Chapter 90 The Bond
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 talking to her.
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. No one matches that description.”
I thanked her and hung up.
The calm in the bond was starting to feel wrong. Too still. Like the quiet before a storm.
I dialed Marcus.
He answered on the first ring. “Sir?”
“Find me phone numbers for Sophia and Clara, Maddie’s friends from school. Full names if you have them also include addresses. I need them in the next fifteen minutes.”
“On it.”
I ended the call and stared at the empty driveway through the window.
Where are you?
The bond pulsed again, soft, steady, almost sleepy.
My wolf snarled inside my chest. Not right. Not right.
I forced myself to breathe. Slow. In. Out.
Maybe she’d gone to a café with the girls after class. Maybe they were gossiping and she’d forgotten to charge her phone. Maybe… My phone vibrated.
Marcus.
Two numbers. Full names. Timestamps showing they were last active within the hour.
I dialed the first one, Sophia.
She picked up on the third ring.
“Hello?”
“This is Alexander Blackwood.” I kept my voice even. “Is Maddie with you?”
A sharp intake of breath on the other end. “Mr. Blackwood, good evening. No, she’s not here. She left after our last class. Said she had somewhere to go. Is everything okay?”
My pulse kicked. “Where did she say she was going?”
A pause. Then Sophia’s voice dropped, almost a whisper. “She said she was going to Ben’s apartment. To sign divorce papers. He called her last night. Said his lawyer would be there.”
Everything inside me went cold, then white-hot.
Ben.
My stepson.
The boy who’d leaked lies to the press.
The boy who’d already tried to destroy us once today.
“Thank you, Sophia,” I said. The words came out flat. “I’ll take it from here.”
“Please find her,” she whispered. “She’s strong, but… Ben sounded strange on the phone yesterday. She told us not to worry, but.”
“I will.” I ended the call.
The next breath I took tasted like ash.
Ben.
Of course.
I dialed my head of the security direct line.
“Sir?”
“Three men. Ben Hangrove’s apartment building. Now. Full surveillance. If Maddie’s car is there, do not approach. Just watch. If she leaves with him ovdrt anyone else follow. Discreetly.”
“Yes, sir. On it.”
“Send her phone’s last known location to me. And Ben’s number;,track it.”
“Already pulling the data.”
I ended the call.
Then I tried Ben’s number.
Straight to voicemail.
I tried again.
Same.
I hissed through my teeth. “That bastard.”
I paced once. Twice.
The bond was still calm. Too calm.
Either she was asleep.
Or drugged.
Or c
I stopped the thought before it finished.
No.
Not yet.
I reached for the bond again, let’s try deeper this time. Pushed my senses through it the way my father had taught me when I was sixteen and still learning what it meant to be alpha.
Fear. Not hers, mine, reflected back. But beneath it… a faint thread of confusion. A flicker of unease. Nothing sharp. Nothing like terror.
She wasn’t fighting for her life.
Not yet.
I exhaled.
“She’s okay,” I whispered to the empty foyer. “She’s okay.”
But the wolf inside me wasn’t convinced.
It paced. Snarled. Wanted blood.
I forced it down, I would find her. I would bring her home, and when I do Ben Hangrove would learn exactly what happened to people who touched what was mine