Clyde choked for the second time after he heard what his head bodyguard had just said. "How come he escaped?! Where did he go?!" He stood up straight, his posture leveling the man his sister's age and grunted in a low voice, "How could you let him escape?!"
As he noticed the terrible look on the young master's face, Lucas tried to explain patiently, "Sir, he escaped yesterday around 2 AM through the ventilation in the bathroom. I was chasing him in the woods when the butler from the main house called and said that big master will come to the hotel early in the morning, so I decided to go back and went straight to the hotel with Mr. Scott."
Lucas didn't know how else he could explain it. But thanks to his years of experience as Clyde's bodyguard and assistant, he could handle everything fast while Clyde was still unconscious from his 'collapse'.
"Is there any news about Ryley?" The younger Alpha paced back and forth, seemingly anxious. But Lucas was even more confused when he saw him.
The head bodyguard didn't understand why this young master cared more about the blond than the matter with the hotel. And the fact that he didn't ask about what his father's opinion on the incident was really telling.
Lucas didn't want to wrongly assume things, but he believed that something must've happened between his master and the handsome model.
"No, Sir. I've deployed some of the guards to search him. If he'd reached the nearest town, people would've recognized him right away. It seems that he's lost in the woods," Lucas replied.
Clyde's blue eyes turned grim as he said, "I want him back unscathed! You hear me? Unscathed!"
"Understood, Sir," Lucas replied, feeling increasingly suspicious of his master's strange attitude.
The Alpha walked towards the window, his strong back looked depressed. His sister was here, so his hands were pretty much tied. But Clyde couldn't just sit still waiting for news about the blond.
His fist clenched, the man pounded the glass window that separated him from the lush green nature spread before his eyes. His heart couldn't be at ease as long as that one rebellious fox didn't return to him.
'Where are you....?'
....
At this time, Adrian and Claire sat on the table in the living room after the woman sent back the medic team. The big Omega served her a cup of her favorite black tea and nervously took his seat across the elegant Alpha woman.
"You still remembered my favorite tea," Claire said, smiling pleasantly. "How're you and the kids?"
"Ah, of course I still remember! We used to hang out a lot, didn't we?" Adrian said, wiping the sweat that dripped off his temple. "I'm good, and my kids are fine too. How about you, Sister? We haven't seen each other for a while and you're still as pretty,"
Claire let out a faint chuckle. "Ah, I'm this old already, just look at these wrinkles!" She laughed, but then her smile disappeared into thin air in a blink of an eye, replaced by a serious tone. "What's wrong with my brother?"
Adrian felt his throat twitched, he swallowed his saliva then tried to explain, "As I said before, he just collapsed like when he was still in school and college."
He had been friends with Clyde for over 20 years, so Adrian knew pretty much everything about his Alpha friend. But what he'd just said was certainly not the real reason.
"But why now? He'd never collapsed in the past 7 years." Claire replied, her tone firm and her eyes sharp, as if interrogating a prisoner.
"You see, Clyde has this unique body that makes him the strongest and the weakest at the same time. Do you still remember when we were still in high school? He faced nearly 30 thugs by himself and almost killed some of them. Anyone who witnessed it would think that he had such an inhuman power and I wouldn't disagree with them, but what happened after he got into that fight? He collapsed and didn't wake up for 5 days straight. And now the same thing happened again," Adrian explained in a calm tone.
He tried to make his excuse sounded more sensible, and thankfully, Claire seemed to accept it. However, the woman tilted her head and asked again with a deep frown on her forehead, "Did he get into a fight before this?"
Adrian almost choked on his words. But he cleared his throat and said, "No, there's no fight. I guess Clyde was just very upset with the recent incident on the hotel. I believe you've heard it before that affected mood might also cause his collapse. Fortunately, Lucas immediately called me here to check on him yesterday but Clyde had collapsed before I arrived."
Claire's perfectly arched eyebrows raised, then she lowered her head as she breathed a heavy sigh. Seeing this, Adrian tried to calm her. "Sister, there's no need to worry. Clyde is way stronger than how he looks on the outside. This is just temporary, and it will pass for sure,"
"Yes, I know…" Claire nodded, then reached out her hand to Adrian, holding the Omega's palm warmly as she said with her red eyes, "Thank you, Adrian. Thank you for saving my brother. I don't know how to repay you for this, but... If there's anything you wish for, I will definitely give it to you."
Adrian smiled awkwardly. "I..It's nothing, Sister. Clyde is my friend, of course I will help him."
Though some of the Alpha's extended family didn't approve of their friendship, they couldn't disrespect Adrian because his family was a close associate of the Aldric family.
"By the way, Sister…" Adrian seemed hesitant when he was about to ask Claire, but he decided that he needed to help Clyde to figure out the reason his sister suddenly visited and how she found out they were in Rock Springs.
"Yes?" Claire said after she gently wiped the tears hanging on the corner of her eyes.
"Y... Your visit is so sudden. I'm so sorry I couldn't prepare some meals for you. Flying from Paris must have drained your energy a lot, do you want to rest for a bit? I will have the room prepared for you," Adrian said with cautious gaze, his tone was so careful.
Claire just smiled. "Don't worry about it, you know I'll even go through hell for my brother,"
"Yes, I know it," Adrian smiled back, but then he mustered his courage to continue, "I just didn't think that you'd come here straight away. I see, perhaps Lucas called you first before calling me," he said while stealing suspicious glances.
The woman in the elegant white coat sipped her tea then answered, "No, Lucas didn't call me. My husband just suggested that my presence might be crucial at this critical time and I agreed that I couldn't just leave Clyde alone after this incident."
"O...Oh, I see...." Adrian shifted his seat awkwardly, then tried to digest Claire's answer while sipping his cup of tea.
He tried his best not to frown though the woman's answer sounded so wrong in his ears.
While they chatted in that enormous mansion in the middle of Rock Springs' jungle, someone that was also part of all this commotion woke up from his sleep.
He grimaced in pain as he tried to move his left leg, which now completely felt numb after he forced it to run from the scarface who caught him escaping through ventilation.
The blond didn't know if he had to be proud of his athletic skill, but it surely took him a great effort to get himself inside the narrow tunnel and crawl his way out of the Alpha's mansion.
The sun was almost setting down, but he still hadn't found his way out of the jungle.
"Shit..." Ryley grabbed the giant root in front of him and pulled himself up, grunting and hissing as he tried to endure the pain.
He looked at his phone and tried to make a call, but clicked his tongue in annoyance when he realized that the Alpha had taken out his SIM card before he asked him to open his cloud storage.
As the crimson sky was getting darker, the model dragged himself and continued to move. Ryley could only follow the stream hoping that it would lead him out of the jungle.
Who would've known that not long after he walked, he saw someone sitting near the stream with a small bonfire and a tent.
However, Ryley then looked at himself and decided that he shouldn't approach the man with such an appearance, so he started to walk back and tried to find another route.
But it seemed that he'd wasted his luck running away from the jerk Alpha.
The blond accidentally stepped on a branch and fell, creating a rustling sound and making the man alert.
"Hey! Who's that?"
Fear filled his face as he saw the man pick up his shotgun and walk over to him.