Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Theo I was racing down the freeway. Weaving through traffic. Driving on the shoulder when necessary.

“Ayla, don’t go inside,” I begged. “I’m twenty minutes away.”

I heard a car door shut on the other end of the line. I knew she was going into the house.

“Ayla, stay out of there,” I yelled.

“Ma! Kylee!” I heard Ayla calling through the house over and over.

“Ayla,” I kept trying to get her attention.

“Theo,” she finally responded, “they’re not here. Something’s not right.”

“Okay, baby, I need you to get out of the house,” I urged. “I’m almost there.”

Ayla cried out suddenly. I heard struggling sounds on the line.

“Ayla,” I yelled.

The call went quiet before cutting out.

I gunned the engine, pushing as fast as I possibly could without ensuring I crashed on the way there. Twenty minutes may have been generous, but I made it. Skidding into the yard on two wheels. Launching myself out of the car and sprinting into the house.

Something in me knew she wasn’t there, but I ignored it. Calling out to her as I checked every inch of the house.

There was no sign of her.

How could the Waar Pak have found her?

No, it couldn’t be them. I ran back out to the car and got my phone.

“Where the fuck is he?” I demanded when Pierce answered. “I don’t want a war, Pierce, but he just fucking started one if you don’t tell me where the hell she is.”

“Whoa, Theo,” Pierce said, “if you mean Ayla, she’s not here. She left hours ago.”

“I know, but your psycho Alpha followed her. He took her and you’re going to tell me where the fuck he is,” I replied.

“Hold on. Ayla’s been kidnapped?” Pierce asked.

“I was talking to her when he grabbed her,” I said.

“Theo, Kingston is right here with me,” he replied. “He has been since she left. This wasn’t him.”

My mind didn’t want to believe him, but my gut told me he was telling the truth.

“Send me the address,” Pierce insisted. “I’m on my way.”

He hung up before I could protest. That’s when I saw it.

Tucked under the wiper of the car Ayla was driving was a blue envelope.

I ripped it off, pulling the card out.

I told her she was mine.

I told her I would come for her.

Give up.

You’ll never find us in time to stop me.

I’m her true mate.

It took everything I had not to tear the message to pieces as rage filled every inch of my body. I called Briggs.

“He took her,” I rushed. “Get a team to Marie’s house, now.‘

“What? How did the Waar Pak find her?” he asked.

“It’s not the Waar Pak,” I said. “It’s her stalker. The bastard took Kylee and Marie, too. He was waiting for her. There’s no scent.

Just a message.

“And you’re sure this guy isn’t working with the Waar Pak?”

“Not entirely,” I replied. “But the Waar Pak want Ayla dead. This guy just wants her. He’s infatuated with her.” The next thought almost had me on my knees. “Briggs, he’s going to mark her.‘

“We won’t let that happen, man,” Briggs insisted. “Keep your head, Theo. Start looking. We’re coming.”

I went into the house after hanging up. I inhaled, concentrating on the scents in the air. Ayla’s was the first my mind registered.

My senses honing in on her instinctually. I followed her path through the house. I found the phone she had been using on the floor near the dining room. I bent down to pick it up and noticed a syringe. Using a towel, I picked it up, smelling the contents.

It had a chemical smell, but it didn’t cover the faint hint of wolfsbane.

I again forced my emotions to settle. I needed to focus.

I followed Ayla’s scent back to the front door and outside. The trail swung around to the side of the house and then abruptly disappeared. I walked the whole area and couldn’t pick it back up. There were faint tire tracks on the hard ground. He must have put her in a vehicle.

But then, where were Kylee and Marie?

I repeated the process again, forcing myself to focus on their scents. Theirs didn’t mingle into the same path Ayla’s had, and they were fainter. They hadn’t been there in a few days.

I went around to the neighbors to see what information they had. The houses weren’t close together, and they all worked during the day, so no one seemed to have seen much. I let Kiearan run the property for a while before returning when we got nothing. I was searching Ayla’s rental car when a group of vehicles pulled up.

Briggs and Mina had brought our forensics team out to handle this. They immediately got to work inside while we set up a tent in the yard as a central base. Randy was on his way back from picking up Alpha Harden and Gamma Blake.

Mina was looking over the new message, using a field fingerprinting kit. Briggs and I were setting up a search grid through the area. Detective Mortin was contacting local police for any traffic footage. We had already sent out as many warriors as we could to canvas the surrounding twenty miles.

But it all felt like we were looking in the wrong place.

Harden, Randy, and Blake pulled up and joined us.

“Do we have any leads?” Harden asked.

“This guy has been really good at staying hidden,” I said. “He’s managed to completely eliminate his scent, not just mask it. We haven‘ t found any prints. Ayla said it was the same when he visited her in Sablemane.”

I was so incredibly tense. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold everything back when we were getting anything but answers. I forced my hands through my hair, starting to pace the lawn. It all came to a head when an SUV pulled up.

Pierce got out of the vehicle, along with Kingston Amvorov.