Chapter 198: Can’t Be Found
Third Person POV
By the time the royal trackers and the pack’s elite seers arrived, Kaden had been unconscious for nearly three hours, trapped in a dark coma of unbearable grief. The royal trackers immediately fanned out, pushing past the rushing river and scouring the surrounding forests. But no matter how hard they tried, the result remained terrifyingly the same.
The trail was dead.
Inside the cleared room where Kaden lay motionless, the three royal seers stood in a tight circle, their hands pressed together, eyes rolled back as they tried to pierce through the spiritual veil to locate the rogues. Sweating profusely, they gasped and stumbled backward, breaking the trance.
"Well?" Logan demanded, stepping toward them, running out of patience. All he needed was their location. Wiping them out was easy. "Can you see them? Where are they hiding?"
The oldest seer shook her head, her face pale with exhaustion. "It is impossible, Lord Logan. The rogue tigers are shielded by a dark, powerful charm. An ancient concealment spell covers their entire territory. They could be camping right in front of us, and we would never see them."
"So what can be done?!" Logan shouted, his frustration boiling over. "There must be a way!"
"Sir, we do not know," the seer replied, her voice trembling. "The only way to capture them is to lure them out of their camp. As long as they remain inside their ward, send thousands of men, and they will walk right past it. Send a thousand trackers, and they will smell nothing. The magic distorts everything."
Before Logan could respond, a sudden, violent crash echoed from the bed.
BOOM!
Kaden kicked a heavy wooden stool across the room, shattering it against the stone wall. His eyes snapped open—not their normal green, but a terrifying, wild gold. He was utterly consumed by his wolf, entirely driven out of his mind by grief and the pain tearing through his chest bond.
"No... no!" Kaden rasped, his voice sounding like grinding stone. "I am dead... she’s gone... NO!"
The room went deathly quiet. Every guard froze in sheer terror.
Logan’s breath hitched as he rushed toward the bed. "Alpha—"
Kaden didn’t even recognize him. Driven by pure, unhinged madness, Kaden leaped off the mattress like a feral beast, roaring, "WHERE IS REBECCA?! WHERE IS SHE?!"
He charged past Logan, ripping the heavy wooden door off its hinges with his bare hands and bursting into the corridor. A young guard standing outside tried to step forward, but Kaden grabbed the warrior by the throat, lifting his heavy frame off the ground with one hand.
"Where is my woman?!" Kaden screamed into the terrified guard’s face, his claws sinking deep into the man’s neck.
"Kaden, stop!" Logan yelled, sprinting into the hallway and grabbing Kaden’s arm.
Kaden turned around, his golden eyes completely hollow and blind with rage. He released the guard and struck Logan, wrapping his massive hand around Logan’s neck and slamming him violently against the wall.
"K-Kaden..." Logan choked out, his vision turning spotty as his King’s suffocating Alpha aura crushed his lungs. Kaden was completely possessed by pain, unable to hear or see the brother-in-arms he was almost strangling to death.
"Oh no... this is terrible!" the head seer gasped, rushing out of the room with the other two mystics. "His mind is breaking!"
Without wasting a second, the seers raised their hands, chanting rapid, ancient incantations. A soft, glowing purple light erupted from their palms, washing over Kaden.
Kaden stiffened. His grip on Logan’s throat loosened, and Logan fell to the floor, gasping frantically for air as he clutched his bruised neck.
Kaden groaned, clutching his head as his golden eyes slowly faded back to dark green. His knees buckled beneath him, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor, falling back into total unconsciousness.
Two guards quickly scrambled forward, carefully lifting their fallen King and carrying him back to the bed.
Logan pulled himself up from the floor, coughing roughly as he turned to the seers. "What... what was that?!" he rasped out.
"Who is this Rebecca?" the head seer asked, her eyes wide with shock and confusion as she looked down at the unconscious King.
"She is his breeder," Logan answered quickly, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Kane, who stood silently near the doorway clutching his bandaged side, spoke up, his voice heavy with sorrow. "Not just his breeder... he is deeply in love with her."
The head seer looked between Kane and Logan, her brow furrowing in deep disbelief. "This love... it is unusual. It is unlike anything I have ever witnessed in all my years. It is a deep, soul-level connection... Are they mates?"
"No," Logan stated firmly, shaking his head. "She is not his mate. Kaden lost his true mate months ago. Rebecca is just his breeder."
Kane kept his mouth firmly shut, his eyes staring at the floor. He knew Logan was wrong. He knew the truth about Kaden and Rebecca’s bond, but now was not the time to spark a debate.
The old seer looked back at Kaden’s pale, motionless face, her expression deeply troubled.
"If she is not his mate, then whatever bond he has built with her is terrifyingly strong," the seer murmured softly. "His soul is thrashing against his body. He is literally losing his mind from the separation and shock. We have to find that girl as soon as possible... because if we don’t, the King’s mind will break beyond repair."
Logan looked at Kane, his face tight with anger and worry.
"What do we do?" Logan asked, his voice shaking. "You heard her, Kane. Look at him! He’s literally losing his mind. If he wakes up like this again, he will tear us all apart, or his wolf will kill him from the inside out. What do we do?!"
Kane couldn’t speak. He couldn’t force a single word past the tight lump in his throat. He just stared at his unconscious brother lying on the bed. The guilt in Kane’s chest pressed down on him, suffocating him. It was his pack, his Beta, his failure that had led to this.
"Say something, Kane!" Logan snapped, stepping closer and lowering his voice to a fierce whisper. "We can’t find their camp. The seers can’t track them through the charm. The trackers have nothing. And Kaden is slipping further into madness every minute she is gone!"
Kane swallowed hard, finally tearing his eyes away from Kaden’s still form. "We find my Beta," Kane said, his voice determined. "He opened the tunnels. He dealt directly with the rogue tigers. He knows where their camp is, or at least how to contact them."
Logan’s eyes narrowed. "Do your trackers have any lead on where that bastard ran?"
"He took a squad of his own loyalists and the stolen gold from the vault," Kane replied, his jaw clenching tightly. "He thinks he got away clean. But he’s arrogant. He won’t stay in hiding long once he realizes he has millions to spend."
"Then we hunt him down first," Logan said, his voice turning cold and dangerous. "We don’t wait for Kaden to wake up. We take our best warriors, lock down every border exit, and tear this region apart until we drag your Beta back here in chains."
Logan turned back to the head seer, his expression stern. "Keep him asleep. Use whatever spells or magic you have to keep Kaden in a deep rest. If he wakes up before we have a location, it will be a disaster."
The old seer bowed her head respectfully. "We will keep the King under a sleeping spell, Lord Logan. But do not take long. A spell can only hold a mind as powerful as his for a short time."