Five

Carl’s POV

You’ve been staring at that report for ten minutes Carl."

Damon, my Beta, stood across the room with his arms tightly crossed over his chest.

His posture was rigid, his jaw set in a hard line that had become permanent over the last seven days.

I had not slept properly in the past seven days.

The entire office smelled of coffee and reports covered my desk in messy piles.

I signed another document harshly before tossing it aside.

"We've combed the northern borders twice. No one has seen her.

Something is entirely wrong. Melinda would never disappear without a trace, not like this."

"She is stubborn, Damon," I snapped, slamming the pen down onto the desk. The sound echoed sharply against the stone walls.

"She is being dramatic because she feels cornered an throwing a tantrum because she was caught in a lie.

Once she calms down, she will realize she has nowhere else to go. She loves me and she will return."

"Will she after what happened in your office and on the stairs? After you forced her to use her healing power to heal Ashley.

You know how hard it is to accept Ashley is pregnant and seeing her move in must have been difficult.

I wouldn't blame her if she never wanted to look at your face again."

"That’s enough," I growled.

Damon didn't flinch, but he didn't press further either.

He simply shook his head and stared out the window, leaving me alone.

I felt empty.

At first I assumed it was stress from the scandal involving Ashley and Melinda but as days passed, the feeling worsened.

Now every thought in my head was to find her.

“She still loves me and would be back,” I murmured.

Damon frowned slightly.

“What?”

“She’ll come back once she calms down.”

Part of me still expected Melinda to walk back through those doors eventually but another part of me remembered the look in her eyes before she disappeared.

That expression unsettled me

My mind drifted back to the night with Ashley .

It had been a chaotic, storm-drenched evening three months ago. I remembered sitting in this very office when I got a frantic text from Ashley saying she was attacked.

I had rushed to her private quarters and found her completely alone in her living room.

She was weeping hysterically, her silver-blonde hair tangled, a half-empty bottle of high-proof liquor sitting on the table before her.

She was drinking heavily, her words slurred and bitter as she gripped my jacket, sobbing about how much she hated herself.

I remembered how frustrated I felt because she was always acting depressed.

I had tried to stop her from drinking more, reaching across the table to pull the glass from her hands.

The room had been stiflingly hot, my throat parched from the sudden rush of adrenaline. At some point during her frantic rambling, I had grabbed a glass of water from the tray nearby and swallowed it

After that everything blurred strangely and all I remembered was Ashley crying against my chest.

The next morning, I had woken up in her bed, my head throbbing.

She was sleeping soundly beside my bare chest. I had assumed the worst and she said we had sex.

The guilt had driven me to avoid Melinda for weeks, burying myself in pack duties to escape the shame of my own failure.

"Carl."

Damon’s voice broke through my thoughts. I blinked, pulling myself out of the dark memory.

He was staring down at his phone, his face draining of all color.

"What is it?" I demanded,

"It’s Thomas," Damon said, his fingers trembling slightly as he pocketed the device. "He... he tried to take his own life.”

Within minutes, we were tearing through the hallway.

Guards surrounded the healer’s private room when we arrived.

The moment I entered, I scanned the room.

Broken glass covered the floor, the metal tray of instruments had been completely upended.

A heavy wooden chair was cracked against the baseboards, and there were faint, dark smudges of dirt near the window sill.

This was no suicide attempt.

“Damon, clear the room," I commanded,

"No one enters."

Damon moved immediately, shoving the remaining nurses out and locking the heavy door behind them.

Thomas snapped his eyes open, his pupils dilating the moment he recognized my face.

He began to thrash weakly against the sheets, his hands clawing at the air as if trying to push me away.

"Alpha... no, please," he choked out, his voice a raw, ruined wheeze through the bandages.

"Don't let them... they will kill me, they are watching."

Who, Thomas? Who will kill you? Tell me right now, or I will hand you over to the pack executioner myself for treason."

"The report..." The old man wept, a fresh wave of tears soaking into his grey beard as his chest heaved.

"Luna... Melinda... she didn't lie. She didn't threaten me."

"What did you say?" I whispered, the words scraping against my throat like glass.

"The pregnancy report I gave her... it was real," He cried out, his body shaking with a violent, pathetic sob.

"She is pregnant, Alpha! The blood work was flawless!"

My entire world shattered into a thousand jagged, unrecognizable pieces. The walls of the room seemed to press inward, suffocating me.

Melinda was telling the truth.

“Then why did you lie?" I roared, the sound ripping from my chest, vibrating the very glass panes in the windows.

"Why did you stand in my office and accuse her of forgery?!"

"Masked men!" the healer shrieked, covering his face with his trembling hands.

"They came to my house the night before and held a blade to my mate’s throat! They had a duplicate report already printed and told me exactly what to say.

If I didn't frame the Luna and make her look like a lunatic, they promised to slaughter my entire bloodline! I had no choice, Alpha! I had no choice!"

Every single word Melinda had screamed in my office echoed back into my mind.

I had condemned her based on lies.

"Alpha... please where is Melinda? Where is she resting?"

"She’s gone,"

Dr. Thomas let out a choked, terrified gasp, his grip tightening on my sleeve desperately.

"No... no, no, no! You have to find her, Carl! You have to find her right now!"

"Why?" I demanded, the icy dread in my stomach twisting into a sickening knot.

“She never should have used healing power while pregnant.”

“What?”

He wiped his tears frantically.

“Spiritual healing drains life energy directly from the mother and child during early pregnancy. The power required to heal another wolf drains the mother’s own protective shield.

It leaves her own fetus completely exposed and dangerously vulnerable.

"It could cause haemorrhaging and kill her and the baby!"

My blood turned to ice.

Suddenly, everything came rushing back.

Melinda swaying on her feet.

Her pale face.

The tremble in her hands as she pressed them against her stomach.

And me forcing her to stay.

For the first time since Melinda vanished, real fear seized me.

She was out there. Injured. Bleeding. Pregnant. Alone.

"No..."

The word tore from my throat.

I shot to my feet.

"Seal every border."

The room fell silent.

"Alpha—"

"I said seal every border!" I roared. "Lock down every neighboring territory. Search every road, every village, every safe house."

The bond inside me felt like it was being ripped apart.

My fists clenched.

"Dig up the entire continent if you have to."

My wolf surged to the surface, frantic and enraged.

"Find Melinda."