Chapter 83

**Justin’s POV**

As soon as I cut the link with Kataleya, I sprang into action. The first thing I did was link with Kataleya’s father.

‘Alpha, I need you to listen to me. I am going to need you to tell everyone that I am running any meetings or recon missions to get Kataleya back. We have at least two traitors in our midst that are passing along information to the rogues about us and Kataleya. Kataleya overheard them talking about it, but they were careful never to state any names. She told me to be weary of the Elders. Since Kataleya is not yet Alpha, then I can lead the missions because she does not yet hold the full extent of her rank, meaning that the Elders cannot force their way into the meetings. It may be easier if we communicated through mind-link in the case of bugs or listening devices. We do not know which rooms have been tampered with. She said that the king would communicate with anyone that does not have a direct link to our pack. Alpha, do I have your blessing to continue?’

‘Justin, I trust that you know what you are talking about and I trust my daughter enough to know that she has her full trust and faith in you. You may be the only one that might be able to bring my daughter home to us. You will conduct the meetings, but they will be done over the link. We will continue doing them in the conference room, so that it does not look suspicious. I will make sure that we are not interrupted by the Elders.’

Thank the Goddess. I thought the Alpha was not going to let me handle this, since I am only his daughter’s mate. I could tell that he was putting his full faith in me, since Kataleya did too.

‘Thank you, Alpha. Sir, you think I can get discharged, so that we can go ahead and meet in the conference room?’

He nodded his head and left the room. I turned to the others in the room and told them we would be meeting in the conference room and I would be running the mission to get Kataleya home. Michael and Oliver raised their eyebrows at me, but they did not question what I said.

I am coming Kataleya. Just hold on. A little longer.

I could not get the image of her strapped to that table out of my head. I am going to fucking murder those bastards.

Once I am discharged, we meet everyone in the conference room. The Alpha sent the link to everyone that needed to be there. I had already spoken to King Lucas and he assured me that he would translate to the others that did not have the mind-link.

I opened up the mind-link to everyone and explained everything that Kataleya had witnessed and I told them some of the bits and pieces that they had done to her. I could see that the tension in the room was high, knowing what Kataleya was going through.

‘I can feel the bond tugging me towards her. We will carefully choose the warriors that will be going with us and we will make sure that each of them is vetted before we allow them to travel with us. We will break into---’ I was cut off by the excruciating pain radiating across my body. It felt like I was on fire. I let out a guttural scream as I collapsed to the ground.

Michael and the king were the first to get to me.

‘He has blisters appearing all over his body,’ Michael stated through the link.

I used the link to Kataleya and pulled myself to her. My surroundings changed. I was no longer seeing the conference room, but the dungeon where Kataleya was kept. Kataleya was no longer chained, but I could tell that she did not have the energy to move. My poor mate was looking frail. She was lying on the table and there was a woman with a bucket of what looked like water and she was washing her. I could tell that they had added something to the water, which is what was causing Kataleya’s pain. I watched as she gritted her teeth after that first scream, trying not to let them know they were hurting her.

This further hardened my resolve to hurry and get to Kataleya. I could tell that my bond was aching for her. The longer I was away from her, I could feel it trying to pull me to her. I wanted to pull her into my arms. I wanted to protect her.

‘We are coming, my queen. Just give us time. Stay strong and know whatever they have done to you, I will inflict on them 100 times worse,’ I linked to her before our connection dissolved once again.

‘Ares, buddy, I need you. Now more than ever. I will not be able to save our mate without your help. Please help me. She needs us, man,’ I whispered the last part, and once again he did not respond. The pain from them putting their filthy hands on her must have traumatized him and now I am going to have to coax him out of the dark recesses of my mind.

I internally sighed. Of course, nothing was going to be easy for me.

‘Okay, everyone. Let’s begin by discussing potential warriors and the teams that we will split into. Alpha? King Lucas? Are both of you joining us or staying here?’ they both nodded their heads at me. ‘Okay. I think—’

Before I could speak, the door burst open and Christopher and Benjamin busted into the room, followed by several other Elders.

“You cannot be having this meeting, Alpha Michael, without us present. It is our job as the high elders for the pack to make sure that you are not sending us to our deaths.”

I interjected before Christopher could piss me off. These days I have a short fuse and he will be at the receiving end of this fuse. “Excuse me, High Elder Christopher. You are right, you should be privy to this meeting, if it was Alpha Michael that was leading this meeting; however, you see, it was not Alpha Michael, but rather me that called this meeting. Since I essentially have the title of a mere warrior, even though I am mated to your future Alpha, I am not required to have you here. Furthermore, every single one of the warriors is willing to lay their lives down for my mate. If you would like, we could quite easily call them all here. I would never ask any of them to do anything that I myself am not willing to do. When they took the oath to their pack as a warrior, they took the oath to remain loyal to their Alpha and their Alpha heir. I will make sure that I ask each warrior that is chosen to do anything if they are doing this of their own free will and that they understand the consequences of what their actions could lead to. Now, with all due respect, I need you to get your fucking asses out of my conference room, so I can figure out how I will save my fucking mate and your future Alpha.” I finished by letting the weight of the command push out of me, causing the elders to scramble to leave the room.

The Alpha looked at me with an approving smile. “You will truly make a remarkable leader to lead this pack with my daughter. I am glad that Selene chose you to be her mate and stand by her side.”

“Thank you, sir.”

I opened the link back up to continue the discussion, ‘As I was saying, I think our leaders need to be the Alpha, King Lucas, Michael, Oliver, and Beta Damien. Is everyone in agreement with that?’ There were various acknowledgments through the link as everyone spoke their agreement. However, Oliver asked me why I was not leading a group, ‘I needed to get to Kataleya. I will use my bond with her to find exactly where they are holding her and I will secure her. After she is safe and prepared to travel back with us, then I will come and help where I am needed. I want the bastards that dare to touch what is mine, captured. Do not kill them. That right is reserved for me.’ I will make sure they pay for the pain that they have put my mate through. They will regret the day that they touched Kataleya Frost. Oliver nodded his head at my statement and everyone consented to making sure the bastards were caught alive and left to my mercy. ‘What about warriors? Which warriors should be trusted and taken with us? I think we should have at least six, with at least one Lycan on each team, if that is alright with the King.’

That was how the conversation continued. We spoke about each of the warriors that we had, plus the ones that Alpha Eric was loaning us, and the members of the royal guard that King Lucas was lending us.

Once we came to an agreement on the warriors we had chosen, including back-up warriors as a fail-safe in case anyone is deemed to be untrustworthy, we started calling each warrior in here, one-by-one. Each warrior was placed under the Alpha command and then the King’s command to make sure that their intentions were pure. Much to my excitement, everyone had passed both tests. I was truly worried that I would have to face the possibility that one of the warriors, the men and women that I had bonded with, were the ones responsible for leaking information to the rogues about my mate. The thought of that ate me alive. I was glad to have my worries placed at ease. I made sure each warrior knew what was at stake and what I was asking them to risk. Aziel said that he thinks he speaks for all warriors when he says that he wants Kataleya returned to us, safely. He then said he does not think that he could deal with a moody and broody Justin for the rest of his life. I just rolled my eyes at his statement. Sometimes I wonder about that man. I really do.

Once we vetted all the warriors, we decided who was going to remain here on patrol. We left a few of our top-ranking guards here to help guard the borders, among the extra warriors and the royal guard, both from King Lucas and Alpha Eric. It was decided that Elijah would remain in charge while we were gone. He would have help from Gamma Sean and the Gamma heir, James.

Once we had everything squared away, I gave the warriors and everyone else thirty minutes to prepare.

I spent that time peering through Kataleya’s eyes, trying to make sure that they were not harming her. The entire time, the woman that I had previously seen was still in there, periodically washing Kataleya’s body with the tainted water, which made me growl and grit my teeth every time the water touched her skin.

Once the thirty minutes were up, I met everyone on the front steps of the packhouse. We split everyone into groups and I prepared to tug on the link, making my way to my mate.

My queen, we are coming for you.