Chapter 40: The Truth
Kaden’s POV
The raw power of my Alpha command didn’t just echo; it shattered the silence of the entire estate.
Within five minutes, the grand hall of the mansion was packed. Fifty elite warriors, thirty palace guards, and fifteen trembling maids were lined up in neat, suffocating rows. The air in the room was thick with their terror, their terrified heartbeats filled the suffocating silence.
They stood there, heads bowed, eyes glued to the floor, waiting for execution.
I paced back and forth in front of them like a caged predator. My boots clicked heavily against the marble, the only sound accompanying their shallow breathing.
"The body of my prisoner—of my breeder—was stolen," I began, my voice angrily low. "A masked man and a woman bypassed security, climbed the outer wall, and took her."
I stopped pacing, snapping my gaze toward the line of guards.
"But here is the interesting part," I snarled, a vicious smirk tugging at my lips. "Those people didn’t wander around. They didn’t get lost. They knew exactly which room Rebecca was kept in. There was no guessing at all. They walked straight to her door."
I stepped closer to the front line, letting my dominant aura flare until the weakest maids trembled so hard their knees nearly buckled.
"Which means," I hissed, "they had the right information from someone in this room. Or worse... those people are standing right in front of me. Whoever did it, or whoever helped them, you better speak now. I am giving you one chance to save your pathetic lives."
Silence.
Dead, suffocating silence.
I waited for one of them to speak up. A second passed. Then another. No one moved. No one confessed. They all just stood there, trying to swallow down their panic.
They thought they could outsmart me. That if they kept their mouths shut, I’d eventually give up and look elsewhere. Fools. They forgot exactly what kind of monster they were dealing with.
I sucked in a deep, agonizing breath. I closed my eyes, letting the full, crushing weight of my Alpha King magic flood my throat. When I opened my eyes, I didn’t just speak. I unleashed the ultimate weapon.
"SPEAK NOW!"
The Alpha command exploded from my chest like a physical shockwave. The walls literally groaned under the pressure. Instantly, several lower-ranking wolves gasped, their hands flying to their chests as the invisible, hypnotic force gripped their souls, violently ripping away their ability to stay silent.
Suddenly, a young maid in the second row choked out a bloody cough, her body violently jerking forward as the command forced her jaw open against her will.
"I—I did not do it, Alpha King!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face as she fought the suffocating pressure in her lungs. "But... but I suspect Stephanie knows about it! She was the one close to your slave, and right now, she is not here!"
The spell broke the moment the truth spilled out. The maid collapsed to her knees, sobbing and gasping for air.
My eyes narrowed with anger. I turned my gaze to the older head maid standing at the front. "Who the fuck is Stephanie?" I demanded.
The head maid bowed so low her forehead almost touched the floor. "She... she is a kitchen assistant, Alpha Kaden. She seemed nice to your slave. She was always volunteering to take food to her room."
I scoffed in pure, unadulterated anger. A kitchen maid. A low-ranking, pathetic little rat had helped smuggle a body right out from under my nose.
"Get me any of her belongings," I commanded the head maid. "Now."
She scrambled away like her life depended on it—and it did.
Turning back to the ranks of my soldiers, my voice boomed through the hall. "Trackers!"
Immediately, three elite trackers stepped out from the rows of warriors, their shoulders back, their postures rigid. Within seconds, the head maid came running back into the hall, clutching a folded, starch-scented kitchen uniform.
She offered it to the trackers with shaking hands.
The three wolves didn’t hesitate. They took the fabric, burying their faces in it, inhaling the scent deeply. A second later, their heads snapped up in unison. Their eyes glowed a bright, supernatural gold as they locked onto the scent trail.
"We have her, Alpha," the lead tracker said, his voice deep. "The trail is fresh. She’s heading deep into the eastern woods."
"Let’s track her," I growled, my claws sliding out as my inner wolf demanded blood.
Logan stepped forward, placing himself slightly in front of me, his face full of worry. "Alpha, you don’t have to go. It’s a waste of your time. I will go with the warriors and the trackers. We will bring her back to you in chains."
I stared at Logan. Objectively, he was right. That was the logical thing to do, right? An Alpha King doesn’t run into the mud to hunt a kitchen maid. I had an entire army to do that for me.
But fuck logic. Right now, my brain wasn’t working.
The thought of sitting in my empty chambers, waiting around while Rebecca’s body got further and further away from me, made a wild, feral madness rip through my chest. I didn’t want to sit out. I wanted to hunt. I wanted to know why they would steal her dead body.
"No," I growled, pushing past Logan so hard his shoulder dipped. "I’m leading the hunt."
"Move!" I barked at the trackers.
"Kaden, wait! I’m coming with you!" Kane yelled, stepping forward with his chest heaving. He looked desperate, his eyes wide with a strange panic that made my stomach turn.
"No," I growled, not even slowing down. "Stay back."
I didn’t wait for his response. With a nod, the three elite wolves bolted toward the grand double doors of the mansion, bursting out into the chilly night air. I was right on their heels, my boots pounding against the ground before we hit the edge of the woods. Behind us, fifty elite warriors followed, moving fast through the dark like a pack of ghosts.
The woods were thick, the heavy trees blocking out what little moonlight managed to get through the clouds. Branches slapped against my face, and thorns tore at my clothes, but I didn’t feel a damn thing.
My senses were dialed to an incredibly sharp level.
Why steal her?
The question kept hammering against the inside of my head with every step I took. A corpse is a problem. It smells. It slows you down. If Rebecca was truly dead, stealing her body from my mansion was a suicide mission for absolutely no reward. It made zero sense.
Unless she wasn’t dead.
The thought made my wolf roar in my head. My heart slammed against my ribs. Was it possible? I had seen her lifeless, pale skin. But what if it was a trick? What if there was some kind of ancient medicine, a poison, or a witch’s spell that could fake a wolf’s death so perfectly that even I couldn’t tell the difference?
