The Lycan King’s Gamma
Chapter 22

Lycan Prince Hunter

I watched Kailen leave her classroom before I turned back to the furious Alpha and his Beta.

"Owen, why do you want her so badly? She clearly doesn't want you and you can do better, anyway." His beta asked him, and he let out a growl. "She is my mate. You'll understand when you replace yours." Alpha Owen growled out.

"So, what happens when you replace your fated mate?" He asked me.

"It won't matter. As soon as Kailen is all healed up, I'll be marking her." I told him and he looked kind of stunned.

"You are only marking her now because I want her back." He growled and I let out a laugh. I couldn't help it.

"What the hell is so funny?" He asked me, confused.

"I've been waiting to mark her for the last four years. This has nothing to do with you," I told him.

"Then why haven't you?" His beta asked me.

"I won't mark her without her consent." I told him.

"Weak." Beta Finn mumbled under his breath.

"You want to take this outside? I'll show you who the weak one is, and it's not me." I growled.

"No need, Prince Hunter, we are leaving." Alpha Owen said.

"Not going to stick around for not luna's trial?" I asked him and he growled.

"Just love rubbing that in, don't you?" He huffed, and I smirked.

"Honestly, I just don't understand. You threw away a diamond to pick up a rock. A rock you didn't even mark. Why didn't you fight for your mate?" I asked him. I was curious to know why he didn't initially fight for her. Why was he here to fight for her now? He didn't answer me and I'm assuming he didn't even know why he did what he did or if he did, and he was embarrassed to admit it.

"Anyway, I'm going to interrogate Maya and Jim again, if you'd like to come along. If not, you are welcome to leave." I told them. I made my way out of the building and noticed that both of them were following me.

I walked over to our security building and held the door open for the alpha and beta. They entered, and I followed. I led the way into our surveillance room. There were monitors covering three of the four walls, with six techs sitting around watching the screens. We had cameras set up along the routes where the students would walk back to the pack house. All around the campus and around the pack house and the royal house. We also had cameras in our interrogation rooms.

I walked over to the monitors that I knew were for the interrogation cameras. Maya was sobbing while she sat in her room. And Jim looked furious, I'm assuming, because we caught him.

"Any word on the location of the former beta?" I asked the alpha and beta.

"We haven't been able to locate him yet." Alpha Owen answered me.

"We should look into higher cash amounts, leaving pack accounts. This guy clearly had money to spend if he was buying women." Beta Finn said, and I had to agree with him. That was a great idea. We could follow the money. Marcus was a wolf, and he had to have money and power. It should make it easy enough to track down who and where he is.

"Let's go see if Maya and Jim have more information about who this Marcus is." I told them. I was about to exit the room when one of the techs called out to me.

"Prince Hunter, you'll want to see this." He rushed out, he sounded panicked. I walked up behind him and he was already pointing at one of the monitors. I could see Kailen, she was sitting on the side of the water fountain that was located between the campus and the pack house.

There was someone sitting beside her, his hood was pulled down and I couldn't make out his face. She looked terrified as he grabbed onto her shoulder.

"When was this?" I growled out.

"It's happening in real time, Prince Hunter." He answered me.

"Get security out there now. Tell them I'm on my way." I demanded as I ran out of the room. I was angry, but also terrified. How could he get into our packlands without us knowing?

My mind was racing as I rushed out of the building and ran at full speed to where the water fountain was located.

When I finally reached the fountain, there was security and warriors everywhere. My stomach was in knots with panic as I scanned the area for Kailen.

"Where is she?" I yelled out.

"No one was here when we arrived, Prince Hunter." One of the warriors spoke. Rex came forward and was trying to pick up her scent.

"I can't smell her." Alpha Owen said. He was beside me. His beta wasn't with us.

"He must have used a descenter, f**k. Shut down the borders now! And I want all the available warriors," I commanded.

Beta Finn came running up to this Alpha and me. He had a picture in his hand. He handed it to his Alpha, and I looked over at it. It was a closeup of some man's chin. He had a scar running down his jaw. "What's this?" I demanded.

"This is the suspect. That is all we could see. After the two of you rushed out, he pushed a syringe into Kailen's neck and she collapsed. He carried her away, in that direction." He pointed to the path that leads to the little forest area beyond the training field. "Check everyone who is trying to leave the packlands. And get Greyson and Zach here now!" I yelled out before Rex forced the shift. He took off in the direction of where Beta Finn pointed. It just happened and he couldn't have gotten far.

Rex was trying to catch her scent, but he kept sneezing because of the descenter. Rex covered the entire area, but we couldn't replace her or any smells out of the ordinary. We were both going crazy. We knew what that bastard was capable of doing. Rex let out a sorrowful howl before he ran back to the fountain. Maybe someone found something.

"Rex, why can't we feel her? We should be able to feel the pull to her location," I questioned my wolf.

"The bond is slowly snapping into place. You haven't marked the right spot for the bond to be fully intact yet. Until the bite mark is healed and yours is almost, the bond won't be complete." He explained. I should have marked her this morning, but I wanted it to be special. f**k! I was too late and I may never see her again.

Rex ran up to the scene. Greyson and Zach were commanding the warriors. I shifted back and Greyson threw me some shorts.

"What do we know?" I rushed out, pulling on the shorts.

"The borders have been shutdown, but we still haven't been able to locate Kailen." Greyson told me, and I let out a growl.

"I couldn't replace her scent. How the f**k did that bastard enter our packlands?" I yelled. I was furious and scared. I promised her that he would never get her, never hurt her again. And he took her from right under our noses. I should have walked her home. My mind was racing with all my regrets and my stomach was in knots thinking about what he could possibly be planning to do to her.

"We need to replace her!" I yelled out.

"Hunter, we are doing everything we can. He won't be able to leave and we have patrols out looking for anything suspicious. He can't run and all we can do is search and wait for the descenter to wear off. Also, when Kailen wakes up, he's dead. She has kicked all our asses, and he won't stand a chance against her." Greyson tried to reassure me, but it was doing nothing for the guilt I was feeling. I was supposed to protect her, to keep her safe, and I failed her.

My whole body was shaking as I rushed back to the security building. I needed to look at that footage to see if Kailen gave us any clue about what he told her. I knew that it had to be Marcus, but was he that stupid to come here himself? I walked up to the front desk of the security building to talk with the guard on duty.

"I need the recorders of everyone of importance that has entered the pack within the last week," I commanded, and he nodded.

I then made my way to the surveillance room. I walked up behind the tech that had noticed Kailen before. Alpha Owen and his beta were also there. "What have you found?" I asked them.

"I have this feeling of déjà vu about the scar on his jaw. I feel like I have seen it before but, I can't place it." Alpha Owen told me. And his beta nodded.

"Make a list of all the people you have seen within the last year or go through your photos on your phone. Maybe something will trigger that memory." I told them. Alpha Owen immediately took out his phone and started to scroll.

"Did you replace anything?" Beta Finn asked me. It surprised me that he even asked about Kailen's well being. But I just shook my head.

"Pull up the footage." I turned my attention to the tech.

"It's right here, Prince Hunter." he pointed to one of the screens.

"Play it." The footage started to play. It was Kailen. She was walking towards the fountain on her way back to the royal house. I could tell that she was tired. She sat down on the edge of the fountain and started to swirl the water with one of her hands. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. She looked tired, but not scared. It wasn't until a hand grabbed her arm did she jump, her eyes went wide and her lips started to tremor. I could see her chest start to rise and fall. She was in a full panic when the person sat beside her. He gripped her neck and I could see that she said something, but we didn't have audio. Kailen was terrified, and I knew who it must have been. It had to be Marcus. I've only ever seen her face that terrified before when she would wake up from one of her night terrors.

Watching this all play out was breaking my heart, but I was also furious. I was furious that someone was touching my mate. That he was causing her pain. I just wanted to reach my hand through the screen and rip him apart. The guard from the front desk pulled me from my thoughts. He passed me a file, and I knew it had to be the list that I had asked for early. I was about to open it when Alpha Owen gasped out.

"Find him," he exclaimed.