Chapter 215 Chapter 215
Rayne
I couldn’t tell which was more jarring: hearing that Amber had been taken or that it was Reed who kidnapped her.
For a moment, I just stood there, phone clutched so tightly in my hand it creaked under the pressure. Ichika’s trembling voice still echoed in my head.
Reed.
That name alone sent a chill down my spine.
What the hell was Reed doing out of jail in the first place?
Because of the nature of his crimes, his trial date hadn’t even been set the last time I checked in with Captain Voss. I remembered it clearly: Voss assured me he was still in custody, awaiting court processing.
And because I had much bigger problems at the time, like trying to win Amber’s heart back before my inevitable death, I’d let it go. I’d completely forgotten about Reed’s case.
Now that negligence had come to bite me in the ass.
A growl rose deep in my throat, animalistic and raw. The weight of it vibrated through my chest until it became a physical ache. I wanted to break something. To crush something beneath my hands until the fury burned itself out.
Getting off the phone with Ichika, I immediately dialed Voss. My fingers were shaking so badly I almost hit the wrong contact.
He picked up after two rings.
“Hello? Alpha Rayne?”
The sound of his voice only made me angrier.
“Are you going to tell me,” I said, voice low and trembling with restrained rage, “why Reed isn’t behind bars? Will you let me know why a criminal like him was allowed to walk around scot-free, giving him a chance to kidnap my mate?! Will you tell me, Voss, or do I have to come there and get it out of you myself?!”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
Too long.
The silence crackled in my ear, every second stretching like a blade across my patience.
When Voss finally spoke, his voice was small, nervous—stammering like a child caught stealing.
“I–I’m sorry, Alpha, but it was beyond my control. The order came from higher up, and I had to comply or else I was going to lose my job.”
That single sentence detonated in my skull.
The air seemed to vibrate with heat.
He had to comply?
That was his excuse?
I could feel my blood pressure spike, my pulse thundering in my ears like a war drum. Did honest people even exist anymore? If he had been threatened—if he’d been ordered—all he had to do was call me. Just one goddamn phone call, and I would have sorted it out myself. I was the fucking Alpha of the Pack and nobody in this goddamn place had more power than me.
Instead, he stayed silent, and now Amber was gone.
I let out a sharp, humorless chuckle; the kind that didn’t sound human. It was low and bitter and dangerous.
“You were scared of losing your job?” I hissed. “Now it’s your life on the line. Because if ANYTHING happens to my mate, Voss, I’ll wipe you off the face of this earth. And then your family will be next.”
The sound of his sharp inhale echoed through the receiver.
“No! Alpha, please, no!” His words tumbled over each other in a panic. “I really had no choice in the matter. This wasn’t an affront to you in any way, I swear it! I know you’re worried about your mate. I understand that but I was worried about my family as well. I’m the sole breadwinner, Alpha. I’ve got six kids. If I lost my job, I wouldn’t be able to give my children the life they deserve. You’re a man and you’ve got a kid too, please understand that. Please have mercy, Alpha, I’m begging you.”
For a brief second, his desperation cut through the fury.
Six kids. A family depending on him.
It didn’t excuse his failure, but I understood the fear that drove a man when his loved ones’ survival was at stake. The thought of Amber and Evalie flashed in my mind, and my heart twisted.
I took a slow, shaky breath.
“Don’t think you’re off the hook because of your little sob story,” I muttered. “Just ’cause you’ve got a family to feed doesn’t mean you get a pass for incompetence.”
“I’m aware of that, Alpha,” he said quickly, still trembling. “And I deeply apologize.”
“Save it.” My voice was ice now, the earlier rage cooling into something sharp and lethal. “Send all the men you have to cover the entirety of Beaumont Street and its environs. I want every nook and cranny searched. I’ll send you my location. Get here immediately. We’re going to the bar where Amber was taken. Don’t waste my time.”
“Yes, Alpha! I’ll be there soon!”
I ended the call without another word and quickly sent my location to Voss.
My hand was shaking so badly that I almost dropped the phone. I clenched it tighter—too tight—and heard the faint crack of plastic under my grip.
It was close to 2 AM.
The night was thick and heavy with noise. Police sirens wailed somewhere in the distance, red and blue lights slicing through the darkness like frantic heartbeats. Officers were scattered across town, still searching for Evalie.
The air smelled of rain and asphalt, of exhaustion and fear.
I had stepped away from the bustle, walking toward a quieter corner by an abandoned storefront so I could call Ichika, right after I had read her message. The shadows there were deep, swallowing the light.
Ichika’s message had hit me like a freight train. My heart was still hammering in my chest, the reality of it refusing to settle.
Amber… taken.
Evalie… missing.
The two people I loved most in this world were gone.
I didn’t know what to do anymore.
For the first time in my life, I felt truly powerless. I’d always believed that if I just stayed strong enough, smart enough, I could fix anything. Solve anything. Protect everyone who mattered to me.
But this?
This was tearing me apart.
Evalie being kidnapped by Erlan was already torture enough. But Amber—my mate, my heart—being taken too? That was something else entirely. It wasn’t pain anymore; it was annihilation.
I’d always thought I could handle pain. That I was strong enough to face anything fate threw at me. But right now, I was falling apart, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.