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Chapter 956: Missing (1)

Talia found Axel in the infirmary. He was in the room with Sophia and Isaac, who were lying on hospital beds.         

"You had no problems getting rid of your niece!" Axel hissed.     

"This is different," Sophia said. "We are different. Instead of shouting at us, you should…"     

Sophia\'s voice trailed, and Axel turned to the door to see what got his attention.     

"Talia!" Axel cried. "Yasmin is gone. My kids…"     

"Calm down," Talia said while giving Axel a hug. She released a bit of her aura to envelop him with the goal of soothing his mind.     

"Take a deep breath. We won\'t figure this out if we give in to panic. Yasmin is a smart and capable witch with an awesome ability, and she won\'t be easily bullied." Talia waited for Axel to take several deep breaths, and then she asked, "Tell me what happened."     

Axel was visibly relaxed, but now the sadness and exhaustion showed on his face.     

"I was talking to Meg, Kai, Sandy, and Tyler about their duties for the next two weeks. With the number of new mates that arrived recently, our current living quarters were cramped, and we needed to build more. Digging underground and making it habitable for our pack members takes time. It\'s simpler to build above ground, but Elders argued how that will create a hierarchy where less privileged get to stay down…"     

Talia wondered if Axel spoke in such a roundabout way because her aura relaxed him too much. Did he remember that he needed to talk about Yasmin, Edgar, and Valeria? But she didn\'t want to interrupt him.     

Axel said how some mated couples were expecting pups and needed more space and how several newcomers were having difficulty adjusting to life underground. This brought them back to the solution of building above ground, but the Elders objected.     

There was a conflict between old and new, and Axel was unsure how to strike a balance between providing necessary living space with time constraints without changing their way of living. He was only a proxy, and these matters that impact the dynamic of the pack should be handled by the Alpha.     

Talia realized she was supposed to be here to sort these things out. She didn\'t know Axel was dealing with these turbulent internal affairs.     

Since Talia became the Alpha of the Midnight Guardians pack, about a hundred pack members found their mates, and that meant a hundred new people that needed a place to stay. Any other pack wouldn\'t have difficulty accommodating one hundred additional people, but the Midnight Guardians pack stayed the same for a very, very long time. Those few who escaped through the portal never came back. Their unused living quarters were invaded by moisture, mold, insects, and small animals and became inhabitable. It was the same amount of work to build new rooms compared to cleaning existing ones and removing infestations. It was all more challenging because their pack didn\'t have free access to the human realm where modern technology could be acquired.     

The excitement of people finding their mates slowly deflated, and they realized that one bedroom for a couple was not enough, as they needed more.     

Axel eventually got to the point of Yasmin missing.     

"I looked in the nursery, and they were not there. I asked Omegas if they saw them, and no one saw anything. I checked our bedroom, common areas, and the garden, but I didn\'t find anything. Yasmin doesn\'t have the mind link, but someone always knows where she is."     

Axel released a long breath and glanced at his parents while talking to Talia. "The bond tugged me toward their home. At least, that\'s what I thought. I went there to look, and I found them unconscious on the floor. I could pick up Yasmin\'s scent that was not old, but it was not fresh either. I tried sensing the bond again, but I got nothing. She is not here."     

Talia narrowed her eyes at Sophia and Isaac. "What did you do?"     

"Nothing!" Sophia and Isaac exclaimed in unison.     

Sophia raised her hands defensively. "We were in the living room, but then we woke up in the hospital to Axel shouting."     

\'Lis?\' Talia asked. \'Is she telling the truth?\'     

\'Her heart rate went through the roof from the moment she saw you. She could be lying, but she could be just scared of you. One does not exclude the other.\'     

Talia turned to Axel. "What about Omegas who are working in their house? Did they see anything? Is any of them missing?"         

Axel rubbed his face with force. He didn\'t think about it. "I don\'t know. I found them, and I called guards to bring them here and…"     

"It\'s OK," Talia said. "We will figure this out. Let\'s go to their place and investigate. You said you picked up Yasmin\'s scent there."     

"Impossible!" Isaac exclaimed. "Yasmin and the kids didn\'t visit us in days."     

Talia thought how that was odd. The old guy sounded convincing.     

"Come, let\'s check together," Talia told Axel.     

They had guards watching over Sophia and Isaac, and Talia instructed healers to check on the duo and figure out why they were unconscious. If they were telling the truth, someone knocked them out. But Talia didn\'t trust them, and she didn\'t want to act until she got the information.     

Keith, Arya, Liam, and Amelia were waiting in the hallway. They followed Axel and Talia to the house that the old Alpha couple was using.     

"Tell me about the overall situation," Talia demanded from Axel. She wanted to keep his mind busy with something because his anxiousness was showing, and it made his Alpha aura leak.     

Meg and Kai were handling patrols who were searching for Yasmin and the kids, while Sandy and Tyler were in charge of security, checking for anything suspicious and ensuring no one passed through the portals. So far, there was nothing. It didn\'t look good.     

The probability that Yasmin took the kids for a walk and forgot to tell Axel was close to zero.     

"Did the two of you argue?" Talia asked Axel.     

Axel was taken aback by this question, but he still responded, "No, not really. I mean… Yasmin wanted me home more, and she was exhausted because of the night feedings, so there was occasional friction, but nothing serious."     

Another wave of guilt washed over Talia. If she were here, Axel wouldn\'t need to work that much. But this was about Yasmin and two babies, and Talia will deal with her matters later.     

"Do you think she went to her mother?"     

Axel dismissed the idea. "If she did, she would go through the portal. If she went out, someone would pick up her scent."     

"What about security cameras?" Talia asked.     

"There is nothing. However, the cameras are covering the main hallways and the entrance. She could have gone there without being recorded. There is security, but it\'s not very tight so…"     

Talia nodded in understanding. The Midnight Guardians pack had only two portals that can be used as entry points for outsiders, and they focused their attention on them. Anything that the warriors did within the pack territory was more-less for practice purposes, and they were not on high alert.     

What a mess.