Chapter 156\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan\u2019s POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were signs of a struggle now that I was looking for them. A chair pushed back at an odd angle, a glass that had rolled under the cabinet, scratch marks on the linoleum that looked like someone had been dragged across the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no, no,\u201d I whispered, my mind racing through possibilities, each one worse than the last.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I picked up her phone with trembling hands, checking the call log to see if there were any clues about what had happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Opening it wasn\u2019t difficult, I just had to try our surnames together \u2013 Slayes. It was all our passwords.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The last call had been from Derek about an hour ago. Before that, nothing unusual.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek. He\u2019d called her, and now she was gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that didn\u2019t make sense. Derek was my friend, had been for years. He wouldn\u2019t hurt Athena. He cared about her too, had been helping train her,\u00a0<\/p>\n
protecting her at races.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My mind flashed back to the racing center, to the way Derek had protected her when those men were threatening her. To the way he\u2019d positioned himself\u00a0<\/p>\n
protectively in front of her. To the authority in his voice when he\u2019d warned them off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wouldn\u2019t hurt her because he wanted her. Or would he?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Love could make people do incredibly stupid things. I should know.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek Stallion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stallion wasn\u2019t just any werewolf name. It was royalty. Old blood, powerful bloodlines, the kind of family that had connections and influence that stretched\u00a0<\/p>\n
across multiple packs and territories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But in all the years I\u2019d known him, he\u2019d never used his position to oppress anyone. He didn\u2019t even act like someone who had that kind of bloodline, and he also didn\u2019t want anything to do with his pack and family. That was part of why we\u2019d become friends in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I pulled out my own phone and called Max, not caring that it was late or that I\u2019d just left him at the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlpha?\u2018 he answered immediately, hearing the urgency in my voice through the pack bond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I need you to check the last place Derek had been and send me his location immediately.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Is everything okay? You sound\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Athena\u2019s missing,\u201d I cut him off. \u201cHer apartment shows signs of a struggle, and Derek was the last person to call her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was a moment of silence as Max processed this information. Tll have everything you need within the hour,\u2018 he said grimly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMake it thirty minutes, I replied, then hung up and immediately dialed another number.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Don\u2019t you sleep? I have a wife and child\u2026\u201d Orion\u2019s voice came through the phone, groggy but already alert. He could probably sense the panic in my voice\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
71\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 156\u00a0<\/p>\n
even before I spoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOrion, I said, cutting him off. \u201cWe have a problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong? Where\u2019s Athena?\u201d Of course he\u2019d guess immediately. What other problem would make me call him in the middle of the night?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018She\u2019s been taken.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I heard him shoot out of bed immediately, the sound of sheets rustling and feet hitting the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHoney, what\u2019s wrong?\u201d I could hear Sarah\u2019s voice in the background, concern evident even through the phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a call that Seraphine had tried to commit suicide, so I left. When I got back, I couldn\u2019t find Athena anywhere. Can\u2019t even smell her scent in the\u00a0<\/p>\n
apartment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou left my sister alone?\u201d His voice was sharp with accusation and fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, man\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI trusted you to protect her. I trusted you.\u201d I could hear him moving around frantically, and I knew he was trying to get dressed while talking to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know I\u2019d protect her with my life. I asked her to come along, but she insisted on staying back. I swear, I\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFuck, man. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d I heard him say, his voice breaking slightly. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have said what I said. I know you wouldn\u2019t have allowed anything to happen\u00a0<\/p>\n
to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018But I failed. I failed again. If anything happens to her\u2026\u201d My voice came out broken, the weight of my worst fears crushing down on my chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 156 Chapter 156\u00a0 Tristan\u2019s POV\u00a0 There were signs of a struggle now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}