His Moonsilver Mate (Abby and Kade) novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13

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1:05 pm

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Chapter 13

Abby had been missing for twenty-nine hours.

I had counted every one of them.

We had searched every road, trail, shelter, ravine, and abandoned building inside Moonhaven territory. Tiernan’s warriors had covered the western routes beyond the border.

We had found nothing.

Nothing except Abby’s medical bag.

It lay several feet from the western path, one strap torn, its contents Scattered through the leaves.

No blood.

No usable scent.

No clear footprints.

Just proof that Abby had never reached the western post.

I stood over the map spread across Kade’s desk, trying to find somewhere we had missed.

Across from me, Kade dragged one finger along the northern boundary.

“We searched this section twice.”

“From the main trail,” Tiernan said. “There are ravines here.”

“Cole covered them.”

“With four wolves.”

Kade’s jaw tightened.

I planted both hands on the desk.

“Can we stop arguing and find my sister?”

Silence.

A knock came at the door.

Ryan entered.

“We checked the runner.”

1

le wasn’t Moonhaven.”

Kade’s gaze sharpened,

“You’re certain?”

“Yes. And the patrol jacket he wore was real. It disappeared from pack laundry sometime this week.”

The room went still.

Tiernan looked toward the map.

“So someone gave a stranger Moonhaven clothing and a way through the territory.”

“And scent masking,” Ryan added. “No one at the clinic remembers smelling him.”

My hands curled against the desk.

A stranger had walked into our clinic looking enough like one of us that Abby had followed his instructions.

Then vanished.

Kade looked at Ryan.

“Keep checking the jacket. Find out who could have accessed it.”

Ryan nodded and left.

For several seconds, no one spoke.

Someone had helped him.

That was all we knew.

Tiernan broke the silence.

“If Abby has already been moved beyond Moonhaven, we need the neighboring packs involved.”

Kade’s eyes narrowed.

“No.”

“They need to know a young woman may have been taken through their territory.”

“They do not need to know about Diana.”

“I didn’t say they did.”

“You were going to.”

pm

Tiernan’s expression hardened.

“You’re so determined to keep the Moonsilver possibility secret that you’re limiting the search.”

“I’m trying not to announce that Abby may be the wolf the Rogue King has spent years hunting.

“And if one of their patrols saw her yesterday?”.

Kade leaned over the desk.

“They get her human description. Nothing about her wolf.”

“Fine.”

Tiernan reached for his phone.

“But we contact them now.”

“Do it,” I said.

Kade looked at me.

Every hour we waited gave whoever had Abby more distance.

Finally, he nodded.

“Three nearest packs. Tell them Abigail Hayes is missing and may have been abducted. Nothing about the Rogue King or Diana.”

Tiernan moved away to make the calls.

I stared at the map.

Twenty-nine hours.

Abby could be anywhere.

Kade came to stand beside me.

“You need to sleep.”

“No.”

“You can barely stand.”

“I’m standing.”

“You followed one of Ryan’s patrol trails for forty minutes this afternoon because you were too tired to realize it belonged to our own wolves.”

“I corrected it.”

T

After forty minutes.

I turned toward him.

“My sister is missing.”

“I know.”

“Then stop telling me to sleep.”

“I need you useful when we find something.”

“When?”

The word came out harsher than I intended.

“When we find something, Kade?”

His face tightened.

“We will.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No. But I know Abby.”

I looked away.

“I took her home last night.”

Kade said nothing.

“She was finally talking to me again.”

His hand settled on my shoulder.

“I left her this morning.”

“She went to work.”

“I should have taken her.”

“You couldn’t have known.”

I laughed bitterly.

“The one morning I decide she doesn’t need me watching every step she takes-”

“Don’t.”

I looked at him.

“Whoever did this planned it. If you had walked her to the clinic, they would have waited for another opportunity.”

I knew he was right.

It didn’t help.

Kade lowered his voice.

“Go home.”

“No.”

“Check her room.”

I frowned.

“The warriors already did.”

“They checked whether she was there. You know what she would take if she meant to leave.”

My chest tightened.

“I know she didn’t run.”

“Then prove it to yourself.”

The house was dark.

Abby’s scent still clung to everything.

Faint in the living room.

Stronger upstairs.

Painfully familiar outside her bedroom.

I opened the door.

Her bed was unmade. Her phone charger was still plugged into the wall.

Her clothes filled the closet.

Her travel bag sat empty on the upper shelf.

I crossed to the dresser.

Her wallet was there. Bank card. Identification. Cash.

Then I saw the photograph. Mom held baby Abby against her chest while Dad smiled beside her. I stood proudly at his side.

Abby took that photograph whenever she traveled.

Always.

I sat heavily on the edge of the bed.

“She didn’t run.”

Jasper pressed close.

I knew.

“I know.”

I picked up the photograph.

Lhad promised to protect her before I was old enough to understand what the promise meant.

Now she was somewhere I couldn’t reach.

There was no chance I could sleep.

Jasper carried us back toward the western route. We had searched it so many times that I knew every tree.

Abby’s scent had nearly disappeared beneath dozens of search wolves.

A trace near the fork.

Another beside the split cedar.

Then nothing.

At the place where her medical bag had been found, Jasper lowered his nose.

Abby.

Disinfectant.

Mud.

Nothing else.

No stranger.

No rogue.

No trail leading away.

1:05 pm

Whoever had taken her had erased himself completely.

She fought here, Jasper said.

The torn bag suggested the same,

She is alive.

I held onto that.

We moved deeper into the forest..

I reached for her again.