All Chapters of Shifted Fate: The Alpha Begs Me Back: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

KAELA’S POV“Fuck,” I hissed, hovering my hand over the pile of ashes that was still warm. The glow of the embers was just beginning to fade. “We just missed them.”“Do you think they know that we’re on their trail?” Zayne asked.I shrugged, dropping onto a log. I winced when moisture seeped into my pants. “Who knows with Embermoors. They’re as unpredictable as the weather.”“I thought you witches could control the weather,” Zayne said, sitting next to me.My breath caught when his shoulder brushed against my bare arm, and a slight shiver ran through me. He smelled so good, and it was all I could do not to lean into him.If willpower was a muscle, then mine was toned as fuck with how much I’d been exercising it when it came to Zayne. It was absolute torture being this close to my mate and not being able to…do anything.Over the last couple of weeks that we’d been searching for Kade’s sister, I’d exercised restraint that should earn me some kind of medal. Zayne and I slept in motels—al

ZAYNE’S POVTwo days.Kaela had lain on the bed, unmoving, for two fucking days while I slowly lost my mind.I hadn’t been able to sleep or eat or do anything other than watch her, desperately praying to the goddess for her to wake up.Something hot and insistent vibrated in my chest—a strange fear I didn’t think I’d ever felt before, not even during the countless times Andrea and the twins had been in danger.It burned hotter the longer Kaela stayed unconscious.I cursed myself for not stopping her sooner. She’d been overexerting herself for a while now, and I let myself be blind to it because I wanted to find Nora as soon as possible.Guilt ate at me. Kaela had no business being wrapped up in all this; she was only here because of me, because of our bond.And what right did I have to ask all this of her? To put her in this position? I should have—“You’re going to b

BELLA’S POVThese days, it was hard to tell dreams apart from reality.Mainly because I spent a lot of time sleeping, hiding from the harsh realities of the real world.Besides, my dreams lately…. They weren’t so awful.This particular one was bathed in a soft, golden glow—the kind of dream that wraps around you like a warm blanket in winter.I was curled up on a chaise lounge, staring at the sunset as it cast orange, pink, and gold hues on the surface of the lake in the middle of a picturesque forest.A pair of arms tightened around me, and I snuggled into a warm, firm chest—Nico’s.His steady heartbeat pounded in my ears as we watched the sun descend in the sky, and an odd feeling bloomed in my chest—contentment. Happiness.“It’s so beautiful,” I murmured, enraptured with the way the light danced on the surface of the lake like a pool of lava.Nico kissed my hair. “It’s nothing compared to you.”I laughed, turning to him. He seemed to glow under the light of the sunset. “That’s so c

NICO’S POVSleeping was hard.It wasn’t that I wasn’t tired—I almost always was. It was that I couldn’t shut my mind off.It kept running around in circles, doing loops and backflips, ultimately around one topic—Bella.Ever since she’d awoken and found me by her bedside, she’d been…different.I’d moved back to the factory staff quarters after what happened, and I’d expected antagonism, braced myself for it.But Bella seemed…settled in my presence.It was like all the hate and anger she’d thrown my way when she’d screamed at me to reject her had simply vanished.She spent most of her days in her room, sleeping, and I respected her need for solitude and distance. When she did come out, though, it seemed that she sought me out.She sat with me during meal times, and even though we didn’t talk, the silence between us wasn’t tense. It was comfortable.I worried about her, about the episode she’d had regarding her ordeals. But she hadn’t brought it up, hadn’t shown much sign of distress oth

ANDREA’S POV“Alphas, we have another one.”I sucked in a breath, fighting the urge to scream. Gina stood hesitantly at the door, clutching the landline like it might bite her. Or I might.In hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have told the packs we visited to contact us if they had any leads. And we definitely shouldn't have set up a hotline for the general public to report suspicious disappearances.Since then, we’d been buried in a flood of reports—ranging from “I think the guy I’m dating plans to kidnap me” to “My ex isn’t responding to my texts. She must have been kidnapped.”Some were credible—real cases that matched the patterns we were investigating.The headache was sorting through the noise, trying to filter what was serious and what was garbage.“Give it here,” Kade said, extending a hand toward Gina.I gave him a grateful smile a