Page 136 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“Is she—” another man says.

“Yes,” he snickers. “She is that other boy’s girlfriend. Spared us some trouble by coming here now.”

I don’t know how long I’ve been passed out. Sometimes, I’m in and out of it, waking up to being shaken around, just to slip back into a dreamless, endless sleep. When I come to it again, my head feels drowsy, and all my muscles hurt. I’m on a small bed in a barely lit room.

Where is this?

I force my eyes open, my head hurting so much as if something wants to break out of it. What the fuck? Wait, I’m not at home! Like a punch to the face, it hits me all over: I bumped into someone after I went to the mall. They abducted me. Fuck, they abducted me!

And they knew my name!

What are they going to do with me?

I jump up, groaning when a wave of nausea hits me. “Léna, careful,” a voice whispers. “There is a toilet. Come, I’ll help you.”

Shiver over shiver of fear and anxiety goes through my body while warm hands gently guide me to a toilet in the corner of the room. I heave before emptying my stomach. “I’m sorry,” I breathe out, tears filling my eyes.

“It’s okay,” the person reassures me, rubbing my back. “I felt pretty sick, too.”

For a couple of minutes, I stare into the toilet bowl until I’m sure there is nothing left to throw up. The helpful person hands me a wet towel to clean up my face. It’s only then that I raise my gaze, trying to blink the pain behind my eyes away. I’m not prepared for who I see. “Co… Coralie!?”

Coralie sports a black eye and looks like someone has beaten her. “Hi,” she mutters.

“Wait a moment… it was you who saw them taking me away!” I blurt out, suddenly remembering how a person came to help me.

“I spotted you in the mall,” she admits. “And I wanted to talk to you but didn’t know how to. You know…” her voice drifts off.

“I know,” I murmur.

“I lost sight of you, right at the moment when I made up my mind to say hello,” she pauses. “To be honest, I didn’t really make an effort to look for you, but apparently, I took the same exit you did. That’s when I saw those guys.”

“And you tried to save me,” I say, stunned. My eyes move over her body again, noticing how she is wearing a collar out of silver. They are suppressing her wolf. Damn it.

“I acted on instinct,” she says. “We both know I’m not good enough of a person or courageous enough to act so bravely.”

“It still counts,” I mutter. “Thank you.”

“They planned this, Léna,” she says. “They knew my name and yours.”

“You are right,” I say, recalling what happened. “Did you hear anything else?”

“No, just that they said I’m this other guy’s girlfriend,” she mutters. “But I’m not dating anyone at the moment. Not after…” Her voice trails off again.

“Maybe they think you are still with Arden?” I suggest, my eyes widening. “Fuck, that’s exactly what it is, Coralie. I’m Vander’s girlfriend, and you were Arden’s. That’s why they abducted us. It can’t be a coincidence.”

She stares at me. “You are right. It’s not been long since Arden met his girlfriend. Maybe they think I am still with him,” she blurts out. “But why? What do they want from us?”

*AURELIA*

It took some convincing for Eric and Arden not to drop everything they were doing and let me come here to investigate, but I truly think their talents are better invested somewhere else, and they are both needed.

“We found this here, Princess Aurelia.” One of the guards Eric sent with me shows a plastic bag with a figurine in it.

“It must have been Léna’s,” I mutter. “She also dropped her phone. Do we have surveillance cameras?”

“Not in that area,” one of the warriors says. “They successfully avoided any camera that could have caught them.”

“They have been abducting people for years,” I say. “I shouldn’t feel surprised, but I still am. But why Léna and Coralie?”