جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

KAYE'S POVEthan’s expression had carved itself into something sharp. Not anger but something worse. Something that held questions he wasn’t sure he wanted answered.“Tell me what happened to your wrists,” he said.“I don’t know,” I whispered.The silver-colored veins beneath my skin pulsed faintly in the low basement light, like threads of moonlight trapped under flesh. I curled my hands into fists, but that only made the shimmer spread further up my forearms.“When did they appear?” he pressed.“Overnight. I didn’t feel anything. No pain, no burning, no itching.” I forced myself to look at him. “They were just… there.”The bond vibrated with his unease. He stepped closer, inspecting the veins carefully without touching me as if contact might accelerate whatever was happening. My wolf shifted restlessly, uncertain whether she wanted him closer or farther away.“We’re bringing Sarah,” he said.I tensed. Sarah Vance was the pack doctor, she is efficient, clinical, and respected. But the

KAYE'S POVThe packhouse felt like it was breathing too fast.Fear crept beneath the floorboards and hid in the rushed footfalls and clipped conversations that snapped shut whenever someone entered the room. Alex’s death had spread through the territory like smoke choking and impossible to escape. Wolves paced the hallways with stiff shoulders and flat eyes. Wolves snapped at each other over nothing. Wolves wanted someone to blame.And blame always rolled downhill.I kept my head low as I carried the stack of linens to the laundry room. My wolf crouched deep inside me, uneasy, pressing her claws into my ribs in a silent warning. The silver veins along my wrists pulsed faintly beneath my skin like tiny fault lines threatening to fracture. I hadn’t slept. Every time I closed my eyes, the mate bond tugged with Ethan’s tension, pulling at me like a current determined to drag me under.I pushed open the laundry room door.And stopped.Five wolves stood inside. Young. Broad-shouldered. Thei

KAYE'S POVMy ribs ached with a dullness that sat under everything, a constant throb that reminded me I was still made of flesh. The laundry room door was a sliver of shadow across the floor where the morning light leaked in.Scottie was there, kneeling beside me with a small satchel of medical supplies open between his knees. He moved with the steady, efficient care of someone who had bandaged more than pride and ego. His face was softer than it had been when he found me on the floor; there was none of the showy bravado the younger wolves displayed. He did not ask questions about why I had been upstairs. He only handed me a warm cloth and pressed it gently to my side.“Breathe slow,” he said. His voice was low and certain. “In through your nose. Out through your mouth.”I tried. It hurt, but the worst of the panic that had lodged in my throat the night before had thinned. The rawness of humiliation still burned under my skin, but there was a small thread of relief that someone had ch

The moment the terror hit me, it wasn’t from the bond, it was mine.The basement window was a narrow rectangle of glass near the ceiling, barely large enough for a wolf to look through. But something was out there. I couldn’t see it, couldn’t hear it, but every instinct inside me clawed upward like a trapped animal.My wolf froze first. Not in fear—no, this was different. She went still with a focus I hadn’t felt from her in years. Then she surged forward, sudden and fierce, like she’d just snapped awake.My breath caught as the silver veins on my forearms brightened. Not a glow exactly, but an illumination like moonlight pulling itself up under my skin.I stepped toward the window.The presence outside vanished.Not fled. Not retreated.Vanished.The yard fell silent again. A stillness pressed against the glass, as if the night were holding its breath. My wolf strained, nose lifted, searching for a scent. But the only thing I caught was damp and the faintest trace of something chemi

ETHAN'S POVThe moment I read Carly’s note, the world inside me changed shape. Every instinct sharpened until thought and action became the same thing. I mobilized the enforcers with a force that startled even the veterans. Orders flew through the packhouse, crisp and absolute. Patrols abandoned posts. Search teams gathered within minutes. Panic moved through the hallways like a second heartbeat.Lucas appeared at my side almost instantly. His voice held calm precision as he requested Carly’s phone records, location tracking, and last outgoing messages. His fingers flew across his tablet like he had done this kind of search a hundred times.“Her phone pinged one hour ago,” Lucas said. “A tower in neutral territory picked it up. She is two hours away, maybe less if she kept moving.”“Get me the exact location,” I said.He tapped, scrolled, zoomed in. A red dot flashed on the screen. “It is an industrial block. Abandoned. No known ownership claims. No businesses are alive there.”It fel