✦ Chapter 38 ✦
"What if he's dead, Alpha?"
Adrian's voice broke the silence yet again, just as it had every time they returned empty-handed. Every search ended the same way—no trail, no witnesses, no rumors even worth chasing. Nothing. Elian had vanished as though the earth itself had swallowed him whole.
Lucien did not answer. He stood near the window, staring out at the pale horizon as if the world beyond the glass might suddenly offer him absolution. Adrian had been forced, at Lucien's command, to sketch Elian's face over and over again—his eyes, his mouth, the delicate slope of his nose—anything that might help strangers recognize him. Yet even with the drawings spread across cities and borders, there had been no leads.
