Tangled Hearts - The Alpha's Baby Mama-Chapter 243: A two-way rescue...

Lucius POV

Noah’s office was as thick as tension when I entered. The Lycan King’s face was etched with worry and fatigue.

"Talk of the devil," Kurtis chuckled. "It’s him your majesty... he’s best at saving Selene,".

My gaze turned from Noah to Kurtis who was sitting at one corner of the office and my heart sank. I hadn’t noticed his presence. A part of me was happy to see him, while a part of me, couldn’t deal with the part that liked seeing him.

The guilt of what happened between us still gnawed at me and I had convinced myself that I would stay away from him I was just confused, that it was the alcohol that night but here I was at Moon Whisper at his beck and call.

"Kurtis!" I said curtly and turned to Noah. Could he see what I felt inside? I wondered.

"Your timing is impeccable, Lucius," Kurtis remarked, a hint of relief in his voice as he rose and came towards me casually brushing my shoulders. I stiffened. "We were just discussing the rescue operation for Luna Selene and I believe you’re the best person to rescue her,".

"Why do you think so?" Noah interjected looking at me suspiciously. "Don’t tell me he’s...".

"Ease your heart, your Majesty," I cut him off with a small smile "The only reason why I am a perfect fit is because I can get Selene out of any situation even if she doesn’t want to know. You may not know this but the Luna is stubborn. She might either refuse to leave or want to check something out. Others may oblige her but I don’t give a damn. If my mission is to rescue her, there may be tens of thousands of people present and I’ll rescue only her,".

"And others won’t?" Noah looked at me strangely.

"Luna Selene has Kurtis under her thumb – Alpha Kurtis," I corrected. "He may appear to be tough but it only ends with us and not with Selene. He cannot say No to her. Applicable to Alpha Xavier, and you too your Majesty. But she doesn’t have such influence over me,".

"Oh!" Noah hid a smile "I understand now and thank you for coming at such short notice. Did Kurtis tell you everything?"

I shook my head. "Not yet, your Majesty," then I turned to him, trying to meet his eyes. It seemed hard for the first few seconds but I had to force myself.

In the next few minutes, Kurtis quickly briefed me on the events that had transpired – Selene’s kidnapping, Jade’s involvement, and their suspicions regarding Alpha Jared. As he spoke, my expression remained impassive but the memory of that night kept flitting to my memory.

"We believe Alpha Jared is working with Jade," Kurtis concluded. "I think he’s still hurt that His Majesty reinstated Xavier as the regional council leader and not him. He was planning to use his position and acquire arms from the North but that is a different story,".

I nodded and asked. "What’s the plan?"

"We plan to mount a two-way rescue operation. One team will track down Princess Jade, while the other goes after Alpha Jared. We need you to lead the team pursuing Jared and recover Selene but it’ll just be you and a few shadows. It’ll be best not to go with the crowd. Can you handle Jared alone? Currently, we do not know the size of his force,".

I nodded, my mind already racing through potential strategies. "Do we have any leads on Jared’s location?"

"We know he’s still within the region, despite his cover story about travelling abroad," Kurtis replied. "I have some contacts working on pinpointing his exact whereabouts but so far, it’s giving us different locations at once,".

"It’s an ancient trick to confuse your enemy," I scoffed "Give me the coordinates of all the locations, and I’ll be able to track where he went exactly and this shadow you’re giving me, could you give me a woman? I don’t want a man plus I want us to go side by side and if someone is approaching, she hides. I may have to use her to lure, Jared... he loves women,".

As I said the last word, my gaze and Kurtis’ collided and an amused smile played on his lips before he looked away. I felt myself blushing red but I tried to concentrate on Noah who had been silent during the exchange.

"Lucius, I trust you with this task. Selene’s life – and that of our unborn child – depends on your success. In return, you can ask me for anything and I promise I’ll grant it to you,".

"I don’t need anything, Your Majesty. I understand that you love Luna Selene but I love her more than you can ever understand and..." I put up my hand when I saw that Noah wanted to speak. "I cherish her more than anything in the world. She is my family... so you don’t have to tell me to bring her back... I will,".

Hope ignited in Noah’s weary gaze but I turned to listen to Kurtis who was outlining the details of the operation. A knock on the door interrupted us. A young warrior entered, his face flushed with excitement.

"Alpha Kurtis, we’ve received intel on Alpha Jared’s location. He’s been spotted at an abandoned warehouse complex about 50 miles north of here,".

Kurtis’s eyes lit up. "Excellent work. Lucius, are you ready to move out immediately?"

I nodded and rose to my feet "But he’s not in the warehouse," I said thoughtfully turning to the warrior "Is the warehouse part of the four locations that were showing before?" freewēbnoveℓ.com

"Yes, Beta Lucius," he nodded.

"Can you come show me on the map?" I beckoned at him to come closer. "Pinpoint the exact location of the warehouse and the other three locations,".

When he did, I asked him to leave. I studied all three locations and nothing that they were all surrounded by plain land. Knowing who Jared was, he wasn’t going to be at the warehouse. After studying the map for a few more minutes. I noticed there was a small, almost invisible curve wedged in between all four points.

I turned to Noah "Do you know what this is?" I asked pointing at the curve.

"That’s a cave. It’s small and hidden from the outside world. You must either come to the middle of this point for you to be able to notice that there’s a cave there, or you know the area very well. Why?" he asked.

"That’s where Jared is hidden," I said with a smile. "You see the areas at these four points are all plainlands and it seemed the location of the cave could give him a bird’s eye view of all four locations. So, if we approach from any of the locations, he would know that we’re coming. Unfortunately, when we do notice him... it’ll be difficult to escape since it’s plain land all around... nothing to hide us,".

"That bastard!" Kurtis hissed "I never thought of that,".

"Is there another way to get to the cave without coming from the front?"

"Yes!" Noah nodded but you’ll cross a bridge first and I’m not so sure of that bridge. I was burnt down during the ’dark moon phase’ and...".

"I just checked!" Kurtis said with excitement cutting Noah short "That other end was one of the locations we picked up for Princess Jade,".

"That means she’s there. So, if you attack Princess Jade first, she runs to meet up with Jared and they join forces, and vice versa. The plan may seem simple but the cave is hidden with a lot of crevices... who knows what they have planted in there. There’s only one way to know,".

"We’ll lure them out!" I said with a smile.

"How are we going to do that?" Noah asked.

"Do you have any foxes in custody.... I noticed there were quite a few outside but do you have anyone that has been in captivity for a while now?".

"Yes!" Noah nodded "During the ’Dark moon phase’ we captured quite a few and they were kept in our underground tunnel. Why?"

"Ask someone to bring them out," I instructed "We’re going to use them. I know you don’t know this but keeping a fox underground from sunlight messes with their brain. They have a phobia for darkness and if you bring them out now and promise in exchange for their freedom a particular thing they would do it until the later,".

"How can we trust that they will see it to the end?"

"Because they’ll think you’re their new leader," Kurtis finished up. "Foxes are used to being instructed, so they’ll take instructions from anyone that shows signs of leadership. It’ll be easy to bring them under your wings. You don’t have to worry about that. But who are they cloning,".

"Princess Jade and Reid... we need to know to what extent he’s involved. We’ll send Reid first... depending on how Jared Communicates with him, then we’ll know for sure but when Jared sees Reid, he will notify Jade who will come to meet with him or so. Then we’ll send the other fox who will be acting as Jade’s impersonator to the troops to confirm who exactly is with Luna Selene,".