Chapter 40

DANTE

My body hadn’t stopped trembling with anger ever since she went missing, I couldn’t think straight and even if I ran as fast as possible I couldn’t catch up to them that day, hell I couldn’t even see them, they were too fast because I could still perceive her scent faintly but she was nowhere to be found

I returned to the kingdom and turns out the news had already reached before I arrived, mournful cry echoed through the castle walls, vibrating in my bones, rattling the very air I breathed. It was a sound that spelled one thing and one thing only, chaos.

Panic.

Desperation.

And at the center of it all, I stood there silent, seething; my fists clenched so tightly that my claws had torn clean through the skin of my palms. I barely even registered the blood dripping onto the marble floors of the war room.

"Lock it down," I snarled, my voice a raw thing dragged from somewhere deep and violent inside me. "Lock the entire kingdom down. No one leaves. No one enters. Not without my explicit permission."

The warriors surrounding the table stiffened visibly. None dared argue, not when the storm in my golden eyes was one heartbeat away from spilling over into something far deadlier. They nodded, sharp and mechanical, scrambling to obey. My heart was still hammering in my chest as I tried to think of any possible place he could be

In the corner, I caught Hans out of the corner of my eye, his arm strapped up in a crude sling, blood still seeping sluggishly from the wound he'd earned during the ambush. Beside him stood Kiara, pale and rigid, her fingers wrapped so tightly around the hilt of her sword that I half-expected it to snap in two.

But I barely saw them.

I barely saw anything beyond the roaring need that tore through my chest like wildfire. It wasn’t the first time she was out of my sight but now that she was I truly was screwed as nothing went through my head except a certain chant over and over again

Find her. Find Leah.

She was out there somewhere alone, terrified, bleeding and I wasn’t there. I hadn’t been there. The thought sliced into me, brutal and unrelenting, feeding a rage so savage it left me trembling.

I slammed my fist against the table and immediately groaned at the jolting pain that surged through my bones, I had totally forgotten that this table was made from a oak tree that was a thousand year old

"Double the patrols," I ground out, my voice barely human. "Search every inch of the kingdom. Every forest, every rogue den, every damned abandoned village. I don’t care if you have to tear the world apart, find her."

They scattered, leaving only the heavy stink of fear and adrenaline behind. I didn’t wait for further updates. I couldn’t. Every second spent standing still felt like a betrayal, I shoved away from the table and stormed out of the war room, my boots slamming into the marble floors, the hallways blurring past in my furious haze.

My lycan threatened through slip through my control snapping its jaws in my head, desperate to be unleashed. Demanding blood. Demanding vengeance. Demanding to see his mate again

I stepped out of the room and head towards the door, the moment I burst into the courtyard, I gave in to him.

The shift ripped through me violently, bones snapping, muscles tearing, until I stood there in my massive form, a shadow streaking through the gardens. Hans and Kiara weren’t far behind; they shifted without hesitation, and we were out of the pack in span of few seconds

The earth was torn and churned, patches of grass soaked dark with blood. Shattered statues lay scattered among the ruins, the sharp, metallic stench of fear and rogue blood clung thickly to the air, coating my tongue with every breath.

But beneath it, a faint and fragile scent lingered and I knew it any day, any time. They had pass through this place, I paused, ears pricking, nostrils flaring.

I pressed forward, tracking her scent through the chaos, through a broken hedge wall that led into the woods beyond. The trail twisted, tangled, a desperate, frantic dance across the forest floor. Scratches marred the bark of trees. Bits of cloth fluttered from thorns.

Joy coursed through my bones knowing I was getting close but just like that my heart came to an abrupt stop, just like that it was gone, I could no longer perceive her anymore. I shook the growing fog in my mind as I tried to perceive, turn different ways to get it again but it was gone

I skidded to a halt, claws digging deep into the dirt. A growl ripped from my throat, low and furious.

They’d masked her scent. Maybe even teleported her. Every fiber of my being screamed to lash out, to tear something apart, but I forced myself to think. To breathe. To not lose her twice and for the first time in a long while my eyes sting with tears

I doubled back, widening the grid. Orders buzzed through the intercom in my ear, voices reporting back one after another. Nothing. No Leah. No sign.

Every negative report was another blow, another crack through the foundation of the barely-held-together man I was pretending to be.

By the time night fell, I was a mess of blood, dirt, and fury. My paws stumbled over roots and rocks, my breathing ragged, but I didn’t stop.

I couldn't stop. I had sent Kiara and Hans back home hours ago

Out here, under the cover of trees, away from the eyes of my soldiers, the walls I had built around myself finally buckled.

I failed her.

The thought whispered through my mind, insidious and poisonous.

I failed her, just like I failed my mother. Just like I failed everyone.

A broken sound tore from my throat as I shifted back into human form. My knees hit the ground hard enough to bruise. I bowed my head, digging clawed fingers into the cold, damp earth, grounding myself against the crushing guilt threatening to tear me apart.

I saw her then.

In my mind, Leah’s face bloomed laughing, fierce, and alive. The way she had looked at me last night, trusting me with everything she was. Trusting me to protect her even if she could do it herself and now she was out there, alone and probably in pain, because I hadn’t been fast enough. Smart enough. Strong enough.

I clenched my fists so tightly blood seeped anew from the wounds in my palms.

"I swear to you," I whispered to the night. "I will find you."

Even if it meant razing this kingdom to the ground. Even if it meant drowning the world in blood.

A sharp grunt shattered my spiral.

I jerked my head up to see Hans, still in his wolf form, rigid and alert a few yards ahead. His tail was stiff, his ears pinned flat against his skull even if I had told him to go home

Another grunt, urgent this time.

My heart stuttered in my chest.

I was on my feet before the thought finished forming, sprinting toward him. Hans nudged something toward me with his snout. I dropped to my knees, my hands trembling as I reached out. A scrap of fabric, delicate, torn, soaked in blood and I immediately knew where it was from

Not just any fabric. Leah’s gown.

I stared at it, feeling the world tilt and darken around me, the blood was unmistakable, her blood. The fabric slipped from my numb fingers, fluttering to the dirt.

Hans’s voice broke through the haze, tight and brittle. "We’re deep inside rogue territory."

The words hit like a punch to the gut. They had her.

They had taken her into the darkest part of the kingdom into a place where mercy was a foreign language and she was bleeding. I clenched the scrap of her dress against my chest so hard it crumpled in my fists, my vision swimming red.

My wolf was howling inside me now, howling in agony, in fury, in helpless, blinding rage, but I didn’t move recklessly, not this time.

I sucked in a slow, shuddering breath, forcing my brain to override the animal instincts snapping at the edges of my sanity.

"Track every scent," I ordered my voice low and lethal. "Every footprint. Every whisper of movement. I don't care what it takes we move, now."

I rose to my feet, my fist still clenched around the bloodied fabric. I lifted my head; letting the savage burn of vengeance pour through me, steady me and I knew too well that this time... this time there would be no mercy.

None. Not after what they had done to my wife, they had made her fight, made her bleed and I don’t even know the condition she was in but there was no mercy