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It was a habit of his to write using the old fountain pen he had inherited from his dad instead of a more modern method. Gabriel was the one responsible for administrative tasks in our sleuth. I was glad he was the one doing the paperwork. I had no patience for that task.
However, I knew our hunters and guards better since I was the one who left the Alphas’ office in our home and assisted with various menial tasks around the village more often. So I would be able to help Gabriel with the task of dividing our forces correctly. We had to leave some good men behind in case Victor got the stupid idea to attack Santuario while we were out breaking into the prison near Fort Torres. Actually such an ambush wouldn’t be a stupid idea; by removing some of our forces, we were leaving him an excellent opportunity to destroy the home we worked so hard to maintain.
Santuario and Victor had maintained peace for three years ever since Victor’s uprising had succeeded. But I had no doubt the ex-convicts under his rule detested the wardens and their families who had helped hold them prisoner for so many years; the very wardens who had then chosen to stay behind on the island and live under the rule of myself and Gabriel as part of Santuario instead of returning to the mainland to make new lives for themselves.
They were loyal to us because we were the Torres; part of the family that had ruled over Isla Paraiso for centuries and whose members had been appointed as head wardens when the island had become a prison but we were the last two Torres. Everyone else had been murdered by Victor and his people. For that crime, we detested the villainous leader of the uprising. Or rather, the murder of our family was one of the many reasons we hated him. Victor was a truly detestable guy ready to resort to kidnapping, murder and assault.
Gabriel in particular wanted to get revenge on Victor very badly. He missed his sister, Hanny, whom we had failed to protect on the night our family had been killed. Gabriel and I missed everyone, but we had been particularly close to Hanny because the three of us had grown up together. She had been the sunshine of our childhood – our dearest friend. For her demise, Gabriel swore he would seek revenge on Victor.
But I was glad he’d been smart and not thrown himself into combat with Victor earlier today; that he was leaving Victor’s end to me. Gabriel seemed like such a sunny guy; no one knew how deep and dark his thirst for revenge truly was.
I often saw him sitting in the office, scribbling some plans in his notebook while whispering how he would love to murder Victor. He had more brains than I did. One day he would figure out a way to kill the guy. Luckily, because Gabriel was smart, he wouldn’t engage in a fight that he knew he would lose so I tried not to worry about if the revenge he sought would be his demise.
I looked over the list and pointed out some names I wanted removed – guys who should stay behind to protect Santuario. Gabriel scratched them out. In their place I suggested others who I found suitable.
“Do we have enough guns for everyone?” I asked. Gabriel was the one of us who took inventory of our supplies.
“Yes – assault rifles, shotguns and guns for twenty. We have enough. We will use all five of our military vehicles to get to Fort Torres quickly too. Are we ready to embark?” Gabriel looked up from the list.
I nodded, biting my lip. “Yes, let’s go.” Truth to be told, I felt anxious about attacking the facility. So far we had led Santuario with a defensive strategy, not engaging Victor or any of the other sleuths unless they attacked us first. Our focus was on having a good peaceful life, not spilling the blood of everyone we encountered. Gabriel planned to kill Victor eventually, but before today he had never suggested to me that we should outright attack the villain.
Of course, after our mate’s kidnapping, the situation had changed. He couldn’t hold back any longer. We had to go to the prison facility and break her out ourselves and there could be no more delay, just in case Victor had any notorious plans for her.
I followed Gabriel to the group of hunters and guards who stood in front of the dining hall. They surrounded us, and I felt… excitement from them. That sensation surprised me a little. I thought they would detest Gabriel and me for having them fight Victor on our behalf but maybe they had always wanted to go up against the villain who had destroyed their lives as wardens? Perhaps they wanted Santuario to fight more actively against his expansion? In a way, attacking first was about defense too. We couldn’t let Victor grow much stronger. Bringing him down a peg now by killing some of his men would ensure that we could maintain peace for a longer time.
Maybe I was just kidding myself, thinking we could live the way we did in Santuario forever, maintaining a peace that sometimes felt as thin as air. One day Victor’s thirst for power would throw Isla Paraiso into another war. We might get to the final battle more quickly by acting now and an early end to his threat could not be a bad thing.
Gabriel issued the orders for the twenty men we had selected to grab weapons and drive our sleuth’s military cars to the facility near Fort Torres. We would need around forty minutes to get to Victor’s border and then another ten to reach the facility itself.
As soon as we entered his territory, his scouts would alert him. Military vehicles weren’t exactly stealthy, but neither were twenty men if we came out shooting, whether in bear or human forms. Our tactic would be to drive directly to the building, release our mate, and come back to Santuario as quickly as we could.
The men we would leave behind were to defend Santuario if an attack happened against the village. Nobody was allowed to leave our walls until the whole operation was over.
When everyone said they understood the orders, we went to our cars.
We drove along the road leading to Fort Torres. The roads had been built during the island’s time as a prison and they connected the most important places to each other. Every sleuth that now existed on the island claimed one prison unit for themselves. In the south there was our sleuth, the Bloody Claws, and the Starry Banes. The other clans were made up of the ex-convicts who didn’t want to join Victor.
In the north the whole island was taken up by the villain Victor and his goons, and the seat of their power was Fort Torres – the castle that had once belonged to our family and was symbolic to everyone on the island. Not only was the castle easily defensible, but it was also the place from which the Torres family had ruled.
Even though I remembered the place being cozy but not exactly comfortable due to a lack of modern improvements, Victor knew that by residing in the castle he made his rule more legitimate. At least he hoped that result was the case. The only ones who believed him to be the ruler of Isla Paraiso were hispeople. The rest of us were careful not to get into conflicts with him, instead trying to keep to ourselves and preserve our fragile peace.
When we arrived at Victor’s territory, we heard rustling from the bushes to the right. Some of our people shot their rifles in that direction, but no shouts of pain followed. The scouts must have managed to escape, which meant they would inform Victor of our arrival soon.
I pressed my foot on the gas pedal more firmly, increasing our speed. We arrived at the prison facility ten minutes later. Fort Torres loomed in the distance. Hopefully we would be able to get the woman to safety before Victor came out with his main forces.
We exited the cars and were greeted by gunfire. The guards from the prison had seen us and gathered behind the defensible high wall, shooting at us through the iron bars of the large gate but there were more of us than them. I issued commands for our people to use our cars as cover and shoot at the defenders.
After a few rounds of fire, the resistance against us dwindled.
“Gabriel, let’s get inside. The rest of you, cover the entrance. When Victor’s main forces come out of the castle, defend the cars and our way of escape,” I commanded in the Alpha tone.
“If we don’t come out in twenty minutes, assume we’re dead and leave for Santuario,” Gabriel added. He also used his Alpha voice for this command because otherwise our men would protest and refuse to leave us behind without knowing our fate.
I too wanted them to prioritize the sleuth’s safety over our own. The clan would survive without its Alphas. Someone else would take our spots if we died but if the people were killed, the sleuth would be destroyed so they needed to prioritize the preservation of their own lives, no matter how loyal to us they were.
Gabriel and I ran up to the gate, killing the two guards who remained there. We entered the tight corridors, so familiar to us from the time we had been wardens maintaining the peace and order in this very place. We ran straight to the medium security ward, killing everyone whom we met in our path.
At last when we arrived at the right place, we found that an old ex-convict turned warden and two younger men were the only people standing guard. They tried to kill us with the guns they drew, but I was quicker, rapid-firing my assault rifle. They collapsed on the floor, gurgling. I leaned down and snatched the set of keys attached to the belt of the oldest warden.
