Kaden’s POV
Two days. Two fucking days, and still nothing.
No scent. No trail. No witnesses. No ransom demand.
Nothing. Fucking nothing.
It felt like Ruby had simply vanished from the face of the earth. I had used every contact I possessed across the continent—werewolf Alphas, Vampire Lords, hybrids, witches, and beast clans—and not a single one of them had any news of Ruby.
I could feel myself falling apart, my body slowly giving out under the weight of the last two days. I hadn’t eaten a single proper meal since she disappeared; every food tray brought to my study was left untouched hours later. Whiskey was the only thing I could force down my throat, swallowing glass after glass until the liquid burned my empty stomach. My head pounded continuously, and a dull, agonizing ache radiated through my chest.
My wolf wasn’t any better. He spent his time pacing inside me, whining one moment and growling the next, pushing against my skin because he was convinced we should be somewhere else searching. But where? Where the fuck was I supposed to look when there was nothing to follow?
"Please," I muttered into the empty room, staggering toward my desk and staring at the silent phone. "Please, just call for a ransom. Ask for anything. Ask for my crown, my land, my wealth, my fucking life... just call. Tell me she’s alive."
A sharp knock resonated off the heavy wooden door of my study.
"Come in," I groaned, my voice barely audible.
A guard stepped inside, bowing his head respectfully. "Alpha, we were searching Miss Ruby’s room again and found these."
The guard stepped forward and placed two things on my desk.
A phone and Helen’s chain.
My brows pulled together in confusion. I had specifically given her that phone before she left for dinner so she could call me if anything went wrong. Why hadn’t she taken it? And why would she leave Helen’s locket behind? She had been wearing it constantly lately.
Something cold moved through my stomach. The pieces weren’t adding up.
Before I could process the thought, hurried footsteps sounded outside, and Logan rushed into the study, his face flushed. Bandages were still wrapped tightly around his head.
"Kaden... a courier guy is downstairs. He says there’s a package with your name on it."
My heart leaped into my throat. "A package?"
Without waiting for an answer, I bolted out of the study and threw myself down the steps until I reached the foyer, bursting through the front doors into the cool courtyard. A young courier stood near the gates, looking nervous as pack guards surrounded him.
"What is it?" I demanded, breathing heavily. "Who sent it?"
"A... a lady approached our office earlier today, Alpha," the courier stuttered, trembling under my glare. "She dropped off this package and left immediately. There was no sender’s name, but the receiver details had your full title and address, Alpha King Kaden."
"Give it to me," I growled, stepping forward.
Logan immediately stepped between us, holding his hand out. "No, Kaden, let me open it first. It could be dangerous. It might be a trap."
"Search him," Logan ordered the guards before taking the package to a stone table. He carefully tore away the tape and pulled out a single flash drive.
My breath hitched. "It’s from them."
I snatched the flash drive out of Logan’s hand before he could protest, spun on my heel, and rushed back upstairs to my study. I practically threw myself into the chair behind my desk, powered on my laptop, and shoved the drive into the USB port with shaking fingers.
A single video file popped up on the screen. I clicked play.
The display flickered for a second before the image cleared. Sitting in the center of a neatly dressed bed was Ruby.
A sharp breath escaped my lungs. "Ruby..."
Relief washed over me so intensely that my eyes stung with tears. She was alive. I leaned closer, my eyes rapidly searching every inch of her frame. Her face wasn’t bruised. There were no cuts, no blood, and no dirt. Her hair was neat, her clothes were clean, and her wrists weren’t bound. She didn’t look like someone who had spent two days being tortured.
"Thank the Goddess," I whispered, reaching a hand toward the screen. "Baby..."
But slowly, my relief turned into confusion. Ruby wasn’t crying or trembling. She sat perfectly still, calm and composed, looking as if she were participating in a formal interview.
"Hi, Alpha Kaden," she said smoothly.
My heart gave a painful thud. Not Kaden. Alpha Kaden.
"I am going to go straight to the point because I don’t want to make this longer than it needs to be," she continued, looking directly into the lens. "First, I want you to know that I’m fine. Nobody kidnapped me."
She paused.
"I staged the whole thing."
The world around me seemed to tilt. The oxygen left my lungs entirely.
"The attack was planned," Ruby said, her voice completely devoid of warmth. "The people who took me were not strangers. They were my people. And I also need to tell you something else... I never lost my memory. Everything I told you about not remembering my past was a lie."
I sat frozen, staring at the screen as my brain refused to process the words. "No... what the fuck are you talking about?"
"I was sent here by my people to kill you," she said calmly. "The plan was to get close to Kane first. Once he trusted me, I would use him to get close to you. And once I got close enough, I was supposed to kill you."
She paused.
"But I failed. I couldn’t do it, and my people ordered me to return. The attack was staged so I could leave your territory without you knowing the truth."
I shook my head slowly, gripping the edges of the desk.
While I hadn’t slept, eaten, or stopped begging the Moon Goddess to keep her alive... she had planned all of this?
"I’m sorry about Kane and Logan," she added, her expression remaining entirely unreadable. "I never wanted either of them to get hurt. Please tell them I’m sorry."
She paused, and her hand slowly moved down to rub her stomach. My breath caught in my throat.
"And as for the baby..." Her hand rested over her stomach. "I won’t be keeping it. The pregnancy was never part of my plan, and I don’t want anything tying me to Kane or this place. I’m going to terminate it, so please tell Kane there won’t be a child for him to worry about."
"NO!" My roar shook the room as my wolf exploded inside me, snarling in agony.
I slammed my fist down, knocking the whiskey bottle off the desk and sending it crashing to the floor. The baby wasn’t mine—it was Kane’s—so why did hearing those words feel like someone had driven a blade straight through my heart?
"Alpha Kaden, please stop searching for me. I’m safe. Nobody is holding me against my will, and I don’t want to be found."
She looked directly into the camera.
"I never intended to stay with you. The kisses, the time we spent together, everything I told you was part of the lie. I used you."
My chest tightened so painfully that I could barely breathe.
"So please stop looking for me. Forget about me and continue with your life."
She paused.
"Goodbye, Alpha Kaden."
The video cut off, automatically looping back to the beginning and freezing on the image of her face.
I dropped heavily back into my chair, a tear slipping down my cheek. My wolf made a sound deep within me—not a roar or a growl, but a broken whimper.
Everything was fake?
The kisses, the nights we had spent together, the way she had looked at me, the moments when I could have sworn there was something real between us. Had I imagined all of it?
I stared at Ruby’s frozen face on the screen. No. My jaw tightened as I slowly shook my head. "No. I don’t believe you."
Maybe I was a fucking fool. Maybe I was refusing to see the truth because it hurt too much. I didn’t care. I didn’t care that she had been sent to assassinate me. I didn’t care that she had lied about who she was or why she had come into my life. None of that mattered to me right now.
A recorded video wasn’t enough. I needed to see her. I needed to look into those eyes while she told me that every word meant nothing. I needed to hear her tell me that she had used me, that she never cared about me, that she wanted me to forget her.
To my fucking face.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks and leaned closer to the screen. "No, Ruby. I refuse to accept this."
My wolf growled in agreement as I stared directly into her frozen eyes. "I will find you. And when I do, you will look me in the eyes and tell me every fucking word you just said."
I pulled the flash drive from the laptop and closed my fist around it before pushing myself to my feet.
"You want me to stop looking for you?" I said, my voice dropping into a low growl. "Then you’re going to have to tell me to my face."
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