Chapter 006

Evander's Point of View

I have a child. A daughter I didn't know existed for over five years, because Amma decided that I didn’t deserve to know that.

Five years of thinking my mate was dead somewhere, or worse, hiding from me because she wanted to be. Five years of thinking I lost my fucking mate, yet all these years she'd had my child. She was someone else's territory, under a name that wasn't hers. May Naya was hers, but Edwards? No fucking way.

I'm still turning that over when Kian's voice cuts through it.

"I believe this could be a good opportunity for us. Don't you agree, Alpha Evander?"

I hadn't been listening. I'd been running the math on what Amma had taken from me without asking, over and over, while this man talked about pack trade routes or whatever it was. His pack house is smaller than mine, older, the kind of place that's been rebuilt around the same bones for generations. I've been sitting in this chair for twenty minutes, and I couldn't tell you a single term he's proposed.

"I think so," I say, because it costs me nothing to agree with something I didn't hear. What I actually want to know is whether this asshole has any interest in Amma beyond pack duties.

"I stopped by the hospital." I shift in my chair, studying him. "I assume your beta filled you in."

Alpha Kian’s gaze settles on me, giving nothing away. “I understand there’s history between you two,” he says, choosing each word with care.

The fuck? History? She’s still my fucking mate.

"She’s still part of my pack." I keep my eyes on him. "You’re going to facilitate her leaving with me."

"Forgive me, but that’s not how this works." He folds his hands and leans back, composed as a king on his throne. "Dr. Edwards has the right to make her own decisions."

"She’s a mated Luna." I let the silence stretch. "Tell me you understand what it means to harbor her here."

"Of course I understand. She still has the right to choose." He lets the words hang between us. "Forgive me if I don’t share your urgency. Is that all? My men can show you to your guest room."

"I’m taking her with me." I don’t raise my voice. I don’t need to. "Cooperate, and this stays simple."

"I don’t know how things work in your pack." Boredom edges into his voice. "In mine, no one is forced into anything. Mated or not. If Dr. Edwards chooses to stay, it’s my duty to let her."

He says it like a man reciting a rule he's recited before, comfortable with it, like this isn't the first time a mate has come through his territory looking for someone who ran. That thought sits wrong with me. How many times has he done this? How many women has he let disappear into his pack under some new name, protected by a rule that sounds noble right up until it's inconvenient for the person asking.

"Then you’re standing between my Luna and me."

"No. I'm keeping a woman who wants to stay here from being taken against her will. That's always been this pack's rule."

I hold his gaze until the room goes still, then rise. Slowly. My jaw aches from the pressure of keeping my wolf leashed.

"We’ll finish this later." It isn’t a promise. It’s a verdict. I turn for the door just as urgency tears through the pack link.

‘Wayne?’ I recognize my gamma’s wolf at once, even through the link.

‘Alpha. They’re gone.’

‘What the fuck do you mean, gone?’ The words rip through the link before I can rein them in.

‘I was told they'd taken her for a scan. I waited outside. When it took too long, I went in — the room's empty.’

‘Is her doctor still there?’

‘The kid's doctor? Yes.’

‘I'm on my way.’

I sever the link and surge to my feet. The chair scrapes back, sharp enough to make Kian’s men reach for the weapons they think I haven’t noticed.

"What’s going on?" Troy, my third, matches my stride as I storm out of the pack house. Gravel grinds beneath our boots.

"Someone just fucked me over." That's all I give him. My head is somewhere else, running through every second since I walked out of that hospital room, trying to find the gap where someone decided to move her. Kian's beta knew where I was. Kian's beta knew when I'd be sitting in a room down the hall, out of the way.

It takes five minutes to cross from the pack house to the hospital, and every one of them feels like an hour. The streetlights blur past. My wolf is close to the surface the entire way, pressing against my ribs as if he did in that hospital room, except now there's no confusion under it, just fury.

"Where is she?" I walk into the hospital without breaking stride. I don’t shout. The corridor falls quiet anyway. Wayne is already waiting, and one look at his face tells me he has nothing good to report.

"Over there."

I stalk toward the omega doctor. She spots me coming and slips her hands into her coat pockets, as unhurried as if she has all the time in the world.

"You have one chance to answer me. Where is she?"

She gives a long sigh. "I don’t know. And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you." She jerks her chin toward Wayne. "Now call off your guard dog. I have patients."

She moves to pass me. Before she can take a second step, I close the distance and lock a hand around her throat.

"Listen carefully, Doc." I feel her pulse kick beneath my thumb and keep my grip steady. "You mistook my patience for permission. It wasn’t. Tell me where my Luna is, and this ends here."

Her eyes go wide. I can feel her pulse jump under my palm, fast and hard, but she doesn't crack. I'll give her that much. Her face stays straight.

"I don't know where she is."

Footsteps pound toward us. Kian didn’t waste time following. His scent reaches me before his voice does, cedar and old rain.

"Alpha Evander." Kian’s voice cracks across the corridor, carrying a growl of its own. "Let go of my doctor."

I don’t turn. I don’t loosen my grip. The doctor’s pulse hammers beneath my palm while the corridor holds its breath. Behind Kian, Wayne shifts his weight, ready to move on my word. Troy goes dead silent beside me, which tells me exactly how close he thinks I am to crossing a line none of us can uncross.

"Someone here is going to tell me where my daughter and my Luna are." My voice drops, and every wolf in the corridor goes still. "You have until I reach that stairwell. After that, I stop asking, and I find everyone who helped them leave."

The doctor’s gaze flicks past me toward the hallway, landing for half a second on the stairwell exit half-hidden behind a supply cart. Barely a twitch, but enough. I’ve spent years reading people who don’t want to give me anything, and she just gave me everything I need.

I lean in until she has nowhere else to look. “Last chance, Doc. Where are my wife and daughter?”

“She doesn’t know.” Kian’s command sharpens. “Let her go.”

“My wife,” I repeat, each word precise. “My daughter. You will tell me where they are.”

“I don’t know where they are.” Her pulse stutters beneath my hand.

“You looked at the stairwell.” I angle my head toward it. “So now you can tell me, or you can watch me follow that answer through every door in this pack.”

“I don’t know!” she shouts.

“Wrong choice.” I let my wolf surge to the surface. No one is keeping me from my daughter.