Page 137 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“Maybe one of them was in on it?” one guard suggests.

“I am not sure. It’s a possibility. But I can’t see these guys working with any of them.” Besides, I doubt any of these two girls would help someone from a trafficking ring. Not even Coralie. It doesn’t make sense, and going by the way Night disposed of one of his own people, I doubt he is a great team worker.

“Are we sure it was our culprits?” one of the warriors asks.

“Yes, Leila saw the tattoo in her vision, and—” I pause. “They lost some of theirgemsbecause we came too close to them. As long as there is no ransom demand coming, we have to consider it was done for revenge.”

“But why Coralie?” the guard asks. “I mean, you are… not her…”

“Yes, I’m Arden’s mate,” I say. “But I assume it would be too risky to kidnap me. And maybe someone thought he was still with Coralie. After all, she did put up quite the show during New Year’s Eve.” I turn around. “Leila saw her running to Léna’s help, so we don’t know if she was even supposed to be kidnapped.”

If she truly did that to help Léna, then it was a surprisingly brave thing to do. What worries me is that neither Léna nor Coralie are fighters. I know from Arden that Coralie never took any actual self-defense classes. As for Léna, she is only sixteen and doesn’t have her lycan yet.

This is a mess.

“Aurelia!”

I turn around, my eyes meeting Eric. “Wow, you were fast!”

“Yeah,” he says grimly. “I let all my contacts play and got the answers I needed.”

“Wait, you found the guy that Nox saw?”

“Yes, we were just skimming through hospital personnel who worked at the time you were there,” he says. “He has the tattoo. I sent it to Val immediately so she can verify with Annette.”

“Finally, a step in the right direction!”

“Did you manage to find anything here?” he asks.

“Not much. If it weren’t for Leila’s vision, we wouldn’t even know what happened. Night is really organized. Yet, I get the feeling this was personal.”

“I think the same,” Eric agrees. “It’s a risk. Up to now they only abducted wolves with a certain blood type, and until recently only those they thought would go unnoticed for a while went missing. But Léna and Coralie don’t have that blood group, and they are very engaged in their packs.”

“I think they did it to get back at Arden,” I mutter. “They knew he was hunting them.”

“But how?” Eric asks. “We have been very careful with our steps. And Arden is our brain. Most of the time he stayed in the background and did research. It’s true that he went to the forensics, but it was you and Leila who went to the orphanage, and I was involved also.”

“You are right,” I say. “If anything, they’d target you as you are a popular figure.”

“Furthermore, Gustave has been out too, and no one targeted him or his family,” he points out. “Neither Zoé. So, why Arden?”

“And why Vander?” I add.

“Exactly.”

I turn around to skim my surroundings. “I don’t like these questions,” I say quietly.

“Me neither,” Eric agrees.

“I don’t think we’ll find anything here,” I say. “I will leave it to the guards. How about we return to the old hideout and see if your forensic team found something? I’m getting nervous.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Eric says. “Let’s return. Anything from Arden?”

“He threw himself into work,” I say. “He is currently skimming through every photo and video recording that has anything to do with the orphanage in hope of finding Night again, and he has Zoé running his phantom picture through the database.”

“Good,” Eric says. “We need to find out who this man is.”

I can only agree with him. The unsettling feeling in my stomach is getting stronger with every passing minute. Why is someone targeting Vander and Arden now? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s worrying me.