Wait! How Did The Stray Dog I Picked Up Turn Into A Man?!

As if sensing Olivia’s confidence, the children around them, who had been whimpering with muffled tears, began to wipe their tears.

That’s right. Their mummies and daddies would definitely come to save them.

Then, others began to shift awake one by one, groggy eyes blinking open, looking confused, and fear settling on their faces.

A little girl whimpered, hugging her knees, and a boy barely older than Olivia asked,

"Where are we? I want my mommy..."

The other kids were also panicking and this drew the attention of one of the guards.

"Hey," he hit the bars to quiet them down. "No noise unless you’ll get a beating." They threatened and this scared the kids.

But after he walked away, Olivia once again decided to be the beacon of hope.

She turned her head, puffed out her chest despite her tied hands, and declared,

"You guys don’t have to worry. My Papa and Daddy are the strongest people in the world. And Josh’s dad too! They’ll find us soon and put these bad guys in jail."

Her voice was bright, certain, like a small flame in the darkness.

"Are your parents heroes?" One boy asked. "I know it’s only heroes that can save people."

"Hmph, my parents are just as tough as those heroes." She said and nearly blurted that her Daddy was a werewolf. "But let’s not rely solely on them and also think of a way to be of help. I’m sure, we’ll be able to go back to our parents soon."

She was definitely a beacon of hope and Josh looked at her with wide eyes that were stunned out of this world.

Deep down, he was still scared, but with her right beside him, his chest didn’t feel so heavy anymore. He reached for her hand awkwardly, and even bound as they were, she gripped him tightly back.

"See?" Olivia smiled at him. "With me by your side, nothing bad can happen."

Those were rich coming from a child her size, when they were up again adults but...

Josh nodded slowly, his tears slowing, comforted by her words even if fear still lingered. He squeezed her hand tighter.

The once-bright lights of Disneyland now seemed harsh and cold, glaring down on multiple scenes struck with chaos and despair.

Families gathered in clusters, their frantic voices overlapping with the clipped, tense tones of security officers and police trying to organize the madness.

"My baby," someone worried shrieked. "I need my baby back."

Every ride, booth, and every corner of the park had been shut down. Music and laughter were silenced, replaced with sobbing parents clutching photos of their children, desperate for answers. What was supposed to be a night of joy had descended into a nightmare.

In the middle of it all stood Noah, Michael, and Steven.

Noah’s fury was barely contained, his golden eyes flashing in the dim light whenever someone said something he didn’t want to hear. His arms were crossed tight, but the tremor in his shoulders betrayed the storm inside him. Michael stood close, Olivia still unconscious but breathing steadily in his arms. He wasn’t furious like Noah, but the gnawing worry on his face was worse — it was the look of a parent imagining every terrible possibility and blaming himself for not preventing it.

Steven was another story entirely. He paced like a caged wolf, growling under his breath, fists clenched so tight his knuckles were bloodless. Every second without Josh was like gasoline poured on the fire inside him. His aura radiated so fiercely that the nearest security guards unconsciously kept their distance.

"I’m not standing here while they have my son," Steven snarled, shoving past a cluster of officers. "You think filling out reports will bring him back? I’ll tear this place apart with my own hands if I have to!"

"Steven, calm down," one officer tried, but the look Steven gave him made the man stumble back.

"Calm?" Steven barked, his voice booming loud enough to silence several nearby conversations. "My son has been taken. If you want calm, find him before I lose what little control I still have!"

Michael reached out, his free hand tightening on Steven’s arm, grounding him for just a moment. "Listen to me. If you tear this place apart, you’ll spook them. They’ll move the kids before we even find them."

Steven’s jaw clenched, but his nostrils flared, his breathing ragged. He wanted to move. He wanted blood. But Michael’s words struck enough truth to hold him still — for now.

Nearby, Roland and Alyssa moved quickly, silent and sharp. They had already slipped past the gathering of families and police, their instincts carrying them into the hidden veins of the park. Abandoned service tunnels, storage booths, behind-the-scenes paths — all the places ordinary eyes wouldn’t look.

"They’ll try to move them," Roland muttered grimly, his eyes scanning every shadow. "If they get those kids off the grounds, it’s over."

"Then we find them first," Alyssa replied, her eyes hard, her steps light as she vanished deeper into the maze of the park.

Back at the security hub, officers were pulling up surveillance footage, rewinding tapes to catch glimpses of the kidnappers. One by one, parents were brought forward to confirm faces, voices, anything that could help.

But Noah had little patience for the slow pace. He had sent Alyssa and Roland to scout the entire place, starting from the cross road Steven lost the kidnappers.

He regretted not having his men on standby but it couldn’t be helped.

He loomed over the two captured men sitting cuffed to chairs with wrecked faces and brown bones. Such cruelty was done from their stubbornness and meted out on them by Steven.

They still weren’t ready to talk. They decided to be stubbornly quiet and keeping things to themselves while receiving a beating that could take their lives.

The location of where the kids were being stored... If they could just get that then they would be able to handle the rest but they kept quiet.

How were they going to find the kids in these big grounds?

"You... you don’t know who you’re dealing with..." one of the men rasped, barely able to catch his breath from what seemed like a ruptured lung that caused him to cough blood every now and then. "Even if you find them, it won’t matter. The Ringmaster... the Ringmaster decides who leaves and who doesn’t."

"The Ringmaster?" they chorused together, their curiosity piquing dangerously.

"Now you’re finally saying something useful." Steben said and squatted down. "Now tell us. Who is that? Where is he keeping my kid?"

But thr man suddenly began to laugh, causing Stevens temper to rise once again.

"You... You won’t get close... not in this place." He boldly remarked. "He owns the shadows here."

"I don’t care about any fucking shadows. I just want to get my kid back. You either tell me where the location is or get ready to meet your maker." He threatened, revealing his claws and frightening the man. "And don’t worry, I’ll make sure to send that ringmaster along with you after skinning him or his flesh till he has nothing but his bones on with a beating heart."

Michael’s face twisted a little and he turned away, wondering if Steven used to be the one incharge with squeezing out information from spies and the likes.

He looked oddly proficient in this.

"You... You won’t find him. He owns it all and can evade all eyes." He said and started cackling. "But if you want to know so badly, then you’ll have to search ’behind the curtains where the lights never shine’." He continued cackling and it got worse by the minute, like he had gone mad.

Steven got furious and ended him, slamming his head to the wall till his skull broke, leaving his cryptic message to be the only clue they had.

"Where the lights never shine?" Steven hissed. "Then I guess I’ll have to burn the whole damn land down until he crawls out of the ashes and tells me where my kid is."

(But wouldn’t his kid get burnt in the process?)

Silence fell over the room. It was tense and sharp with Michael and Noah trying to figure out what he meant by ’behind the curtain where the lights never shine’.

The phrase lingered like poison in the air. If they could only figure out what it meant, then they could find the antidote.

"Dammit!" Steven cussed and stormed out. He would have to do the digging himself. It was only a matter of time before his men arrived.

He just couldn’t imagine how scared and terrified his little one was. Josh was such a cute and small thing that something like this could break him.

This would scar him for life. This stupid and dirty prank pulled by that ’ringmaster’. That mastermind.

"If I find you, I’m gonna grind your bones." His green eyes blazed red. "And feed them to my mutts."

And he meant it.

No one messes with his kid, his sweet innocent little boy, and gets away with it.