Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 519 - 22 : She’s Missing

Chapter 519: Chapter 22 : She’s Missing

*Lena*

I had been a second away from saying something I couldn’t take back. The words were on the tip of my tongue as I looked up at Xander, my chest tightening with apprehension and doubt.

But a cruel twist of fate prevented me from making what I realized now would have been a mistake.

There was a soft knock on the front door of the cottage, so faint we almost missed it. Xander looked disappointed as he slowly backed away from me, motioning for me to wait as he left the bedroom. But I heard Bethany’s voice, and I noticed the desperate tone in which she whispered frantically to Xander, and couldn’t stay put like Xander had instructed me to.

Bethany’s eyes lit up as she saw me, but I noticed her face was stained with tears. She looked from me back to Xander, then drew in her breath.

“She’s been gone all day. Henry went looking for her, and he hasn’t returned either. I went–went to the woods. I walked the path that leads to the break in the stone wall and I saw... I don’t know if I saw what I exactly saw–” she covered her face in her hands.

“Bethany, what happened?” I asked, taking two quick steps toward her.

She shook her head. “I’m exhausted, okay? I haven’t slept at all since what happened to Gretta. I keep hearing things at night–”

“I know,” Xander said softly. “I’ve heard them too.”

“Then you know what I’m talking about, right? Something has been creeping around the cottages and bunkhouse when we’re all sleeping. I’ve heard footsteps and–and growling, I think, all week.”

I glanced from Bethany to Xander. “Did something happen while I was gone?”

Bethany turned to look at me, her eyes glossing over with tears.

“Elaine and I went out to the hills to gather samples of the blood root,” Xander began, turning to face me. “She took me to this place... it was like a valley between two hills, but there were trees in the center. I didn’t notice until I was done collecting the sample that there was a building of some kind hidden in the trees. It was obviously abandoned and had been for some time. I was going to check it out when, well, Elaine freaked out. She indicated that we needed to go. After that she kinda... I don’t know how to describe it–”

“Elaine saw something out there off the ridge line,” Bethany breathed. “She told Henry exactly what she saw, but he didn’t believe her.”

“What did she see?” I pressed, my fingers prickling with heat as adrenaline began to course through my body.

Xander had turned back to Bethany, confusion lining his face. “She didn’t tell me she saw something–”

“She saw Ben out there,” Bethany winced. “But he wasn’t right. He didn’t look like he should’ve. Elaine went to the village to find him, but no one has seen him since that bonfire you all went to. His family even went to the Alpha, but they were brushed off–”

“What did you see out in the woods?” Xander asked.

Bethany slumped into the armchair. “You won’t believe me–”

“I know something is going on here, and it’s completely out of the ordinary,” I began, ignoring Xander’s warning gaze. We literally just had a whole conversation about stopping this madness and doing our best to survive the field study. “I found something out when I went back to campus. Carly, the student who went missing in Crimson Creek three years ago–she checked out a book, something that may have had information about blood root in it–” I took a step toward Bethany, pleading with her with my eyes. “What do you know, Bethany? You have to tell us the truth.”

“What,” Xander repeated, losing his patience, “did you see out there?”

“A wolf,” she said shakily. “I saw a wolf. But something was wrong with it. Its mouth... its teeth–”

Xander let out his breath and ran his hand over his face before pinching the bridge of his nose like the conversation was giving him a headache.

“I told you, you wouldn’t believe me–”

“I do believe you,” he said hurriedly.

“What happened then?” I asked, wanting nothing more than to pinch him to get his attention and fix him with a warning glare of my own.

Bethany was truly on the edge of breaking down into a puddle of nerves. I didn’t want to push her too far.

“It just looked at me. I was frozen in place. It did something to me... like a mind-link, only... I felt like I was being drawn to it, but then it just... turned away from me, and ran off, through the break in the stone wall.”

“Do you think this is what has been lurking around the estate?” I asked, a chill running up my spine at the thought.

“Who was it?” Xander asked. “Better yet, who do you think it was?”

“Here’s the thing,” Bethany sighed, knitting her fingers together in her lap. “I’ve been working for this estate for three years. Nothing like this has ever happened before, not on the Radcliffe property. We all have heard rumors about people going missing in Crimson Creek over the years. It’s not uncommon. Ben going missing was just... it happens, okay? But when I saw that– that thing, whatever, whoever it is.... People aren’t just walking away. They’re being lured out there by it. I don’t know who it is. I don’t want to make assumptions.”

“It’s Jen, isn’t it?” Xander said flatly, fixing Bethany with a knowing look.

“She’s visiting family–”

“Where, exactly? I heard talk of her frequent absences.”

“She always told us she was from the south. There are a lot of workers here, and new ones every year. This was her first year–”

“And now these things start happening at the estate?” Xander was fuming. I could feel the heat radiating off of him as I laid my hand over his forearm, willing him to stop with his interrogation for a moment.

“What about the blood root?” I asked.

Bethany’s eyes flicked up to me for a split second before falling back to her lap. “It’s poisonous. It spreads like a disease. The rotting plants you were sent here to investigate? That’s what’s wrong with them. And there’s nothing we can do to stop it. I don’t know why you’re here, honestly.”

“But it healed Xander’s wound?” I was thoroughly confused. For whatever reason, I decided to leave out the fact that Maxwell had been drinking it, at least for now.

“I’ve never seen it used like that,” she replied. “I tried to talk to Henry about it but he ignored me. He just looked right at me, through me, without saying a word.”

“And now he’s gone? He went after Elaine?” I pressed.

I looked up at Xander, and noticed he had his hand resting over his chest where the wound had been. He was staring blankly at Bethany as if his mind were totally elsewhere rather than this room or conversation.

Bethany nodded, not meeting my eye. “Elaine left. She told Henry what she planned to do. She came to his cottage early this morning, before the sun was even up. I was just getting ready for the day when I heard them arguing on his porch. I couldn’t make out what he was saying. It was dark in my cottage still, and I was listening by the window. I heard her say... she was begging him for help. She said he knew... something–that he knew how to help him. When she wasn’t at breakfast as usual, I wasn’t as concerned as I should have been. But I haven’t seen her all day, and then someone saw Henry walk into the woods and they were just... gone.”

“And then you saw the wolf. When?” Xander said in a business-like tone.

“Just before dark–”

There was a sharp knock on the door, then Maxwell stepped inside. He looked angry, especially when he looked down at Bethany.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“She was helping us label a few samples,” Xander lied, an audible bite to his voice as he looked Maxwell up and down.

Maxwell’s shoulders tightened under Xander’s gaze, and he narrowed his eyes, looking from one face to the other. “That’s enough for the day. Bethany, come with me–”

“Wait!” I said, stepping closer to Maxwell. I motioned toward the open door leading out of the cottage, flashing him what I hoped was a brilliant and convincing smile. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

Maxwell’s demeanor immediately changed. Xander noticed his softened features and straightened to his full height behind me.

“Of course.” Maxwell motioned toward the door, and I followed him outside without looking back at Bethany and Xander.

“I need to ask you something,” I said as we walked a short distance away from the tidy trio of cottages. I rounded on him as we reached the beginning of the grain field that hugged the cleared area where the cottages and bunkhouse were situated.

“Oh?” he said with a wry smile.

“When I came to see the manor, before I left for Morhan, what was it you were drinking?”

Maxwell gave me an odd look, peering deeply into my eyes. I felt suddenly frozen in place under his gaze. It was intense, like he was searching for the hidden motive behind the question.

“It smelled nice,” I continued, hoping that would be enough to convince him to tell me something, anything, about it.

“It was tea, made from herbs grown here, on the farm,” he answered flatly, arching his brow. “Not many people like it.”

“Well, I like all kinds of tea,” I smiled, tilting my head and looking up into his eyes. “Could I... maybe try it sometime?”

I heard the door to our cottage open, then close as Xander stepped out onto the porch, his arms crossed over his chest. Maxwell didn’t look in Xander’s direction, however. I noticed the look of hunger flash behind his eyes as his mouth creased into a smile.

“Sure, of course.”

“I’d like that,” I grinned. I nodded to him in farewell, and then broke from his gaze and turned on my heel, walking as fast as was appropriate back to the cottage. Bethany had stepped outside, looking slightly pale as she quickly wiped her eyes and stepped off the porch, passing me by without a word.

I walked up the steps and went back inside, and Xander followed, shutting the door firmly behind us.

“Do you think it’s Henry?” I said quickly, not giving him a chance to ask what I’d talked to Maxwell about. Xander flexed his jaw and narrowed his eyes at me. “We’re in this now, Xander. You know Morhan is covering something up. Now our friends are involved–”

“We’ve known these people for three weeks–”

“I’ve known you for just a little longer than that,” I said, pointing my finger at him. “Are you saying you wouldn’t try to get to the bottom of this if something had happened to me?”

He stared at me, refusing to respond.

“I say we do a stake-out,” I said as I rested my hands on my hips.

“Absolutely not.”

“Fine, Bethany and I will do it. I want to save Elaine as much as she does.”

“We don’t know if she needs saving, Lena!”

“You’re either in, or you’re out. I’m doing this.” I stood my ground and waited for him to reply. “Don’t you want to know what Henry has to do with all of this? If you think about it, we need this for our report about our research. Bethany said it herself; blood root is behind the die-off of the plants in the herb garden.”

He flexed his jaw again, narrowing his eyes at me.

“And apparently it’s poisonous. Yet... Henry put it on you...”

“Fine,” he growled, then turned on his heel and stormed out of the cottage, slamming the door shut behind him.