The Alpha's Unwanted Bride

Chapter 436: THE MISSING BODY

”He deserves more than hanging in a barn like a warning sign.” Erik’s voice was hard, but something in it trembled. ”And we can’t let anyone else find him. Not yet.”

She stepped forward, her expression confused. ”Erik, if we don’t say anything, if we hide him, aren’t we helping them?”

He met her eyes. ”No. We’re setting a trap.”

She blinked.

Erik knelt, running his hand over the earth. ”If they think we never found the body, they’ll panic. If Rudy just disappears, they’ll get reckless. Maybe even make a mistake.”

Fiona stared at him, breath catching. ”You want them to think they’re safe.”

”Exactly,” he said. ”Let them wonder if someone’s hiding Rudy, if he ran away, if he told someone something before he vanished. They won’t know what we know. And in that chaos... we get answers.”

Fiona stepped back slowly, her eyes still locked on the boy’s body. ”It feels wrong.”

”It is wrong,” Erik said. ”But it is necessary. For Jasmine. For the baby. For Rudy, too. We won’t let his death be for nothing.”

Silence stretched. The wind rustled through the tall grass, whispering secrets in a tongue older than the pack itself.

Then, with quiet resolve, Fiona moved to his side. ”Alright. Let’s do it.”

Erik looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded.

They worked in silence, digging into the earth with bare hands and old tools from a nearby shed. The soil was damp, heavy. Fiona’s fingers bled. Erik’s shoulders ached. But neither of them stopped. Not once.

When the grave was ready, Erik wrapped Rudy in his cloak once more. He lowered the boy into the ground with the reverence of a brother laying another to rest. Fiona stood beside him, her hand pressed to her heart.

”I’m sorry,” she whispered. ”You deserved better.”

Erik covered the grave slowly, every movement deliberate, every scrape of dirt a vow.

When it was done, they stood over the mound, breathless and dirty. Erik placed a flat stone at the head, unmarked.

”Now,” he said quietly, ”we wait.”

Fiona looked at him. ”And what if they never slip?”

His eyes darkened. ”They will. People like that always do.”

And with that, they turned and left the grove behind.

~~~~~~~~~

The room had gone quiet after Anna’s final words. No one spoke for several moments, the weight of what they were about to do settling thick in the air.

Lisa finally broke the silence with a scoff. ”You want me to drag a corpse across the pack ? By myself?”

Anna looked at her coolly. ”You killed him alone and you are the servant. Next time you won’t make a decision without the rest of us.”

”If I didn’t kill him.” Lisa started. ”Then everyone would already know what we had done. He would have gone to tells do you even have any idea how heavy it was for me to plan the fake suicide?”

”Watch your tone with me!” Anna shot in anger. ”Because you now rub shoulders with me doesn’t mean you are like me. Know your place.”

”Enough you two fighting isn’t going to get us anywhere.” Lily, seated stiffly on the edge of the bed, shifted. ”And Lisa is right. She has a point. It would be slower and more dangerous if she does this alone.”

Lisa narrowed her eyes at both of them. ”And if I get caught? You think I won’t say a word? You think they won’t figure it out? If I go down, you’re both going with me.”

The threat hung there, thinly veiled and sharp.

”How dare you threaten me!” Anna shot.

”Hey take it easy.” Lily said. ”Fighting won’t do anything.”

Anna’s jaw tensed, but she waved a hand. ”Fine. We’ll all go. But quietly. If anyone sees us near that barn, we don’t know each other.”

Lily swallowed hard. ”Do we... do we have a plan? I mean, where are we going to take him?”

”There’s the creek near the back pasture,” Anna said. ”It feeds into the river. Deep enough to carry a body out of sight. If we weigh him down.”

”How do you know this?” Lily asked closely. ”Didn’t you just move to this pack newly?”

Anna shrugged. ”Are we going to do this of you want to ask more questions?”

Lisa rubbed at her arms as if she could shake off the cold dread that had begun to settle in her bones. ”Let’s just get it done with.

The three of them dressed in darker clothes and cloaks, silent now. The laughter and flicker of torches in the main hall echoed faintly as they slipped through the servant passages and out into the night.

The wind had picked up again, and the sky was bruised with clouds. A storm was threatening.

Perfect cover.

They crossed the yard quickly, skirts lifted above the muddy ground, cloaks flapping behind them. Not a soul in sight. The barn loomed ahead like a ghost, quiet and still under the half-moon’s dull light.

Lisa reached for the door first, her fingers hesitant. She pulled it open, the hinges creaking softly.

They stepped inside, and the chill that met them had nothing to do with the weather.

Anna took the lead, walking toward the loft where they had left the boy’s body hanging. Her steps slowed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Then she stopped.

Lisa bumped into her, then froze when she saw what Anna was staring at.

The rope still swung gently from the rafter.

But Rudy’s body was gone.

”What the hell?” Anna whispered.

”Where—?” Lisa’s voice cracked. ”Where is he? He was here! He was right here!”

”Did you set a trap?” Anna leered at Lisa.

”Did you lie and try to set us up?”

”Of course not.” Lisa answered her mind still unable to believe that the Body she had hung herself, was missing.

Lily rushed forward, eyes wide and frantic as she searched the shadows. ”Maybe someone moved him, maybe a guard, maybe they just assumed.....”

”No.” Anna’s eyes were sharp. ”If they had found him, everyone would be talking by now. The pack would be in chaos.”

And it was true. The pack still carried on like there was nothing unusual.

No sounding of alarms to indicate if something bad had happened.

Lisa looked sick. ”I tied the rope myself. I staged it just like a hanging. I even dislocated the damn shoulder to make it look real...”

”And you’re sure it looked real?” Anna demanded, her voice low and angry.

”It did.” Lisa replied.

”So you see.” Lily said heaving a sigh of relief. ”She made it look like a suicide and that’s all that matters. Even if someone found him dead, there is no reason to think anything else. Plus it could just mean that he is guilty. Cause why else would he kill himself if it didn’t mean that he had a hand in Jasmine’s accident? Suicide right?”

Lisa hesitated.

Lily glared at her. ”Suicide right?”

Lisa sighed. ”I was sure before, But now....I don’t know.”

Lily looked back and forth between them. ”You don’t think he was still alive when you left him, do you?”

”No,” Lisa said. ”He was cold. His neck was bent wrong. He was dead.”

Anna turned, her voice ice. ”Then who took him?”

No one answered.

The barn suddenly felt darker, the air heavier. The rope creaked overhead again, and it sounded like a warning.

Lily backed away slowly. ”Maybe it’s fine. Maybe someone else found him and just hasn’t said anything yet. We should... we should wait. See what happens.”

”Wait?” Anna snapped. ”What if someone already knows what we did?”

”You said we’d look guilty if we acted nervous, right?” Lily said quickly. ”So let’s not act nervous. Let’s just go back to our rooms and pretend nothing happened. If he’s really gone, if someone took him, then maybe they won’t suspect us unless we panic.”

Lisa clenched her jaw. ”We’re past panic.”

Anna paced a few steps, hands in her hair. ”This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to control this.”

Lily approached her cautiously, placing a trembling hand on Anna’s arm. ”Let’s sleep. Please. Just until morning. Maybe this will make sense then.”

Anna looked ready to spit venom, but she held back. Her lips pressed into a thin line. ”Fine. But if one word gets out...”

”It won’t,” Lisa said tightly. ”If we keep our mouth shuts.”

All three of the girls went silent, keeping further thoughts to themselves.

”For now we just act calm.” Anna emphasized. ”See how tomorrow plays out if someone took him or if....

”If he got up and escaped?” Lily said speaking everyone’s thoughts.

”I think I’m going to be sick.” Lisa admitted .

”I think I would prefer if someone found his body and tooo it rather than the alternative that he might be alive.”

They all agreed to that.

They turned to leave the barn, each with a hundred questions swirling behind their eyes.

Who had moved the body?

Why hadn’t there been an alarm in the pack?

And more importantly, what would Rudy’s disappearance cost them now?

As they slipped back toward the estate under the cover of night, none of them noticed the figure in the woods just beyond the barn. Watching.

Waiting.

The game had changed.

And someone else had just made their move.