Chapter 144

Cara’s POV

“Mia?!” I call out, hoping she can hear me – hoping she knows I’m coming to save her.

“Shut that brat up already,” Lilia snaps, making my blood boil. No one talks about my daughter like that. No one treats her like this!

Lilia will pay for everything that she’s done. One way or the other, she will pay.

“As you can no doubt hear, we have taken you daughter captive,” Lilia says. “If you want her to remain unharmed, you will do exactly as I say. Do I make myself clear?”

“What do you want from me?” I ask.

“You’ll see,” she says. “For now, I’m going to send you an address for our meeting place. Come alone. If you don’t I’ll kill your little girl. Don’t tell anyone. If you do, again, I will kill your little girl. And no one wants that, do they?”

“No,” I say on reflex.

“Good. Then we are in agreement. Don’t make me do anything crazy, and nothing will happen. Your daughter will be fine.”

“When should I arrive at the location?” I ask, my heart lodged up in my throat. I just kept talking though. I need all the facts. For Mia, I need to know all of the rules to ensure that I follow them.

“In an hour,” Lilia says, and then hangs up.

After a moment, the phone comes to life again with a text message. It includes simply an address. I’m not sure where the address leads, but I know the road. It’s pretty close to here. To get there in an hour, though, I will need to leave quickly.

I’m certain to have trouble with the guard on the door, but I would make more trouble by trying to sneak out.

I’m no fool. I know this is a trap. That Lilia is holding onto Mia, keeping her alive, is a relief, but I know that only means a more dire fact for myself.

The ultimate target here isn’t Mia. It has to be me. Given everything that happened between Lilia and me, I guess she’s holding a grudge. Though, truly, it was her own manipulations and lies that landed her in the predicament she found herself in.

I did not force her to disguise herself as an Auburn and deceive everyone. I had even tried to be professional as a Beta while she was wildly jealous of me and constantly harassed and berated me.

Lilia had brought about her own fate, with her selfishness and her viciousness. Yet it’s clear she blames me for it. Perhaps she blames Alaric as well. Perhaps this is all, at its heart, a way to get back at him the most by taking away his old love and one of his children.

No, I won’t allow Lilia to win in this fight. This is a trap, but I will still walk into it. And I will come out the other side, with Mia at my side.

It’s not like I have any other choice. I would gladly risk my own life, and even give it, if it means that my daughter will be released unharmed.

With no time to waste, I hurry to speak with one of the servants, ensuring that she will watch Ethan for every moment that I am gone.

Then, without word or warning to anyone else, I walk out the front door.

Alaric’s POV

As we follow the trail, the scent grows stronger and stronger, becoming clearer and clearer. We are on the right path.

Yet somewhere along the way, my cell phone starts to buzz from where I have it tied around my neck. I would ignore it, but I gave a distinctive vibration pattern to Cara and my home security. That’s the pattern it makes now.

Slowing down and eventually stopping, the brothers and Noel look at me in confusion, tipping their wolf heads to the side. They don’t know what I do, that there’s reason enough to be alarmed to warrant a quick stop.

I quickly shift back to human form and answer the phone. “I’m in the middle of a hunt,” I say.

“Alpha King, Sir,” says John, my Beta. I left him at the house to keep an eye on things – namely Cara and Ethan, but also the cameras. If any suspicious vehicles came by, I wanted them identified. Even now. Even knowing the likely culprits.

I can’t afford to be wrong.

“Cara just left the premises, Sir.”

“She what?! How?”

“She walked, Sir.”

John could be infuriating at times. This is decidedly one of them.

“How could you let her? Or any of my security?” I demand.

“She was determined, Sir, and you said to watch her, not to stop her.”

I bite back my anger, knowing this isn’t John’s fault. I honestly had not planned for this scenario, never having expected that Cara would just leave.

I should have planned for this, maybe, especially after how helpless she felt. She probably wants to help, but she has to know that leaving the premises would not be beneficial to anyone right now. She is only putting herself in danger.

“Did she take Ethan?” I ask, a new panic gripping my chest.

“No. He is still here. Wherever she went, she went alone,” John replies.

That’s a relief but… “What do you mean wherever she went? Isn’t security watching her?”

“She outmaneuvered security, Sir. She actively evaded them. She didn’t want to be followed.”

John is at least straightforward. He doesn’t beat around the bush. Even when what he has to say is the most terrible thing I’ve ever heard.

Well, second terrible. The worst was that Mia had been taken.

Noel and Colin shift back into human form and approach me, question in their eyes. The twins stay in their wolf form, occasionally sniffing at the ground, as if to keep a hold on the scent trail we’ve been following.

“Is there any clue where she went?” I ask John.

“No, Sir. I’m sorry. But I thought you should be informed as soon as possible.”

“You did right telling me,” I say. “Protecting Ethan is top priority. But have others search the area, as much as able. We need to find Cara before it’s too late.”

The only reason Cara would leave the safety of that house, knowing her own limitations, is if she had a damn good idea where Mia is.

“Track her cell phone,” I tell John. “I’m willing to bet she just talked to someone.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“What’s going on?” Colin asks calmly.

Noel isn’t nearly so calm. His voice comes out quick and worried. “What happened with Cara?”

Hanging up with John, I tell them both, “She left the house.” I quickly relay everything I know from what John told me, as well as my own suspicions. “I’m willing to bet Lilia reached out.”

“Then she’s walking right into a trap,” Colin says. His words remain calm but his face grows tight.

“Yes, most likely.”

“In BloodyMoon, these assholes wanted her dead,” Noel says. “What if they try that again?”

I am frozen to the spot, uncertain what to do. I want to run after Cara and protect her from all harm, but Mia is here somewhere, at the end of the trail.

Or at least, she was.

For this trap to work, Mia might also be where Cara is going.

I don’t know. I need more time to parse through this, but there is no time.

“You have to go to her,” Noel says, looking at me. “Cara needs you.”