The Blackthorn Pack was silent. Not the usual disciplined hum of Alpha control, not the low murmurs of conversations. Silence stretched across the manor like a predator ready to strike.
Alan's boots pounded against the stone corridors as he stormed through the halls. His eyes, amber and blazing, scanned every shadow. Wolves scattered at the sound, ears flat, tails tucked. He barely saw them. He barely saw anything.
All he could feel was the bond — taut, quivering, broken.
Julia.
The mate bond, once steady and familiar, now thrashed against him like a trapped wolf. Panic, pain, and anger collided inside him. He could feel the emptiness inside her, the absence that wasn't just her — it was something smaller, softer… something he was supposed to protect.
Alan's chest burned. Every instinct screamed. She is hurt. She is lost. And I cannot reach her.
He had been gone for hours, fighting rogue packs along the northern border. He had returned early, expecting exhaustion, expecting complaints, expecting Julia to be lying on the floor in some dramatic fainting act. But what he hadn't expected was the silence. The heaviness. The void where she should have been.
"Where… where is she?" he growled, his voice trembling with fury. The Alpha of Blackthorn was shaking — a wolf teetering on the edge of a collapse he had never allowed himself to feel.
A guard stepped forward nervously, hands shaking. "Alpha… she… she left the manor. She… she went across the border."
Alan's amber eyes narrowed, sharp enough to cut steel. "The border? How long ago?"
"Just before your return, Alpha."
Alan slammed his fist against the wall, shattering the stone with a roar that echoed across the halls. Wolves fell to their knees, trembling. My Luna… The bond screamed his name, pleading, quivering. And then… nothing. Silence.
Alan stumbled to the study, mind racing, heart hammering. No. She wouldn't… not yet. Not like this…
He thought of her last days — her exhaustion, her trembling hands, her pale cheeks. And then he remembered Olivia, the twisted smile on her face. She said something…
The realization hit him like a storm. A punch straight to his chest. She… she took the child.
"No…" Alan whispered, voice hoarse. His wolf roared inside him, unbridled, wild, desperate. No! My pup! My child! My mate!
The world seemed to shatter. Every command he had over his pack, every fear he had instilled in rivals, every Alpha's control — gone. Gone because one thing had slipped through his fingers: Julia. His mate. His mate's child.
He could not stop the shaking. He could not stop the madness. His wolf clawed at him from the inside, desperate to hunt, to kill, to destroy the world that had dared to take what was his.
"Find her!" he screamed at the nearest pack guard. "Every wolf! Every scout! Across every border! Bring her back!"
The guards bolted. They had no choice. They could feel the danger radiating from him. Alan was no longer just an Alpha — he was a force of nature, unpredictable, unstoppable, untethered.
He didn't wait. He ran, storming out into the night, the storm above echoing the storm inside him. Rain lashed his face, soaking his coat, soaking his fury, soaking his grief. His senses — heightened, honed, supernatural — pulled him toward the faintest trace of her scent.
It was faint. Faint because she had covered herself, hidden herself. But no Luna could hide completely. Not from her mate.
Alan's wolf surged. I will find you, Julia. You cannot escape me. You belong to me, and you will always belong to me.
Hours passed. Trees became shadows, shadows became indistinguishable shapes. His mind became a blur of anger, of regret, of obsession. How could I let this happen? How could I… fail my Luna? Fail my child?
He stumbled into the remnants of a forest where he had once taken her on a walk, where her laughter had filled the air, light and carefree. He fell to his knees in the mud, hands gripping the earth, his breath ragged and wet. She was mine…
Alan's wolf, more primal than ever, shook him violently. She is mine… she cannot be taken… she cannot…
Tears mingled with the rain. Tears he had never shed in front of anyone. Tears for a mate he had broken. Tears for a child he had never held. Tears for a bond he had let shatter through pride, cruelty, and neglect.
"Julia!" he roared to the empty forest, voice cracking, echoing across the trees. "Julia! You cannot leave me! You are mine! You are mine! You are mine!"
And in the echo of his own desperation, Alan realized the truth. It wasn't just the child. It wasn't just Olivia's schemes. It wasn't just her fainting or her rebellion.
It was her leaving him.
Julia had made a choice. The ultimate choice. And he had been too blind, too arrogant, too consumed by his own need to control, to notice.
For the first time, Alan understood what it meant to lose completely.
The Alpha of Blackthorn — feared, revered, untouchable — had lost his mate, lost his child, lost the Luna he had claimed with fire and blood.
He rose, shaking, mud and rain dripping from him, fury turning into something darker. Not just grief, not just rage… obsession.
He would find her. He would bring her back. Not because she wanted it. Not because she would forgive him. But because she was his. And he had learned, too late, that he could not live without her.
Alan turned his gaze to the horizon, amber eyes gleaming like molten gold in the stormy night. His wolf growled low and relentlessly, echoing his own heart.
"I don't care where you are, Julia," he whispered into the storm. "I don't care what you've done. You cannot escape me. Not now. Not ever."
And with that, he vanished into the darkness, leaving destruction and desperation in his wake, his mind consumed with one thought:My Luna. My child. My mistake. And I will have them both… or die trying.