. "I should be the one to carry her out of here."

Hanson's arms tightened around her, and she knew from sensing him there was no way in hell he was going to let her go. The she-wolf inside her howled with triumph. The fact he was finally sticking up for himself against her brother made her own heart soar.

"Every second counts, Eddie," Hanson said, meeting Eddie's gaze unflinchingly. "Do you want to be the one to fuck this up because you couldn't just let me carry her?"

"Fine then," Eddie snapped. "Be my guest, if you think you can climb back up there holding her."

"No need," Hanson said, shaking his head and Elena bit back laughter at the disgruntled look on her brother's face. "I noticed a few loose planks on my way to the shed. I'm sure you should be able to pull them off."

As if he took that as a challenge, Eddie grunted and hurried off in a huff to do just that in the direction that Hanson inclined his head.

Weakly, Elena whispered, "Can the two of you please stop bickering?"

Hanson gave her another quick and comforting squeeze. She leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes, still too weak to keep them open. The warmth of his body was so welcome as she realized she was shivering.

"Don't worry," Hanson whispered as she heard the harsh sound of Eddie kicking planks off the back of the barn. "I've got you."

Elena shivered in another way then. Not out of pain or exhaustion or the sheer bone-numbing cold that was wracking her whole body, but with a shiver of delight in his words. She would be happy if she never left his arms again.

"Come on, hurry," Eddie hissed, and Elena felt herself being manhandled through the gap he had made in the barn. The warmth of the sun on her skin was welcome. Having thought she was not going to escape that place, the elements on her skin were like being welcomed home.

Just barely, she managed to open one eye and was just in time to have her heart sink.

"Looks like we've got company," Hanson growled as both he and Elena looked over Eddie's shoulder, where he was busy watching them closely.

"Fuck!" Eddie snarled as he whirled to see what they had seen, the wolves creeping out of the trees only a few meters away. "Why can't things ever be simple?"

"Eddie!" Hanson snapped so suddenly that it made Elena jump as Eddie whipped back around to face them.

Before she knew it, she was jostled into her brother's arms and Hanson growled, "Get her the hell out of here!"

"No!" Elena screamed, and a bolt of energy rushed through her. She tried to reach for Hanson. She tried to throw herself back into his arms, but Eddie had a vice-like grip on her.

Quick as a flash, he turned and started to run in the only open direction.

"Eddie! No! Don't leave him!" Elena cried, even as she heard the snarling of the enemy wolves. Looking desperately over Eddie's shoulder, she saw them converging on the shifting Hanson. "No!"

She couldn't lose another mate. She couldn't go through that soul-crushing, heart-breaking pain again. It would be too much for her to bear this time around.

The weight of realization crushed down on her. Hanson was her mate. You only get one, and yet she had already had and lost Jason. How was this even possible? It didn't really matter. She felt it right down in her gut, in her heart and her head. Hanson was hers, and she was his. There was no doubt about that.

And yet, she could only watch hopelessly as Hanson went down beneath three massive wolves, his own wolf fighting with tooth and claw to keep them off.

Elena tried to fight. She desperately tried to shift, to head back and join him in his impossible battle, but she was too weak. She couldn't so much as elongate a claw.

"Eddie, please! You have to go back!" Elena cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You can't leave him! We can't leave him like this! They'll tear him apart!"

But if he heard her, Eddie did not listen. He simply tightened his grip and quickened his pace. The sound of Hanson's howling rang in her ears, telling her he had very little chance of surviving this.

Now, she had only the child growing in her belly. And somehow, that made everything even harder to bear.