BYRON

We couldn’t find Julien and the days passed. We assumed he had gone home somehow, but the betas never stopped looking for him. I kept sending him text messages but he never read them, he must be really angry about that kiss Tiffany gave me. Speaking of her, my dad heard what she did and he immediately requested her transfer. We managed to find a pack far from ours so she wouldn't come back to do foolish things and her family followed her. Guess everyone was relieved when they left and the pack was calmer, it seems like they were hated by many of the other members.

I checked my phone once again, but still no answer. I was starting to get worried, not even Mikaela got answers back from him. Boris was starting to feel uneasy, whimpering and missing our mate. How could I lie? I was missing him too and I was worried something bad happened to him.

“You fucking mutts!” I heard a familiar female voice screaming, I turned to look where the noise was coming from and my face turned pale. 

Eleanor Collingwood was standing in our territory, she was hugging her mate by the waist with one arm, and the older omega was crying and whimpering; a hand with a napkin over his mouth and nose. Some beta guards were standing behind them with spears and other weapons. I didn’t understand what was happening but I got closer to them. As I was about to ask them the reason for their visit, I felt a hand slapping my cheek. 

“Where the fuck is my son, you mutt?!” She said angrily, I caressed my cheek to make the pain go away and looked at them confused.

“W-What do you mean? Where’s Julien?” I started to feel more and more uneasy, and Boris’s whimpers turned louder. 

“M-my son is missing. H-He hasn’t come back home since he left with you 3 days ago.” Henry said between sobs while looking at me. I was shocked by his words. ‘Julien’s missing…’ “Y-you didn’t know about this?”

“I-I didn’t…That day he got upset and then he left…I thought he went back home…” My chest was hurting and my wolf’s whimpers were starting to give me a headache. I felt guilty; I should have followed him that day.

“What’s happening here?” My dad came up to us confused as to why the merfolk were here, he greeted Eleanor and Henry with a bow. 

“Rendall, my son is missing and your pack is the last place he was seen,” Eleanor said looking at my dad with a frown on her face. “He should’ve never been here in the first place, I was on a trip and my mate called me in distress telling me everything about your…son.” She looked at me with disgust and turned to my dad again.

“Come on Eleanor, you know this is the only way. Henry did a good thing letting them meet.” Dad sighed and brushed his hair back. What was dad talking about? Why was this the only way? I was confused, and my headache was getting worse.

“I don’t care about t—” Eleanor was interrupted by Layton, who walked up to us holding something.

“Alpha, the betas found this in the woods.” He handed a small bag to my dad. I recognized it, it had his scent too.

‘Mate.’ Boris said whimpering. ‘I know buddy, it’s our mate’s.” I was about to say who it belonged to, but King Henry beat me to it.

“T-That’s Julien’s!” Henry said more tears running down his cheeks. Eleanor’s face turned pale and she hugged her mate, caressing his hair trying to calm him down.

“So this is Julien’s.” He inspected the bag and handed it to me. I smelt it and nodded at my dad, I took in his scent to calm down for a moment, the headache calming down a bit and then I hugged the bag in my chest.

“We also found this.” He took a white handkerchief out of his pocket. “It smells like chloroform.”

“T-The hunters! They got him!” Mikaela said, he was standing near us with Mason, who was hugging him and trying to keep him calm. Like Henry, he was also crying; after all, Julien was his best friend. “They tried to use that with me too, b-but I escaped before they could.”

“We have to find him, Rendall. He’s in danger.” Eleanor said and Dad nodded, reassuring her and telling her that he would do everything in his power to find her son.

They talked about ways we could find him, but I just stayed there, listening to their conversation while hugging Julien’s bag. I felt empty, alone, and hurt. To think my mate is somewhere in danger because of my fault. I missed holding him in my arms, kissing him, and giving him cuddles. 

“W-we can track his whereabouts with his co—” Henry started saying but I couldn’t take it anymore, I left the bag in Mikaela’s arms and shifted to my wolf form, and ran to the forest. I needed to find him. I heard my dad screaming my name but I ignored it all, I just wanted to find him…

JULIEN

I opened my eyes to find myself in the same dark room. Since I woke up after the hunters caught me, I’ve been in this room, in a water tank, cuffed up with a chain that didn’t allow me to move much around the tank. Hunters came in from time to time bringing me some fish to eat. I didn’t understand why I was still here, if they were after my scales by now they could have taken them, but they haven’t even touched me.

I wondered if my family knew I was kidnapped and if they were looking for me everywhere. If Byron was looking for me, I remembered that woman kissing him and how she looked down on me and I started to feel pain in my chest, so much pain. 

Was this the pain of a broken heart? Of betrayal? 

I didn’t even know how many days had passed and I knew that no matter what I tried to do, I’m not going to be able to leave this place…

‘I miss my wolf…’

BYRON

I was running through the woods, sniffing every branch, grass, and tree trying to find Julien’s scent, but I couldn’t sense anything. I even looked for footprints and even…scales and…blood. Fearing for the worst, my chest hurt at the thought of Julien being wounded somewhere. I let out of howl full of pain. ‘Byron you need to come back, we might have a lead of Julien’s whereabouts.’ Dad contacted me through the pack’s link and I ran back. When I got there I went to his office, Julien’s parents, Layton, Mason, Mikaela, and my dad were discussing something. 

“Welcome back son, we have some news.” Dad nodded to Eleanor and the woman looked at me. 

“This is not the first time Julien went missing, that time hopefully he just left to play at a park in town. After that, we planted a tracking chip in his collar.” She showed me a tablet with a tracking app. A place outside the town was marked, it was probably a 3-hour ride there if there wasn’t much traffic. 

“We have to go get him now then,” I said with a frown, I was ready to kill the bastards that kidnapped my mate.

“We can’t, not yet. It’s better to attack at night so we will be unnoticed.”

“We will be leaving in a few hours then. Layton tell the betas to prepare everything. We leave in two hours.” The Beta nodded and left the room, Mason and Mikaela going with him.

“I’ll let you take some of our betas too.” The merfolk queen said to my father. He nodded at her with a soft and comforting smile.

“Please, bring our baby back safely,” Henry said, letting out a sob while looking at me.

“Don’t worry, Your majesty. We will bring him back.” I nodded, my forehead aching from how hard I was frowning. “I won’t let anyone hurt my mate.”