Chapter 187

Chapter 187: The Hunt

Edrick

When I picked Moana and Ella up from school that day, I could tell that something was off. Moana

seemed distant and cold, and stiffened under my touch. Was she really still that angry over what I had

said the other day? I was only worried about her, and I didn’t want her to get hurt by going out by

herself. Moana was normally a level-headed person, so for her to be so angry over something so

simple for days was out of character for her. But I just figured that it was pregnancy hormones, or

maybe the potion that the Mother Witch gave me to keep her wolf from emerging was making her a bit

cranky.

Moana stayed in her room for the remainder of the day. She said that she wasn’t feeling well, so I

figured that it really was the pregnancy after all. I decided to give her plenty of space to rest, but by the

time I put Ella to bed that night, Moana still hadn’t come out of her room.

I thought about going into her room and checking on her. But after a few moments of standing silently

outside her door, I decided against it, and instead went to bed without her.

A few hours passed after that. I tossed and turned the entire time, and finally I couldn’t take it anymore.

I needed Moana by my side in order to sleep; maybe if I talked to her sincerely and apologized for

making her angry, she wouldn’t be so cold toward me. I still hadn’t apologized for what I said during our

last argument, after all.

I made my way over to Moana’s room and raised my fist to knock on the door.

But when I did, the door just swung open. And Moana’s bed was empty.

Figuring that Ella may have had a bad dream and that Moana was sleeping with her, I decided to go

over to Ella’s room. I slowly cracked the door open and peered inside, not wanting to wake Ella up.

What I saw made my blood run cold.

Ella’s bed was empty.

“Ella?” I called into the room, frantically looking around as though they would both suddenly appear out

of thin air. “Moana?”

There was no answer. My first instinct was to check the closet and the bathroom, which were, of

course, both empty. My heart pounded then as I flung the window open and looked down at the street

below, praying that I wouldn’t see their bodies laying on the sidewalk. But I couldn’t imagine why

Moana would have jumped, and there was nothing down there anyway.

I flew into a rage after that. My wolf almost completely took over; I didn’t shift, but I went into pure

instinct mode, and began frantically searching the penthouse. Selina and the maids were all woken up

by my shouting and banging, and when they came out of their rooms and I explained the situation, they

all flew into a frenzy as well.

Moana and Ella were nowhere to be found.

I called the police. Thanks to my status, several of the city’s best police and investigators were at the

penthouse within thirty minutes.

“Does your fiancee have any enemies? Anyone who would kidnap her or give her a reason to run?”

one of the investigators asked while the others searched the penthouse thoroughly.

At first, I shook my head. But then… I remembered the Rogue district.

“Kelly,” I said, my heart pounding so fast that I felt as though I would be sick. “Kelly hates her. She

already tried something once.”

The investigator furrowed his brow and scribbled something in his notebook. After that, the police set

up a phone tracer. Since I knew Kelly, I would be easy to contact her; but if she did kidnap Ella and

Moana, then we would need to trace her call so we could find them. I just hoped that we could find

them before it was too late.

“They’ll find them,” Selina said, her voice shaking as she squeezed my arm tightly. “They’ll find them.”

I couldn’t speak. I could hardly even move. All I could do was stare numbly at the wall in front of me,

praying that nothing horrible would happen to my mate and my daughter.

I wished that I had told Moana how much I loved her… And if we did find them, I would never let her go

another day without knowing the extent of my love for her. Now, more than ever, my fear of

commitment felt so silly. I should have married her on the day I met her.

Suddenly, my phone began to ring. The investigator waved me over, where my phone was hooked up

to a call tracer.

“Just try to keep her on the phone as long as possible,” the investigator said. “Just keep her talking.

We’ll let you know once we’ve traced the call.”

I nodded numbly, then swallowed and shakily picked up the phone.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hey, handsome,” Kelly’s voice croaked on the other end. “I’ve missed you.”

Her voice sounded strained and nasally, like she had completely lost her mind. I didn’t know if it was

drugs or what, but it didn’t matter. I just needed to keep her on the phone. I decided to play dumb to

keep her talking for longer, as though I hadn’t found out yet that Moana and Ella were gone.

“Hey, Kelly,” I said, resisting the urge to growl obscenities and threaten her life. I wanted so badly to

reach through the phone and rip her to shreds, but I knew that I had to stay calm. “It’s late. Is

everything okay?”

Kelly giggled, then fell silent for a moment. Her giggle almost seemed to echo; she sounded as though

she was in a big, empty room. “Have you noticed that anything is missing?” she said, then laughed

again. “Of course you have. I know you’re trying to keep me on the phone, but I can make this easier

for you so you don’t have to go out of your way to save the nanny and your little b***h of a daughter; I’ll

release them if you promise to marry me. Deal?”

Really? I thought to myself. That’s why she’s doing this? Because she still can’t get over me?

“How do I know you’re not lying?” I asked, watching with wide eyes as the investigators gestured to

indicate that we were almost there, and we almost had her location. “What if I promise to marry you

and then you do something to them?”

Once again, Kelly let out an insane giggle. She really did sound as though she had gone completely

mad. “I guess you’ll just have to find out,” she said. “You have two choices: you can either refuse to

marry me, and then they’ll definitely die, or you can promise to marry me and they’ll only maybe die.”

Suddenly, the investigator gave me a thumbs up to indicate that they had successfully traced the call. I

opened my mouth to say something to Kelly, anything to placate her long enough until we got there so

she wouldn’t hurt Moana and Ella; but then I heard the sound of a scuffle. I heard Kelly let out a yelp.

And then… Silence.

My eyes went wide. Had Moana knocked her out? I hoped so… More than anything, I hoped that was

the case.

“It looks like she was calling from a location on the outskirts of the city,” one of the investigators said.

“But that’s not all.”

“What is it?” I asked, feeling my heart stop in my chest.

The investigator swallowed, then looked at me with concern written across his face.

“It’s located in the Rogue district.”