Chapter Five.

Ray's POV

I am restless as I march into Crescent Pack territory with a speed like a thundercloud ready to burst. The kind that no one sees coming after the lightning.

I push the heavy mohogamy doors that were twice my hieght with a big push making my way inside. The heavy doors slam behind me with a sharp crack and my boots hit the marble floor in steady, punishing thuds.

Leo, my wolf, growls low in my chest—restless, wild, snarling for release. The hallway is still and, though all standing and passing gaze is on me. No one dares cross me. They knew better than to approach me. It is clear. The rage in my eyes.

They could seel the heat rolling off my skin, the fury in my emerald-green eyes. One wrong move, and Leo will snap, tearing them to tiny pieces.

I’m glad Robbert was fast. He traced the men from the hotel CCTV footage. I tipped the security guard well, but it was worth it.

Driving here was agony for both Leo and I. The car felt slow. My hands itched to shift, to run on four legs so that I can get to the lady whose memory is forever in my mind even when I close it fast enough before anything happens to her. but I couldn’t risk breaking our pack’s rule—no shifting in daylight near humans. So I sat. Waited. Boiled.

But now I’m here, in the confinement where everyone is a wolf, And I’m done waiting.

I let Leo take over. My eyes shift—brighter, sharper. My steps gain weight. The hallway changes. Every guard in the hallway stands straighter. Maids and warriors alike pause mid-step, drawn to the magnetic force and fierceness of my presence. My scent—my energy, pine, and dominance—floods the corridor like wildfire.

Then, a few steps more, the sob catches me first.

Flynn. That should be her. Thanks to Robbert I got to know her name too.

Her soft crying echoes through the stone. It guts me. Leo claws at my skin.

Without wasting anytime, I storm toward the noise, heart pounding. I shove the council doors open with a brutal kick that splits the silence. The heavy wood cracks against the wall. Immediately, every head turns, and the time stops ticking.

I scan the entire room in a minute.

I see her, my mate, our mate. She’s kneeling. Her head bowed, shoulders shaking.

A sharp pain pierce my heart. Even though I didnt want to, I had to be calm and that made me more furious.

“Who the hell are you?”A middle aged woman sneers, her eyes lighting up as she speaks with false authority.

I don’t answer. My eyes are locked on Flynn. Her face. Her pain. Her scent—salt and blood and crushed lavender—wraps around me. Leo howls inside me, begging to be fully set free but I resist. I know what that would mean and the result it will bring.

I step forward. My gaze sternly at the guards holding her. “Touch her one more time,” I say, voice low and deadly, “and I’ll rip your hearts out.”

The silence is thick enough to choke on.

“And who the hell are you!” a man who I recognize from the video roars. “Guards! What the heck are y’all waiting for.” He adds, his red with fury.

Immediately, acting on the instruction, three of them rush me. I let out a wryly smile. “Tsk! Mistake.”

I barely break a sweat. In seconds, they’re on the floor, groaning.

That’s when they understand.

I am not here for games.

The others back away. The elders shuffle, uncertain. Flynn sways where she kneels. Her eyes meet mine. Red, puffy, and drenched in shame—but when her eyes sees me, there’s something else.

Hope.

Just as our gaze meets, she collapses.

I cross the room in three strides and catch her before her head hits the floor. Her body folds into mine like it belongs there. I lift her, holding her close.

“I’ve got you,” I whisper, my voice almost inaudible to the entire crowd.

Her hair brushes my cheek. Her scent seeps into my lungs like warmth after a storm. That instant I swore beneath my breath to make sure they all paid one way or the other for making her cry.

“Yes! I remember now. You were at the club too. She… she…was in your bed that night,” a girl says behind me—young, cocky, venom in her voice.

Celine.

The name rings in my memory. Flynn called it when I first stumbled into the room we met, into her life. I turn and growl loudly at her. It rips through the room like a blade. She flinches almost falling to the floor if not for the obnoxious looking man that catches her right on time.

Giving them both a snarl as the air cracks in silence, I turn towards the door holding Flynn whose face was buried against my chest very close and delicate.

As I step out the council room, I hear the guy and lady shout something in the background, more like a curse at me but, I couldn't care less. For what they did to Flynn, for sure they were going to pay but not now.

Let them bark. I’ll make them scream later.

—

I shoulder the door to my room open, still cradling Flynn gently in my arms.

I stare at her, she’s unconscious, her face pale and worn, and her hair clings to her cheeks, damp with sweat and tears.

Leo, my wolf, growls softly as he stares at her too. His heart weighing like a stone in my chest. He is still snarling, wanting to tear into shreds the hands that touched his mated wolf."

I lay her down carefully on my bed which is covered with a soft lush white fur blanket.

The lights are low, casting soft shadows across the velvet bedding. Golden lamplight bathes the space in warmth. Flynn stirs but doesn’t wake. Her lips are pale, her skin clammy.

Smoothing her hair away from her forehead, I bent over to adjust her head slightly on the pillow. Her breath softly touches my skin and a mix of the memories from our first night flashes back into my mind.

I gnash my teeth and tighten my fingers.

We failed her.

“I’ll make them pay,” I whisper, assuring Leo and reassuring myself as I brush her hair back. “One by one, they will all kneel before her.”

Just then, the second door to my room creaks open. A maid quietly enters, hands folds, breaking the thoughts in my head with her words.

“My Lord,” she says. “The spare room is ready.”

I nod, turning my eyes finally away from Flynn but the peeping sound, a sharp buzz against the wood of the antique nightstand from my phone distracts me.

I narrow my eyes, trying to get the grasp of the caller ID as I glance at the screen.

It is John, Robbert's partner.

I answer, my heart, calm and relaxed now.

His voice is breathless. “We found it. The file. The one you’ve been chasing for three years. The Bloodmoon archives. It exists.”

I sit straighter. My chest tightens. “You’re sure?”

“Positive. The file that can bring down and make every corrupt leader pay for their deeds.”

“Okay…”

“One more thing.”

“What?”

“The woman you described. The woman in your dreams. We found a picture of her in one of the folders. She…”

“Hello, John…he…”

Instantly my wolf let out a soft growl and I knew something was off.