Dante's POV
I threw the phone across my office and watched it smash against the wall.
"Alpha Storm?" Beta Marcus knocked on my door. "Is everything alright?"
"Get out!" I roared.
I couldn't think straight. For three days, I'd tried to forget about the girl in our jail. Three days of telling myself she meant nothing to me.
But the mate bond wouldn't let me forget.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her green ones staring up at me from the ground. Every breath I took, I could smell her scent of wild strawberries. My wolf was going crazy, running and whining inside my head.
"Let us go to her," my wolf begged. "She's ours. She belongs to us."
"She's a rogue," I told him for the hundredth time. "We don't mate with rogues."
But even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. She wasn't just any rogue. She was Victor Nightwood's daughter, the Alpha princess who fled seven years ago when she was ten years old.
I'd been hired to find her six months ago. Victor had been looking everywhere for his little girl, hiring different Alphas to look in different territories. The trail had gone cold years ago, but he never gave up hope.
And now I'd found her by accident. Or maybe the moon goddess had planned it all along.
I picked up another phone and called the number I'd memorized.
"Alpha Nightwood speaking." "Victor, it's Dante Storm. I found her."
Silence on the other end. Then a sharp intake of breath.
"Aria? You found my Aria?"
"She's here. But Victor, there's something you need to know. She's been living as a rogue. She's... different from what you probably remember."
"I don't care," Victor said quickly. "I just want my kid back. Is she hurt? Is she safe?"
I thought about the thin, dirty girl in our jail cell. "She's safe now. But she's been through a lot."
"Bring her home, Dante. Please. I'll pay you anything."
"The deal was for fifty thousand. That hasn't changed."
"Keep the money. Just bring me my little girl."
After I hung up, I sat in my chair and put my head in my hands. I should be happy. This was the biggest contract I'd ever finished. Victor Nightwood was one of the biggest Alphas in the country.
So why did I feel like my heart was being ripped out?
Because taking Aria home meant losing her forever. The mate link would stretch and break, causing us both horrible pain. Some wolves never recovered from broken mate bonds.
But I couldn't keep her here. She wasn't mine to keep.
I stood up and walked to the jail. It was time to face her.
The guard opened the cell door, and I stepped inside. Aria was sitting on the small bed, looking at the wall. She looked up when she heard me, and those green eyes hit me like a punch to the gut.
The mate bond flared between us, so strong that I had to grip the doorframe to stay standing.
"You," she whispered.
"Me," I said, trying to keep my voice cold.
"Have you come to reject me officially?" She stood up, lifting her chin like she was trying to be brave. "Because if you have, just get it over with."
I almost smiled. Even locked in a jail cell, she had fight in her. That was the Alpha blood in her veins.
"I'm not here to reject you," I said. "I'm here to take you home."
Her face went pale. "Home? I don't have a house."
"Yes, you do. Your father has been looking for you for seven years."
Aria shook her head. "My father is dead. My whole family is dead."
"No, they're not. Your father is Alpha Victor Nightwood of the Silver Moon Pack. He hired me to find you six months ago."
She stared at me like I was speaking a strange language. "That's impossible."
I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture. It was Victor holding a little girl with green eyes and dark hair. The same eyes that were looking at me now.
"This is you, Aria Nightwood. You vanished when you were ten years old during a rogue attack on your pack. Everyone thought you were dead."
Aria grabbed the phone with shaking hands. She stared at the picture for a long time.
"I remember," she whispered. "I remember this man. He used to read me bedtime stories and take me to see the horses."
"He's been searching for you ever since that night."
Tears started falling down her face. "My daddy is alive?"
The hope in her voice almost broke me. "Yes. And tomorrow, I'm taking you to him."
She looked up at me with those beautiful eyes. "What about us? What about the mate bond?"
I forced myself to look away. "There is no us. You're Marcus Blackwood's job, nothing more."
"You're lying." She stepped closer to me. "I can feel what you're feeling through the bond. You want me as much as I want you."
She was right, but I couldn't admit it. "You're going home to your father where you belong. End of discussion."
"And what if I don't want to go?"
"You don't have a choice."
Aria was quiet for a moment. Then she asked the question I'd been dreading.
"Why did you take this job? Why were you looking for me?"
I could have lied. Could have told her it was just business. Instead, I found myself telling her the truth.
"Because six months ago, I started having dreams about a girl with green eyes. In the dreams, she was lost and calling for help. My wolf wouldn't let me ignore it."
Aria's eyes went wide. "You dreamed about me?"
"Every night for six months. And now I know why." I looked right at her. "The moon goddess was preparing us to meet."
"Then how can you give me away?" she asked desperately.
Before I could answer, my phone rang. It was Beta Marcus.
"Alpha, we have a problem. There are rogues surrounding the area. A lot of them. And they're asking for the Nightwood girl."
My blood went cold. "How many?"
"At least fifty. They say they won't leave without her."
I hung up and looked at Aria. She'd heard every word.
"Who are they?" I asked her. "Why do they want you?"
Aria's face had gone totally white. "They're from the Shadow Pack," she whispered. "The rogues who took me seven years ago. They've come to take me back."
"Back? What do you mean back?"
Aria looked at me with terror in her eyes. "I wasn't just living with rogues, Dante. I was their prisoner. For seven years, they kept me as their slave. And their leader..." She shuddered. "He said when I turned eighteen, he was going to make me his mate."
"When do you turn eighteen?" I asked, though I was afraid of the answer.
"Tomorrow," she whispered.
Outside, a howl echoed through the night. Long and frightening. The rogues weren't just asking for her.
They were demanding her.
And if I didn't give her over, they'd tear my whole pack apart to get to her.