LOGINALPHA HARLEY I always thought if I ever lost her, it would be loud. Explosive. Bloody. Final. Not… this. Not quiet eyes and a stranger’s gaze. The lab is still screaming around us with alarms, monitors, and voices, but inside my head there is only one sound… Absence. It has a shape. A pressure. A hollow so violent it feels like something physical has been carved out of my chest with dull metal. She’s standing ten feet away. Breathing. Alive. Heart beating. But at the same time… she’s gone. My wolf doesn’t understand it. He keeps pacing, circling, slamming against my ribs like an animal trapped in a burning cage. Mate. Mate. Mate. “Yes,” I whisper under my breath. “I know.” But when I look at her again, nothing in her expression answers back. No
ALPHA GAVIN The door doesn’t give. I thought it would break easily combined with both our strengths, but we must have underestimated our weakening state. Fuck. Harley hits it like a wrecking force beside me, shoulder slamming into reinforced steel hard enough to dent the frame. The impact shudders through the corridor. My ears ring. But somehow, it’s still not enough. “Again,” he snarls. We strike together again. Pain detonates up my arm. The metal groans, but it’s still fucking holding. The hum beyond it has changed. It’s higher now. Tighter. Like a wire about to snap. “She’s right there,” Harley breathes, voice wrecked. “I can feel her.” I try to follow the bond the way he does, try to let instinct lead instead of logic, but what reaches me is… faint. Distant. Like hearing someone shout underwater. It twists something ugly inside my chest. I know she’s there. So why… why can’t I feel her the way he does? Another slam. Another dent. Alarms strobe red across the h
ALPHA HARLEY I know we’re close the moment my vision blurs. Not the normal kind. Not exhaustion. This is sharper, like someone reached inside my skull and twisted something vital, just enough to make the world tilt sideways. I grip the dashboard harder, knuckles whitening. “Don’t slow down,” I growl. Gavin doesn’t look at me. His jaw is locked so tight I can hear his teeth grind. Both hands are clenched around the steering wheel like he’s afraid if he loosens his grip even a fraction, he’ll lose control. Or maybe lose himself. Goddess, have mercy. All of us are falling apart. The road ahead is nothing special. Trees. Fog. A stretch of asphalt that looks like every other stretch we’ve driven over the past hellish hours. But my chest burns like we’re barreling straight toward a cliff. “She’s here,” I say again, more to convince myself than him. Gavin exhales through his nose. “I know.”
The sun is warm on my skin. Not the artificial heat of lamps or humming lights, but real warmth. It’s the kind that seeps into bone and lingers. The sand presses between my toes, grainy and imperfect, and when I curl my feet, it shifts instead of resisting me. I laugh. The sound startles me at first. It’s not brittle. Not rehearsed. It comes from somewhere deep in my chest, rising naturally, effortlessly, like it’s always belonged there. “Be careful,” someone calls, amusement threaded through his voice. “You might trip and hurt yourself and none of us want that.” I turn, smiling without thinking. They’re all there. Gavin stands closest, sleeves rolled up, the ocean breeze tugging at his dark hair. His eyes soften when they land on me, something steady and grounding in the way he looks at me, like he’s anchoring himself just by knowing I’m here.
ALPHA LUCA My father doesn’t miss meetings. That’s the first thing that feels wrong. I’ve been standing in the private lounge for a little over fifteen minutes now, watching the same muted news reel loop on a marble wall, my phone heavy in my hand. Every second that passes tightens something in my chest, sharp and instinctive. Salvatore Moretti plans everything. If he says he’ll see me at nine, he sees me at nine. Unless– “Alpha.” Frederik’s voice cuts in quietly, but his posture is tense in a way I’ve only seen once before. Corporate crisis. Family emergency. Blood. “He left,” Frederik says. I turn swiftly. “Left where?” Frederik hesitates. That alone is an answer. “He boarded the jet an hour ago. Emergency clearance. No destination filed with the airport.” The world tilts. “An hour?” My voice drops. “That’s impossible. He told me–” “I know what he told you,” Frederik says carefully. “Which is why I checked and made me realize that we’ve been blindsided.” My pulse
ALPHA GAVIN The worst part isn’t knowing my father is alive. It’s feeling him everywhere. I notice it in the way my pulse won’t slow, no matter how carefully I breathe. In the way my blood hums under my skin like it’s listening for something I can’t hear. In the way every thought seems to circle the same question without ever landing. What did he make me for? Morning comes without rest. I sit on the edge of my bed, elbows on my knees, staring at my hands like they might confess something if I look long enough. They’re steady. Too steady. An Alpha’s hands. Hands bred for command, for violence, for survival. I wonder how much of that is really mine, and how much was somehow engineered by him before I ever took my first breath. Downstairs, the house moves softly around me. My mother’s voice drifts through the hallway, low and warm. Cabinets close gently. Coffee brews. Life continues in a way that feels almost obscene. I don’t belong in this quiet anymore. I pull my phone fro
Harley dropped me off at the house and mumbled something under his breath about having to do something else and that he’ll be back later. It was obvious he was just avoiding trying to face what happened in his car and honestly, I didn’t mind it because I couldn’t deal with it right now either.
It was a dream. But it didn’t feel like one. I was standing in a forest. It was bare, wintry, and quiet. The trees stretched high and skeletal, their branches like cracked fingers against a gray sky. A hush blanketed everything, not peaceful, but heavy. It was still. Too still. My breath c
I didn’t mean to run. Not really. I didn’t even pack a bag nor leave a note. Hell, I didn’t even put on shoes. All I knew was that something inside me snapped when Gavin said the bond could destroy me. All of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe so I ran. Down the stairs, out the side door, throug
A few days had passed since the Alpha showdown, and the boys, to their credit, had dialed back on the testosterone just enough to let me breathe. Which meant it was the perfect time to go back to work. Ambriz Animal Care was still my happy place even with the loud barking, unstoppable meows, sti







