Chapter 176 Missing
ADRIANA
I stood there for a moment and then turned toward the bathroom because there was nothing else to be done about it and I had my own morning to get through.
My schedule was full in the way it always was now that the pack had grown to the size it had.
After absorbing my former pack years ago, the numbers had more than doubled and the administrative work that came with that had required a complete restructuring of how I managed pack matters. I had meetings this morning with a group of women from the community, and after that a meeting with Leo’s teacher who had specifically requested to speak with me rather than sending information through the driver, which meant it was something she wanted to say directly and probably something I was going to need to give my full attention to.
I met the women in my waiting room. Snacks were served. The maids withdrew.
The woman who spoke first was one I recognized from community meetings.
“Luna, we’re coming to you because we’ve exhausted the other options available to us and we need someone with actual authority to act.” She folded her hands. “Girls are going missing. Teenagers, between fourteen and seventeen. In the past week alone, three have disappeared. The last confirmed sightings put all of them on the path through the woods near the eastern shortcut from the school. They haven’t come home. Their families are in considerable distress.”
I kept my expression level.
“How long has this been happening?”
They exchanged a look.
“Every month, Luna. For the past year. Approximately ten girls per month.”
I felt the number land in my chest with a weight that took a moment to process.
“A year,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Does the Alpha know?”
“No. But the Beta does.”
I looked at her.
“Hazel knew about this?”
“Not Hazel, Luna. The current Beta. Shawn.”
I sat with that for a moment.
“I want all the files you have. Every name, every date, every detail that has been recorded. Bring them to me and I will go through everything personally and call for another meeting as soon as I have done so.”
I kept my voice even because the women in front of me needed to leave this room feeling that the matter was being handled, not feeling the particular cold fury that was building in me at the information that this had been going on for a year inside my pack and I was only now hearing of it. “You were right to come to me. You did the correct thing.”
They left.
I turned to my assistant.
“Get me Shawn. Today. Before the afternoon. And tell him it’s not a request.”
Lorain had been in my arms when Shawn arrived and I handed her to the nearest maid before he was fully through the door, because I had learned long ago that the conversations I needed to have with full clarity were better conducted without a small child attempting to climb me.
He came in with the energy of someone who had already decided how this was going to go, which was a characteristic quality of his that had never once served him well in my presence and today was not going to be the exception.
“You wanted to see me,” he said.
“I did.” I waited until he had settled and then looked at him directly. “I heard about the missing girls.”
Something moved across his face, the discomfort of someone who had been hoping a thing would quietly resolve itself and was now having to account for the fact that it hadn’t.
“It slipped my mind,” he said.
I looked at him for a long moment.
“Say that again.”
He exhaled. “I had a significant amount to manage and this matter—”
“The correct address is Luna. We’ve discussed this.” I kept my voice completely level, which required more effort than it would have with anyone else. “Continue.”
“I had a great deal of responsibilities and this matter—”
“Children are missing!” I said. “Teenagers. Ten per month, every month, for the past year. Going missing from a path between school and home. Their families with no answers, no information, and apparently no one in this pack’s leadership willing to take it seriously. That slipped your mind.”
He looked out the window. The casual quality of the gesture, the way his eyes moved away from me without urgency, without any apparent awareness of how deeply offensive it was, confirmed everything I had ever felt about this appointment.
“When did they first come to you?”
“Early this year. Maybe late last year. They mentioned a few kids who hadn’t come home. I told them teenagers did that sometimes, they went off with friends, with boyfriends because they needed space from their families. I didn’t think it warranted escalating at that stage.”
I thought about the girls whose names were in the files on my desk. I thought about their families. I thought about a year of unanswered knocking on doors that should have been open.
“During my teenage years,” I said, “I was not going off with friends. I was being used as domestic labor and occasionally beaten for asking questions. Not every teenager has the luxury of harmless disappearances. And even if some of these girls had made choices their families didn’t approve of, a Beta’s job is to investigate, not to assume.” I paused. “You have a responsibility that you did not meet. That is the simple and complete statement of what happened here.”
I was trying to keep my anger at bay. I wouldn’t say I was doing a very good job.
He said nothing. He had the sense, at least, not to argue.
I was going to tell him what I expected going forward, complete cooperation with my investigation, every contact and document turned over, no communication about this to anyone without my knowledge, when the footsteps in the corridor registered. Heavy and fast.
The door opened and one of the senior guards appeared, breathing harder than a man of his fitness should be after a walk down a corridor.
“Luna. Beta.” He looked at me. “The King was attacked on the road to Golden Blade. He’s been injured and brought back. And the prince—” He stopped. Steadied himself.
“The prince was taken.”
The room went very quiet.
I had learned, over the years, to manage the first moment of serious news with the particular controlled stillness that allowed me to process it accurately before reacting. I had practiced this. I was good at it.
This was harder.
“How serious are the injuries?”
“The physician has been sent for. The King lost significant blood before the guards could stabilize the situation.”
“Where is he now?”
“His room, Luna.”
I looked at Shawn.
“This conversation continues later.” I did not wait for his response.
I remembered, as I moved through the corridor toward Elijah’s room, the first time I had brought up my concerns about Shawn.
We had not been married long and Elijah had just told me who the new Beta would be and I had stopped walking and looked at him and said, plainly, that I had a bad feeling about this particular choice.
He had smiled in the way he smiled when he was about to disagree with me without dismissing me.
“What kind of bad feeling?”
“His eyes,” I said. “There’s something in them that doesn’t sit right. I can’t frame it more precisely than that but I want you to know I’ve said it.”
“He’s qualified. The elders found him acceptable. He has a strong record.”
“Records are what people make sure you see. Eyes are what they can’t control.”
Elijah had put his hands on my shoulders and looked at me with all the warmth he had and said, “I hear you. Trust me this once and if you’re right, I will acknowledge it completely.”
I had been right. I was always going to be right.
And now Elijah was bleeding in our room and Leo was somewhere in the forest with whoever had taken him, and Shawn had known about missing children for a year and done nothing, and I had said it at the beginning and it had not mattered enough.
I pushed the door open.