5

Maxon

Elaine left.

The thought gnawed at me the moment I found out. The plane ticket danced in my mind like a damn mockery, and I was writhing with rage.

Finding the plane ticket had been a clear sign that my pet wanted to run away from me, but I ignored it because I thought teaching her a lesson would be enough to deter her.

It was a terrible mistake.

I should have chained Elaine to my damn basement to break her.

Throughout our year-long relationship, I had worked hard to instill fear in Elaine. I knew what upset her, as well as what repulsed her the most. I used that to my advantage, and that's how I discovered each of the keys to her personal hell. I had memorized them so I could train her to my liking.

That's how Elaine became the perfect submissive. I had longed for the ideal pet I needed to satisfy all my needs.

She was the perfect woman for me.

And the fact that she had dared to leave not only made me boil with rage, but it also made me look like a loser.

I threw another glass of liquor against the wall.

“Where the hell is the sorcerer?!” I shouted furiously in my own home.

My men looked at the floor, but it was Alba, the loyal housekeeper, who approached me.

“He's on his way, sir,” Alba said, looking at me with concern. “You must calm down; you can't lose your temper like that. You have to think with a cool head and use that to your advantage.”

Darwin, one of my enforcers, entered the office to give a report.

"We have the camera footage. Miss Elaine took advantage of Alba’s departure to escape. She hid in the trunk and waited for Alba and the bodyguard to go to the supermarket to flee. She walked toward the main avenue, and from there, her trail goes cold,“ Darwin said, and I growled. ”Right now, we're checking the cameras on that avenue to see what her next move was."

Just as I was about to say something, my in-laws entered nervously.

Those parasites looked really worried, which was a little hilarious because they sold me their daughter for peanuts.

“Maxon, do you know anything about Elaine yet?” asked Lana, my pet's mother, with what seemed to be genuine concern.

“Do you think if I knew anything about my wife, I’d be here?” I asked in a loud, dismissive tone.

She swallowed and looked at the glass cups I had smashed against the wall.

“My men are checking the family's various properties,” Paul said, and I laughed.

“What properties?” I asked mockingly, and Paul frowned. “And what men do you have? I know perfectly well that your wife's inheritance was just a public illusion and your wife's family is broke, so they sold all their properties. You only have two houses in your name, the companies you run, and the trust your wife’s mother left Elaine.”

“That's—”

“I want real information about Elaine. I want to know where she might have run off to and who might have helped her. And you don't know a damn thing about your daughter,” I said bluntly.

“I called the orphanage,” Lana said, and I raised my eyebrows, because that was a damn breakthrough. "They don't seem to know anything. They're just as confused and scared; the director agreed to call her contacts and give me updates. She says Elaine hadn't visited the children in weeks."

And that was my fault.

I had used the orphanage to break Elaine, so I knew very well that it was the last place Elaine would go to hide. If I gave my wife any credit, it was for her cunning.

Elaine would take care of a detail like that, but it didn't hurt to verify that the people there really weren't involved.

I looked at Darwin.

“Gather all the information on the orphanage and its affiliates, and I want that damn sorcerer here as soon as possible,” I snapped forcefully.

Lana and Paul gasped at the mention of their supernatural powers.

“Wizard?” Paul questioned with a look of disgust. “You can't hire a wizard; that's unnatural. We don't believe in that; we can't stoop that low.”

That made me laugh.

“I do whatever I want, and if I were you, I'd accept that a sorcerer is looking for Elaine,” I said to Paul with controlled anger. “At this point, if your damn daughter doesn't show up, not only am I going to destroy you, I'm going to make sure you don't win the election or get your investments back. So you better shut up and get out of my way.”

Paul opened his mouth to say something, but his wife took him by the arm and led him out of my office.

I had only one option left.

I started calling my contacts at bus stations, airports, and immigration checkpoints. I couldn't let anything slip through the cracks, so I pulled several strings.

An entire hour passed, and Darwin came back with a damn report.

“A security camera partially recognized her in a car,” Darwin said, and I raised my eyebrows. “The license plate was investigated, but it belongs to a car rental center. It's registered to a foreign company. The last report of the vehicle is in the east.”

That information was like a bucket of cold water, but at the same time, it was everything.

“I want the vehicle tracked,” I said as I paced back and forth. “I also want a new check of the places she used to frequent.”

There were reports from the flower shop and the candy store, as well as the museums and gyms she used to go to. She hadn't been seen anywhere, and they all told me the same thing.

She hasn't been here in months.

And while that was a clear sign that the isolation had worked to some extent, it was also a clear sign that Elaine was thinking in a much more astute way than I had believed.

There was only one person Elaine could trust.

I called Darwin immediately.

“Investigate Kris Dafor,” I said. “I want to know everything about her, what she has and hasn't done in the last week.”

“I'll get right on it,” Darwin said.

I received a message.

I need to check the last things she touched.

I sent him the address and went to my in-laws' house immediately.

That house was the last place she had been, so she could have left a clue of some kind.

When I arrived at Elaine's parents' house, they welcomed me immediately.

“Did you find her?” Paul asked.

“No, but I need to check her room,” I said bluntly.

Lana let me in, so I went into that room and basically destroyed it, looking for anything that might help me find her. There was nothing out of place; everything was spotless, a clear sign of how long Elaine had been gone.

I was starting to get angry when the wizard entered the room.

Old Herman saw me and laughed.

The man raised his hands and a current of air enveloped us.

“It’s safe to talk now; no one can hear us,” he said, then looked around. “You're as fickle as your father.”

“I'm not here for your bullshit,” I said bluntly. “I want you to track down my fiancée.”

Herman nodded, then walked over to Elaine's dressing table and picked up the brush.

“Do you want me to paralyze her so she can't go any further?” asked the sorcerer, and I nodded.

Herman levitated the brush, recited some words in a language I understood, and the room went dark. Then I could see Elaine driving away in a cold area that reminded me of the northern border.

The sorcerer said something, and then my vision blurred.

“What was that?” I asked, and Herman raised his eyebrow.

“She has entered a magically protected area,” Herman said seriously. “It can only be in the north, near the sorceresses' area. Their protective spell covers the entire area, including the allied packs.

“What does that mean?” I asked, not understanding anything.

“Your fiancée is near the protected area on the border, and that only means that she was going to seek refuge outside human territory,” Herman said, and that made sense. “I cast a paralyzing spell, but because of the magical protection, I can't do anything else. She must be injured, so you have to search the entire area.”

And that's what I did.

I called everyone, traveled to the area, and mobilized my people to the north.

We kept searching, and I arrived at a café in the border area.

“Did you go to the wolves' territory?” one police officer asked another behind me.

“No, Alpha reported that there were no people in the car that exploded,” said the police officer, and that caught my attention. “He said he would send the full report, but he still wants one of us to file the report. I'll leave it to the next shift.”

I went outside and told Herman what I had heard.

“It’s possible that this has something to do with Elaine, but I can’t go check it out myself,” said Herman, and I growled in annoyance. “You can have your men pretend to be police officers while I search for your fiancée using a magical device.”

That surprised me.

An hour later, three of my men had dressed up as police officers and gone to the border to finish the supposed report. One of them had a body camera, and another hid Herman's magical device.

“It was a strange accident,” said a wolf dressed as a guard. “But it was clear that someone abandoned the car here and then ran away. It could be evidence of a crime, so we filed a report.”

My men took samples.

Herman smiled sinisterly.

“She was there, and she's still alive, but in hiding,” said the sorcerer. “Maybe she fled to a sacred area. It's a matter of following the trail.”

Elaine wouldn't escape me so easily.

I would hunt her down and break her, even if it was the last thing I ever did.