Chapter 17: What you Seek

**Coal**

Liam linked me, panic and urgency filling the space of my mind as the line between us vibrated with his efforts to reach me.

*Guest floor, Miss Martin's room is a wreck. Multiple scents, including Alpha Kai's.* He said quickly before shutting off the link.

I quickly left my office and made my way over to the guest floor and then to Raegan's room she'd been assigned. When I got there, Forty was holding her while her eyes were wide on the open door. Liam was in the doorway, and the other three of her guards were nowhere to be found.

I clenched my jaw and walked straight to Raegan, pulling her from Forty and holding her in my arms. She collapsed into my grasp, her nose going to my chest and her shoulders trembling.

"He got out," she whispered into my t-shirt. I squeezed her against my body, and jerked my head toward the stairs while making eye contact with Liam and Forty. They quickly rushed away, going to check the dungeons to make sure he hadn't gotten out.

Raegan's arms wrapped around me, and she let out a shaky breath.

"Shhh," I whispered to her, pressing my cheek to the top of her head as I lifted her shirt a little at the back to run my palms against her bare skin.

She shuddered at my touch but it worked in soothing her.

I peered around her to look inside the room.

It was ransacked, and there were claw marks all over the walls. Her mattress was completely shredded and there was feathers all over from her pillows.

I squeezed her even tighter against me, a low growl emitting from my chest as I took in the sight of her room.

Marie appeared from somewhere else in the room as Kate inspected the bed. She bent and plucked a piece of paper off the bed.

I released a hand from Raegan's waist and waved for Kate to bring it over. She quickly obliged, holding it gingerly between two fingers, trying to get as little of her scent on it as possible.

I took it from her when she reached me, holding it the same way she had been.

[*I'll be seeing you soon, mate dearest.*]

I growled, and I felt my wolf come to the surface.

*He won't take what's ours.* He snarled.

I agreed with him, and handed the paper back to Kate who quickly set it back down on the bed so it wouldn't get tainted with our scents any longer while we waited for Hannah and Cassian to show up.

I linked Carl, our Head of House, to meet us in my office so he could tell me how the hell someone got into her suite without anyone noticing.

Raegan clung to me tightly, hurting my waist a little with how tight her arms were around me, but I took it. I let her squeeze me as tightly as she needed while I rested my cheek on top of her head and rubbed up and down the small of her back.

She shivered beneath me, and I squeezed her a little tighter, sharing my warmth as best as I could.

*He's not here.* Forty linked me.

I clenched my jaw, and pinched my eyes shut.

*Every guard who was stationed in the dungeons and on the guest floor needs to be rounded up for questioning in the throne room. I want only my most trusted guards to be around Miss Martin, and to guard the elevator and stairs to my floor.* I responded.

*Already on it, your Majesty.*

Raegan whimpered a little into my chest.

I pressed my lips to her head and frowned deeply. "It'll be okay, Raegan," I whispered into her hair, and lifted her by her waist to pull out of the line of sight of the door.

She moved her hands from around my waist to in between us and took in fistfulls of my t-shirt.

She inhaled deeply, and her body stopped trembling for a second. I silently thanked her instincts for telling her to use my scent to calm her nerves.

"I wish he would just go away," she whispered.

"Your wish is my command," I responded, fully prepared to rip his head off the second I laid eyes on him again.

I couldn't imagine what this past year and a half was like for her, and now he'd actually tried to kidnap her and then... and then *this*? I'd never wanted another creature gone so bad. I'd never felt the need to protect someone so much.

"What's going on?" A masculine voice broke my attention.

I looked over, and so did Raegan. The second she laid her eyes on her brother she tore herself from my arms and ran to him. He embraced her quickly, giving me a questioning look.

"Kai," I said with a snarl.

He growled, and pushed his sister back, looking her up and down for any trace of harm on her.

She shook her head, and pointed to the room. He let her go and walked to the suite. The second he laid eyes on the inside of it his rage was coming off of him in waves. Raegan came back to my side, and wrapped my arms around her again before tucking her arms in between us. I squeezed gently around her where she'd laid my arms.

"How did he get out?" Morgan looked over at me.

I shook my head, "I don't know. Yet. My guards are rounding up everyone responsible for his person."

Hannah, Cassian, and Liam rushed up the stairs together, walking over to me and Raegan.

"It's been less than twenty four hours," Cassian growled out.

"I've already got trackers tracing his scent from the side of the Palace. He couldn't have gotten far." Hannah said.

"Good," I said.

*We should hunt him down.* My wolf snarled at me. I shook my head, and took in a deep breath of Raegan's scent from the top of her head.

"Raegan, is there any way that you might know where he has been located?" Hannah asked her softly.

"All I know if he and his supporters haven't left Colorado, the only time he's been seen anywhere else or my informants have told me he was going anywhere else was to Washington to Stone Moon--" She froze and looked over to Morgan. "*Mom.*" She whispered.

"Shit," he muttered, and pulled out his phone quickly, walking down the hall as he tapped away aggressively before pressing his phone to his ear while looking back at Raegan.

"He's going to go to Stone Moon?" I asked her. She knew him better than the rest of us.

"I don't know, but I'm scared he will while Shawn isn't there to protect my family."

I looked to Hannah, "send royal guards to Stone Moon urgently, I want them there by nightfall, and I want Alpha Zander to meet me in my office in fifteen."

She nodded, and squeezed Raegan's shoulder re-assuringly as she walked away to make some calls.

"Come, Raegan," I said, and let go of her waist to take her hand into mine.

"Where are we going?" She asked, looking up at me questioningly before glancing to her brother then to Liam.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight, you're going to meet Alpha Zander with me," I looked over to Cassian, "could you interrogate the guards that Forty is bringing to the throne room? I don't trust anyone else to do it as thoroughly as I would."

Raegan gave me a strange look as I said that, and Cassian nodded. He cracked his neck then left towards the stairs.

Raegan, Liam, and I followed shortly thereafter decending only one floor down to head to my office.

I opened the door and Raegan quickly went inside, moving to take a seat on the sofa before my fireplace as she let go of my hand.

"Raegan, this way," I nodded towards my desk.

Liam stood beside the door after closing it behind himself as I moved to sit at my desk.

Raegan sat in the chair across from me, but I shook my head.

"This side," I said, gesturing beside myself.

"I'm not sitting in your lap--"

"I'm not asking you to, just move your chair over here," I explained, "I don't trust Alpha Zander with you, especially when he realizes what you are to me, which he will."

"He's going to know?" She asked, a little alarmed.

"He's intuitive, he'll piece it together." I explained and gestured beside myself again.

She got up and went to grab her chair, but Liam beat her to it. Snapping at her gently to make her back off from carrying her own chair.

He was a little too close to her for me. My wolf growled internally, and I gripped my desk tightly for a moment trying to put my jealousy at bay.

He set the chair down beside me and Raegan sat in it with a thanks directed to him as he moved back to the door.

I took Raegan's hand in mine, "he won't tell anyone Raegan. I swear it, and if for even a second I think he will, I will fix it before he has a chance to."