CHAPTER 37: Finding Her

**LUCIAN**

It's barely been three nights since the attack. The days after the victory is anything but quiet. Council meetings. People's mourning. Our losses, which were plenty, and far more than I had expected.

Everything needs my attention and time. And the list is never-ending.

"The Iron Wolves have returned to their territory. Alpha Callan sends his well wishes to those who lost their lives in this attack. He sends his apologies that their pack weren't able to come in time to aid in this attack. And to answer your earlier proposal, he's agreed to come next week." Darius steps into my office and tells me the latest news about our neighbouring allies.

It's good news and a relief.

But I don't say that out loud. I just nod, accepting the update, before standing up and straightening out my coat.

"Now, we just have to deal with the traitor."

"Right," I nod, stepping in line with Darius. "Magnus. Where is he?"

"In the cellar beneath the house. He's been waiting for you."

I glance at him before stepping out of the office room. "He should know what's coming his way." My words are nothing more than a simple fact.

"Are you sure about this? He has a family." Darius comments, and my spine grows stiff. I know he's referring to the wife who he took as a second mate.

"If he did, then he would know what his choices have led him to, and he'll have to pay the price, no matter how fair. You know the law."

"I know," Darius sighs, "I was just confirming that if this is the best idea or not. There's banishment and there's death."

He's making sure if I've made the choice of not executing Magnus but instead sending him and his family out and to make sure he is never heard of or seen from again.

"He aided the enemy and that is treason. You know how it goes. He also knew about it, the day he took the oath." I say, my jaw ticking and my words firm.

Darius nods, he doesn't argue with my choices any further because he knows I'm right. If Magnus is released and banished, there's no way to ensure that he won't be aiding the hunters or betraying us again.

He tried to give up the location of where I had sent Aria. The only thing, the only one person that the hunters want. And I had warned them, all of them that betrayal will come at a cost.

We head down the stairs and toward the cellar where he's still kept. The moment we get down there, we find a guard stationed there, and another in front of the cell.

They both greet us, and at their acknowledgement, Magnus looks up. There's no smile or smug look on his face. Instead, there's a cold glare and nothing else.

He knows what is coming his way. There will be no mercy or pity. No pleading or negotiation is going to work in his favour. The decision has already been made.

"Do you have any last words before I deliver your fate?" I ask him.

Darius steps inside behind me while I get closer to him within the cell, only inches from where he sits.

Magnus rises to his feet and looks straight ahead at me. "Nothing that you want to know, anyway."

I tilt my head and ask, "Do you take pride in knowing what you've done?" He doesn't answer, and it makes something dark in my chest stir.

I wait a moment, and the cellar remains quiet as the silence stretches on. "You put wolves of your pack in danger by siding with the enemy during an attack. You should be ashamed of yourself." The distaste in my mouth doesn't disappear but increases in potency the longer I look at the traitor's face.

Still no response, no argument, nothing.

My claws extend, and the sight of Magnus' face shifting from one of aloofness to panic satisfies some of that darkness inside of me. He still doesn't say anything.

In a quick swift motion, I strike across his throat and his flesh comes apart under my claws as if it's a mere piece of thread.

The blood pours down his throat and chest, drenching his shirt and the ground. My own hand and wrist is bathed in the hot red liquid that gurgles up his mouth and splashes down on his chin. He falls to the ground on his knees and the chains shackled around his wrists and ankles jingle and clank against the hard, concrete floor.

In mere seconds, he takes his final breath.

My claws retreat and I take a step back to look at the traitor, whose head hangs loose on his chest and his eyes that stare up at the ceiling, unseeing, cold, empty.

"Inform his family of his death and if they want his body, let them take it." I tell Darius before climbing the stairs back up.

"Will get on that."

We walk across the long stretch of grass to get back to the pack house. It's almost nine in the evening. Darius attends to another call while we reach inside and make a direct way back to the office.

"There's something wrong." Darius suddenly speaks, looking at me as I step into my office once again, before turning around to look back at him with furrowed brows. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. And I don't even have the capacity to process the information right now.

"What is it?"

"Ally told me she hasn't seen Aria since yesterday."

The mention of her name instantly makes my senses perk.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw her yesterday—her friend left yesterday, but I didn't hear from her all day. And apparently, she never came home today either." He explains further before running a hand down his face in worry and concern.

She's not home. She's been gone all day—almost two days.

"Did she leave with her friend?" I question that. Aria was prepared to leave, she wanted to desperately. Maybe she changed her mind again and decided to.

"No, I saw Mara leave, she didn't leave with them. She was in the house when I was about to head out." he pauses, "Have you seen her?"

I raise a brow, "No." I haven't. "Why didn't you tell me of this earlier?"

Darius frowns. "I'm sorry. There's so much going on around, and Ally only mentioned it to me now."

“Ally only mentioned it now?” I repeat, my tone like on the verge of shattering. “She’s missing, and you’re telling me now because it didn’t make the top of her list?”

"She thought Aria might've just gone out. That maybe she needed time."

I turn around and press my hand against my forehead.

"Fuck." My mind immediately goes to the worst-case scenario. Aria. Gone. Missing. Goddamn fuck.

Darius comes in front of me again, "Can you trail her?"

"Yes," I'm quick to answer that question because it's one of the things that no one else can do.

I'm linked to her, her scent, and I know it better than the scent of my own blood.