Ivan's Queen

Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four - Bittersweet

January 10th

It's been almost one month since Ivan went missing. Christmas and New Years came and went but not one person celebrated in the Lycan Kingdom. The news of what occurred on a mid-winter night spread like wildfire throughout the land and devastated its people.

I walk through the quiet hallways towards Ivan's office. Ever since he went missing it's like the castle lost its life and color. Everything seems dull now and every corner I turn I'm met with nothing but silence. The staff members and guards send me small and reassuring smiles as I walk past. I return the action like always.

The hardest thing that I've ever had to do is put on a strong facade in front of my people when inside I'm breaking every second of every day. Every time a report comes back stating that Ivan hasn't been found the news chips away at my soul. Our mate bond feels non-existent because ever since that night, I haven't felt him. Not even a flicker of emotion. Nothing.

I can barely sleep at night without him by my side. The scent of his cologne has faded from the bed sheets and I have now resorted to smelling his clothes in our wardrobe just to remember him. I think I may have stained them with my tears as well.

Every day I wake up and throw myself into work. Today will be the same. Most of my time is taken up by managing my duties and the rest is focusing on the ongoing search. Thankfully, uncle Vulcan and my dad are leading the search parties so we're getting more area covered in a shorter amount of time.

"Good morning, Amelia." I'm brought out of my thoughts by Lazarus who meets me half way.

"Morning." I smile before opening the door to the office and letting him in. "How are you today?"

"Nova tried to make us breakfast this morning so I could be better." He grunts with a cheeky smile as we take our seats.

I crack a grin as laughter escapes me. Nova can't cook to save her life but she had a grand idea to try and learn. We all tried to talk her out of it when she almost burnt the castle's kitchen down but she was having none of it. And when Lazarus, Benno and Hendrix had taken their teasing too far she became determined to prove them wrong.

"What did she make today?" I ask as I take out my files.

"I wouldn't know since she burnt everything to a crisp!" He exclaims with a huff. "And then she got mad and stormed off when I asked the cook to prepare something."

"Ooh, bad move." I wince as I imagine how upset she must be.

"Amelia..." He leans forward with wide blue eyes and his hands outstretched. "It's been two weeks of eating either burnt or raw food. I can't take it anymore!"

"Sucks to be you I guess!" I snicker when he groans in frustration.

"Right, let's get to work. Next thing you know she hears me somehow and kicks me out of the castle this time!" He rolls his eyes playfully as he takes out a familiar map of the kingdom.

"Don't worry, these walls are soundproof so your secret's safe with me." I wink as I place a paperweight on one corner. He grins at me before standing and getting serious.

"Okay, so Ivan was heading here and this is where the car was found." Lazarus points to two locations in the eastern region of the Lycan kingdom. "We have finished searching all of the southern area. The search parties are heading east today."

I slump instantly in my chair and feel my resolve crumble. All the regions in the Lycan kingdom are quite large so it takes weeks to search each one thoroughly. The kingdom is divided into north, south, east and west regions. Each of those regions are then further divided into north, south, east and west areas. Since the mountain path that Ivan was on is in the southern area of the eastern region, we started with that first. But we didn't find him.