Alpha's Secret Bride

The guards and warriors spread across the estate, searching every corner they could think of. Some swept through the gardens while others rode toward the forest and nearby roads, refusing to leave a single place unchecked. The air was filled with hurried footsteps and urgent voices, yet none of them had found even the smallest clue.

Brandon stood in the middle of the study with his face drained of color. His fingers tightened around the communication device as he struggled to make sense of it all. Emma would never disappear without saying a word. She always let him know where she was going, especially now that she was pregnant. Something wasn’t right, and the thought settled heavily in his chest.

The High Luna had also been trying to reach Emma, but every call went unanswered.

Brandon lifted the device to his ear and began pacing across the chamber.

"Mother, is Emma with you?"

The High Luna frowned at the question. "No. Why?"

Brandon stopped walking and swallowed hard before answering.

"She’s not home."

Silence filled the line.

"What do you mean she’s not home?" she asked, her voice rising with alarm.

"She left the estate without telling anyone. Her device is off, and the guards have searched everywhere. No one has seen her."

Another long silence followed.

Before she could stop herself, the High Luna blurted out, "Wasn’t she supposed to be back by now? What’s taking her so long?"

Brandon stopped pacing.

His grip tightened around the device, and a crease formed between his brows.

"Back?" he repeated slowly. "Back from where?"

A small gasp came from the other end of the call.

"Oh, dear..." the High Luna whispered. "I wasn’t supposed to say that."

Brandon’s hand slowly curled into a fist.

"Mother."

"I..." She sighed softly. "Emma made me promise not to tell you. It was supposed to stay between the two of us."

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, then opened them again.

"Mother, she’s carrying my pup."

"I know."

"Then tell me where she is."

The High Luna hesitated, her breathing unsteady.

"I can’t. I gave her my word."

Brandon drew in a slow breath and rubbed a hand across his face.

"This isn’t the time to keep promises."

Another silence settled between them before the High Luna spoke again.

"I’ve been trying to reach her too," she said quietly. "She isn’t answering my calls either."

The words hung between them.

Brandon broke the silence.

"So... you know where she went."

The High Luna didn’t answer right away.

When she finally spoke, her voice was barely a whisper.

"I believe she’ll be back soon."

The line went dead.

Brandon slowly lowered the device and stared at the dark screen. He didn’t move. The chamber was silent except for the faint sound of his breathing. Her last words kept playing through his mind.

His fingers tightened around the device until his knuckles turned white.

She had slipped.

She knew where Emma had gone.

Maybe she hadn’t told him everything, but she had revealed enough. If Emma had simply gone somewhere safe, why keep it a secret? She was heavily pregnant, and after everything they had survived together, she never left without telling him where she was going.

"My Alpha?"

Leo’s cautious voice broke the silence.

Brandon lifted his head and looked at him.

"My mother knows something."

The chamber fell silent.

Teddy was the first to speak.

"My Alpha... What did the High Luna say?"

Brandon looked at the device in his hand before raising his eyes to the others.

"I asked if my Queen was with her. She hesitated, then said she believed she would be back soon." He paused briefly. "Before I could ask anything else, she ended the call."

Leo and Teddy looked at each other. Neither of them said a word.

Brandon stood still for a moment, then slowly drew in a breath. Images flashed through his mind one after another. The poisoned food. The assassins. The kidnapping attempt. The traitors hiding inside the kingdom. Every enemy who had ever tried to use Emma to get to him seemed to return all at once.

He turned toward the control station.

"Tom."

Tom straightened immediately.

"I’m here, My Alpha."

"I want every surveillance recording from the last two hours. Now."

"Right away."

Tom dropped into the chair in front of the control console. His fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard as commands flashed across the screens. One by one, the large monitors around the chamber came to life, each displaying footage from different cameras positioned throughout Nightclaw Estate.

No one spoke.

The chamber remained silent except for the steady tapping of Tom’s fingers against the keyboard. One by one, security recordings filled the monitors, each showing a different part of the estate. Everyone watched the screens without looking away, waiting for something—anything—that might explain where Emma had gone.

Several long moments passed before Tom suddenly leaned forward in his chair.

"There."

He quickly enlarged one of the recordings, bringing it to the center monitor.

Emma appeared on the screen wearing a light dress and a wide-brimmed hat. Paige walked beside her with a woven basket resting on one arm. Emma smiled at the maids who greeted her, paused to exchange a few words with them, then continued toward the eastern side of the estate. The two women walked side by side at an easy pace, chatting as they made their way toward the east.

Brandon stepped closer until he was standing directly in front of the monitor, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"Keep playing."

The recording continued without interruption. Emma and Paige reached the edge of the street and followed a narrow path beneath the trees. They were still talking, and nothing about their movements suggested that anything was wrong.

Then the picture flickered.

The image rippled across the screen for the briefest moment before it steadied again.

Paige was still walking.

Emma was gone.

Tom stared at the monitor, blinking as if he had imagined it.

"What..."

Without taking his eyes off the screen, he dragged the timeline back and replayed the footage.

Once again, Emma and Paige walked toward the exact same spot near the end. They took a few more steps before the picture flickered again. The screen distorted for a split second.

Then Emma disappeared.

There was no flash of light. No struggle. No one stepped into the frame. One moment she was walking beside Paige, and the next, there was nothing but empty space where she had been.

Tom refused to accept what he had just seen.

He immediately switched to another security camera overlooking the same path from a different angle. His fingers moved quickly across the keyboard as the new recording filled the screen.

Everyone watched.

Emma and Paige walked toward the same spot.

The picture flickered.

Emma disappeared.

Tom’s lips pressed into a thin line. He pulled up another camera, then another. Each recording showed the same thing. The image glitched for a split second, and Emma was gone. No camera captured where she went after that point.

He sat back for a moment, his eyes moving from one monitor to another before opening the estate’s digital map. As the map appeared on the center screen, he zoomed in on the eastern side of the estate. His hand stopped, and a deep crease formed between his brows.

"The Alpha’s Hearth..."

Brandon turned sharply.

"What about it?"

Tom enlarged the map again and pointed to a section bordering the sacred part.

"Our surveillance network ends here," he said. "Every camera loses visual contact the moment wolves crosses this boundary. We’ve never questioned it because the Alpha’s Hearth has always interfered with technology."

Brandon grabbed his device and immediately called Emma.

He held it tightly against his ear, listening as the call connected.

"Leave a message."

The words echoed through the chamber.

He ended the call at once and dialed again. This time, the call didn’t even ring. The screen flashed for a moment before showing a failed connection.

Across the chamber, Tom turned to another monitor. His fingers raced across the keyboard as he pulled up the signal from Emma’s tracking pendant. Everyone watched in silence while lines of data scrolled across the screen.

A few seconds later, Tom’s hands stopped.

"The tracking pendant isn’t responding."

Brandon’s eyes locked onto him.

"What about the emergency bracelet?"

Tom opened another tracking program without a word. He entered the bracelet’s access code and waited while the system searched for a signal. The loading icon spun across the screen before disappearing.

Tom tried again.

The result didn’t change.

His shoulders stiffened as he slowly lifted his eyes from the monitor.

"No signal."

The words settled over the chamber like a heavy weight. No one spoke. Every screen remained lit, but none of them could tell Brandon where Emma had gone.

Silence settled over the security chamber.

The monitors continued to glow, filling the chamber with shifting images, but none of them showed where Emma had gone. The cameras had lost her. Her tracking pendant had stopped responding. Even the emergency bracelet had disappeared from the network.

No one knew where she was.

Brandon stood motionless, his eyes fixed on the glowing screens. His hand slowly tightened into a fist until his knuckles turned white.

Every possibility crashed through his mind.

Had traitors discovered a way around the estate’s security?

Had the traitors been waiting for the perfect chance to strike?

Emma was carrying their pup.

He had promised she would always be safe. He had promised nothing would happen to either of them.

His jaw clenched as he stared at the empty tracking display, willing it to come back to life. It didn’t. The silence in the command chamber pressed down on everyone, and with each passing second, the fear in his chest grew heavier.

"Seal every gate."

The order cut through the silence.

"No one enters. No one leaves until my Queen is found."

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