<h4>Chapter 687: He Earned Their Trust</h4>


    <strong>Kieran:</strong>


    I had lost count of how many times I had watched the same footage.


    The screen in front of me flickered faintly in the dimly lit security room, the only consistent source of light apart from the muted glow of the overhead panels. My eyes burned, dry and strained, but I didn’t blink. I couldn’t.


    Not when she was right there - Evaline - frozen in time on the monitor.


    I leaned forward slightly and rested my elbows on my knees,ci g my fingers together so tightly my knuckles turned white. The footage yed again - smooth, uninterrupted, painfully ordinary.


    And there she was, captured in the back seat of her car as the ck SUV drove down the road. She looked so beautiful and peaceful,pletely unaware of what awaited her.


    My chest tightened, like something had reached inside and squeezed my heart in its fist.


    I didn’t remember breathing. Didn’t remember moving.


    All I knew was that I had already watched this exact moment more times than I could count, and yet it still hit me like the first time.


    I exhaled slowly through my nose, my jaw tightening as the footage continued, now showing a group of people entering the restaurant.


    This restaurant’s CCTV was thest one in the town that captured Eva as it was thest building close to Charles’ house with a camera.


    A low, almost inaudible growl rumbled in my chest before I could stop it. My wolf stirred violently beneath the surface, restless, agitated.


    <i>You are so useless. How can you sit here when she’s out there in danger?</i>


    His words hit me hard, just like they were meant to.


    <i>Let me out. Let me go and find her since you clearly can’t.</i>


    Themand echoed through me like a pulse.


    "I’m trying," I muttered under my breath, my voice hoarse from disuse.


    It had been over thirty hours since Ist saw her and twenty-six since she went missing. And every second since then had felt like a de dragging slowly across my nerves.


    Where was she? Was she hurt? Was she-


    My wold howled in the back of my mind, raw and desperate, the bond between us and her stretching painfully thin.


    I leaned back slightly, dragging a hand down my face as exhaustion wed at me from all sides. My body ached, my muscles stiff from hours of constant tension.


    But I ignored it.


    None of it mattered. Not when she was out there. Alone and undoubtedly trapped.


    The footage had given us nothing beyond confirming what we already knew - she had gone to Charles’ house. But after this, we had found nothing - no cameras, no witnesses, no traces.


    Charles’ house sat at the outskirts of the town, far enough that surveince was limited. We had checked everything, every possible angle, every nearby system, but still found nothing.


    Which left us with one possibility - the road leading out of the pack.


    It was a narrow stretch cutting through the woods, connecting to another small town located couple of kilometers away. But between these two towns, there’s no buildings, no cameras. The road waspletely unguarded with only deep woods.


    And during questioning, the pack’s patrolling warriors also confirmed they didn’t notice anyone going out of the town through the back road thesest few days.


    At first, it didn’t make sense. How could three people disappear into thin air in the middle of the day?


    But the more I thought about it, I became sure whoever was behind this, they used the back road to take Eva out of the town. Which meant they knew the patrol routes, the blind spots, the timing.


    They had avoided detection not by chance... but by design. This was nned, carefully and precisely.


    And that only made the rage inside me burn hotter.


    I had already sent men into the woods to search every inch surrounding the pack, extending toward the back road leading to the next town. They were searching for anything.


    Footprints, vehicle prints, scents, broken branches - any sign that could lead us to her, to Charles, or to his grandmother.


    My fingers tightened again as I stared at the frozen image of Eva on the screen.


    "You should rest." The familiar voice cut through the silence behind me.


    I didn’t turn. I didn’t need to. I had already sensed him the moment he stepped into the room.


    "Elion," I acknowledged tly.


    He moved closer, his presence steady, controlled - but I could hear the tension beneath it. He stopped beside me, his gaze shifting to the monitor.


    I saw the exact moment he recognized what I was looking at and his expression hardened.


    "You have been watching this for hours," he said.


    I said nothing.


    "Have you eaten?"


    I gave no response.


    "Kieran-"


    "I don’t need it," I cut him off, my voice sharper than intended.


    Silence followed before a frustrated sigh left him. "You do need it," he said, his tone firm now. "All of you do."


    I leaned back in the chair, finally dragging my gaze away from the screen to nce at him.


    His jaw was tight. His eyes serious.


    "You think I don’t understand what you are going through?" he continued. "I do. But running yourselves into the ground isn’t going to help her."


    I didn’t respond. Because part of me knew he was right. But that didn’t change anything. Didn’t make it easier to walk away. To rest. To eat.


    When she was out there.


    "Elion," I said quietly, my gaze returning to the screen, "if something happens to her because I wasted time-"


    "It won’t," he cut in immediately.


    I stilled.


    His voice didn’t waver, not even slightly.


    "She’s strong," he said. "Smarter than anyone give her credit for. If she’s alive - which she is - then she’s fighting."


    My chest tightened.


    Fighting.


    Yeah.


    That sounded like her.


    "And when you find her," he added, his tone lowering slightly, "you’ll need to be strong enough to bring her back."


    Silence settled again, this time heavier.


    I didn’t thank him. I didn’t say anything at all. But I meant it. Because despite everything, he had been here - helping us, keeping the Council distracted, making sure no one questioned the sudden increase in movement, the quiet search operation we were running under the radar.


    Trust didn’te easily to us. But Elion... he had earned it.


    The sound of the door opening again broke the moment.


    I straightened slightly, tension snapping back into ce as I saw River and Oscar entering with Jasper right behind them.


    "What is it?" I asked, already pushing myself to my feet as I instantly sensed they had something to share.


    River’s gaze met mine as he answered, "We found something on Charles."


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