Dante's POV
The sun is rising when I finally give up the chase.
That silver car—whoever was driving knew every trick in the book. Every time I got close, they blocked me. When I tried to go around, they cut me off. After fifty miles of this insanity, they led me down a dead-end road and disappeared like smoke.
Like magic.
My wolf is going crazy inside my head, clawing and howling. The link is stretched so thin it feels like a wire cutting through my chest. But Isla is living. She's out there. She'll cool down and come back.
She has to come back.
I drive home as dawn bleeds across the sky, my hands tight on the wheel. My head pounds. My whole body aches like I'm coming down with something. The rejected bond, possibly. It'll pass once she comes home and we talk like adults.
The pack house is quiet when I walk in. Good. I don't want to deal with anyone right now. I just need sleep, then I'll figure out how to fix this mess.
I push open our bedroom door expecting— Empty.
Not just empty. Emptied.
Her closet door hangs open. The hangers are bare except for a few dresses I got her that she never wore. Her dresser drawers are pulled out, empty. The metal hairbrush she used every night—gone. The lavender lotion she put on before bed—gone. Even the stupid little glass bird she kept on the table, the one she said reminded her of freedom—gone.
My chest tightens. This is more than whining. This is— I run to Lyra's room.
Half the toys are missing. Her best clothes. The nightlight shaped like a moon. The blanket my mother made before she died, the one Lyra couldn't sleep without.
"No." The word comes out choked. "No, no, no."
I'm tearing through the house now, searching for something, anything that shows this isn't real. But everywhere I look, pieces of them are missing. The kitchen has gaps where Isla's favorite coffee mug used to sit. The living room bookshelf is missing the picture albums she spent hours organizing.
She didn't just leave in anger. She packed. She planned. She meant this.
"WHERE IS SHE?" The Alpha order rips out of me, shaking the walls.
Wolves appear from every part of the house, dropping to their knees. But not Marcus. My Beta walks down the stairs slowly, and his face—I've never seen him look at me like that before. Like I'm something nasty he stepped in.
"She left," Marcus says simply. "Luna Isla and Lyra are gone."
"Gone where? When? Why didn't you stop her?"
"Because she asked me not to." He meets my eyes without flinching. "And before you ask—yes, she took Lyra. But she left Kieran. You know, the son who called another woman Mommy right in front of her?"
The words hit like a physical blow. Around us, the other wolves are looking at me with shock and something worse—disappointment.
"That's not—Kieran was confused. Serena has been helping with the kids, and he just—"
"For how long?" Marcus cuts me off. " How long has Serena been 'helping' exactly? Because I checked the visiting logs. She's been here almost every day for six years. Six years, Dante. Since right after Kieran was born. Since Isla almost died giving you a son you barely looked at."
My mind is spinning. Six years? That can't be right. Serena only started coming around more recently, maybe a year ago, to help with pack business, to— But I can't remember exactly when it started. Can't remember when she stopped being my childhood friend and became... whatever this is. " I need to find Isla." My voice sounds desperate even to my own ears. "Track her smell. Send the guards. She can't have gotten far."
"Her scent disappears at the east border." Marcus's tone is ice. "Wherever she went, someone helped her. Someone powerful enough to hide her trail totally."
"Then find out who! Question the guards, check the cameras, I don't care what it takes—"
"She's your MATE!" Marcus bursts, and I've never heard him yell before. Not once in fifteen years. "You're supposed to protect her, respect her, love her! Instead, you've spent seven years treating her like a worker. Like she's lucky you let her breathe your air. And now you're surprised she's gone?"
The other dogs are nodding. Actually agreeing with him. With him, not their Alpha.
"You don't understand," I start, but Marcus laughs. It's an ugly sound.
"I understand exactly. I'm mated too, remember? I know what it's supposed to look like. My mate smiles when I come home. My kids run to hug me. We're happy, Dante, because I actually try." He steps closer, and there's real hate in his eyes now. " Isla smiled exactly twice in seven years. I counted. Both times were at the hospital after she had your cubs. Both times you weren't even there to see it."
That can't be true. She smiled. She must have. I would have noticed if— But I can't remember. Can't picture her face doing anything but looking tired, or worried, or carefully blank.
"Get out," I whisper. "All of you. Out."
They leave. Even Marcus, though he pauses at the door. " Kieran is asking for his mother. The one with gray hair who sang to him. He doesn't remember Isla's name, but he knows her songs. What should I tell him?"
He's gone before I can answer.
I stand alone in the empty house, and for the first time in my life, I don't know what to do.
My phone rings. Serena. "Dante? I heard Isla left. I'm so sorry, but honestly, this might be for the—"
I hang up. The sound of her voice makes me want to break things.
My wolf whimpers again, that death sound. The link is killing us. Every hour Isla is gone, it gets worse. Weaker. Like bleeding out slowly.
I need to find her. Need to fix this. Need to—
The front door opens. Hope bursts in my chest. She came back. She—
It's not Isla.
It's a woman I've never seen before. Old, beautiful, with silver hair and eyes that look purple in the morning light. She walks into my house like she owns it, and power rolls off her in waves that make my knees weak.
"Alpha Blackthorn." Her words could cut diamonds. "I am Elder Moira Morven. Isla's grandmother. We need to talk about what you've done to my child."
My blood turns to ice. Morven. One of the three main bloodlines. The family that makes the Council worried. The wolves that other Alphas talk about in fear.
Isla's family.
"Where is she?" I demand, but it comes out begging. "Where's my mate?"
Moira's smile is colder than winter. "Oh, she's not your mate anymore, boy. She refused the bond. And in exactly seventy-two hours, she's making it permanent." She pulls out a formal paper, drops it on my floor. "You're invited to the event. Where you'll watch the Moon Goddess herself sever the link that you destroyed through your own stupidity."
"No." I'm shaking my head. "No, I won't let that happen. I'll find her, I'll explain—"
"You'll do nothing." Moira's power crashes over me, forcing me to my knees. "Because if you come near my granddaughter again before she's ready, I will make sure you never walk again. Am I understood?"
I can't move. Can't breathe under the weight of her control.
"Good." She turns to leave, then stops. "Oh, and Dante? Your son Kieran is asking for Isla. Crying for her, actually. Funny how the dark magic Serena used is wearing off now that they're split. He's starting to remember who his real mother is. Pity she's not here anymore."
She's gone, and I'm alone on my knees in my empty house with a rejection wedding invitation on the floor.
Seventy-two hours.
Three days to find Isla before I lose her forever.
Three days before my wolf dies and takes me with him.