Kade~
"Fuck!" I slammed my fist into the stone wall, feeling bone crack against unyielding rock. Blood welled up across my knuckles, but the pain was a welcome distraction from the chaos.
"I'm sorry, my Lord," the gamma muttered, his eyes on the floor like he could somehow disappear into it.
Sorry. As if that fixed anything. As if that changed the fact that someone had walked into my territory, my pack house, and taken someone right out from under our noses.
I told myself I didn't care. Told myself she was nothing to me. But the mate bond, damaged as it was still pulled at something deep in my chest. Still made my wolf snarl with territorial fury.
I hated it. Hated her for making me feel it.
But I'd find her anyway. Not because I wanted her back. Because I wanted to be the one to decide what happened to her.
"Instruct the guards to widen their search beyond the borders," I growled. "Ninety-mile radius. I want every tracker we have on this."
"I'll go with him," Rowan said from beside me, his voice calm despite everything that was happening. "Make sure it's done properly."
The gamma practically fled, and I didn't blame him.
Rowan's room," Maddox said quietly once we were alone. "We should check it."
I nodded curtly and led the way down the corridor.
We reached the room, and I shoved the door open. The sight made my jaw clench.
Chaos. Pure chaos.
Furniture overturned, bedsheets torn and scattered across the floor like someone had thrashed during a struggle.
The window stood open, cold night air pouring in. But what caught my attention, what made my blood run cold with fury,was the wall.
Written in dark, dried blood, a message: "Catch me if you can."
"Arrogant bastard," I muttered, moving closer. The handwriting was crude, rushed. Like they'd been in a hurry but couldn't resist the theatrical touch.
"That's not Nessa's blood," Maddox said, crouching near a larger pool by the bed. He inhaled deeply, his wolf rising in his eyes. "This is. But the message..."
"Wren," Rowan said, appearing in the doorway. her scent trail leads from Nessa's old quarters to here, then out the window."
"She helped them." The pieces clicked together in my mind. "Got close to Nessa, earned her trust, then sold her out."
"Thats why she escaped," Maddox agreed. Question is why. What's valuable enough about a rejected mate to risk infiltrating our pack?"
That was the question, wasn't it
"I don't care about their reasons," I said, my voice hard as steel. "What I care about is the statement this makes.
"I don't give a fuck why they did it. Someone walked into MY territory take someone under my roof,rejected or not, and leave a mocking message behind? Every pack within a hundred miles will hear about this. They'll see it as weakness."
"Then we make a different statement," Rowan said, his smile sharp and cold. "We find whoever did this, and we make an example of them. Something so brutal, so absolute, that no one ever questions our strength again."
Now that was something I could agree with.
"Where's the trail lead?" I asked.
"North," Rowan replied. "Into the forest. I've got teams tracking it now, but it goes cold at the road about two miles out. They had vehicles waiting."
"Then we expand. Maddox, I want you coordinating with our contacts. Someone's seen something,a convoy, unusual activity, anything. Rowan, you take the enforcement team and follow every possible route north. And make it clear: anyone harboring them becomes our enemy."
Both my brothers nodded, already moving toward their tasks.
I turned back to the message on the wall, studying it one more time." Catch me if you can".
"Oh, we will," I promised the empty room.
"And when we do, you're going to wish you'd never set foot in my territory."
Maddox~
Three hours of frantic searching had yielded nothing but dead ends and frustration. I stood in the war room, surrounded by maps and reports, my patience wearing thin.
"Talk to me," I said to Marcus, our head of intelligence. "What do we know?"
"Not much," he admitted, spreading several photographs across the table. "Tire tracks at the road match a common cargo van.
No plates visible in the mud impressions.
The forest trail shows two sets of prints,one male, approximately six-two, heavy build. One female, smaller, Wren's size. And drag marks."
"Nessa didn't go willingly."
Definitely not. There's evidence of a struggle,broken branches, disturbed undergrowth. And blood. Not enough to be fatal, but enough to indicate injury."
I studied the map, my mind working through possibilities. North from our territory led to several options: the neutral zone, the disputed borderlands, or if they went far enough, Shadowmere Pack territory.
"Any chatter from our informants?" I asked.
"Nothing concrete. But..." Marcus hesitated.
"But?"
"There's been talk. Rumors about something valuable being moved through the underground networks. A 'special acquisition' is how one source phrased it. No details, but the timing matches."
Special acquisition. Like Nessa was cargo.
My wolf stirred with unexpected irritation. Traitors daughter or not, she's our mate and under our protection. This was an insult.
"Price?" I asked.
"If the rumors are true? High enough that several major players are interested. We're talking seven figures."
"I think someone knows something we don't. And they're willing to risk war with us to get it." I grabbed my phone, already dialing Kade. "We need to expand our thinking. This isn't just about making a statement anymore. This might be about something bigger."
Much bigger.
Rowan~
The scent of fear hung in the air like a physical presence, and I smiled. Good. The rogue in front of me should be afraid.
"I'm going to ask you one more time," I said conversationally, cleaning blood from under my fingernails. "Where did the convoy go?"
The rogue,a mangy excuse for a wolf who'd been caught lurking near our northern border whimpered. His shoulder was dislocated, courtesy of my opening questions, and his face was a mess of bruises. But he was still conscious. Still able to talk.
That would change if he didn't give me answers.
"I don't know nothing about no convoy," he gasped.
I sighed. "See, that's where you're lying. My scouts saw you watching the road three nights ago.
Same road a suspicious van took north after kidnapping someone from my territory. Now, you can either tell me what you saw, or I can start removing body parts until you remember."
In a quick movement I dug my knife Into his left cheek and twisted it, his screaming echoed in the cell, blood pooled in torrents from the hole in his cheek.
Rowan," one of my team members said quietly. "The Alpha said to bring back information, not corpses."
"He'll live," I said dismissively.
The rogue's resistance crumbled. "Okay, okay! I saw a van. Dark blue, maybe black. Three people inside, two men and a woman. The woman looked unconscious.
They were heading toward the old industrial district near Shadowmere territory."
Now we were getting somewhere.
"How long ago?"
"Four, maybe five hours. I swear that's all I know!"
I studied him for a moment, then nodded to my team. "Lock him up. But if I find out you're lying, I'll come back and finish this conversation."
the rogue scrambled inside the cell, clutching his injured cheek, I pulled out my phone and dialed Maddox.
"I've got a location," I said when he answered. "Old industrial district, north side of Shadowmere territory. That's where they're taking her."
"That area's abandoned," Maddox replied. "Lots of old warehouses, easy to hide in. But it's also technically neutral ground. If we go in there hunting, we could start something with Shadowmere."
"Then we'll be quick and quiet." I was already moving toward my vehicle, my team falling in behind me. "Send me any intel you have on the area. Building layouts, access points, everything."
"On it. Rowan,be careful. This feels like a trap."
"I hope it is," I said grimly. "I'm in the mood to spring one."
The drive took forty minutes, my SUV eating up the miles while my mind planned the approach. Abandoned industrial district meant multiple buildings, lots of places to hide.
We'd need to be systematic, thorough.
And fast. Every minute that passed was another minute they had to move her again, or worse.
We parked half a mile out and approached on foot, using the darkness and our natural stealth to stay hidden. The district was exactly as described,rows of crumbling warehouses, broken windows, graffiti-covered walls. A ghost town of rusted metal and decay.
"Spread out," I ordered quietly. "Teams of two. Report anything suspicious."
We moved like shadows through the area, checking buildings one by one. Empty. Empty. Empty.
Then...
"Sir," one of the guards called. "Building seven. Fresh tire tracks in the mud. And lights inside."
My heart rate kicked up. Finally.
We approached carefully, surrounding the building. It was a three-story warehouse, most windows broken or boarded up. But on the second floor, dim light filtered through gaps in the boards.
I could hear voices inside. Male. Arguing about something.
I hand-signaled my team into position, then crept closer to a broken first-floor window.
The smell hit me immediately,blood, and something else. Something that made my wolf stir with recognition despite itself.
I peered through the window, letting my enhanced vision adjust to the dim interior. The first floor was mostly empty, but stairs led up to the second level where the lights were.
I could make out shadows moving up there, hear the voices more clearly now.
"should have been here an hour ago," one man was saying. "If the buyer doesn't show..."
"He'll show," another voice interrupted. "Do you have any idea how much he's paying for her? He's not going to miss this."
My jaw clenched. Buyer. They were selling her like livestock.
I was about to signal the breach when I heard something that froze me in place.
A scream.
Nessa's scream.
Then a crash, and suddenly the voices upstairs erupted into shouts. Something was happening up there, something urgent and violent.
I didn't hesitate. "Breach now!" I commanded, and my team exploded into action.
We burst through the door, taking the stairs two at a time. The second floor was chaos,two men struggling with something, overturned furniture, and in the center of it all...
My breath caught.
Nessa was there, but something was wrong. Very wrong. Her eyes glowed amber, not human at all. Her hands were elongating, claws extending. Her skin rippled like something was trying to break free from inside.
She was shifting.
One of the men lunged at her with a syringe, and Nessa moved with inhuman speed, her clawed hand catching him across the chest.
He went down screaming, blood spraying.
"What the fuck?" one of my team members breathed.
The second man saw us and bolted for a back exit. I started to give chase, but then Nessa's gaze locked on me, and every instinct I had screamed danger.
"Tranq her," I ordered. "Now, before..."
But I didn't get to finish.
Because Nessa's partial transformation completed in a burst of power that sent everyone in the room staggering backward.
When the light faded and I could see again, she was gone.
The back wall had been torn open,literally ripped apart,and through the hole, I could see the forest beyond.
"After her!" I shouted at my men.