ZEKE'S POV
The surveillance footage from Theseus's territory showed nothing useful while I watched the grainy video for the tenth time that morning. The underground location we'd been so sure about had turned
"Another dead end," Marcus said from beside me, rubbing his tired eyes. "The team searched every inch of that facility and found nothing but old furniture and storage containers."
I slammed my fist on the desk hard enough
to make the coffee cups rattle because we'd been so close, or at least we thought we had been. "What about Brock? Any sign of him?
"He's completely off the grid," Marcus replied while pulling up tracking reports on his tablet. "We've monitored every known
associate, checked surveillance at border crossings, even had teams watching his family members, but he's either very good at hiding or he had help disappearing."
"He had help," I said flatly while my wolf paced restlessly under my skin. "Someone with resources and planning capability helped him vanish, which means this is bigger than one rogue soldier acting alone."
"Theseus?" Marcus suggested, though his tone showed he wasn't convinced.
"Maybe, but we can't prove anything without more evidence," I admitted while hating how helpless that made me feel. "Every lead we chase turns into nothing while Golden is still out there somewhere, and we're no closer to finding him than we were three days ago."
My phone buzzed with a message from Finn reporting that the Range Rover investigation had also hit a wall because the vehicle had been found abandoned in a ravine two
territories over, with the VIN number filed off and no forensic evidence inside. Whoever took Golden knew
what they were doing, covering their tracks at every turn.
"We're missing something," I said while standing to pace the length of the command center. "There's a connection we're not seeing that ties all this together."
"Could it be related to the Brooke Pack?" Marcus asked while pulling up territorial maps. "The phone records showed calls to someone in their territory, even though Theseus denied any knowledge."
"It's possible, but without concrete evidence we can't accuse another
Alpha of kidnapping without risking war," I said while the political reality of the situation made my chest tight. "We need something solid before we can move against anyone."
The door opened while Cecelia walked in carrying two cups of coffee. She looked as exhausted as I felt, with dark circles under her eyes that makeup couldn't quite hide. "Any
updates?" she asked while handing me one of the cups.
"Nothing good," I admitted while taking the coffee gratefully. "Every lead is turning into a dead end
while whoever took Golden is staying ahead of us."
Cecelia sank into a chair while her shoulders slumped forward. "So what do we do now?"
"We keep looking," I said, moving to stand beside her chair. "We review everything again, look for patterns we missed, follow up on even the smallest details until something breaks."
"That could take weeks," she said quietly while staring at her untouched coffee. "Golden doesn't have weeks if he's hurt or sick or
scared."
The pain in her voice made my chest ache while the bond between us pulsed with shared anguish. I wanted to promise her we'd find him soon, but I'd learned not to make promises I couldn't guarantee I could keep.
My phone buzzed again with a message that made me frown. "Sarah wants to meet," I said while reading the text. "She says she found something in Layla's security footage
that I need to see."
"Layla's footage?" Cecelia looked up
with confusion. "Why are we looking at Layla's security footage?"
I'd forgotten that Cecelia hadn't been at the dinner last night when everything with Robert had come up. "Cameron mentioned an uncle who's been visiting him," I explained while already heading for the door.
"Layla claims it's some old friend named Robert, but something about her story doesn't add up, so I had Marcus pull her security footage to verify."
"You think Layla's hiding something?" Cecelia stood to follow me while Marcus gathered
his tablet.
"I know she's hiding something," I said while we walked through the pack house toward the security office. "The question is whether it's relevant to Golden's kidnapping or
just some personal drama I don't have time for right now."
Sarah was waiting in the security office with footage already queued up on the main monitor.
"I went through six months of recordings from Layla's residence," she said while gesturing to the screen. "This man appears seventeen times, always wearing a baseball cap and
keeping his head down like he knows where the cameras are."
The footage showed a tall figure approaching Layla's front door while his face stayed carefully angled away from the camera. He'd knock, Layla would answer, then he'd slip inside while the door closed behind him. An hour or two later, he'd leave the same way with his face still hidden.
"Can we get any identifying features?"
I asked while studying the man's build and movement patterns. "Height, weight, distinctive markers?"
"He's approximately six foot one, maybe 190 pounds, moves like someone with combat training," Sarah said while pulling up enhanced images. "But his face is never clear enough for facial recognition software to get a match."
"What about his vehicle?" Marcus moved closer to the screen. "Does he drive here or walk?"
"Parks two blocks away at a public lot, then walks," Sarah replied while switching to different camera angles. "Always the same lot, always parks in a spot that's out of
range of their cameras."
"Professional," I muttered while my suspicion grew. "This isn't some casual friend dropping by. This is someone actively avoiding identification."
"There's more," Sarah said while pulling up the most recent footage. "This visit was two days ago, the day before Golden was taken."
The timestamp showed the mysterious Robert arriving at Layla's house while staying for three hours before leaving. "What were they doing for three hours?" I
asked while anger built in my chest.
