The mate of his nanny final

Chapter 234: The Hunt

Edrick

Ella slowly pointed her little finger in the direction where I last saw Moana and Kat walking over by the edge of the forest.
Only now, no one was there.

I felt my heart drop as I quickly scanned the treeline. I couldn't see a flash of red hair anywhere I looked, no matter how hard I strained my eyes through the light drizzle of rain and the darkening sky.
Maybe she came back in without me realizing, I thought to myself.

"What's wrong, daddy?" Ella asked.

I shook my head and stood, forcing a weak smile so as not to cause Ella to panic. "Nothing, baby. Why don't you go up to your room and play? Ask one of the maids to stay with you."

Ella gave me a puzzled look, but didn't protest. I watched in horror as she ran off to play, and then I bolted into the kitchen to look for Selina.

"Have you seen Moana?" I asked once I found Selina bent over the sink, washing dishes. She made a face and shook her head as she wiped her hands off on her apron.

"I haven't seen her since she went on her walk with her bodyguard," she said, turning to face me with a frown on her face. "Why? Is everything alright?"

I felt as though I would be sick. "Call the security guards," I demanded as I grabbed my coat off of the hook. "I'm going to look for her. Tell them that... my father was seen on the grounds."

Selina's eyes went wide, but I didn't have time to explain. Like a flash, I took off through the door and burst outside. It had begun to rain a bit by now, and the sky was rapidly darkening while howling wind roared overhead. Even if my father didn't get to Moana before I did, I still had to worry about her getting lost or hurt in the storm.
As I ran up to the edge of the forest, I felt as though my heart was falling into the very depths of my stomach. Moana was still nowhere in sight.

"Moana?!" I called into the dark forest, peering in and using my night vision to look around. "Are you there?!"

There was no answer. I cursed under my breath as I pushed forward into the woods, hoping that I could at least pick up some sort of trail. The rain and wind already wiped away any traces of footprints in the dirt, though, which only made it more difficult.

God dammit, I thought to myself as I hurriedly walked further into the forest, keeping my head on a constant swivel in case Moana — or someone else — suddenly appeared. I never should have let her go on that walk.
Suddenly, my wolf spoke up for the first time in a while

"Something is wrong," he said. "I can sense it."
I stopped in my tracks. My heart was racing a mile a minute.

"What do you sense, exactly?" I asked out loud. "Tell me."

"I'm not sure, exactly," Eddy replied. "But I can tell that she's alive, and she's afraid. Maybe she got lost, or..."

My wolf stopped speaking. I knew what he was going to suggest: that something even worse happened to her than simply getting lost. Of course I already knew that that would be a risk. The moment that Ella said that the book she had came from my father, I knew that Moana might have been in danger.

But at the very least, if Eddy could sense her fear, then at least we knew that she was alive.
Now, I just had to get to her first, before my dad got to her.

I quickened my pace, and started to run further into the forest. Up ahead, I scanned the forest with my night vision and smelled the air for anything; any scent, any broken twig, any footprint in the dirt.

Suddenly, something caught my eye: a fallen tree with moss growing on top of it. Some of the moss was broken on one spot, and it looked fresh, like someone stepped over it and tripped on it just a little bit. It was faint, but as I ran up to it and looked more closely, I could tell that it was exactly that.

"She's been this way," I said out loud, jumping over the log. I ran further past the log, cursing her bodyguard under my breath.

Where was Kat? I gave her strict orders not to let Moana out of her sight. Unless something happened to Kat, there would be no reason for her to let Moana wander and get lost or hurt. I hated to think that something else may have happened... What if Kat wasn't as good as we thought? What if she was up to something?

"No," I said to myself, thinking deeply as I continued to run. "It can't be..."

I ran for a little while longer, and finally caught something else in the path: a faint footprint in the dirt. I ran up to it and came to a skidding halt, then crouched down and touched the outline of it in the soil. It was a small footprint... It was definitely from either Moana's or Kat's boot.

I stood, feeling as though I was getting closer. "Moana!" I called out as I continued to run again, this time faster. "Kat!"

My voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of the wind and the rain, but I just kept yelling more and more in the hopes that they would be around somewhere. By now, the forest was almost pitch black from the darkening sky. Even though it was still only late morning, the storm was casting such dark clouds ahead that it didn't even feel like daytime.

I couldn't help but imagine Moana laying motionless at the bottom of a hill, having hit her head on a rock or something after falling in this darkness. She didn't have night vision like me...
I had to stop imagining such dark things. I pushed myself harder, running even faster through the woods until I came to a small stream running across the path. I stopped there, inspecting the rocks for any signs of the stream being crossed...

But then, all of a sudden as I crouched down by the stream, I picked up a scent.
It was faint... but I recognized that sweet scent immediately. In an instant, I was transported back to that day at the maze, when I was searching for Moana with my blindfold on. The first time that I experienced that sweet, tantalizing scent, I didn't think much of it... but now, it was a lifeline.

"Moana," I whispered. As I stood, I felt my eyes begin to glow in the darkness, and her faint scent outlined a path for me that led straight to her.

Without a second thought, I let Eddy take over and I shifted. I leaped across the stream and began to follow the trail, not thinking about anything else except for one thing.
I had to get to Moana now, before my father did. And if I found him with her, especially if he did anything to hurt her or our baby...

I was going to kill him without a second thought.