Chapter 3 THREE

EMILIA'S POV

A sudden jolt woke Emilia up. She gasped and opened her eyes. Blurry images swam before them, and she blinked several times before they came to focus. She looked sideways and saw buildings flash by. The sky outside the window was dark; it was night time already.

The vehicle she was in was bumping slightly as they drove along a highway. She was in the backseat of a car; she suspected it was the black car that had accosted her and her kids.

Her kids!

She suddenly sat upright, then groaned as a banging pain split through her head. But she didn't care. Where the hell was her kids?

"Mommy?" She heard a soft whisper beside her and turned to look. Three scared little white faces stared at her from the darkness of the backseat. She sighed gratefully, then stretched her hand and drew her children to herself.

"I thought I told you to run." She whispered, holding them to her side.

"The bad guy came after us and carried us back to the car." Her son Jasper replied, pointing at the driver. "We thought he would hurt you mommy."

"It's alright, I'm fine." Emilia replied. "I'm glad you're alright. Everything will be fine soon, okay?"

The driver looked up as he heard Jasper's voice and cleared his throat. His eyes found hers through the rearview mirror.

"I see you're awake, miss." He said, giving her a faint smile. "I'm sorry for the way I accosted you."

Emilia's hand immediately went around her neck, where she could feel a ring of bruises. "You're going to pay for this." She said, her voice trembling.

"You know it's not my fault, Ms Emilia. I was following orders from him. I did give you two options, and you chose not to come with me. I had no choice but to use force."

She swallowed past the fear that lodged in her throat. "Who the hell is 'him'? Who is behind all of this? I demand to know."

"Alpha Raymond." The driver replied promptly. "I am a chauffeur in his service. He asked me to come fetch you. He needs your help."

Her heart did a spin as she heard that name. "Alpha Raymond...Ray?" She whispered.

"Exactly, ma'am." The driver replied.

She narrowed her eyes. "And he needs my help because?" She asked.

"That, I cannot say. He only asked me to fetch you."

Emilia leaned forward until her head was close to the driver's seat. "You'd better tell me what he wants from me before I–"

"You'd do well to keep your threats to yourself, Miss Emilia." The chauffeur replied in a brisk voice. "You and I know that your threats are wasted on me. And I know you're excited to see him again."

She shook her head. "How presumptuous of you to think you know what I want."

The chauffeur's eyes met hers in the rearview mirror, then slid away. It was obvious he knew much more than he was willing to say.

"I'm sorry if all of this has caused any sort of inconvenience on your side, but it's extremely urgent I get you to the alpha. He needs your help." He added .

"And how's that any of my business?" She spat venomously, feeling the rage and hatred of six years rise to the surface. "He is the father of these kids, and yet he totally ignored their existence for six years. He has no right to demand to see me now."

She watched as the alpha swallowed uneasily. "I'm sorry ma'am. I'm just following orders."

Emilia narrowed her eyes. "Get me and my kids out of this car this instant." She demanded in a deadly cold voice.

"No can do, Miss Emilia."

"That's bullshit." She yelled and jerked the door handle. "Let me out of this car immediately. This is kidnapping!"

"Miss, you'd do well to keep your voice down, please." The chauffeur said, his own voice full of warning.

"I am going to open this door and jump out, and you'd have nothing but a dead body to take back to your precious alpha Raymond." Emilia threatened dangerously.

"Ma'am, please. People can hear us." The chauffeur replied. She could hear a bit of fear in his voice now.

"That's the goal, isn't it?" Emilia snapped, then returned to the door and began hitting on the windows. "Help! I'm being kidnapped!" She yelled at the top of her voice while her kids watched with fear in their eyes. She didn't care if Raymond was waiting for her at the end of this journey. She wanted out.

"Miss, this is your last warning..." The chauffeur threatened.

Emilia raised her voice a notch higher. "Help!" She screamed. She saw a squad of police cars in front and wound down the windows. When the car got within a distance of the police, she craned her neck out of the window and screamed. "I'm being kidnapped!"

A lone cop was standing by the roadside, leaning against his car. His head jerked up when Emilia screamed, and she watched as he hurriedly yelled something into his service radio, then opened the door of his car and went in. Soon a police car was hot on their trail.

"Shit!" The chauffeur cursed under his breath as the squad car began to trail him, sirens blaring. Emilia settled back into her chair, satisfied.

"You'd better pull up and wait for the cops, Mr Chauffeur." She said with a smug look. "They'd have a ton of questions to ask you."

"I told you not to scream, Miss. Now I have no choice." The chauffeur said in a calm voice that sent shivers up her spine.

"What do you mean?" She asked, but he ignored her. He sped up the car until they got to a highway, where traffic was heavy. The police car was still somewhere behind them, but it had been lost in the sea of cars.

Once safely in the jam-packed lane, the chauffeur wound up the windows, then turned to her. "I'm sorry for this." He said.

"Sorry for wh–" Emilia started, but the words were knocked out of her mouth as the chauffeur gave her a heavy blow to the head, and for the second time that night, she sank into unconsciousness.