Tangled Hearts - The Alpha's Baby Mama-Chapter 241: Jade is more dangerous than you know...

Noah POV

I paced my office restlessly. It had been hours since Selene’s departure and the knot of worry in my stomach only grew with each passing minute. I should have heard something by now – a message, a call, anything to confirm her safe arrival at the mountain sanctuary.

Right now, I didn’t even know what to worry about.

About the threat outside our walls that thankfully our soldiers had it under control or my wife and unborn child that had to be shipped outside the pack to keep them safe.

A knock at the door interrupted my anxious thoughts. "Come in," I called out pretending to be busy with the pile of paperwork on my table. I couldn’t show that I was worried, everyone here relied on me and I couldn’t let them know that I was worried.

Beta Reid stepped into the room and I raised my gaze to look at him, hoping for good news but that was when I noticed his face was grave.

"Your Majesty, we have a situation,".

My heart sank as I rose from my seat immediately working around the table to meet him. "What is it? Is it Selene?"

Reid nodded; his expression pained. "We’ve lost contact with her convoy. The last check-in was over two hours ago, and they’re not responding to any of our attempts to communicate. We’ve sent out spy drones to scan the area and we picked up their scent three miles away from the Pack lands but nothing more after that,".

I felt as if the floor had dropped out from beneath me. "What about the tracking devices? The car’s GPS?"

"All offline," Reid reported grimly. "It’s as if they’ve vanished into thin air,".

"Don’t say that!" I barked as my mind raced considering all the possibilities. Could it be a technical malfunction? Or something far more sinister? "Assemble a search party immediately," I ordered. "I want our best tracker on this. And get me Kurtis – I need his men as well,".

"But wait a minute!" My voice rang out making Reid stop in his tracks "No one knew that we were sending the Luna out of the pack except me, you and Kurtis. Except you want to tell me that one of us is a betrayer which..." I trailed off and rushed back to my table to pick up the iPad I used to monitor Brooke and Nora’s movements.

It showed that they were still in their quarters. Or maybe my office was bugged. I was the only one who had direct access to my office. Myself and Selene. So, we could have entered to plant a bug? But it was still a possibility. Placing my index finger on my lips to shush Reid, I slowly backed away from the office pulling him with me.

When we were a great distance from the office – because nowadays, there were long-range bug devices, I murmured to Reid. "I think my office may be bugged. That will explain how someone else knows that Luna left the pack,".

"But nothing’s been confirmed yet, Your Majesty," Reid looked at me strangely "We cannot conclude that she was kidnapped or something. Maybe they went out of range or something. Let’s not conclude first and check the facts," he advised.

"I know when things are not right, Reid. Selene might be in danger right now, so we should make speculations as that is the only thing that would save us. Get the scanners from the security office. We need to check for bugs," I instructed.

Reid nodded. A few minutes later, he came back with two people from the security office who came with a scanner. They started from the entrance of the corridor and walked their way to my office. There was no bug.

Not satisfied, I told them to try again and they did, repeating the same exercise in every nook and corner. Under the chair, the tables, bookshelves... everywhere that someone could hide something. When they were done, nothing was found.

"Fine!" I sighed "Go and get me Kurtis and do what I asked you to do previously,".

As Reid hurried to carry out my orders, my phone buzzed. My heart leapt, hoping it might be Selene, but the number was unfamiliar. With a mix of hope and dread, I answered. "Hello?"

"Hello, Your Majesty," Came a sickeningly sweet voice that made my blood run cold as soon as I recognized the voice. At that moment, Kurtis knocked and entered my office. When he saw me on a call, he wanted to turn back but I shook my head, indicating that he should stay put.

"Jade," I growled, staring pointedly at Kurtis, hoping he would understand what I meant. "What have you done,".

Kurtis’s eyes flashed with understanding as he finished out his phone, and indicated I give him my phone. He placed it on loudspeaker and produced a cord from his pockets which he connected from my phone to his that he placed on the table.

"I want to try and track her location," He whispered to me.

I nodded and crouched by the table, listening to Jade. Her laughter echoed through the phone. "Oh, nothing much. Just taking back what’s rightfully mine. Your precious Selene and her baby say hello, by the way," then she paused as if she was holding back laughter. "Well, she would if she were conscious,".

My grip on the table tightened, my knuckles turning white. Kurtis scribbled ’Keep her on for a minute’ on a piece of paper and passed it to me to which I nodded. "If you’ve hurt her...".

"Now, now," Jade interrupted. "Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Selene is perfectly fine... and the baby too but for now. How long she stays that way is entirely up to you, Your Majesty,".

"What do you want?" I demanded, my voice low and dangerous.

"It’s simple, really," Jade replied. "I want what was promised to me. The throne, the power, and you by my side. Renounce your marriage to Selene, reject her as your mate... I’m sure your nephew will be glad to have his wife back. Denounce her publicly as a traitor to the pack and take me as your queen. Do that, and I might consider returning to you... eventually,".

My mind raced, trying to buy time. "And If I refuse?"

"Then you’ll never see Selene or your unborn child again," She said coldly "And you know you can’t do me anything. I have immunity. I’ll come back to Moon Whisper, work in the school, be in your face at all times and enjoy how painful it’ll be for you when you realize that you cannot punish one person. That has brought you so much pain,".

"Don’t be too sure about that, Jade... You’re a princess, not a goddess and I’ll always make you pay," I said.

"We shall see about that," she snickered. "You have 24 hours to make our decision. To you, it might be 24 hours of hard thinking but for Selene, it’ll be 24 hours without food or drink not to talk of the dangers she’d be exposed to. Anyways, I’ll be in touch with further instructions,".

The line went dead, leaving me standing in stunned silence. For a moment, I felt paralyzed by the weight of the situation. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, I sprang into action.

"Reid," I bellowed, storming towards the door as I opened our mind-link. But immediately, Kurtis blocked by path.

"Calm down, Noah, there’s something you must know and I truly wish you had listened to me but if you do that, I promise you, it’ll be easier from here on and your wife will be back to you soon,".

"What are you talking about?" I asked him eyeing him strangely.

"This is a strategy, Noah. Can’t you see it?" He sighed and now everything is as clear as day. They’re trying to lure you away from the pack and in the worst case scenario, they’ll declare a state of emergency and someone else will take your position. And I think your Beta may be involved in this... maybe not directly though,".

"What?" My eyes widened. "Don’t start with baseless accusations. Reid would never do that,". freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

"That’s why I said, not directly. I gathered that he spent an intimate night with Jade for three days in a row. Perhaps we should call him for questioning and Selene will be fine. You don’t know this but I do. Your wife is a warrior and a survivor. She’ll do everything in her power to stay alive. But for now, let’s find out the root cause first before we take action,".

"Did you find out her location at least?"

"No!" he smiled. "Jade is more dangerous than you know. She must have anticipated that we might try to track her and decided to spread her signal. It’s showing a lot of directions at once but not to worry... let’s hear from Reid first,".