Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother

Chapter 262

Elara’s POV

The magic communication crystal sat cold in my palm. Dead silent. Like a stone pulled from a riverbed.

"Say it again," I told Claire. My voice came out flat. Controlled. The voice of someone holding a door shut against a storm.

Claire stood across the war table, her jaw tight. "Contact with the front-line camp went dark six hours ago. The last transmission was mid-sentence—cut off around half past two this afternoon. Before that, the morning check-in at nine reported a skirmish. Routine engagement. Nothing unusual."

"And no one told me until now."

"We followed protocol. The first gap was flagged at the three-hour mark. I dispatched fifty reserve knights immediately—they’ve been riding hard for four hours. But when the silence held past six hours, I came to you directly."

I pressed my thumb against the crystal’s surface and pushed my will into it. "Kaelen." Nothing. Not even static. "Cassian." Silence. "Marcus." The crystal stayed dark. Cold. Mocking.

I set it down carefully on the table. If I squeezed any harder, I’d shatter it.

Six hours.

My husband had been unreachable for six hours, and I’d been sitting in this city going through reports like everything was fine.

The weight in my coat pocket seemed to double. The memory crystal. The one I’d found in Kaelen’s study. The one that held the truth—Gareth and Seraphine’s confession, recorded in flickering magical light. Proof that the betrayal I’d believed in for three years had been a lie. That Kaelen had never touched Seraphine. That he’d been drugged, framed, and I had—

I had left him.

I had taken our unborn daughter and walked away without looking back, and now he was somewhere in the northern wilderness, silent, and I couldn’t reach him.

Don’t spiral. Not now.

"How long until the fifty knights reach the border?" I asked.

"At their current pace, a few more hours, depending on the terrain."

"That’s not fast enough." I turned toward the door. "Call the Privy Council. Emergency session. Twenty minutes."

Claire caught my arm. "Elara. Think. The last time you made a decision like this in a panic—"

"I know." My throat tightened. Three years ago, I’d made a choice fueled by rage and heartbreak. I’d run. Disappeared. Nearly destroyed everything. "I know what I did. I’m not doing that again. I’m calling the Council."

She searched my face. Then nodded.

---

Twenty minutes later, I stood at the head of the long oak table in the Council chamber. The faces around the table were tense, lit by the amber glow of wall-mounted fire crystals.

"The situation," I began, and my voice filled the room without effort. The voice of a queen. "All communication with the emperor’s front-line camp has been severed. Last confirmed contact was this afternoon, mid-transmission. The morning report indicated a standard border engagement with Rogue forces. Since then—nothing."

Elder Morrison leaned forward. Deep lines carved his face. Beside him, a tech specialist tapped rapidly on a diagnostic array. "Your Majesty," Morrison began, "the morning skirmish was logged at nine."

"And I can confirm the communication failure occurred at exactly two-thirty this afternoon," the specialist added grimly. "The crystal network there is completely dead."

"That gives us a window of several hours," Morrison continued, "during which the situation deteriorated from routine to total blackout."

"Which means this wasn’t a random raid," I said. "This was planned."

"Or it could be a trap," Morrison cautioned. "The Rogues have used communication disruption before to draw reinforcements into ambush corridors."

"Noted." I turned to the elder at the far end of the table. "What do we have on the map?"

She pulled the enchanted parchment closer, tracing glowing lines with her fingertip. "Claire’s fifty are here—riding hard along the northern road. I can mobilize another forty knights from the eastern garrison. They’ll be ready to ride within thirty minutes."

"Do it."

"And I have three squads of twenty already repositioning," Claire added, checking her own crystal. "Sixty knights total, tracking along parallel routes. Estimated arrival at the border—three hours and forty minutes."

I did the math in my head. One hundred and fifty knights, converging from multiple directions. It was substantial. It should be enough.

It didn’t feel like enough.

"Additionally," I said, "I want a scout squad dispatched for visual reconnaissance. Fast riders only. I want eyes on that camp within two hours. They observe and report. They do not engage."

Morrison nodded slowly. "Prudent."

A sharp chime cut through the room. Every crystal on the table flared simultaneously—a pulsing red glow that meant only one thing.

Emergency alert.

Claire grabbed hers first. Her face drained of color as she read. "Multiple casualties reported across forward positions. Rogue forces confirmed in significant numbers. The emperor’s status—" She paused.

"What."

"Listed as unknown."

The room erupted. Voices overlapping. Morrison demanding specifics. The other elder barking orders into her crystal. Claire coordinating with garrison commanders.

I stood perfectly still in the center of the chaos.

Unknown.

Not confirmed dead. Not confirmed alive. Unknown.

The memory crystal in my pocket pressed against my hip like a burning coal. All those nights in the fighting pits, I’d told myself I hated him. Told myself the betrayal had killed whatever we’d had. Told myself the man I’d loved was a lie.

But the crystal in my pocket said otherwise. And now he was—

"Your Majesty?" Morrison was watching me. "Your orders?"

I blinked. Straightened. "The scout squad. Two hours. Eyes on the camp. Everything else proceeds as ordered. We reconvene at midnight."

---

Midnight came with bad news.

The scout’s voice crackled through my personal crystal, young and shaking.

"Your Majesty." He was breathing hard. "The camp is destroyed. Tents burned. Supply wagons overturned. Blood everywhere—so much blood. We counted at least a dozen Rogue corpses scattered across the perimeter."

"And our people?"

"Some bodies, Your Majesty. Lower-ranked soldiers. But the command tent—" He swallowed audibly. "It’s empty. The senior officers are gone. The emperor, Sir Cassian, the command staff. All missing."

"Missing. Not dead."

"We found no—no body matching the emperor’s description, Your Majesty. But the amount of blood..."

"Understood. Hold your position. Report any movement."

I ended the connection and sat in silence for a long time.

---

By three in the morning, I was back at my apartment. My eyes burned. My hands wouldn’t stop trembling.

Brenna was asleep on the sofa, one arm hanging off the edge. A children’s storybook lay open on her chest. Through the cracked bedroom door, I could see Valerius curled around Lyra in the small bed, both deeply asleep.

My children. Safe. Warm. Oblivious.

My crystal pulsed.

I snatched it up. The voice that came through was ragged. Exhausted. Barely recognizable.

"Elara."

Cassian.

"Cassian." Relief hit me so hard my knees almost buckled. "Where are you? What happened? Where is—"

"Listen to me." His voice cracked. Not from static. From fear. "Elara, his presence—his Alpha pressure—it’s gone."

I stopped breathing.

"It vanished hours ago. Completely. I can’t feel it. None of us can. It’s like he..." Cassian’s voice broke entirely. "It’s like he doesn’t exist anymore."

The Alpha’s pressure. The invisible, immovable weight that every wolf in the empire could feel in their bones. The signature of their emperor. Always there. Always constant.

Gone.

There was only one reason an Alpha’s pressure disappeared entirely.

"Give me the coordinates," I whispered.

"Elara, you can’t—it’s a warzone. Rogue forces are still—"

"Give me the coordinates, Cassian."

A long, agonized pause. Then he did.

I crossed to the sofa and shook Brenna’s shoulder. She jolted awake, blinking.

"The children," I said. I pressed my apartment key into her palm. "If I’m not back by morning, contact Claire."

"Elara, what—"

I was already pulling on my riding cloak. Already moving toward the door.

"Elara!"

I didn’t answer. I took the stairs two at a time, burst through the stable doors, and swung onto the fastest horse I could find.

The northern road stretched before me. Dark. Empty. Freezing.

I kicked the horse into a full gallop and rode into the night.