Chapter 125

Chapter 125: Theo It had been nearly two days since Ayla had been taken, and I was losing my mind. Dad had told us every place he could think of where Harry could have taken Ayla and her family. We had been all over the territory with no sign of them anywhere.

The only thing keeping me sane was the mate bond. My bond with Ayla was still intact. He hadn’t killed her or marked her. She wasn’t being tortured, but a pain in my wrists told me she was tied up.

We needed a lead.

“Theo, Mina may have found something,‘ Briggs mind–linked me.

I rushed back to the hotel room we were using as an office.

“What did you find?” I asked, rushing in. I ignored the fact that Kingston came in right after me.

Mina was at a laptop. “I went through the safe Ayla left for Marie when she cut her ties. There was a list of accounts and passwords. One of them was for an emergency device. Ayla bought a necklace for Kylee when she graduated high school. If Kylee was ever in trouble, she could click a button and it would call for help.”

“I’ve seen that,” I said. “She almost never took it off.”

Mina grabbed her phone. “Well, let’s hope this isn’t one of the timest she did. If we still believe they’re all together, this could be our ticket.“”

Mina called a number and started speaking with an agent. She provided Ayla’s security information, and they checked the device within minutes. Mina put them on speaker.

“And the emergency contacts didn’t receive any messages?” the agent asked.

“No, we didn’t,” Mina said, knowing she was one of them.

“Okay, if she didn’t have her phone in range, that would have caused the problem,” the agent said. “However, we can check the GPS history. If she clicked it, it would have pinged her location.”

We heard the sound of fingers flying over a keyboard for a few seconds.

“Okay,” the agent said. “We have four hits from four days ago. However, at this point, we would need to involve the authorities, Miss.”

“This is Alpha Theo Arden, code 47398,” I said, giving the universal identifier that all emergency agencies would have for pack leaders. “This case is already with the authorities. You can send the information to me.”

“Yes, Alpha,” the agent replied. “It’s on its way.”

As soon as I got the email, Mina pulled up the information on the map.

“This doesn’t make sense,” she said. “They’re heading east, but it just stops. There’s nothing out there. As far as I know, that’s not even rogue territory.”

“I know where they are,” Kingston interrupted.

My head snapped to him. He was staring at one of the cards that Harry had left. He held it up to show us the photo on the front.

“They’re in the Onyxcrown packhouse,” he said.

***

Ayla “Why are you doing this?” I asked Beta Harry as he crouched in front of me.

He reached up and brushed a finger down my cheek, making me cringe.

“Because it’s time, my love,” he answered vaguely. “I’ve been waiting so long. I was hoping to have a little more time to get this place fixed up for us, but it seems that Alpha pup was more determined than I thought.”

I drew my knees up to my chest as tightly as I could, trying to pull myself as far away from him as I could.

“Don’t struggle, Ayla,” he said. “The wolfsbane will get into your system faster. Your immunity isn’t as strong as it should be. But we’ll have that fixed soon enough.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You didn’t think being able to command Alphas is the only ability you have, did you?” Harry said. “Your family was known for their immunity to wolfsbane.”

“What does any of this have to do with you?” I demanded. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I love you,” he said as if it was obvious. “Together, we’ll rebuild the werewolf kingdom. The first time I saw you when your father brought you to meet Torin, I knew this would happen. All these years, I’ve watched you grow into yourself. It was more and more amazing with every experience. It was something else to be able to watch my mate grow up this time.”

“I’m not your mate,” I snapped.

“Not yet, anyway,” Harry said bitterly. “This wouldn’t be such an issue had that whore of a sister of yours done her job.”

I heard Kylee gasp from the cage.

“What?” I looked over at Kylee. She looked as shocked as I felt. But I couldn’t tell if it was because she knew what he was talking about or not. “What did you do?”

She shook her head vigorously. “Nothing. I mean, I don’t know...” she stammers. “I thought he was helping me. I don’t know what he means.‘

Harry laughed. “My dear girl, I wasn’t helping you. I was giving you the only chance you ever would have had. Theo would never have looked twice at you if it wasn’t for me.

“What are you saying, Harry?”

”

“I gave her a perfume that would... encourage Theo to show an interest in her,” he said. “All she had to do was keep him occupied and keep him away from you until he marked her.”

”

“What?” Kylee sobbed. “Why would you do this?”

“Because I needed him out of the way,” Harry bellowed at her. “And you couldn’t even get that right. Because you couldn’t be bothered to listen, you selfish cow.”

I thought back to the day Harry sat in on the session with Alpha Torin. He wasn’t Torin’s original Beta. He took over when his last one died. Before he quit to take on more pack duties, he had been a biochemical engineer.

“J “What was in it, Harry?” I asked. “What was in the perfume?”

Wolves didn’t wear perfume or sprays. Our senses were too heightened, and they were more irritating than pleasant. So, if he gave Kylee something to wear, there was a purpose. He looked back at me with a proud smile.

“In a way, it was you, my love,” he said. “It mimicked the scent of his mate. Made her nearly irresistible to him at times.

I tried to swallow the bile that rose again at the way he said it.

“Why my sister then? Why take the risk?” I asked. “Surely, you knew she would bring him to meet me.

“Not if she had listened to me,” he spat. “I tried using it with other girls, but it wasn’t strong enough. It needed someone with similar pheromones to work. And your little Kylee was so willing to throw herself at our young Alpha. She made it easy.”

“Did you put them up to making her his chosen mate?” I asked, needing to know how much of what happened was Kylee’s choice or the manipulation.

Harry laughed. “I may have brought up the idea in passing, but she was the one who pursued it all on her own,” he said smugly.

“But I will give Theo some credit. If I hadn’t been drugging him, he never would have agreed to it.”