Chapter 137 : Vanished In The Night

Chapter 137 : Vanished In The Night

KAI’S POV

A sharp knock shattered the fragile peace of the hospital room. I snapped awake instantly, every instinct on high alert. My body still carried the echoes of recovery, muscles tight, mind sharpening with each passing hour as fragments of memory continued to slot back into place, but the sound cut straight through me like an alarm.

Our son slept peacefully against Elias’s chest, his tiny body rising and falling in the steady rhythm that had become my anchor these past days. I tightened my arm around them both for a brief second, breathing in the mingled scents of my mate and our pup, before sliding out of the bed. Elias stirred beside me, eyes already opening with the same wariness I felt.

The knock came again, louder, and more insistent.

I crossed the room in quick strides and pulled the door open. Lucien stood there, Liora’s husband, his face drained of color and etched with raw fear. Two guards flanked him, hands hovering near their weapons, tension radiating off them in waves.

“Alpha,” Lucien said, voice rough and cracking. “I’m sorry to wake you. Liora… she didn’t come home last night. I haven’t heard from her since yesterday afternoon. She was supposed to head straight back after visiting you and Elias.”

The words landed like ice in my veins. I stepped aside, letting them enter, my jaw already tightening. Elias sat up carefully, supporting our son with one arm. The baby made a soft, sleepy sound but settled again. I could hear Elias’s heartbeat quicken from across the room.

“She left here around noon,” Elias said, voice steady but edged with worry. “She told us she was going straight back to you.”

Lucien dragged a hand through his hair. “She never arrived. Her phone goes straight to voicemail. I drove here the moment I realized something was wrong. The gate guards confirmed she left in one of the official cars.”

My mind raced, piecing together the timeline even as rage began to simmer beneath my skin. Liora, my sister, the one who had held everything together while I was lost to my own fractured memories. She had protected Elias, helped lead the pack, and fought for our family when I couldn’t. She wouldn’t simply vanish.

I issued orders quickly, my voice low and commanding. “Get every available scout mobilized. Check the entire route she would have taken. Bring me the driver assigned to her, now.”

One of the guards stepped forward, swallowing hard. “We already found the car, Alpha. Abandoned just inside the northern border. Liora’s personal bag was still inside. The driver… he’s dead. Poisoned. We brought the body to the morgue.”

The room seemed to drop ten degrees. I felt Elias’s eyes on me, but I kept my expression locked down even as fury and fear clawed at my chest. Not her. Not now. I had just begun to remember the depth of what I had, my mate, our son, the sister who had never given up on me. And someone dared to rip that away?

I turned to Elias. “Stay here with the baby. I’ll handle this.”

“No.” His voice was firm, already swinging his legs off the bed despite the way he winced. “She’s your sister. Our family. I’m coming. The baby can stay with the nurses for a little while. I need to see this myself.”

Part of me wanted to argue, to wrap him and our son in safety and lock the door, but I knew that look in his eyes. He was as much Alpha as I was in this moment. I helped him dress in loose, comfortable clothes, my hands lingering gently over his healing incision, a silent reminder of how recently we had nearly lost everything. Once our son was safely settled with two trusted nurses, we followed Lucien out.

The abandoned car sat like a wound on the side of the northern road, doors flung open, one tire flat. The scent of fear and faint poison lingered in the air. Elias picked up Liora’s bag with shaking hands. I watched his face crumple slightly as he caught her perfume, and something fierce twisted inside me.

“She never even made it out of our territory,” Elias said tightly. “They took her right here.”

I crouched by the driver’s side. The man was slumped over the wheel, skin ashen, eyes frozen in shock. The scent hit me, faint but unmistakable. The same poison that had killed my mother. Clara’s signature. Or someone copying her methods perfectly.

Lucien paced behind us. “Why Liora? She has no direct power. She’s not a threat like you two. She’s her daughter.”

“Because she’s my sister,” I growled, rising to my full height. My voice dropped to something dangerous and cold. “Because she does not support them. They want to hurt me. They want to hurt us. This is personal.”

We drove to the morgue in heavy silence. Dr. Elara waited beside the metal table, her expression grim. She pointed out the injection marks on the driver’s neck.

“Fast-acting paralytic mixed with the toxin,” she explained. “He would have been awake, aware, but completely unable to move or cry out while they took her. Death followed quickly.”

I pictured it, my sister fighting, realizing the driver was compromised, the helplessness. My fists clenched so hard my knuckles cracked. They planned this. They knew her schedule, her route, her loyalty to us.

“We need to check the dungeons,” I said sharply. “Now.”

We raced back to the castle. The reinforced cells were empty. Guards lay unconscious on the floor, silver darts protruding from their necks. Clara and Gavin’s cells stood wide open. No blood. No struggle. Just gone.

Rage exploded through me. I slammed my fist into the stone wall. Cracks spiderwebbed outward from the impact, dust raining down. “They took my sister to get to me. And they used the same traitors who helped them escape before.”

Elias’s hand settled on my back, warm and grounding. I leaned into the touch, drawing strength from him even as tension rolled through every muscle. “We will find her,” he said quietly. “We owe her everything. She protected me when you were unconscious. She helped me lead this pack. She’s family.”

Lucien burst in, breathing hard. “Scouts found fresh tracks heading north. They’re moving fast. Seraphina’s people are aiding them again, this was coordinated.”

I turned to Elias. The fear I rarely let surface burned in my chest alongside the rage. I had only just reclaimed my mate and our son. The thought of losing Liora now, after everything, felt like claws tearing into old wounds. “I just got you both back,” I said, voice rough. “I can’t lose my sister too. Not like this.”

Elias stepped closer, ignoring the obvious discomfort from his healing body. “Then we don’t lose her. You lead the warriors. I’ll coordinate from here. The pack needs both of us.”

I pulled him into a fierce hug, careful not to press against his incision, breathing him in like a promise. Liora was out there. Clara and Gavin had taken her. Seraphina’s father had thrown his weight behind this betrayal. The war had returned to our doorstep, bolder and crueler than before.

But they had made a mistake. They had taken
someone I loved. I would tear the north apart to bring her home.