Chapter 82

Soren

Once I feel the tension and anger slowly begins to release from my body, I turn on my heel, stepping through the bushes and bunches of flowers, destroying every pedal beneath my feet. I storm up the wooden stairs and head back inside the mansion, my eyes catching a glimpse of the dead soldiers, their pool is a blood now finally visible to me. I quickly move up the stairs in my moves are calculated in precise, sparing, no expense as I rushed towards my bedroom.

The door swings open, and I immediately storm towards my bed, snatching my cell phone off of the side table. My fingers work for me, and I call my beta, nostrils flared from anger as my breathing grows haggard and shallow.

“Yes sir? Is everything okay?” My beta's voice vibrates my phone's tiny speakers.

“Bianca has taken Celia,” I inform him, “I demand that my army makes haste for my location. We have to get her back.”

"Sir? Celia is gone?” my better repeats my words, further growing my irritation.

“Yes! She is gone! Send men to the Dukes mansion immediately so we can find her. She could not have gone far, especially in these woods,” I growl the command into the phone, my anger slowly, taking over my body once again.

“the Duke is right here with me, sir, he is sending more men to your location. Can you please give us some more information about what's going on? We're in the dark over here,” my beta says, urgency now flooding his voice.

“Bianca and her men killed every single soldier here. There's not a soul alive except for me. I am sitting duck. What's the ETA on his men?” I ask, now moving throughout the house like a man on a mission.

I slip shoes onto my feet, continuing to move like a well wolf ready to attack and get his fated mate back. I walk towards the door and swing and open, my eyes connecting with the image of the bright yellow moon ahead. The phone is still connected to my ear, my fingers crawled around the small metal frame, knuckles white.

“Beta,” I growl into the phone, nothing but danger and seriousness laced in my voice, “you better get the liking King on the phone. I have to ensure Celia's safety both as my betrothed and as the missing like a princess. We both have steaks here and we need to see where he is at with her statuses princess, and if he is willing to save her.”

“Will you be prepared for an answer you don't want?” my Beta asks me. “What if the Lycans do not wish to save Celia? She hasn't been with them for her entire life. They may not feel the same loyalty to her just because she has a title attached to her name, one that she never even asked for in the first place.”

“They better save her. They risk the werewolf pack alliance if they do not wish to help me in my mission to find my faded mate,” I breathe into the phone, my anger surging throughout my body.

“Yes, sir, I will contact their liaisons and diplomats as soon as I can. Is there anything else that I can do to—” I hang up the phone before he can finish his sentence, his voice already annoying me more than it should have.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes, hoping that this is all one big misunderstanding, that I can somehow talk Bianca down from the ledge that she holds Celia on. I can only wish that there is a way to fix this without shedding any blood. It is the optimist in me, I suppose.

My father has always taught me to be merciful in times of need. That peoples emotions rule their actions and that they deserve some form of grace and decorum when it comes to their reckoning. All I can feel, though, is the innate urge to fight for what is mine, to bring back the woman that I love back into my arms.

I hate the fact that I am so impatient. I have just uncovered. Bianca's treacherous plan against me and all I can do now is sit and wait. It feels like a life sentence in prison, a life sentence of pure and utter insanity in my time of need.

All I can do is sit back and think of Celia. The way she must be reacting to the horrible conditions that Bianca is undoubtedly subjecting her to.

My mind wanders back to the note. The red lettering makes me feel so nervous. If only there was a way for me to ensure Celia's safety, to ensure that not a single mark be etched into her skin, that she has not been disposed of already if Bianca wishes to get out of this alive.

Bianca better not have laid a hand on Celia. If she did, well, then it is an eye for an eye, tit for tat, a hit for a hit. And I won't be gentle with her, I will not grant her the same grace and patience that I have before in the past when she has lost all sense of decorum when it came to interacting with Celia at her work and at official werewolf events.

Bianca better treat her as I would treat one of my prisoners. Bianca better be ready for the storm that is sure to come. All I can do is sit and wait, and plan what I can do to save my fated mate.

Another part of my heart mourns Celia. I know that there is no definitive proof of her death, but the red ink on the paper leaves me with no respite from the dark possibilities that may lie ahead for us. Even if she were to get out of this alive, there is no way that her mind would remain the same.

Celia is most likely unraveling at the edges by now. Her mind slowly losing all of its sanity and rational ways of thinking. If Bianca was smart, she would have isolated Celia by now, cutting her off from the rest of the world, her only access being the rogue Lycan “queen” herself.

This whole situation makes me feel so dirty. This is a Cold War, a war, fought with kidnapping and notes and threats, not on the battlefield where our soldiers can do it out once and for all, to assert dominant over the other. Bianca's game is purely psychological, as everything else has been in her life. She will manipulate things to get her way no matter what.

I tilt my chin up, my eyes connecting with the golden moon. I vow right here and right now that I will be the one to bring Bianca her end. I will be the one who finally gets their revenge on somebody who has done vile things to other others.

Bianca will not get away with this. Bianca will never see another sunrise where she feels safe. I will be the one to kill Bianca and end this madness once and for all.