Chapter 57 The Alpha Taken
Night had been coming for hours. Derek still had not returned.
Search parties had ridden until their horses were bone-tired. Boots and paws had swept every ridge and hollow within the borders. Then they had gone back out again. They reported nothing. No trail. No body. No sign he had crossed the valley at all.
Amanda lived the day with a small, sharp hope she couldn't swallow. Every time the mate bond throbbed empty, she told herself it was only a delay. A bad sign, but not final. She had learned to read absence before. She had felt Derek's wolf stir and fall silent before.
But this time the silence was a hollow that punched straight through her.
She stood on the ridge above the training green as twilight bled into night. Torches flared against the dark trees. The pack moved with frantic purpose. Warriors sharpened blades.
Healers patched wounds that were not Derek's. Scouts relayed routes that led nowhere. Owen paced with a patrol list clutched in his hand, jaw locked tight. Victor hunched over an empty map.
Cassius watched everyone like a man reading a prophecy he wished he hadn't deciphered.
Riley returned in a flurry. Mud caked on her boots. Dried blood on her coat hem. Eyes burning with exhaustion and urgency. She spotted Amanda instantly and crossed the field in fast, sure strides.
"We found something on the northern border," Riley said. Her voice was steady, but Amanda heard the weight behind it. "Owen sent me because I was closest."
Hope made Amanda move before she could think. "Show me."
Riley unwrapped a strip of cloth. A thin silver chain glinted faintly inside. The moon charm at its center was small, hammered, unmistakable.
Catherine's charm.
The one Derek's late mother had placed around his neck when he turned fifteen. She told him it would guide him home no matter how far he wandered.
Amanda had seen him touch it on the worst nights. Thumb brushing the worn edges when he thought no one was watching.
Her stomach dropped. The world seemed to shift under her feet.
"It's his," she whispered. Her voice cracked.
Riley drew out a second cloth bundle. Inside, a dark smear of dried blood stained the fabric. Not much, but enough to punch the air from Amanda's lungs.
Too much.
And unmistakably Derek's.
Owen swore under his breath. "Drag marks nearby?"
Riley nodded. "Deep grooves through the loam, leading into the side valley. Something heavy was dragged. No hoofprints. No sign a warrior carried him."
Victor's eyes narrowed. "Dragged by what?"
Amanda pressed the moon charm to her lips. The metal was cold, but memory warmed her fingers. Derek laughing. Derek leaning into her touch. Derek wearing a piece of his mother like armor.
The mate bond flickered for a heartbeat. A faint echo, a ghost of warmth. Then it collapsed into silence again.
The emptiness was a knife.
Her gift stirred violently at the scent of Derek's blood. She touched the cloth.
The vision slammed into her.
Derek on his knees in a cold, low chamber. Wrists bound in iron that bit deep. Shirt torn. A dark shimmering light licked at the edges of his wounds. He tried to shift. His wolf threw itself against the bindings, but something pressed it down, smothering it.
A figure bent close. A familiar profile, terrible in the candlelight.
A voice she knew, colder than she remembered.
Silas.
Amanda tore her hand away with a gasp. The aftertaste of shadow clung to her tongue. Derek's face lingered in her mind. Pale, breathing hard, chin lifted in defiance.
"Silas," she whispered. The name scraped raw.
Owen's expression hardened. "That can't be right. He was exiled. No magic…"
"The Nightbringer can grant power," Amanda cut in. She shook her head so sharply the world blurred. "I saw the marks on Derek's wrists. He's alive. But they have him."
Horror settled over the group, quiet and heavy.
Cassius's jaw flexed. Victor's hand slid instinctively to his knife. Owen muttered something sharp under his breath.
"You saw this from his blood?" Victor asked.
Amanda nodded. Her throat was tight. "Just a flash. Derek chained. Silas over him. That's all."
Owen stepped closer. His voice was low. "If Silas has him, this wasn't random. This is a strike."
"No," Cassius murmured. "Silas doesn't move like this unless something older guides him. The Nightbringer whispers. It promises. This wasn't done alone."
The room seemed to press inward. Amanda couldn't breathe.
"I'm going after him," she said. Raw. Immediate.
Victor stiffened. "Amanda, no. You are the one they want. It's a trap."
"I know it's a trap," she shot back. Her voice trembled with fury, not fear. "But Derek would come for me. He wouldn't wait for morning. He wouldn't let others decide his fate. I'm going."
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Riley: "I'm coming."
Owen exhaled hard. Conflict flashed across his face. "Fine. Me too."
From the corner, Mikhail rose from sharpening his blade. "I've been in slaver pits," he said quietly. "I know their tricks. I go."
Victor's voice was a thin line. "You're all insane. This is what they want. To lure Amanda and shatter us."
Amanda met his eyes. "I'm not asking for a war party. Just trust. Trust me the way I've trusted all of you."
There was a long silence. In that time, a figure slipped from the shadow by the wall and into the torchlight: a woman, lean as a hunting knife, with a jag of braid wrapped around one ear and a gaze that had killed a lie two rooms over. Zara.
“You’ll need a tracker who reads silence like a map,” she said. “I’m not likely to be sentimental about the risk.”
Amanda blinked. Zara had been off the roads for months, rumored to be hunting her own ghosts. She stepped closer now, and at the look on her face Amanda felt steadiness return.
"Then we move now," Owen said. "Small team. Fast. Quiet."
They gathered gear quickly. Metal clinked softly. Boots tightened. Packs strapped. Amanda's hands steadied as she prepared. Fear honed itself into something sharp and controlled.
Just as they stepped out, a cold prickle crawled down the back of Amanda's neck.
A voice slid into her mind. Smooth, vicious, and laced with hunger.
Come alone to the old mining caves by dawn, or I start removing pieces of your mate. His wolf heals beautifully. I wonder how many pieces he can lose before it fails.
Amanda froze.
Riley gripped her wrist. Owen stepped closer. Zara's lips thinned.
Amanda swallowed hard. She kept her voice low. "We go. Now. But I'm not going alone."
She didn't tell them the worst part.
That beneath Silas's voice, another presence whispered.
Something cold. Ancient. Watching her.
They slipped into the trees. Five shadows and a tracker. The night closed behind them like a door.
The abduction had triggered the snare.
Dawn waited with teeth and an impossible choice.