"What do you mean cousin? How can the disappearance of the princess be connected with the other disappearances?" Nikolai asked, confused. The princess holds a special position, surely her disappearance didn't have anything in common with the other disappearances.

Seraphina had also initially thought that the princess had been taken by an enemy of the crown. But the more she thought about it, the more it didn't make sense.

"Let me explain. Yesterday Theron had told me that the bond he felt with the princess was intact, which means the princess is still alive and mostly unharmed." Cassius felt a little relief, at least Lyra was unharmed but a part of him still couldn't trust Theron's word. Cassius had no idea about what kind of bond existed between mates.

Seraphina continued her explanation, "If the Princess had been taken solely for the reason for being a princess, then that must have been done by an enemy of the royal family. But if that was the case, why not threaten the royal family or just kill the princess, they wouldn't have kept quiet for so long." Cassius and Leo accepted that reasoning. It was strange that they hadn't received any threats regarding Lyra. "Yes that's right we haven't received any threats for Lyra's life." Cassius confirmed.

"Whoever has the princess, does not actually know whether she is the princess and I am guessing the princess wouldn't have let them know of this fact for her own safety. Now coming to the disappearance cases, if you look at the persons missing, there is not much of a pattern other than the fact that there are no witches among them, it seems to focus on vampires or werewolves." Cassius nodded, he had also heard about these disappearances but he hadn't heard anyone connect all these disappearances. But it was rare to have such a high frequency of missing cases ever since the last uprising of hunters.

"But there is a pattern of how they actually disappeared. I already have two clients who approached me with this case, and what I have heard from rumours and the same is the case with the princess. All of the people who disappeared were travelling through a deserted area on their usual route, thus no one has actually witnessed how the people were taken."

Theron confirmed this fact, "That's right, Lyra had said she had found a shortcut to our meeting place. The only thing was the route was quite deserted. Oh goddess! Was she attacked while travelling through the region alone?" Theron exclaimed. He felt really guilty, perhaps he should have just barged into the castle and taken Lyra with him but Lyra had been adamant about getting Cassius's blessing before they took their relationship forward.

Cassius felt enraged, why did Lyra put herself in danger just to meet this wolf. "I had told her not to sneak out of the castle to meet with you!" Cassius said in an angry tone. "As if you would have let me meet her at the Castle!" Theron replied, he felt equally angry now. How could a brother stand in the way of his own sister's happiness?

"At least Lyra would have been safe at her home." Cassius stated. "The Castle you are talking about, Lyra never considered it as her home!" Theron stated. Lyra had expressed to him how she felt that the castle was her prison. Theron had felt heartbroken that his mate had led such a suffocating life.

"What do you mean?" Cassius questioned, shocked. "Huh! Some brother you are! Don't even notice your sister's plight." Theron said, displeased. Theron knew that Cassius never really knew the extent of Lyra's mistreatment, Theron didn't like that fact. Even if Lyra never told Cassius anything, shouldn't he figure out that his sister was in pain.

Leo felt sad, he had an idea of what Theron was referring to. He felt a bit happy, at least the alienated princess was able to find comfort in her mate. If Lyra told Theron about her circumstance that meant that she already trusted Theron. On the other hand he was disappointed in his friend, how couldn't he not notice the turmoil the princess had been going through. Cassius was too dense. Wasn't he able to notice such a blatant thing?

"What the hell do you mean?" Cassius yells. Theron opens his mouth to answer but gets cut off. "SHUT IT, BOTH OF YOU! I am sure you are having a very important conversation but that is not the point right now. The thing which needs focus right now, is how we are going to find The Missing Princess. You can have this little competition of who knows the princess better, later after she is found. Are we clear?" Seraphina said in a strong voice that demanded to be heard. She didn't want to deal with the drama of the spiteful brother and the worried mate.

Cassius and Theron went silent. Whereas Leo was impressed on how Seraphina was able to render a crown prince and future royal gamma speechless. "Nik please hack into the CCTV cameras you find near the location from where the princess might have been taken." Seraphina instructed Nik. "I will do that. But I don't think we will find anything, cousin. Just like the other two cases." Nikolai replied. Seraphina nodded, agreeing. Her eyes move from one corner to the other, something she tends to do when in thought.

"Do you think the ones behind the disappearances have been wiping the footage?" asked Seraphina. "That must be it! They have a hacker on their side." Nikolai replied back with a certain expression. "Sylvia, I need you to be on the lookout in the area from where the princess might have been captured. See if you find anything suspicious." Seraphina spoke to her friend.

"Sure. But what exactly am I looking for?" Sylvia asked. Sylvia felt her friend already had an idea who could have been behind the disappearances, otherwise Sera wouldn't have asked her to track the area. Seraphina answered her friend's question, the answer she knew would make Sylvia's blood boil, "Hunters."

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