Chapter 33 Death Sentence

Death Sentence

Nikolai

We had continuously been trying to contact Mikhail and Natalia but their mind-links were completely cut off, their phones unavailable. Something was wrong and I was going crazy because one mistake will cost them their lives.

I had sent my best tracker and my best warrior to investigate and we were waiting for them to contact us. I would have liked to go myself but it wasn't safe if they were being held hostage, I would walk right in their trap. Sending more people would raise suspicions so I sent the team I had the most trust on.

It was four in the morning when the warrior, Denis mind-linked me. "I found Natalia, Alpha. There are no visible wounds on her body but she isn't walking up."

"Denis found Natalia. No wounds but she isn't waking up." I told my men. We had stayed together in the conference room for the night.

"Check her pulse," I told him.

"Maybe she was drugged," Vladimir replied. I nodded, that was the best guess.

"The pulse is very low but she is breathing." He replied.

"That's good. Cut her palm and smell if she was injected with any drug." I told him.

"Wolfsbane." Came his solemn reply. Fuck! I wanted to pull my hair out right now!

"Make sure she keeps breathing, I'll contact you in some time," I informed him and cut off the mind-link.

"She has wolfsbane in her system," I said and got up, pacing around the room. I had to do something, fast. There was no pack in the area that would help. It would take him more than six hours to bring her here, time that we didn't have.

She can't die! Dammit! Also, there was no news of Mikhail.

"Fuck." Dimitri grumbled.

"Maximilian," I said. He was the only one who would be able to help.

"He is dangerous," Vladimir said. True, but no one knew the extent of connection we had, it ran deeper than anything else.

"He had a soft spot for Natalie ever since we found her," Andrei said. Now that I think of it, it was true.

"He will do it," I said. I took out my phone and called Maximilian, not caring it was not the most appropriate time.

"Hello." I heard a disgruntled voice.

"I need you to do something," I told him seriously.

"Try calling me tomorrow, I may be in the mood to help you then." Came to his response.

"It's Natalia." I snapped.

Taking his silence as a response, I continued. "I had sent her on a secret mission and there seems to have been a problem. She is found in a different location than where she was supposed to be and she is unconscious. She has wolfsbane in her system, the extent of damage is unknown." I told him.

After a minute of silence, came his reply, "where is she?"

I gave him the coordinates of the place. "Mikhail is missing, find him too," I added.

"On it." He grunted and cut the call.

"Well that went well," Dimitri said.

"A man named Maximilian will come there to take Natalia. Go with him. Stay there till Natalia is in proper shape and bring her back safely." I mind-liked Denis.

"Yes, Alpha." He replied.

I mind-linked the tracker, Remi after that. "Any sign of Mikhail?"

"Light traces. They are a couple of days old." He replied.

"Go to Denis. He will introduce you to Maximilian, help him in searching Mikhail and do as he says, he will guide you." I told him.

"Yes, Alpha." He replied.

"I talked to Denis and Remi. Hopefully, they find Mikhail fast." I muttered.

I can't lose my brother.

~~~

It was evening time and we were out on the packed ground, training. I made it a point of training with the entire pack every once in a while to see their progress. So all of us were out here, training with the pack. I had announced the upcoming war among the warriors so they started preparing for it.

Ava was fighting with Sofiya and while she had improved drastically, Ava was taking it easy on her because she was pregnant.

"That's it. Come here, Ava." I told her. She stopped her little fight with Sofiya and came to me.

I led her to a circle and turned towards her. "Let's put your skills to the test. Impress me, Love." I told her and took a few steps back.

She nodded at me looking determined and took a few steps back too. A crowd was gathering around us, wanting to see the fight of their Alpha and Luna.

We circled each other before she pounced on me. I jumped too and met her in the air, using my strength and body weight to tackle her down. She fell on her back and I fell above her. She winced but gritted her teeth and put her arms around my neck and buckled her hips to roll me off her and then backed up to create distance between us.

I backed off and removed my t-shirt so I was only in my shorts. I needed to move freely. I motioned her to come at me and she did. I made a move to punch her jaw which she ducked and she tried to give an uppercut. I caught her fist in my hand and held on tight. I twisted her around and held both of her arms behind her back tightly. She wiggled but couldn't shake me.

"Jump and do a front flip and use the moment to throw me off you," I said against her ear.

She crouched a but before jumped in the air and did a flip just as I told her and threw me off. I was ready for it so I landed on my feet. I smirked at her. She let out a low growl before she charged towards me again and I side-stepped her and used her momentum against her and threw her over my shoulder. My wolf came forward and let out a growl, loving the show of dominance over our female.

She placed her hands on my waist and did a black flip, effectively freeing herself. She then got me in a chokehold from behind. I flipped her in front of me and threw her on the ground in front of me, gripping her neck.

"Mikhail is kidnapped." Max mind-linked at me.

Ava tried to punch me but I released her neck and held both her hands tightly in mine.

"What? How do you know?" I asked him, anger filling in me.

"Natalia gained consciousness for a few minutes where she mumbled about kicking asses of the kidnappers. My best guess is they kidnapped them separately and Natalia managed to escape." He replied. Nat had always been crafty.

Ava had stopped fighting and was looking at me with curious eyes, knowing something is up.

"Thank you, as soon as Natalia is in good shape, Denis will bring her back. I'll look into the kidnapping matter." I said and walked towards where Dimitri and Vladimir were sparing. The crowd parted for me, making a clear way.

"No need for that, I'm keeping her." He said. "She's my mate."

"Take care of her," I told him. I had already guessed it.

"Of course, brother." Came his reply before he cut off the mind-link.

Vladimir and Dimitri stopped sparing when they saw me come. They walked towards me and Andrei joined in too.

"Mikhail is kidnapped." My entire being shook with anger as I mind-linked them. We cannot afford for everyone to know this. The information is too vulnerable.

All of their bodies tensed and Vladimir's eyes turned red in rage. "Control yourselves. Nobody can know this. Especially not Ava or Sofiya." I gritted. I wanted to smash something, preferably someone.

I was so fucking angry that I could kill someone right now. I wanted blood. My wolf was craving the blood of the person who took our brother.

"This is the doing of the Montãna pack. I'm going to fucking slaughter them." I snarled.

"They haven't asked for anything in return. You know for a fact that Emilio is a greedy bastard. Let him make a ransom first." Vladimir said. I knew that Mikhail would kill himself before selling us out. So the only option for them would to torture him or ask us for money. I just hoped we found him before too much damage is done.

"Yes, we have to be smarter than them," Dimitri said. He looked furious too. I could feel the anger of my brothers and my wolf fed on it. I added it to the account of reasons to torture the González.

I heard some yelling in the background and I walked over to the scene. In the corner of the ground, two wolves were fighting and the yells had been of a pet who was now crying.

I let out a loud growl, effectively stopping both the wolves. "Shift," I commanded.

They both automatically shifted in their skin and bared their necks to me. I recognized the wolves, it was Shane and Kenny.

"What are the rules?" I gritted. I was so fucking done with these assholes who couldn't follow simple rules.

Calm down, I told myself.

"But he—"

"What is the fucking rule?" I growled.

"Do not fight with a pack member," Kenny mumbled.

"Who started the fight?" I narrowed my eyes at both of them. A crowd had gathered around us now.

"He did." Both said simultaneously, pointing at each other. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"You say what happened first," Ava said as she pointed towards Kenny who had the pet kneeling next to him.

"I owed him money which I couldn't repay, so in exchange, he asked for my pet for a week. I accepted the deal. It's been two weeks and I couldn't find him anywhere. I saw him here today so we decided to fight it out and it got a little...out of hand." He grunted. Lie.

I walked up to him and punched him in the face. The crack of his now broken nose was loud enough for everyone to hear. "When I ask you a question, I expect to hear the fucking truth," I grunted.

I raised my brow at Shane.

"The starting part was true. Except we did not decide to fight it out, he attacked me." He replied. True.

"Why the fuck did you not follow through with the deal?" I growled

"She's a good fuck." He grunted.

"Assemble near the stage. I will administer the punishment right away." I snapped my fingers. Four warriors came and held Shane and Kenny and started dragging them to the stage. I picked up the leash of the pet and started walking towards the stage in the center of the training grounds.

It was made for conducting assemblies of the warriors and administrating punishments. If there was one thing I did not tolerate, it was breaking the rules.

I walked up the stage and released the leash from my hand. She immediately kneeled next to my feet and was shivering in fear. I didn't fucking care.

Ava ran up to me and stood in front of me. She was panting and looked worried. I took her hand in mine and made her stand next to me, on my right.

Dimitri came and stood a step behind me on my left, where he belonged. Andrei came and stood next to him. Vladimir stood a step behind Ava.

The warriors made Shane and Kenny stand on the ground, directly in front of us. Most of the pack had gathered around us, making a semicircle around us. The atmosphere was tense. Everyone knew what was to come. Both the men looked scared as hell.

"Shane and Kenny have broken the most important rule of no violence in the pack. Kenny initiated the fight. Shane instigated him by keeping his pet for extra seven days. I, Nikolai Volkov, Alpha of the Rogue Pack, sentence Kenny to death," the crowd broke into whispers, "and Shane will receive seven wolfsbanes laced lashes, one for each extra day he kept a slave that wasn't his to keep." I announced. I hear Ava gasp.

"No, you can't kill him," Ava interjected.

"I can and I will," I replied lowly but firmly.

She freed her hand from my grip and stood in front of me, her back to the audience. "I can't let you do that." She argued. "Please, don't kill him. You can give him some other punishment." She begged and gripped my arms.

"You will not argue with me on this. My decision is final." I gritted, pissed off that she was arguing with me when she should be on my side.

She turned her head and looked down at Kenny and Shane before looking back at me with glassy eyes. "Please, he made a mistake. He doesn't deserve to die."

I gripped her hand and pulled her to the side. "Bring them up," I ordered.

The warriors brought both of them in front of us, just beneath the stage.

"Kneel," I commanded and both of them fell to their knees.

The guards came and cuffed Shane's hands to the post specially put up for punishments.

Ava was trying to break free but I tightened my grip on her. Andrei stepped forward with a whip in his hand which was laced with wolfsbane. Those marks are not easy to heal and would take years to heal completely. It was for a mistake to be remembered and not be repeated.

He looked at me and after a sharp nod from me, he stood behind Shane.

"Count," Andrei grunted and landed a lash on his naked back.

"One." Shane gritted. Andrei landed another one which rose a scream from him. "Two."

Ava's protests grew as she began thrashing under my hold. I knew I was going to leave an imprint on her hand from how tight I was holding but I was not going to release her when she planned to stand in my way.

She needed to know that all packs function in a certain way and she was a part of it, whether she liked it or not.

Andrei was on lash number six and Shane's back was a bloodied mess. His skin was hanging in tatters and he had fallen on the floor was sobbing.

Andrei landed the last lash to which Shane screamed. "Seven."

The entire crowd was silent and all the males had pushed their females back.

"Take him away," I ordered. The two warriors came in and took him away.

Kenny was crying too when Andrei stepped in front of him.

Suddenly, Ava clawed at my arm with her half-transformed claws which drew blood. Using my moment of weakness, she twisted and ran away.

Hot white fury hit me but I clamped it down.

"Proceed." I snarled.

In a quick move, Andrei snapped Kenny's head and his body fell on the floor, his head now twisted at an odd angle and his eyes still open in horror.

"Disperse," I growled. The crowd slowly started dispersing and I looked down at my right hand.

Cuts had formed of the shape of claws and one was a particularly deep wound. Blood was flowing down my entire hand and was dripping on the floor. I clenched my hand. The wounds didn't hurt as much as her running away did.

"Take the body away and hand it over to his family or friends," I told the warriors.

"Yes, Alpha." They replied and took him away.

"Bring her back to the estate," I grunted to Dimitri before shifting into my wolf and running back to the estate.

I needed to talk with my beloved mate.

'She is in your bedroom.' Vladimir mind-linked.