Chapter 44

It had been two days since Lucien had been kidnapped and we were no closer to finding him than we were two days ago. I was trying my best not to be frustrated but it was easier said than done. I could still feel the raggedy beating of his heart, only I couldn’t reach out to him. It felt like he was in an abyss of some sort where I could only feel his presence but not see him.

I tried to rack my brain to think hard about where Penny could’ve taken him. Even though I had never been fully interested in her work, I did know she owned a few houses in different countries. For some reason, I knew they were still in the country.

Which narrowed down our search but not quite. It was a big country, after all. It would take forever to locate him without magic. That was the reason I’d called Ginny.

“It might take a while. There’s an obstruction,” she murmured with her eyes tightly shut, and her eyelids fluttered.

In the chaos of the past days, I sometimes forgot I was pregnant with the little bursts of energy that reverberated through me. When I would get myself and feel tired, I had to remind myself that if I didn’t find my husband, there was no point.

Sydney had said the entire pack had turned, including the elders. It wasn’t that hard to believe, seeing as I barely knew them and didn’t know what they were capable of but to hear that Lucien’s wolves turned on him? The ones that had protected him fiercely the day Mason had been captured? I was astonished.

Had they really ever been faithful to him or had it just been a case of loyalty to whoever seemed more likely to give in to their whims? Lucien had been trying to change things, had even married an Impure to unite the two bloodlines so their betrayal couldn’t have been because they were angry at the way he decided to rule. If one thought about it, Penny was an Impure too. So, what exactly had caused the mutiny?

Thinking about it wouldn’t solve the problem.

“Anything yet?” Xavier asked Ginny.

He’d been an amazing help and I couldn’t have been more grateful for his assistance. The villa had been swimming with Zen wolves since the ordeal and even though I thought all of them combined wouldn’t be enough to keep Penny out, I wouldn’t deny that their presence made me feel somewhat safe.

“Ginny.” I almost whined.

“Shut up, for goodness sake’s and let me focus.”

I held my tongue because I knew she wouldn’t have liked what I was about to say next. But goddamn, she’d been going at it for more than thirty minutes now. I loved her but if she didn’t see something soon, I was going to snap her neck.

“It’s dark,” she whispered. “Really dark. I can hear breathing but I can’t see who it is.”

“Can you get closer?” Xavier asked.

Ginny waited a few seconds then said, “It’s him. It’s Lucien.”

“Oh my God.” I breathed. He was alive. I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.

“He’s weak, can barely open his eyes.”

“Oh my God,” I repeated, this time sure that I was going to cry. What had they done to him?

“Ginny, I need you to find something recognizable. Something we can use to track him down. Leave the room. Go outside. To the front of the building. The gate, house number, flowers, the color of the building—anything.”

I was already a sobbing mess so I was grateful that Xavier took over. He seemed more clear-headed than I was.

“It’s not a building.” Ginny said after a while.

“No? Then what is it?” This time was Sydney. Her breathing was hasty and I could tell she was as anxious as we all were.

“It’s a warehouse.”

****

As far as I knew, I thought when we all settled in Xavier’s pickup truck with me at the passenger’s seat and Ginny and Sydney at the back, Penny was into import and export of foreign wears so she had a few warehouses where she stored her goods.

Though we knew we were looking for a warehouse, it didn’t help much that Penny had several scattered around the country. It was better than nothing. We would begin our search at the one closest to us and then continue from there.

Ginny had said she couldn’t see more than the color of the warehouse; a fading red. Weirdly, whatever had been blocking her vision had suddenly disappeared enough for her to see clearly for a few seconds before it blocked her out again. Ginny said it felt too familiar, like it had been done intentionally.

I wouldn’t put it past Penny to try to draw me out, killing two—or three birds in this case, with one stone. I didn’t care. Even if it were a trap, I would gladly walk into it if it meant I’d find my husband.

“You’re gripping the seat too hard.”

I looked at Xavier, sighing at the knowing smile he gave me. I willed my hands to let go of his seats, surprised to find that my claws had come out and ripped the seats open.

“I’m sorry. I’m so tensed,” I told him.

I felt helpless, if I were being honest. Lucien was my husband; I should be the one finding him, tracking him down, not Ginny or Xavier. Even as Luna, there was nothing I could do for him. There was no one to rule anyway, so who was to say I was still Luna?

“I just can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve lived with her all my life and I didn’t see it. How is that even possible?”

“Well, in my experience, people usually tend to see what they’re looking for.” He replied, turning a bend. We were almost at the first warehouse now. “How were you to know that she was a big bad wolf?”

I could understand his point but something continued to nag at me. “Aren’t werewolves able to tell when they’re in the presence of another wolf?”

He gave me a side look. “You mean because you never thought she wasn’t completely human?”

I nodded. “Every full moon, I changed. She never did. In fact, she was usually with me during my transformations.”

“I think she took care of that with magic.” Sydney suddenly murmured.

“That’s impossible. There’s only one person who ever succeeded in creating a brew to prevent painful transformations on the full moon and he died a long time ago.” Ginny said.

It took a while but Sydney finally sighed. “Elena’s last name is Franklin.”

There was silence in the car. The gears in my head began to run. Franklin. “Wait. Isn’t that…?”

“Abbot Franklin,” Ginny whispered audibly.

“He was Elena’s great, great, great grandfather.”

Before I’d gotten married or even met Lucien, I recalled that I was still chasing after a cure for lycanthropy. During one of my research, I found out that a man named Abbott Franklin had been the only one to successfully brew a witch’s potion to prevent painful transformations on the full moon. Because he was already dead at the time, Ginny and I had searched for family members or children of his, anyone he could have entrusted the ingredients of the potion to.

All our searches had led us to a dead end.

Certain events had led to me marrying Lucien so I’d completely forgotten about it.

To find out that Elena was a descendant of his, and that she had been working for Penny all this while? Shocked would be an understatement.

I turned so I had a better view of the backseat and my eyes met Ginny’s. We didn’t need words to communicate what it was we were feeling at that point.

I look at Sydney and then finally at Xavier. A full ten seconds passed before he spoke up.

“Just how long have they been planning to kill Lucien?”