CLAIMED BY THE RUTHLESS ALPHA

Chapter seven

​Kael's POV

​The dining room felt different than it had just an hour ago because the warmth of the meal had evaporated and replaced itself with a heavy and suspicious tension that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and as I stood by the large windows I kept trying to catch that sweet scent of honey and cream that belonged to Zara but it was being drowned out by the smell of expensive perfume and the lingering aroma of roasted meat. Marcus was sitting back in his chair and sipping a glass of brandy while looking far too relaxed for a man whose servant had just vanished into thin air, and his daughter Seraphina was busy smoothing out the wrinkles in her emerald dress while refusing to look me in the eye.

​"I find it very strange that a girl who has lived here her entire life would just pack up and leave in the middle of the night without saying a word to anyone, especially after she made such a scene at my dinner table," I said while turning away from the window and walking slowly back toward the table, and my wolf Fenris was pacing so aggressively inside my mind that I could feel my claws itching to break through the skin of my knuckles.

​"You have to understand that Zara has always been a bit unstable since her father's unfortunate passing and the shame of her family name has clearly become too much for her to bear, so she probably just slipped out the back door to avoid further embarrassment and I honestly doubt we will ever see her again," Marcus replied with a wave of his hand as if he were talking about a lost umbrella instead of a living person, and he took another long sip of his drink while looking at me with a fake expression of sympathy.

​"She didn't pack anything because her room is still exactly as it was when she left it and her shoes are still under the bed, so how exactly does a girl run away barefoot and empty-handed in the middle of a cold night without any help?" my lead enforcer Silas asked as he stepped into the room from the hallway, and he gave me a small nod to let me know that he had finished checking the servants' quarters just like I had ordered him to do.

​Seraphina let out a high-pitched laugh that sounded forced and grating to my ears, and she stood up and walked over to my side while trying to put her hand on my arm but I stepped back before she could make contact. "Alpha Kael, you are far too kind to worry about a common maid who clearly didn't appreciate the roof we kept over her head, and I'm sure she just ran off to find some rogue boyfriend she's been hiding in the woods because she was always sneaking around when she thought nobody was watching her."

​"I don't care about your theories or your opinions on her character because I know what I smelled in that hallway and it wasn't the scent of a girl who was going on a romantic stroll, it was the scent of pure terror and a struggle that you are clearly trying to hide from me," I growled and I saw Marcus flinch slightly as the power in my voice made the glassware on the table rattle.

​"Are you accusing me of something in my own home because that is a very serious thing to say to a member of the council, and I would hate for our diplomatic relations to suffer just because a clumsy slave decided to disappear into the night," Marcus said while standing up and trying to match my height but he looked small and weak compared to the anger radiating off my body.

​I took a deep breath to keep Fenris from leaping across the table and tearing the man's throat out right then and there because I needed to play this smart if I wanted to find Zara alive, so I forced my expression to soften and I even managed to pull a small and deceptive smile onto my face. "You're right and I apologize for my outburst because I suppose the stress of the journey has made me a bit jumpy, so if you say she ran away then I have no choice but to believe you and I won't waste any more of your time tonight."

​Seraphina looked relieved and she let out a long breath while reaching for her wine glass again, and she started talking about some boring party she wanted to host next month but I wasn't listening to a single word she said. I caught Silas's eye and gave him a look that told him everything he needed to know, and he quietly exited the room again while the Drakes were distracted by their own lies.

​"We should probably get some rest since we have a long ride back to the Northwood territory in the morning and I would hate to overstay my welcome," I said while nodding to Marcus, and he looked so smug and satisfied with himself because he actually thought he had fooled me into thinking Zara was gone by choice.

​"Of course and we have prepared the guest wing for you and your men so please make yourselves at home, and I'm sure by tomorrow morning this whole Zara business will be nothing but a distant memory for all of us," Marcus said as he walked me toward the door with a heavy hand on my shoulder that made my skin crawl.

​I waited until I was inside the guest suite and the door was firmly shut before I turned to Silas who was waiting for me in the shadows of the balcony, and the mask of the "kind Alpha" dropped instantly as I leaned against the stone railing and looked out toward the dark forest. "Tell me you found something better than their lies because I'm about five minutes away from burning this entire estate to the ground."

​"The guards moved a heavy carriage out of the stables about twenty minutes after the dinner ended and the tracks lead toward the southern border, and there was a small patch of blood near the loading dock that they tried to wash away with a bucket of water," Silas whispered while handing me a small piece of fabric he had found caught on a splinter of wood near the stable doors.

​It was a piece of the disgusting brown dress that Zara had been wearing and it smelled like her and that horrible metallic scent of silver, and I gripped the fabric so hard that I heard the threads snapping in my hand. They hadn't just sent her away but they had bound her in silver and treated her like a criminal, and that was a direct violation of every law we held sacred especially when she was my fated mate.

​"Get the men ready and I want us to leave through the back trail so they don't see our torches, and if anyone tries to stop us you have my permission to use whatever force is necessary because I am going to find that carriage before it crosses the neutral zone," I commanded while my eyes shifted to a piercing silver and my vision began to change as the predator took full control.

​"What about the Drakes? If we leave now they'll know we're onto them," Silas asked as he checked the blade at his hip.

​"Let them think they won for a few more hours because when I come back for them they won't even see the blow coming, and Marcus Drake is going to learn exactly what happens when you touch something that belongs to the Northwood Alpha," I said while stepping off the balcony and landing silently on the grass below.

​We moved through the trees like ghosts and I kept my nose to the ground as I picked up the faint trail of the carriage wheels and the sharp, stinging scent of the silver box, and every second that passed felt like an eternity because I could feel Zara's heartbeat through the bond and it was fading into a weak and flickering pulse.

​We reached the crossroads where the dirt was churned up by multiple horses and I saw a fresh set of tracks heading deep into the roughest part of the woods, and just as I was about to signal the men to speed up a distant and muffled scream echoed through the trees followed by the sound of a heavy crash.

​I didn't wait for Silas or the others as I shifted into my wolf form mid-stride and felt my bones cracking and reforming into a massive black beast, and I pushed my legs to their absolute limit as I tore through the underbrush toward the sound of the wreckage because the bond was screaming at me that she was in danger.

​I burst into a small clearing and saw the carriage overturned on its side with the wheels still spinning uselessly in the air, and my heart nearly stopped when I saw a large metal box half-buried in the mud with a dark figure standing over it with a raised axe.

​"Don't you dare touch her," I thought as I bared my teeth and prepared to spring, but then the metal door of the box began to groan and buckle from the inside.