Chapter 89 The Search
I tried again. Harder, pain lanced through my shoulders as the partial shift fought the restraints. I growled low, frustrated and collapsed back against the wall, panting. Why couldn’t I shift fully?
The drug? Some kind of silver-laced sedative? But Ben knew nothing about my wolf side. I didn’t know enough about our kind’s weaknesses yet. Alexander had promised to teach me. Promised we had time, but time we didn’t have.
I screamed again, louder this time. “Help! Somebody!”
The sound bounced off concrete and died. I slumped, forehead against my knees, tears burning hot behind my eyelids. I refused to let them fall. Not yet.
Think, Maddie, think why I can't fully shift. Why would Ben do this?
He’d sounded so… broken on the phone. Remorseful. Ready to sign the papers. I’d believed it. I believed the apology. Believed he just wanted closure. Stupid, so stupid of me.
He’d lured me here, drugged me, tied me up, and now…
The door opened.
I jerked upright.
Jace, the friend I’d glimpsed right before everything went dark, stepped inside. Tall, broad, expression blank. He carried a phone in one hand and a water bottle in the other.
Relief and terror collided in my chest.
“Please,” I said immediately. “Untie me. Just my hands. I need to touch my stomach, I need to know the baby’s okay.”
He didn’t answer.
He crouched a few feet away, opened the camera app on his phone, and aimed it at me. Flash flared, bright, blinding.
I flinched.
He took another photo, then a third. Video this time, I could see the red record light.
“Jace,” I tried again. “Please. At least let me drink. Or use the bathroom. I won’t run. I swear.”
He looked at me then, with so much anger in his eyes. “Shut the fuck up,” he said, voice low. Terrifying in its calm. I shivered. He stood, pocketed the phone, and walked out.
The door closed. Silence again.
I stared at the spot where he’d been standing.
Ben hadn’t come in. Why hadn’t Ben come in?
My mind raced through possibilities, none of them good.
He was waiting for something. Proof of life photos? A ransom demand? Or maybe he was just… scared to face me now that the plan was in motion.
I didn’t care. I needed to get out.
I scanned the room again. Concrete. One high window, too high, too small. Two doors: the main one Jace had used, and a smaller one opposite, probably a bathroom or storage closet. No furniture except the thin mattress I was sitting on and a rusted metal chair bolted to the floor in the corner.
I twisted again, testing the zip ties. They held.
I tried to shift once more, focusing everything on the wolf inside me. Claws, fangs, heightened hearing. Nothing else.
Frustration burned hot in my throat. I growled low, animal sound echoing off the walls.
Come on. Come on. Nothing.
I slumped back, breathing hard.
Alexander was out there. I could feel him, sharp spikes of panic and fury pulsing through the bond. He was searching. He had to be searching. But how long would it take? How far had they taken me? I didn’t even know where we were anymore, still in the same city or not.
Tears came then. Hot. Silent. I pressed my forehead to my knees and let them fall.
I was helpless. Tied. Drugged. Trapped in a room that smelled like neglect.
And my baby…
I forced my bound hands as far around as they would go, managed to brush fingertips against the curve of my stomach.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
The bond pulsed again, Alexander’s fear cresting, then steadying. Like he’d felt my apology. Like he was answering.
Hold on,I thought toward him. I’m trying.
I lifted my head. I would wait for Jace or Ben to come back. For a chance to get them free my hand, any chance to fight or run. For Alexander and my baby I would wait.
The clock on the dashboard glowed at 6:14 p.m. when the Bentley eased through the estate gates.
I’d been staring at my phone for the last forty minutes, willing it to light up with Maddie’s name. No text. No missed call. No “I’m on my way home” selfie with that shy smile she always sent when she thought I was being overprotective. Nothing.
Voicemail. Again.
“Hey, it’s Maddie. Leave a message.”
I ended the call before the beep finished, thumb hovering over redial for the eighth time since lunch.
She’d promised to text when she reached campus. Then again when classes ended. Then when she was heading home.
Silence.
I told myself she’d forgotten to charge her phone. Or turned it off during a lecture and forgot to switch it back on. Or got caught up talking to Sophia and Clara and lost track of time.
Any of those things. Not the other thing.
Not the thing that kept clawing at the back of my mind: rival pack. Moonthorn remnant. Ironthorn survivor. Someone who’d waited years for the Silver heir to surface and finally seen their chance.
I shoved the thought down. Hard.
The space where she always parked it sat empty.
My stomach dropped like a stone through ice.
I strode inside, boots clicking on marble. Clara was in the sitting room with two other maids, laughing over something on a phone screen. They looked up when I entered, smiles fading the second they saw my face.
“Where is she?” My voice came out quieter than I intended. Too controlled.
Clara stood immediately. “Maddie? She hasn’t come back yet, sir.”
The other two maids exchanged glances.
“She left this morning,” one of them said hesitantly. “Drove herself. Said she’d be fine.”
I felt the bond again, reaching for it deliberately this time.
There.
Maddie was there. Alive, not in pain, not terrified. Just… calm. Relaxed, almost. Like she was sitting somewhere quiet, maybe reading, maybe napping.
That should have reassured me. It didn’t.
Relaxing didn’t mean safety. Not when she was supposed to be home a few hours ago.
I pulled my phone out, thumbed through recent calls. Nothing from her since 9:22 a.m., a quick “I’m at school” voice note.
I dialed again. Voicemail.
I exhaled through my nose. “Clara, when was the last time anyone saw her car leave?”
“This morning, sir. Around nine. She waved at the gate guard.”
I nodded once. Turned away so they wouldn’t see the muscle jumping in my jaw.
The hospital. Maybe she’d gone to see her mother. Maybe she’d lost track of time sitting by the bed.
I called the private line for the oncology wing. The nurse who answered knew my voice immediately.
“Mr. Blackwood. Mrs Thompson is resting. No visitors today.”
“No one came by this afternoon? I mean Maddie
A brief pause while she checked the log. “No, sir.
The car rolled to a stop in front of the main entrance. I stepped out before the driver could open my door, eyes sweeping the courtyard.