Chapter 45 Chapter 45

Chapter 45 Chapter 45
Marcus's POV

The guards came back faster than I expected. Empty-handed?

I looked up from the papers on my desk. The elders were still there, all sitting and waiting for Lila to be brought in, watching me like hawks.

"Where's the body?" I asked.

The lead guard shifted on his feet. "Alpha, we... we couldn't find it."

I blinked my eyes, trying to understand he said "What? You didn't?" I questioned, almost yelling.

"The body, it's not there, we couldn't find anything related to it there."

For a moment, I just stared at him. Then I laughed, a short, harsh laughter, it all like a joke. "You're joking."

"No, Alpha. The hall is empty, she's gone. We tried to find around the hall but yet we couldn't find the trace of her body"

My hands slammed on the desk. "I sent you to get a dead body. How hard is that?"

The guard flinched. "We checked everywhere. She's not there."

"Then you didn't look hard enough!" I stood up. My chair scraped back. "Go back. Find her. Now! I want her body brought back to me here at this moment!"

The guards bowed and left quickly.

Elder Rowan cleared his throat. "Alpha Marcus, what's going on? What did the guards say?"

"Nothing," I snapped. "Just incompetent guards, who couldn't deliver simple tasks assigned to them."

The elders exchanged looks, quiet whispers.

I paced back and forth in the hall. My wolf, Hugo, stirred.

"Something's wrong, we saw her body not long ago so what happened to it?" he said.

"Obviously, something fishy."

"Check yourself, don't trust them, maybe someone around moved her."

Minutes passed. It felt like hours to me.

The guards returned, with the same terrified faces.

"Alpha," the lead guard said. Voice shaking. "She's not there. We searched the entire hall. The corridors. Everything. The body is gone."

My blood went cold.

"Gone?" Elder Mira stood up. "How can a body just disappear?"

I didn't answer. Rage built in my chest. Hot. Burning.

Someone took her. Someone moved Lila's body.

"Summon everyone," I ordered. "Every single person in this palace. Now."

The guards hesitated.

"Now!" I roared.

They scattered.

Within minutes, the main hall filled with people. Guards. Servants. Cooks. Cleaners. Everyone who worked in the palace.

I stood at the top of the stairs. Looking down at all of them.

"Listen carefully," I said. Voice cold. "Lila's body has been stolen. No one leaves this pack. No one steps outside the palace. Everyone stays exactly where they are until I say otherwise."

Murmurs spread through the crowd.

"Someone in this palace moved that body," I continued. "And I will find out who."

Hugo's voice growled in my head. "Punish them. All of them. Someone here knows something."

He was right.

I pointed at the guards standing near the hall entrance. "You. You were supposed to be watching. How did someone get in and take her?"

"We didn't see anyone, Alpha," one stammered.

"Then you weren't watching well enough!" I descended the stairs. Fast. "Someone walked in. I took a body. And walked out. And none of you saw anything?"

Silence.

"Useless," I spat. "All of you."

Hugo pushed forward. "Make them talk. Torture them if you have to."

I turned to the crowd. "Every worker in this palace will be questioned. And if I don't get answers, you'll all spend time in prison until someone talks."

A woman gasped. Others looked terrified.

"Take them," I ordered the guards. "All of them. Lock them up."

"Alpha, please…" someone started.

"Now!"

The guards moved. Started herding the workers toward the prison cells beneath the palace. Protests. Crying. I didn't care.

"And you." I pointed at my personal guards. "Search every inch of this pack. Check every house. Every corner. Whoever took that body might still be here."

"Yes, Alpha."

They left quickly.

I stood alone in the hall. Breathing hard.

It hadn't been long. Just over an hour since I'd seen Lila's body. Whoever took her couldn't have gone far.

Unless they were fast. Organized.

I walked back to the hall where she'd been. The candles still burned. The platform was empty.

I circled it slowly. Looking for clues. Anything.

My foot hit something small. Metal.

I bent down.

A hair pin.

Silver. Delicate. With a small green gem.

I picked it up. I turned it over in my fingers.

My heart stopped.

I knew this pin.

Sophia's.

I'd given it to her years ago, it was on our first anniversary, she wore it all the time back then.

"No, how did she get inside here?" I breathed.

Hugo went silent.

My hand tightened around the pin. The metal dug into my palm.

Sophia was here. Could it be she had been here watching me while I was staring at Lila's body, could it be she was the one manifesting and making me think Lila's body was moving?

She came to my palace, has the audacity to take Lila's body away from here without anyone noticing?

But how? How did she get in without anyone seeing?

Ethan! That bitch of an alpha must have planned it with her.

Of course.

Ethan helped her, that bastard. They came together. Snuck in somehow. Took Lila's body to hide evidence. To make me look worse.

My vision went red.

"They think they can do this," Hugo snarled. "They think they can come here. Take what's ours. Humiliate us."

"Not anymore," I said quietly.

I stared at the pin. Sophia's pin.

She'd been here. In my territory. My home.

And she took Lila.

Rage burned through me. Hotter than before. Consuming.

War.

That's what they wanted? Fine.

I'd go to the Wolfalpine Pack. I'd capture Sophia. Drag her back here.

And this time, I wouldn't be gentle.

This time, she'd learn what happens when you cross me.

I'd make her suffer. More than I ever did before. Worse than she could imagine.

She thought she could escape me? Thought Ethan could protect her?

She was wrong.

I closed my fist around the pin. Let the sharp edges cut into my skin. Blood dripped down my palm.

"Sophia," I said to the empty hall. "You just made the worst mistake of your life.”