The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 368

Chapter 368

Zayn

Leoric’s whole body shook so violently the chains rattled like bones.

When the words finally tore out of him, they weren’t brave.

They weren’t defiant.

They were ripped from the deepest terror a man could feel.

“O-okay! Okay-she’s in Russia!”

The pliers stilled in my hand.

For a moment, silence cracked through the dungeon, sharp and absolute.

Only Leoric’s ragged breaths filled the space-wet, broken, terrified.

Behind me, Kael swore under his breath, a low, vicious sound that echoed off the stone walls.

Russia.

My grip on the pliers tightened so hard the metal groaned.

Russia.

Thousands of miles away.

Another continent.

Somewhere she had no way to escape.

Somewhere she had no one.

Somewhere she was waiting-hurting-alone.

A cold, lethal calm slid through me, smothering the rage that had been pulsing hot and violent in my veins.

“Where in Russia?” I asked quietly.

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Quiet was worse.

Quiet meant I was past anger.

Past reason.

Leoric squeezed his eyes shut, tears streaking through the grime on his face.

“I-I don’t know the exact place,” he sobbed. “I swear it. I only know she was taken to one of… one of the King’s foreign

facilities. They transport… they move… I never saw it. I only heard-Russia. That’s all. That’s all I know-please-”

His voice broke into a whimper.

He wasn’t lying.

I could tell.

Every instinct in me-every piece of my wolf-knew he was too terrified to fabricate a single syllable.

Slowly, I lowered the pliers.

Kael let out a breath he’d been holding, though his jaw remained clenched, tension lining every inch of him.

Russia.

The word burned through me like acid.

It explained everything-why we couldn’t track her, why neither Cecilia nor Theron could sense even a whisper of her

presence, why the threads of her energy had gone dark and unreachable.

She wasn’t just missing.

She was out of our world entirely.

Leoric sagged in the chains as I stepped back, the relief on his face sharp and pathetic. He thought the worst was over.

. He was wrong.

I tossed the pliers to the floor. The clang echoed like a promise.

Then I turned to Kael, my voice low, controlled, but shaking with barely leashed violence.

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“We’re going to Russia.”

Kael nodded once-sharp, ready, no hesitation.

I didn’t look back at Leoric.

He wasn’t important anymore.

Only one thing mattered.

Aurora was alive.

And she was waiting for me.

“Pack what you need,” I told Kael as we walked out of the dungeon. “We leave tonight.”

My father could hide her on another continent.

He could bury her in a fortress.

He could surround her with guards and walls and chains.

It didn’t matter.

I was coming for her.

And I would burn the entire fucking country to the ground if that’s what it took.

*** * ***

The jet cut through the night like a blade, its engines humming low beneath the cabin floor. Outside the windows, nothing

existed but darkness endless and consuming, swallowing the sky whole. It felt right. Fitting. My world had gone dark the

moment Aurora disappeared.

The moment my father ripped her out of it.

Kael sat across from me, elbows planted on the small table between us, a laptop open and glowing harshly against his face.

His blond hair was tied back, his expression tight with focus. His fingers moved in short, deliberate bursts on the keyboard, pulling up maps, documents, files, anything he could break into.

I couldn’t sit.

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toward the laptop, even though Kael hadn’t said a word yet.

Leoric’s confession replayed in a loop inside my skull.

ched at my sides the next. Every few steps, I glanced

Russia.

Another continent.

Another world entirely.

Cecilia couldn’t find her.

Theron couldn’t find her.

No one could.

Because she wasn’t ours to track anymore.

Kael exhaled through his nose, tilted the screen slightly so I could see.

“Leoric gave us one useful detail,” he muttered. “The capital city.”

I stopped pacing.

“Which one?” My voice was rough, scraped raw.

He shot me a look like he couldn’t believe I even asked.

“Moscow.”

My jaw tightened.

The largest city. The most populated. The most impossible place to search if you didn’t know where to fucking start.

Kael continued typing, his voice steady even though I could see the tension sitting high in his shoulders.

“He said your father has multiple facilities. Foreign ones. Off the books. Hidden inside already existing structures. Businesses. Warehouses. Anything that’s easy to bury behind glamour or bureaucracy.”

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I dragged a hand over my mouth, trying to steady the fury clawing at my ribs.

“So which one?” I snapped.

“If I knew that,” Kael said carefully, “we wouldn’t be on this damn plane, Zayn.”

He wasn’t wrong-that only made me angrier.

I moved to the window, watching the black ocean beneath us. Thousands of miles shrinking under the jet’s speed, but not fast enough. Not soon enough.

Not for her.

“She’s been gone seven days,” I whispered, not sure if I meant to say it aloud. “Seven fucking days.”

Kael didn’t look up from the laptop, but his voice softened.

“She’s alive.”

I closed my eyes.

“How do you know?”

“Because if she weren’t,” Kael said quietly, “you would’ve felt it. And so would I.”

The truth of it sank into my bones. Heavy. Cold. But real.

For a moment, I could breathe.

Just barely.

Kael tapped a key and a new set of documents opened-something in Russian, Cyrillic letters forming long lists of companies

and subsidiaries.

“I’m running through every property tied to… well, every monarchy-friendly private investor in the region. Anyone your father

might’ve worked with.”

“And?” I asked sharply.

“And Moscow has twelve illegal trafficking facilities that I can confirm.”

He paused. “Probably more.”

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My stomach turned, fury returning like a second heartbeat.

“We’re going to tear through each one,” I said. “Every building. Every tunnel. Every basement.”

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