เข้าสู่ระบบCaldenAs Kaiser walked out of the pack house, I managed to drag my heaviness back in, locking the door from behind.The wood of the door rattles against its frame as someone pounds on it from the outside."Calden! Open this door right now!" Enid's high-pitched voice filters through the crack, full of panic and frantic desperation. "You can't just lock yourself in there! That crazy Alpha broke our front doors and threatened our pack! We need to talk about what we're going to do!"I don't answer her. I don't even move from where I sit."Calden, please!" she shrieks again, her fists banging rhythmically against the solid wood. "It's cold out here, and my chest is starting to feel tight again! You need to come out and check on me!""Go to your room, Enid," I say, my voice raspy, flat, and completely dead. "Leave me the hell alone.""Calden!""I said leave!" I roar, my voice booming through the thick wood with enough force to make her fall silent. A second later, her quick, angry footstep
CaldenI push past Enid and throw the study door open. She yells something behind me, but I ignore her completely as I sprint down the dark hallway and take the stairs three at a time. Down below, wood splinters and metal groans as the front doors of the pack office are violently kicked inward, sending wood shards spraying across the tile floor.I reach the main lobby landing, already out of breath for sprinting down here.Standing in the center of the dust and debris is Alpha Kaiser. His tall frame is rigid, his chest heaving under his jacket, and his eyes are glowing with a lethal, golden Alpha light that fills the dark foyer with pure aura. He looks completely unhinged, radiating absolute, murderous fury as he scans the hall."Kaiser?" I start, taking one step forward down the remaining stairs. "What the hell are you—"Before I can even finish the sentence, Kaiser lunges forward with terrifying speed. He covers the distance between us in a fraction of a second, his fist swinging i
CaldenIt is past midnight, but even the silence in the pack feels like punishment. Sitting behind my heavy wooden desk, the dark room illuminated only by the faint amber glow of the desk lamp and the moonlight slipping through the window blinds. A crystal glass sits in my hand, filled with three fingers of aged whiskey. I down it in one long swallow, letting the sharp burn trail down my throat, hoping it might numb the suffocating weight in my chest.It does nothing.Where could she be? That one question haunted me.I close my eyes and reach deep into my mind, searching for that familiar thread, that quiet pull that is supposed to connect an Alpha to his mate. But there's nothing, only an endless, terrifying silence. The mate bond is completely cold, as if someone reached in and severed the wire. Did she really—No. I drop the glass onto the desk with a heavy clatter, refusing to even finish the thought in my head. There is no way…Jodie is strong. She is my woman, the only woman I h
Ch.68CaldenI grip the metal railing of the grand hall balcony so hard the cold steel digs into my palms.Down below, the pack is in complete disarray. Administrators and staff members are running back and forth with stacks of paperwork, laptops, and folders. The quiet order Jodie maintained for years is completely shattered, replaced by a wall of chaotic noise, ringing desk phones, and frustrated chatter."Where is the new desk lead?" I growl, turning to Dante and Alvin as they step up beside me.Alvin points toward the side administrative desk. The Omega girl I appointed to handle Jodie’s duties is sitting on the leather couch, holding a mug of cold coffee, staring at her phone with a completely relaxed expression while files pile up on her desk. The official Luna stamp, the piece of brass used to validate every official pack expense and logistics manifest—is sitting face down on the corner of her table, untouched.I march down the grand staircase, my boots heavy against the steps,
CaldenMy eyes snap open, and my lungs seize like they have been filled with ice water.I bolt upright in bed, gasping frantically for air that refuses to come. My hand flies straight to my chest, ripping open the front of my damp shirt as I press my palm hard against my sternum. The skin is intact, but underneath, it feels like a red-hot iron is burning directly into my flesh. The phantom pain of the fractured mate bond pulses with every ragged heartbeat, a violent, agonizing throbbing that radiates through my entire torso and leaves me lightheaded.I swing my legs over the edge of the mattress and bury my head in my hands, trying to steady my breathing. The room smells wrong. It is stale, heavy, and completely lacking the soft scent of vanilla and fresh rain that used to drift through the cracked window.*Where is she?* Erix whimpers, his voice weak and raspy in the back of my mind. He isn't thrashing anymore. He sounds exhausted, like a wounded animal curled up in the dark, bleedin
Calden "Is this it, Alpha?" Dante's voice is barely a whisper over the steady roar of the downpour, but it cuts through me like a physical blade.I don't answer him. I can't. My boots sink deeper into the thick, freezing mud at the very edge of our pack boundary, but I don't feel the cold. I don't feel the rain heavy on my shoulders, plastering my hair to my forehead, or the way the wind is violently whipping through the dark trees of the neutral territory right in front of us. All I can do is stare into the pitch-black empty forest ahead.There is nothing."Alpha Calden," Alvin says, stepping up beside me, his hand coming down heavily on my shoulder. His grip is tight, trembling slightly. "The tracks. They just... stop.""They don't just stop," I growl, my voice sounding raw and completely foreign to my own ears. I shake his hand off, throwing myself forward onto my knees in the mud. I crawl a few inches, my hands scraping against sharp rocks and wet pine needles as I desperately se







