Chapter 41: Found Them
Kaden’s POV
If she was alive...
A terrifying mix of rage and a strange, choking relief hit me. If she was alive, she was running away from me. And possibly with my pup. I had cum inside her not once but twice... if she was ovulating, then she must be pregnant... shit!
"Alpha! The scent is splitting!" the lead tracker yelled over his shoulder, pulling me out of my thoughts.
We had reached a clearing deep in the woods where the path split into three separate trails. The three trackers slid to a stop, lowering their heads to sniff frantically at the frozen ground. They looked completely confused.
"What do you mean it’s splitting?" I growled, stepping into the center of the clearing, my aura flaring with anger.
"There are three different trails, Alpha Kaden," the second tracker said, backing up a step in fear. "And all three of them smell exactly like Stephanie. It’s like she’s in three places at once. They used wolfsbane and other herbs to blur the edges, but the main scent is the same on every path."
"A trick," Logan muttered, catching up to us, his chest heaving slightly. He looked around the dark woods, his hand gripping his silver blade. "The rat knew we would follow. They spread her scent on different routes to split our men."
I clenched my fists so hard my knuckles cracked like gunshots in the quiet woods. They were playing with me. In my own territory.
I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to cut through the heavy smell of dirt, trees, and the bitter herbs. My human nose couldn’t pick up the faint trail of a kitchen maid, but then, a tiny, hidden whisper of air brushed against my face from the left path.
It didn’t smell like Stephanie.
It was faint—so faint that if I hadn’t been completely obsessed with it for the past two days, I would have missed it completely. It was a tiny trace of nutmeg and something incredibly sweet.
Rebecca.
My eyes snapped open, burning with a clear focus.
"They went left," I said, sounding so confident.
"Alpha, are you sure?" Logan asked, looking down the dark, steep left trail. "The trackers are saying—"
"I don’t care what the trackers are saying," I snarled, turning a hard glare onto him. "I know her scent. The maid is a distraction. The body—Rebecca—is on the left path."
I didn’t wait for Logan or the trackers to agree. I lunged forward, my body blurring as I pushed myself to my absolute fastest speed, tearing down the left trail like a demon.
You’re probably thinking I was acting completely crazy, throwing away all plans just for a feeling. And you’re right. I was entirely out of my mind. But my instincts hadn’t lied to me yet, and right now, every part of me was screaming that she was just ahead.
The ground grew steeper and the mud grew slick as the trail sloped down toward the boundary river—the very edge of my pack’s territory. If they crossed that water, they would be in neutral rogue territory, and tracking them would become ten times harder.
Faster, I ordered my body. Faster!
Up ahead, through the thick night and fog, the sound of rushing water grew louder. And then, I saw them.
Two cloaked figures were stumbling through the bushes just fifty yards ahead of me, moving fast toward the river. The larger, masked man was carrying a heavy shape wrapped in a dark blanket over his shoulder. Running right beside him, holding a small bag, was a shorter woman in a torn servant’s uniform.
Stephanie.
"Stop!" I roared, the sheer power of my voice shaking the trees and causing birds to fly blindly into the night sky.
The two figures froze. The woman snapped her head back, her face pale in the faint moonlight. It was Stephanie. Her eyes went wide with pure horror as she saw me running toward them with my maximum speed.
"He’s here! Oh my god, he found us!" she screamed, her voice cracking with terror.
"Take one more step and I’ll kill you right where you stand!" I shouted, my loud voice cutting through the noise of the rushing river like a knife.
I ran at the man before he could even blink. I moved so fast it was just a blur. Before his feet could leave the muddy riverbank, my hands slammed into his chest, pushing him back. With a hard, quick rip, I pulled the blanket-wrapped bundle right off his shoulder.
The man fell back into the wet dirt, gasping for air.
I didn’t even look at him. I dropped down on one knee right there in the mud, my hands shaking a little as I opened the dark, heavy blanket.
I frowned in deep, shocking confusion.
I stared down at Rebecca’s face. By tomorrow morning, it would be exactly two days since she died. Two days since her heart stopped beating. And yet... her body was not changing at all. There was no damage to her skin. Yes, she was as cold as ice when I touched her. Her normal warmth was completely gone, but there was no bad smell. No signs of death.
Why the fuck does it look like she is just in a deep sleep?
A normal wolf’s body starts to change fast after forty-eight hours. But looking at her right now, she looked perfectly fine. Like a sleeping beauty waiting to wake up.
Rage and confusion blinded me. I turned around fast, my arm shooting out like a snake, and grabbed the maid by her throat. I lifted her up a little off the ground, her tiny toes scratching the mud.
She choked, her hands instantly flying up to scratch at my thick wrists.
"Tell me what is going on!" I yelled, my face inches from hers, my sharp teeth showing.
Of course, she couldn’t speak. Her throat was squeezed tight by my rough grip, her face turning a dark shade of purple. Realizing she was about to pass out, I growled and threw her hard to the ground. She hit the mud, coughing badly and holding her neck.
I didn’t give her a second to breathe. I turned my cold glare to the masked man, who was slowly trying to back away toward the water.
"Who the fuck are you?" I asked, my voice dropping into a deadly tone that usually made men drop to their knees in fear.
Before the man could answer, Stephanie gasped from the ground, coughing up dirt as she shouted, "He is innocent! Please, Alpha King! He doesn’t know anything! I just paid him to help me carry and steal Rebecca’s body!"
I snorted in anger, my chest heaving as I looked between the shaking maid and the quiet, masked helper.
I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to demand answers right then and there. Why would a kitchen maid spend her own money to steal a dead slave? What did she know about Rebecca’s body that I didn’t?
But looking around at the dark, foggy woods and the rushing river just a few feet away, I knew this wasn’t the right place to ask questions.
"Get up," I barked at the maid.
I turned back to the ground and carefully slid my arms under Rebecca’s icy body. Lifting her up against my chest felt strange. She was heavy, dead weight, but holding her again made a weird, possessive feeling tighten in my stomach. Dead or alive, she belonged in my house. Under my rules.
I stood up straight, holding my breeder tightly against me, and turned my back on the river.
"Move," I told my guards as they finally broke through the bushes with their weapons ready. "Drag them back. If either of them tries to run, rip their legs off."
With my warriors forming a tight circle around me to protect us, I began the long walk back to the mansion while Stephanie and the masked man were dragged roughly behind us.
