Page 41 of Rejected by My Stepbrother Alpha (Billionaire Shifter Club #1)

F lesh and Blood

Asher

“Ivy! Ivy! Wake up! Adrian’s gone. He…”

The rest of my words stuck in my throat. I couldn’t say it. If I said it out loud, that would make it true. And my son couldn’t have been kidnapped. He couldn’t be gone. Not after I just got to know him. Not after he just told me he loved me.

With trembling hands, I shook her awake, and her eyes sprang open, immediately alert as only a parent could be after being dead asleep.

She sat up, frantically shoving her hair away from her face.

“What do you mean Adrian’s gone?” she said, her voice low and filled with dread.

Her face was drained of all color. She was paler than the white blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Even her lips were white as they quivered with fear.

My Mate’s terrified expression was what made the truth finally slam into me like a speeding truck. The room around me spun as my stomach turned .

But I grabbed onto the bed in front of me, forcing my panic attack to stop. I had to be strong right now. For my son and for Ivy.

“She took him,” I told Ivy. “Your mother took our son.”

Immediately, we sprang out of bed. As we raced down the stairs—because the elevator was too slow—I called my head guard, demanding to know how this had happened. He said to meet him in the hotel surveillance room and he could show me.

We sprinted into a room filled with large monitors displaying every inch of the hotel. Mason and Damian were already there. Their terrified expressions mirrored my own.

“I’m so sorry,” Damian started when he saw Ivy and me. “I only went out on the balcony of his room for a moment because I didn’t want to wake him up when I called—“

I raised my hands to stop him and nodded. I didn’t blame him. I should have been there to protect my son. But I wasn’t going to waste time comforting him by telling him it wasn’t his fault. That wouldn’t help bring my son back.

“Show me,” I demanded to my head guard, who was sitting at the largest monitor.

“Adrian was able to leave through Ivy’s room,” my guard explained as the monitor showed Adrian slipping out of Ivy’s door when the guard in front of his room had his back turned.

Ivy put her hands to her mouth and gasped. “He must have used the door that connects our rooms. But why would he leave his room? We’ve told him a million times we were in lockdown. He knows he’s not allowed to leave the hotel under any circumstances.”

“He never actually leaves the hotel,” my guard said and nodded toward the monitor. “Watch.”

Everyone was silent as we watched the tape of Adrian in the elevator. His face seemed determined. When the camera angle changed again, Adrian was walking onto the dark rooftop.

“Isn’t there a guard up there?” I demanded.

My head guard froze, and his eyes went wide. “Yes, usually. But this was during a shift change…”

A growl ripped from my mouth. I’d deal with him later.

On the monitor, my son headed for the table where we usually put our stuff. He got onto his hands and knees as if he was searching underneath the chairs and tables.

“What is he looking for?” Mason asked.

Ivy gasped again. “He must have left one of his cars up there when we were swimming earlier!” She turned to me.

“That’s why I reminded him to grab all his cars before he left.

He’s very particular about having all of his cars with him.

He must have remembered before he fell asleep and went to grab it.

He probably knew he shouldn’t be out of bed, but justified it because he wasn’t technically leaving the hotel. ”

At this point, her eyes were wild as she tried to make sense of the situation.

I put my arm around her and pulled her to my side. “I think you're right.”

The video continued to play, and as Adrian was searching the pool deck, a bright light illuminated him from above. Adrian put his hand in front of his face to shield his eyes and blinked up at the light.

“What the hell is that?” I demanded, my stomach sinking with dread, even though I already knew how this ended.

“We think that the kidnappers were lying in wait for an opportunity like that,” the guard explained as the video showed a large black helicopter lowering down in front of Adrian, his brown hair whipping from the wind.

Ivy’s hands were trembling by her sides as she watched the video with wide, frantic eyes.

A snarl ripped from my mouth when a masked figure jumped out of the helicopter right in front of Adrian. My son's eyes widened with shock, then he screamed in terror. The kidnapper didn’t hesitate as he snatched my son, lifted him easily, and jumped back into the helicopter.

I watched as the large black propellers spun as the helicopter flew away. The whole thing happened in less than a minute. That was how long it took for my son to be taken.

Less than sixty seconds.

“What about our aviation team?” I demanded.

“They tried to follow them using our helicopter,” the guard explained. “But they were afraid to shoot them down since they had Adrian.” My hands balled into fists. “Then, they got lost in the fog.”

My nostrils flared, but I forced myself to continue. It was the only way to find my son.

“You’re fired,” I told the guard. “Get out of my sight.”

I took out my phone and called Beta Flynn. Quickly, I explained the horrible situation and told him to gather all of our guards and meet at the hotel immediately.

When I hung up, I grabbed Ivy's hand, but froze when I realized she was shaking. Her whole body was trembling. I pulled her into the hallway, and she leaned against the wall, her face going white.

Ivy opened her mouth, and the scream that ripped out of her came from deep within her soul. It was the high-pitched cry of a mother wolf calling out for her lost pup. But our son wasn’t lost. His grandmother took him away from us.

Her despair filled the hallway until it was bursting to the brim with grief.

I wrapped my arms around Ivy’s trembling frame and pulled her against my chest as her cries turned to sobs. She kept whispering the same broken word over and over while shaking her head violently.

“No!”

Tears gushed down her pale cheeks, and goosebumps rose along the skin of her arms. It seemed like her body was rejecting the very idea of our son being gone, like Adrian being kidnapped was a horrible sickness that she was fighting off.

The cold fear churning inside of me turned into a burning rage. My blood boiled, and my teeth gritted together. Even though I felt like I was going to lose it, I pulled Ivy closer to me and stroked the back of her head, trying to calm her.

I was going to find our son and bring him back home. Bring him back to Ivy.

Then, I was going to rip out Evelyn’s throat and look into her eyes as she bled out. She was going to die knowing that I was the one to kill her. I would make sure that she understood she was being punished for taking Adrian, her own flesh and blood .

“I never should have left him,” Ivy cried through her tears. “How could I be so foolish?”

Guilt stabbed at my heart. Ivy was right. We never should have left Adrian alone after the first kidnapping attempt. But she couldn’t shoulder that blame by herself. A burden like that would crush her under its heavy weight.

“A mother doesn’t leave her child when he’s in danger,” Ivy continued, her voice holding a deep sadness that broke my heart.

“Baby, you need to be strong,” I said firmly, and rubbed her arms, trying to bring some life back into her. “Adrian needs you.”

Our son’s name seemed to be the jolt she needed. It was like an electric shock to restart her system. She squeezed my hands, and I was relieved to see that familiar spark of fire in her eyes.

“We will find him,” she growled. “Then, we’re going to kill my mother.”

“Agreed.”

Now that we knew how he had been kidnapped, it was time to find our son.

Three hours later, Ivy, Damian, Mason, and I were in the lobby of the hotel, preparing ourselves to go on a rescue mission. All of my pack warriors surrounded me, and I was about to debrief them on the plan.

Ever since we had watched that awful video, the four of us have used our combined resources to try to figure out where Evelyn had taken Adrian.

I contacted all the Alphas in our kingdom that I was aligned with, even reaching out to the Royal Guard, but none of our contacts had any useful information for us.

With each second that passed, our anxiety grew. Finally, we decided to take matters into our own hands and search for him. Even though we didn’t know where to begin our search, it was better than sitting around and waiting for news.

Beta Flynn walked through the doors of the hotel just as I was about to speak with my warriors. His grave expression made me freeze.

“What happened? I demanded.

“A guard found this on a bench outside one of the side exits of the hotel,” he said. “It’s a letter addressed to you and Ivy.”

Ivy and I locked eyes.

“Does the bench face away from the woods behind the hotel?” I asked as my heart slammed against my rib cage.

Flynn nodded.

I growled in rage. That had been the place where Ivy was attacked. Did that mean that the wolf who attacked her was in on this?

“I checked the security footage already,” Flynn added. “A masked figure ran out of the woods, placed this on the bench, then sprinted back into the woods. I have warriors searching for him.”

Ivy rushed over to my side as I opened up the folded letter. My eyebrows rose when I saw that the kidnapper had used letters cut up from a magazine instead of a pen or pencil.

“My mother always did have the flair for the dramatic,” Ivy muttered.

The letter was short, instructing us to go to a location just outside of Sun Fire’s territory in an hour’s time. The last sentence made my blood run cold.

Come unarmed and alone, or the boy dies.

Ivy snarled, and her body tensed.

But when our gazes met, a vindictive smile crossed her face.

“We won’t actually be alone,” she said and glanced over at Damian.

My heart pounded as I realized what she was implying.

“You’re right,” I breathed out. “That could definitely work.”