51. DEVRIM

“Vanya?”

My hold on the door handle tightened as I hesitated in the doorway of the cabin.

It was too silent. Vanya was always making noises wherever she was busy within the cabin unless she was sleeping.

“Vanya?” I called out again, as I entered the kitchen.  

A single cup rested on the sink.

Frowning, I tilted my head to the side and sucked in a breath. Her scent was faint enough to make me realize that she hadn’t been in the kitchen for hours.

I followed her faint scent all the way upstairs.

But Vanya wasn’t in her bedroom. Her closet doors were wide open and the few clothes she had were thrown across the floor. My heart dropped to my stomach when I realized that the bag her father had given her was missing.

I turned, ready to run out of the cabin to go search for her, but something caught my attention. Frowning, I sucked in a deep breath and tensed.

I took another deep breath and I smelt something else, another scent that made my frown deepen; a scent that I had smelled before, but couldn’t place.

Pine trees, sweat, and nature?

I turned, my eyes dropping to the floor and noticing the dirty footprints and a few crimson drops I had missed when I first entered the room.

I crouched next to it and swiped a finger across it. Raising my finger to my nose, I sniffed.

Icy shivers raced down my spine. Vanya’s blood. Vanya had gotten hurt. Maybe Obsidian had taken her to the main house to get checked out. But what about the other scent? It definitely wasn’t a pride member.

“Fuck!”

Wiping my hand, I stood and hurried out of the room.

Orion would have been waiting to inform me if something had happened to Vanya.

I found both brothers a few miles from the cabin, unconscious and with red and blue darts sticking out of Orion’s back and Dorian’s arm.

Carefully pulling it out of Orion’s skin, I raised it to my nose and sniffed it.

Apart from the blood, there was another smell that I was all too familiar with.

I threw back my head and roared.

Vanya and Obsidian were in trouble.

***

Ezra paced up and down the hall as we waited for the doctors to inform us on the brother’s condition.

The dozes used in the darts were double the dozes they had used in the facility. It could’ve killed them.

I spun around when the door to the room opened.

“Orion is awake, but he’s not allowed to leave yet until we are sure that the drugs have left his bloodstream.”

“Fine.”

I stormed past him and into the room.

Orion was sitting up in the bed, awake, but he still looked a little out of it. His eyes locked on mine and then lowered.

“I’m sorry, Devrim. I couldn’t protect your mate.”

I growled. “Tell me what happened.”

“We heard a sound,” he said. “Obsidian was in the house, so we thought that it would be okay to leave to check it out.”

“One of you should’ve stayed,” Ezra growled.

Orion glanced at him. “Dorian was hit first, but before I could react, I was hit too. That’s all I remember.”

“It has to be him,” Ezra hissed. “I want a list of all Obsidian’s hideouts. You know where that is, don’t you?”

Pursing my lips, I stared at him for a few seconds before I answered. “What does that have to do with—?”

“Obsidian’s unstable!” Ezra yelled. “He—”

I had a hand wrapped around his neck before he could finish his sentence. I slammed him back against the wall and growled at him.

“Watch your fucking mouth,” I warned. “Obsidian—”

Someone cleared his throat, making my head snap in that direction. A pride member hovered near the open door with his head lowered.

“W-we found something.”

My eyes snapped back to Ezra’s. I leaned closer until my lips were right against his ear, paused for a moment, before I spoke again. “He would rather take his own life before he lays a hand on her, he would fucking die to protect her, Ezra. Would you? Would you die for her, Ezra?”

I pulled back to look at him and waited for him to say something but his silence was enough for me to know that he wouldn’t do all those things for her. Slamming his back against the wall one more time, I dropped my hand and turned towards the pride member.

“Show me what you found.”

He blinked at me and then seemed to snap out of his shock. With a nod, he spun around and walked away.

We needed to find Vanya and Obsidian before the humans. I feared that this kidnapping might have something to do with Vanya’s father or the killer.