تسجيل الدخولMaddison’s POV I kept staring at the name on the paper. Clara Wells. It meant nothing to me, yet something about it made the hairs on my arms rise. Damian had already taken the note back, his expression unreadable as he studied the handwriting. “Do you know her?” I asked. “No.” “Then why would someone leave her name with the guard?” “That’s what we’re going to find out.” He slipped the note into his pocket and turned toward Rowan. “Find everything you can about Clara Wells. Where she lives, who she’s connected to, when she left Crescent, all of it.” Rowan nodded. “Already working on it.” He started walking towards the door, then stopped. “There’s one more thing.” Damian looked at him. “The other missing guard hasn’t been found.” A quiet tension settled over the kitchen. “How long has he been missing now?” Damian asked. “Almost twelve hours.” “Keep searching.” Rowan left. I watched the door close behind him before looking back at Damian. “Do you
Damian’s POVI couldn’t sleep that night.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the empty patrol vehicles sitting near the eastern gate. No blood. No signs of a struggle. Nothing that explained where two trained warriors could have disappeared to without a trace.The words in my father’s journal kept running through my mind.“Trust no one wearing the council crest”.I had spent most of my life believing my father died because he made enemies as Alpha. I had accepted that explanation because it was easier than questioning everything that happened before his death but now I wasn’t so sure.A soft knock came at the office door.I closed the journal.“Come in.”Maddison stepped inside.She was wearing one of my hoodies.I stared at her for a second longer than I should have.She noticed.“What?”“Nothing.”She looked down at herself.“Your hoodie is comfortable.”“I can see that.”She narrowed her eyes.“Are you complaining?”“No.”“Good.”She walked toward my desk and sat on the edge of it.
Maddison’s POVI stared at the page for so long that the letters began to blur.My father’s name was written in the same faded ink as Adrian Cross’s, carefully written in the visitor’s ledger as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world.It wasn’t.My father had never spoken about Crescent Pack unless it was necessary. He kept to himself, worked quietly, and believed problems were solved through patience instead of power. Even after I became Fernando’s mate, he rarely visited the pack house unless there was an official summon.So why was his name here?And why had he visited so many years before I ever met Fernando?“There has to be a mistake,” I whispered.Rowan shook his head. “I checked the original ledger twice. The handwriting is genuine.”I reached for the file with trembling fingers. There were four entries in total, spread across several years. Each visit had been approved by the same person.Lisa.My stomach tightened.The room felt smaller than it had a moment ago.
Damian’s POVThe flashlight disappeared.For a split second, the archive was swallowed by complete darkness. The only sounds were hurried footsteps echoing through the narrow aisles and the faint rustle of old documents as someone brushed against the shelves.“Rowan,” I called quietly.“I’m on your left.”“Henry?”“Still here.”The stranger had already reached the exit.I took off after him, weaving between rows of towering cabinets that held decades of Crescent Pack records. By the time I burst through the archive door, I caught only a glimpse of a dark figure disappearing around the corner of the administration building.“Stop!”The command echoed across the courtyard, but the man never looked back.He was fast—not like an ordinary wolf trying to escape, but like someone who already knew every inch of the grounds.I followed him through the empty streets of Crescent Pack. The morning sun had barely risen, leaving the roads deserted except for a few early patrols who stepped aside in
Maddison’s POVNobody spoke.Liam’s small finger was still pointing at the television. The image remained frozen on the screen—a grainy shot of the man Henry had called Adrian Cross.“I know him.”His quiet voice echoed through the room. Katie slowly looked at me, and suddenly it felt like all the air had been sucked from my lungs.I knelt in front of Liam, gently brushing his curls away from his forehead. “Sweetheart…” I kept my voice as calm as I could. “When did you see him?”Liam frowned, trying to remember. “A long time ago.”“At the pack house?”He nodded. “Yes.”“Was Daddy there?”He nodded again.“And Grandma?”“She was crying.”The room fell into a heavy silence.I looked at Damian. His expression had changed. He wasn’t watching Liam anymore. His eyes had that distant look they always got whenever he was piecing together a puzzle.“Liam,” Damian said gently, making sure his voice wouldn’t frighten him, “do you remember why Grandma was crying?”Liam shook his head. “No.”He lo
Damian’s POV Nobody moved. The three masked men stood at the entrance of the mausoleum, cutting off the only way out. Their weapons were raised, their movements disciplined. They weren’t ordinary rogues. They knew exactly what they were doing. The man in the middle smiled beneath his mask. “You’ve come farther than we expected, Alpha Damian.” His voice echoed through the chamber. Rowan shifted beside me without taking his eyes off them. “Want me to count them?” “There are more outside,” I said quietly. Henry glanced at me. “How do you know?” “I can hear them.” My wolf had picked up their heartbeats the moment the first man spoke. They were five in total. No… Seven. Four outside. Three in front of us. This wasn’t an ambush thrown together overnight. They had been waiting. The leader tilted his head. “You’re observant.” “You’ve been following us since we left the penthouse.” He chuckled. “We’ve been following you much longer than that.” A silence settled over the
Maddison’s POVThe silence after Elias disappeared didn’t feel like peace. It felt like pressure building inside a sealed room.Damian didn’t speak much after that night. He just moved around and people moved with him.By morning, the penthouse had changed. Security at every exit. Guards I didn’t r
Damian’s POVThe hall erupted into chaos.Warriors ran toward the exits. Voices overlapped. Questions flew from every direction.“The southern warehouse?”“How bad is it?”“Was anyone inside?”For the first time that night, the investigation was no longer the center of attention.The fire was.Fern
Maddison’s POVThe folder suddenly felt heavier than it looked.Every eye in the hall was fixed on it.Katie stood near the front now, her fingers wrapped tightly around the worn brown file. She looked nervous, but determined.Fernando was watching her closely.Too closely.The kind of look a preda
Maddison’s POVI sat quietly after Damian left the room.The silence around me should have been comforting, but it wasn’t.It felt empty.Cold.My fingers tightened around the blanket as I stared at nothing. My mind refused to stop replaying everything over and over again.Liam running past me.Lia







