Chapter 171 Kaden's POV
"No one! Just Miriam and some outside contact! She didn't tell us the details!"
"What outside contact?"
"I don't know! She kept it a secret!"
"Where would she take Adrian?"
"I don't know! She said something about a meeting point but didn't specify where!"
"WHEN?" Elara shouted from behind me. "When is the meeting?"
"Tonight! Midnight! That is all I know, I swear!"
"Where?" I pressed. "What meeting point?"
"The old river crossing! North of here! Twenty miles out! That's where she said she would hand over the child!"
"Who is she meeting?"
"An Erebus commander! Someone high up! That's all she told us! Please, I don't know anything else!"
Elara was already moving toward the tent exit. "North river crossing twenty miles. I'm going."
"Wait" I tried to grab her arm
She spun on me, eyes blazing red. "Don't touch me."
"You can't go alone-"
"Watch me."
"Elara, be reasonable-"
"Reasonable? They have my son! My baby! And you want me to be reasonable?"
Her voice was shaking with barely controlled rage. "I am going to that river crossing. I am getting my son back. And I am killing everyone who tries to stop me. Are you going to try to stop me, Kaden?"
"No but I'm coming with you-"
"No, you are staying here protecting the pack. Being the Alpha they need."
"I'm also Adrian's father! I have just as much right-"
"You have responsibilities here! People depend on you! I don't!"
She was already stripping off her clothes. "I'm going alone. I'm going now and if anyone follows me, I will kill them too."
"Elara, please-"
She shifted. I had never seen her wolf form before. She had always struggled with shifting, her omega status making it difficult.
But now she shifted perfectly smoothly and her wolf was pure white. Glowing faintly with the same lunar light as Adrian's mark.
She was massively larger than any omega wolf should be larger than most Alpha wolves.
This wasn't an omega, this was something else. Something that had awakened when Adrian was taken.
She turned those red eyes on me one last time then she ran faster than should be possible. Disappearing into the forest in seconds.
"Alpha!" Marcus had arrived.
"What do we do?"
I stood there, torn.
Every instinct screamed at me to follow her. To protect my mate to help get our son back but the pack was devastated and under-defended vulnerable to another attack.
If I left, if I took warriors with me, we would be leaving everyone else exposed.
"Alpha?" Marcus pressed. "Orders?"
"How many warriors do we have combat-ready?"
"Maybe fifty the rest are wounded or dead."
Fifty. To defend hundreds of non-combatants against Erebus's forces was not nearly enough.
"If I take warriors with me to follow Elara, how many would we have left to defend the camp?"
"Depends how many you take but it would leave us dangerously exposed."
Exactly what I feared.
"And we still don't know where Damian and Kira are If they need extraction-"
"We don't have the resources, we are spread too thin already."
I looked toward the forest where Elara had disappeared. My mate ran alone into danger to face enemies who had stolen our son.
Then I looked around the camp at the frightened faces, the wounded warriors and the children huddled with their parents.
People who depended on me who needed me here.
"Alpha Kaden." Kara stepped forward.
"I know what you are thinking but Elara is stronger than any of us realized she will get Adrian back."
"What if she can't? What if she needs help?"
"Then you send help after her but right now, this camp needs you more than she does these people need their Alpha."
She was right. I knew she was right but it felt like tearing myself in half.
"Marcus, take ten of our best fighters to track Elara. Stay back, don't engage unless absolutely necessary, just be there in case she needs backup."
"And you?"
"I stay here to fortify defenses to prepare for Xavier's counter-attack because it's definitely coming."
I forced myself to turn away from the forest. "And I trust my mate to do what she does best to survive and fight to protect our son."
"Yes, Alpha."
Marcus selected his team quickly; they geared up and headed into the forest, following Elara's trail.
I returned to the command tent and stared at the maps and tried to focus on strategy and defense but all I could think about was Elara alone running toward danger.
And our son in the hands of enemies being taken to Erebus. I had failed them, failed to protect them, failed to keep them safe.
Just like I had failed my mother and my sister. Ethan everyone I'd ever cared about.
"Alpha." A warrior entered.
"We found a note left in Elara's tent."
He handed me a piece of paper. The handwriting was familiar, Miriam's.
"The child's blood will save us all. Erebus doesn't want to harm him, just use his gift to heal the cursed to strengthen his army. He will be returned safely once his purpose is served. This is for the greater good, forgive me."
I crumpled the note in my fist.
The greater good is that she had told herself that stealing a newborn baby from his mother was justified for the greater good.
"Any sign of Miriam herself?" I asked.
"No, she fled right after taking Adrian. Probably already at the meeting point."
"And the other elders?"
"Three are in the medical tent being treated for the injuries Elara inflicted, two are unaccounted for and probably fled with Miriam."
So the elders were divided, some had supported using Adrian as bait, others had participated in actually taking him.
It was a betrayal from within the worst kind.
"Spread the word," I said.
"Any elder found to have participated in Adrian's kidnapping is to be arrested on sight. Miriam most of all they are traitors and will be tried and executed for what they've done."
"Yes, Alpha."
The warrior left and I was alone again. I walked to the tent entrance and looked out at the forest.
Somewhere out there, Elara was running. Hunting following her maternal instincts to save our son.
Somewhere out there, Adrian was in enemy hands helplessly vulnerable.
Somewhere out there, Damian and Kira were on their own missions possibly in danger.
And I was stuck here, unable to help any of them, unable to do anything except wait and hope they all came back alive.
It was torture worse than any physical pain but it was my duty. My responsibility as Alpha.
To put the pack first even when it meant abandoning my own family even when it meant letting my mate run into danger alone.
Even when every fiber of my being screamed at me to follow her. I turned back to the maps and forced myself to focus.
To plan to strategize to be the leader these people needed.
And to trust that Elara was strong enough to save our son. Because if she wasn't if she failed I didn't know if I could survive that loss.
Didn't know if I could keep going, didn't know if anything would matter anymore so she had to succeed.
She had to bring Adrian home, she had to because the alternative was unbearable.