Chapter 649

Madeline:

The monster looked past me as if I did not even exist.

It did not come after me. It did not attack me.

I was able to pull myself off the ground and rush toward the cabin, and not once did the monster try to stop me.

I made it to the cabin.

The door had been broken down.

My heart pounded as I ran inside. I was wearing nothing but a tiny pair of shorts and my bra, so I quickly grabbed a shirt from one of the bags as I rushed deeper into the cabin and pulled it on.

The shirt nearly reached my thighs, and I realized I had accidentally grabbed one of Baxter’s shirts.

I always kept his bags close to me.

“Bodhi!” I screamed, looking around the cabin.

“Elara!” I called out frantically.

“What the hell just happened out there?”

I heard Byron call out as he rushed inside, grabbing a shirt. He was already wearing shorts, and so was Ron.

The two of them managed to get inside, and once again, it felt like the monster was simply letting us pass.

But I did not have time to think about that.

“Where are Bodhi and Elara?” I asked before rushing upstairs to search the cabin. “Lady Eugenia!” Byron shouted.

Of course. She had been the only adult left with the children. If anyone knew where they had gone, it would be her.

But the cabin was empty.

Too empty.

As if no one had ever been there. Not Elgin. Not my children. Not Lady Eugenia. Not even the warriors.

That was why, when I came back downstairs, I found Byron and Ron standing in the lounge, staring at me in panic.

“The back door is open,” Byron said, and my heart skipped a beat.

The moment I heard that, I ran toward the back door, and just as they had said, it was wide open.

I rushed outside while Ron and Byron followed close behind me.

Things had taken such a strange turn that I was no longer even afraid of the monster coming after us.

I did not know why, but the look we had shared felt almost like mercy.

Like he had spared me.

But why?

Was it guilt?

Because he had killed my mate?

The moment that thought crossed my mind, any gratitude vanished.

The monster had eaten my husband.

I was never going to forgive him for that.

And now my children were missing too.

I ran around frantically, searching for my children, but there was no sign of them.

We rushed down the trail, yet neither my children nor Lady Eugenia were anywhere to be seen.

I finally stopped and took a deep breath.

“I think he kidnapped Lady Eugenia too,” Ron suggested. “Otherwise, none of this makes sense.”

Many warriors were still leaving, but there were no cars that suggested Lady Eugenia or my children were still there.

“They can’t do this to us!” I screamed at Ron as I tried to run after the cars.

So much damage had already been done, yet the monster had not even targeted

us.

“We’ll go to the council in the morning. Right now, we need to head back,” Byron suggested.

I immediately started shaking my head. There was no way I was going to let Elgin stay with my children for another minute.

“Then we’ll leave now,” I said, my voice breaking. “If we travel through the night, we’ll reach them by morning.”

The two of them looked at me sadly.

“Madeline, they’ll kill us before we even get there,” Byron said softly. “We need to—”

“But he has my children,” I snapped, cutting him off.

“I understand what you’re feeling. It’s terrible. But right now, we need to play this carefully.”

Byron growled under his breath, furious over what they had done to us. Then he looked around before running a hand through his hair.

“I’ll see

bet

willing to follow me into the woods.

then any of my people are

more people with us. The

three of us won’t be enough

He stepped closer to me.

“Even if you’re the strongest wolf alive, you can’t fight the whole world when your children are in theft

hands. They can control you that way, and I don’t want that

Byron’s voice almost broke as he looked at me.

Ron nodded in agreement.

“He’s telling the truth. I don’t think…” Ron stopped mid-sentence and suddenly

looked at Byron.

Then he turned toward me, as if wondering whether I had noticed it too.

I followed his gaze to Byron, and that was when I noticed it.

Strange bluish veins spread across his neck, crawling up toward his temples, across his cheeks, lips, and even around his eyes More veins stretched downward beneath his collar.

“What is that?” I asked, rushing toward him.

But the veins were spreading from the source of the injury.

At the back of his neck, deep claw marks had turned a dark purplish blue.

I could not even begin to understand what I was looking at.