The Lycan King’s Mark (Nevara) by Tiffanie L. Campbell novel Chapter 145

Chapter 145 – The Boy Who Ran Back

Thoren

Jonas’s voice collapsed into another broken sob.

Nevara pulled him against her immediately, one hand pressing gently to the back of his head as she tried to steady his breathing.

“Jonas,” she said softly. “Slow down. You’re safe. Just breathe.”

The boy clung to her like he was afraid someone else might drag him away if he let go.

“I tried,” he cried. “I really tried.”

“I know you did.”

Kael crouched beside them, his attention sharp and completely focused. Even in the middle of a plaza

that had begun to unravel into confusion, he moved with the calm precision of someone whose mind was

already several steps ahead.

“Jonas,” he said evenly. “Look at me.”

The boy lifted his head, though his shoulders still shook with each breath.

“How many men?” Kael asked.

“I–I don’t know,” Jonas stammered. “Two… maybe three.”

“Did they say anything?”

Jonas wiped at his face with the heel of his hand, trying to remember.

“They told us to come with them,” he said. “They said they were guards.”

My jaw tightened.

In a crowd this size, with security moving everywhere and the ceremony drawing attention toward the

platform, it would have been easy for a child to believe that.

“Did you recognize them?” Kael asked.

Jonas shook his head.

“They had hats. And one had a coat like the guards.”

Kael’s eyes flicked toward me.

That detail was enough.

If someone had planned this well enough to disguise themselves as security, then the gunshot had never been meant to kill anyone.

115. 115.

< Chapter 145–The Boy Who Ran Back

It had been meant to move the crowd.

To break the formation.

To create a gap just wide enough to disappear through.

Jonas’s voice trembled again.

“I grabbed Noah,” he whispered. “I held his arm but they pushed me and I fell.”

His sleeve twisted in his fingers as if he were remembering the moment.

“They pulled him into the crowd.”

Nevara closed her eyes briefly.

Only for a second.

When she opened them again the grief was still there, but it had hardened into something far more dangerous.

Resolve.

Kael rose to his feet immediately, already speaking into the communicator at his collar.

“Child abduction,” he said. “Male, four years old. Dark hair. Gray jacket.”

*25 Points

His gaze moved across the square as he spoke, calculating distances, exits, the patterns of the crowd.

“Lock the perimeter. No one leaves the square without visual confirmation.”

Around us the guards began moving with new urgency.

The inner ring tightened around the platform while others pushed through the mass of guests toward the

outer streets. Vendors were being moved aside, chairs overturned as officers began searching under awnings, behind carts, anywhere someone could hide with a child long enough to slip out of sight.

The murmuring in the square had begun to shift.

People were realizing now that something far worse than a random shot had happened.

Questions spread through the crowd like sparks.

What’s going on?

Who fired?

Why are the guards moving?

Then someone closer to the front whispered the word that would travel faster than anything else.

Kidnapped.

The officiant approached us carefully, clearly unsure if he should even be speaking.

<Chapter 145- The Boy Who Ran Back

“Your Majesties,” he said quietly. “Once the crowd settles, should we… continue the ceremony?”

Nevara stood slowly.

+25 Points

Jonas still clung to her side, his small fingers wrapped in the fabric of her dress.

She turned toward the square, her voice steady when she spoke.

“A child is missing.”

The words carried far enough that the nearest rows of guests fell silent almost instantly.

“My nephew.”

Her gaze swept across the thousands of people gathered for what had been meant to be a celebration.

“We can finish the ceremony after we find him.”

No one objected.

Because in that moment the wedding had already stopped.

Not formally.

But emotionally.

The joy that had filled the square only minutes ago had vanished, replaced by tension that hummed

beneath every whispered conversation.

Nathan stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Jonas’s shoulder.

“You did the right thing coming back,” he told him.

Jonas nodded weakly, though tears still clung to his lashes.

“I couldn’t catch them.”

“You weren’t supposed to,” Nathan said softly.

I stepped closer to Nevara.

“We will find him,” I told her.

She looked at me.

And the certainty in her expression told me she believed it wasn’t comfort.

It was a promise.

Across the plaza Kael was already directing teams toward the western streets, speaking rapidly to one of the security officers who had brought him a tablet.

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