Chapter 320

[ 969 words ]

Nolan’s POV

Talia had been missing for three days now.

I had barely slept since Talia disappeared. Four hours in my desk chair was all I had managed. The mate bond was intact. She was there, unreachable but alive. Each hour without her drained me. It felt worse than the last time she disappeared because I had gone against my instincts. Something had felt wrong about that night, and I should have gone with her.

‘We will find her like last time, and we will make whoever took her pay with their life,’ my wolf promised, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

The morning meeting started at seven. Della came in first, her hair pulled back, the dark circles under her eyes deeper than they had been the day before. Marco entered after her. Solon sat quietly, already in his chair when I came down. Derek arrived last, clutching a map as he stepped inside.

“Any news?” I asked.

Derek was the first to respond. “Unfortunately, no, Alpha Nolan. We have nothing new to report.”

“We have searched everywhere we know to search and turned up nothing,” Della added. “It’s as if she has vanished in thin air.”

“What about you, Marco?” I asked.

“Same on my end,” Marco added. “No trail. No witnesses. Whoever took her was thorough.”

My claws dug into the wood of my desk. My patience was at its limits. How could we have no leads?

“Nolan, I don’t want to ask, but can you…” Solon started but trailed off.

“Have more faith than that, Solon,” I growled. “She is alive. I can feel her. That is the first thing I confirmed.”

“Then, why can’t you reach her?” Solon asked. His voice came out harsher than he intended. I didn’t hold it against him.

“I don’t know. My wolf has been trying since the first night. He gets nothing back. He tells me she is trapped, but he cannot tell me where,” I answered.

“Jason did this,” Della interjected. “It has to be him. The timing of the

disappearance, the fact that it was Annie who led her away, it has to be Jason.”

I had also been thinking the same thing. Jason wanted to use Rudolf’s death to break us apart. When that didn’t happen, Jason switched to Plan B: just kidnap Talia.

“There is something I have not told you,” Marco stated, bringing me out of my thoughts. “I should have told you on the first morning. I thought I could fix it, but everything got out of control.”

“Say what it is, Marco,” I said.

Marco sighed, and Della rubbed his back. “After the Harvest Gathering, when Jason left Silverfang under escort, I decided to track him. I had two of my men follow him from a distance. They tracked him for two days, but lost him on the third day when they were ambushed by rogues. By the time they had cleared the rogues, they could no longer find Jason,” Marco explained. “He could have gone anywhere from where I lost him. I should have told you the day he disappeared. I am sorry, Nolan.” Anger surged in me, but then it faded to disappointment. I exhaled. I did not have the bandwidth for anger this morning.

“It is done. We work with what we have now,” I told him.

How could I even be upset with Marco? This was as much my fault as it was his.

I had let her go to the rose garden alone. I stood by the car and watched her walk down the path because she asked me to. I shouldn’t have. If I’d walked behind her, Annie couldn’t have taken her. If I’d been ten feet down the path, I could have stopped it as soon as it began.

‘Stop!’ my wolf snapped. ‘You will not regret respecting our mate’s wishes. Her being kidnapped was not your fault.’

‘If I had…’

‘That coward would have found another way to kidnap Talia or harm her. The only thing you are to blame for is underestimating our enemy,’ my wolf said.

I didn’t want to accept that Jason, of all people, had outmaneuvered me. Perhaps

the death of his father gave him the cunning that had been missing. Then, the same thought I’d had for days pushed forward.

“How far did you track him?” I asked.

“About sixty miles from here,” Marco answered. “Why?”

“Where was the Rogue King’s last known location?” I asked.

Solon picked up the map and pulled it across my desk, turning it so I could see.

“Here. The castle is here,” Solon said as he pointed to a region northwest of Moonbrook’s border. “The Rogue King has held this abandoned castle for over a decade now. We have not been able to put a team inside the walls without losing the team.”

“If Jason took her, that’s likely where she is.” Derek stated.

“I am going,” I stated firmly.

“Are you insane? You can’t just go there like that!” Della exclaimed.

“Yes, I can.”

“You don’t even know if she is even there,” Della argued.

“I do not care. It has been three days, and this is the only lead we have. I’m going,” I responded.

“I am going with you,” Derek chimed in. “You are going to need someone to watch

your back, and the Rogue King has a debt to be paid.”

“Dad, no! It’s a suicide mission. You can’t!” Della argued.

“It is my duty as Beta and a friend of Rudolf to protect his daughter,” Derek

responded.

Before Della could respond, Solon’s phone rang at the table beside the map. He picked it up and said, “Hello.”

There was a pause. “Colin, are you sure?”

He listened, then said, “Understood. Thanks, Colin.” He hung up.

“Colin found something?” I asked.

Solon spoke quickly. “Colin’s patrol saw a woman by the eastern border. She claimed to be Talia, but rogues appeared before they could confirm. They reported it to Colin.”

“It sounds like a potential trap.” Della said.

“It does not matter. I am going to Moonbrook.”

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