Chapter 3

Queen Helena's Point of View

My mate and I knew our daughter lived, despite people having spent almost eighteen years telling Evander and me to grieve. We refused.

A Royal bloodline carried a life tether between the parents and child. Ours had weakened after our Sierra disappeared, stretched by distance and whatever had been done to hide her, but it had never broken.

My daughter breathed somewhere, and that knowledge had kept me moving through seventeen years of false sightings, lies and empty searches. The moment I stepped onto Rath territory, the tether changed. A change that struck hard enough to cause my next step to falter.

For almost eighteen years, the tether had been little more than a faint warmth beneath my heart. I had learned to live with it there, stretched across whatever distance separated me from my daughter.

I remembered how it had felt when Sierra was a baby. Strong. Warm. I could walk into the nursery and know she was there before I saw her. If she cried in another part of the palace, the tether tugged at me until I went to her.

The night she disappeared, it had weakened so fast that I collapsed. Evander had caught me before I hit the floor. For several terrible minutes, we thought she had died, but the tether remained. It was faint and distant, almost buried beneath something I had never been able to identify, but still there. Our daughter lived.

Every false sighting had been tested against that one certainty. We had crossed kingdoms for girls of the right age, followed rumours into isolated packs and opened our doors to families who genuinely believed their daughter might be ours.

Some of the girls looked like me; others had Evander's dark hair or grey eyes. One little girl had looked so much like Sierra's baby portraits that I had locked myself in our room and cried after meeting her. Throughout it all, the tether had remained distant from each of them.

This time, it pulled, and I pressed my hand against my chest. The sensation grew stronger as I stood there, warmer than it had been since the night Sierra vanished. Now, she wasn't hundreds of miles away; she was close. Very close.

I stopped beside the car, Evander turning toward me. He felt it too.

"Helena," he mind-linked. "She's here." His eyes moved toward the packhouse.

My first instinct was to walk straight into the packhouse, but Evander caught my hand before I took the first step.

"Helena," he cautioned, watching me as I searched the grounds.

"I can feel her," I insisted, unable to pull my attention away from the house.

"So can I," Evander assured me.

His fingers wrapped around mine. Anyone watching would have seen a King who had just helped his Queen from the car. Through the mate bond, I felt his wolf fighting to come forward.

"She's close, Evander," I whispered, the strengthening tether making it harder to remain where I was.

"I know,"  he replied through our bond, his inner voice calmer than the emotions reaching me.

"I want to find her." The need pushed through me as I tightened my fingers around his.

"So do I," he reminded me, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.

I looked towards the house. The tether pulled stronger from that direction, but it gave me little else.

The packhouse was larger than I had expected, built from dark stone and timber across three floors. Wide windows faced the courtyard, while another wing extended towards the rear of the property, disappearing behind a line of tall trees. Several balconies opened from the upper rooms, and two separate doors were visible from where I stood–the main entrance and a smaller entrance near the side of the house.

My gaze travelled from window to window. Most stood open to the morning air. Others had curtains drawn back. One on the upper floor had moved moments earlier. There were too many rooms; too many places where someone could be kept away from visitors. The tether gave another pull–much stronger than I had ever felt before–beneath my heart. Somewhere inside that house was Sierra; the child I had spent almost eighteen years searching for. I started forward again, but Evander's grip stopped me.

"Think," he cautioned again.

I turned on him, and he knew that look.

"I am thinking," I told him.

"You're thinking about tearing that house apart room by room."

"That sounds very sensible to me."

A flicker of amusement passed through the mate bond before his anger swallowed it. "We've done this before."

His words stopped me because he was right. We had already waited almost eighteen years for this moment.

We had arrived too quickly after promising leads. We had frightened people into running before we could question them. We had watched evidence disappear while frightened Alphas protected themselves and their packs. This time it was different because the tether had brought us here; unfortunately, that made caution harder, not easier.

"If someone here knows where Sierra is, I don't want them realising what we can feel," Evander said through our link.

My eyes moved across the packhouse, where windows covered all three floors. Curtains shifted in one of the upper rooms, but from this distance I couldn't see who stood behind them.

"What if they move her?" I asked.

"They won't have the chance," he replied.

His gaze shifted towards the Royal guards as they left the vehicles behind us, and I understood. Nobody would leave Rath territory without our people knowing.

"You're already surrounding the property?"

"I started the moment the tether changed."

I looked at my mate and smiled. "Sometimes I remember why I married you."

"Only sometimes?"

"This isn't the moment to become needy, my love."

His mouth barely moved to form a smile, but I felt his answer through the bond. For almost eighteen years, we had learned how to survive this together. When one of us wanted to charge forward, the other pulled us back. When hope became unbearable, one of us carried it until the other could manage again.

Today, neither of us needed to carry it. Sierra was here, and we could feel it. The connection that had stretched between our daughter and us for almost eighteen years was stronger than it had been since the day she disappeared. I could feel her life through it with a strength that made my chest ache.

Somewhere in this territory, our daughter was breathing the same air as we were. I looked at Evander and saw the same certainty in his face. We still had to find her. We still had to understand why she was here and why nobody had returned her to us. Those answers would come.

Sierra was alive. She was within our reach, and she would be coming home.

Evander released my hand, but his fingers brushed mine once before falling away. "We smile," he told me.

"I hate this plan," I told him.

"So do I," Evander replied.

I glanced towards the packhouse. "We go inside."

"Yes." His attention remained on the windows.

"We watch."

"Everything," he agreed.

I tightened my fingers around his hand. "And the moment we know where she is?"

Evander looked at the packhouse, his wolf pushing against our bond again. "We bring our daughter home."

Behind us, Lucian went still. I turned to look at our eldest adopted son. Beside him stood Ronan, his nostrils flaring. Kieran was looking toward the upper floor. Interesting.

I didn't have time to ponder it further, with Alpha Geoff approaching with his family.

Alpha Geoff Rath looked much as I expected from the reports I had read before our visit. He was a large man, broad through the shoulders, with dark hair beginning to grey at the temples. His expensive suit had been chosen for the occasion, although the Alpha beneath it was far more interesting to me. He walked half a pace ahead of his family. His shoulders were back, his chin raised, and his expression welcoming. Everything about him presented the successful Alpha greeting his King.

However, his eyes told a different story. They moved across our guards first, counting the men positioned around his courtyard. His attention moved to Evander, passing to me. It flicked towards the upper floors of the packhouse before returning to us. It lasted less than a second, but I saw it anyway. Whatever Alpha Geoff had expected from this visit, our presence in his territory had him watching his own house.

"Your Majesties," he said, bowing, but I barely heard him.

A young woman stood beside Luna Mirella. She had blonde hair and was beautiful. I noticed she was dressed expensively, and my daughter's necklace hung around her neck.

My fingers clenched. The stillness beside me told me that Evander had seen it as well. His wolf surged so violently that several nearby guards stepped forward. I touched his wrist.

"Wait," I told him.

He looked at me, and I gave the smallest shake of my head.

The necklace had been made for Sierra before she was born. The silver was platinum from my mother's family, melted into the crescent frame. A tiny Royal moonstone sat in its centre.

I remembered the first time I put it around her neck. She had been almost two months old and sitting against Evander's chest while he supported her with one arm. She had discovered his hair that week and had developed an unfortunate habit of grabbing it whenever he brought his face close enough. He complained about it constantly, but he also kept bringing his face close enough.

"She's going to pull it out," he warned, watching as Sierra wrapped one tiny fist around another handful.

"You could move," I suggested.

"She's comfortable," he replied, not attempting to free his hair from her grip.

It seems that had decided the issue.

I fastened the necklace around her neck while Evander distracted her fingers with his own. The platinum looked almost silver against her skin, and the diamonds formed the S we had chosen for her name. Sierra.

She caught the pendant before I could stop her and immediately tried to put it in her mouth.

Evander laughed and rescued it from her fist. "Perhaps jewellery was ambitious."

"She's a Princess," I replied, watching Sierra investigate the food in her hands.

"She's eating it," he pointed out.

"She's appreciating it," I corrected.

"With her gums?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I had laughed so hard that Sierra started laughing too, although she had no idea why.

For months afterwards, she wore the necklace only when Evander or I was with her. When we removed it, it went into the small jewellery box beside her crib.

The night Sierra disappeared, the box had been empty and so had her crib. I had dragged myself back to the courtyard, screaming for Evander, my heart breaking.

Almost eighteen years later, Sierra's necklace now rested against another woman's throat. There was only one like it, and it rested against Cassandra Rath's throat. Yet the tether gave me nothing from her. Nothing. That meant my daughter was somewhere else.

Cassandra touched the pendant as though it belonged to her. It didn't. My fingers curled, clenching against my palm.

Alpha Geoff followed our attention. Fear crossed his face. It was only momentary and disappeared quickly, but it was too late. Evander had seen it, and so had I.

"What an unusual necklace," I said.

Cassandra smiled. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I've had it since I was a baby."

Alpha Geoff's face drained. His daughter had just made his lie more difficult.

Evander smiled. It was the smile he used before someone discovered how expensive stupidity could become. "Have you?"

Cassandra touched the pendant. "My parents gave it to me."

"How lovely," he replied.

On the surface, it may have appeared that Evander was being courteous, but I knew him well. I could also feel his rage surging through the mate bond. 

I let my attention move from Cassandra to the rest of her family. Cassandra was still smiling, which interested me. She kept touching Sierra's necklace without hesitation, running one finger over the diamonds while she looked between Evander and me. There was pride in the movement rather than fear. Either she was an exceptional actress, or she had no idea what hung around her neck.

I looked at Luna Mirella. Her reaction was very different. She had gone pale, one hand resting against the front of her dress. Her fingers gathered a small fold of fabric before she released it. Her gaze moved to her husband before returning to me. That was telling. Luna Mirella knew something about the necklace and where it had come from.

The Alpha's oldest child, Darius, stood on Cassandra's other side. His shoulders had stiffened when I asked about the necklace, and he had shifted half a step closer to his sister, his eyes moving between his father and Evander. He knew something too, but how much remained unclear.

Alpha Geoff had recovered the fastest. A pleasant smile returned to his face, although the scent of his fear had already reached every wolf close enough to breathe it in.

I looked back at Cassandra. She was the only Rath who appeared comfortable. I found that interesting. It seemed that she alone knew nothing of what the necklace represented.

I slipped my hand through Evander's arm. "Your daughter has excellent taste, Luna Mirella," I said.

Luna Mirella's eyes snapped to mine. "She does, Your Majesty."

Cassandra beamed at the compliment. Darius looked at his mother, the fear clear in his eyes if you knew what to look for. Behind him, Alpha Geoff looked at Cassandra. Through it all, I kept smiling–four people, each with a different reaction.

Cassandra might believe the necklace belonged to her. Her parents certainly knew better. As for Darius, he knew about the necklace, but I wasn't sure how much of the truth he knew. I needed more before I decided exactly where he stood.

Evander offered Alpha Geoff his hand. The Alpha hesitated before taking it.

"Welcome to my humble abode," he gushed.

We entered his far-from-humble home, finding it as extravagant and expensive as his daughter's dress. We said nothing else about the necklace, having learned patience during the almost eighteen years of searching. After all, a few more hours would cost us very little. Alpha Geoff Rath had considerably more to lose.