Killian POV
My chest feels like someone's stabbing me with a silver knife.
I'm standing in my driveway, watching Elena's car disappear into the night with my wife inside. The taillights vanish around the corner, and suddenly I can't breathe.
My wolf is howling. Screaming. Clawing at the inside of my skull like he's trying to break free.
MATE LEAVING. STOP HER. GO AFTER HER NOW.
"Shut up," I growl at my wolf. "She'll come back. She always comes back."
But even as I say it, something feels wrong. Different. Final.
My phone buzzes. It's Marcus, my Beta.
"Alpha, we have a problem. Multiple problems, actually—"
"Not now, Marcus."
"Sir, this can't wait. Our security system just went completely offline. All of it. Cameras, alarms, firewalls—everything's gone. And our bank accounts are locked. I can't access any pack funds."
My blood goes cold. "What?"
"It happened five minutes ago. Everything crashed at once. It's like someone just... erased us."
Nora.
Phantom_N0va.
"She didn't," I breathe. "She wouldn't—"
My phone explodes with notifications. Emails. Texts. Alerts. I scroll through them with shaking hands.
From the Alpha Council: "Evidence of embezzlement received. Explain yourself."
From the Silver City tech company: "Deal canceled. We don't work with criminals."
From three rival packs: "Interesting information we received tonight. Thanks for sharing."
She did it. She actually did it.
Nora destroyed me.
Vanessa appears at my side, wrapped in my jacket. "Baby, what's wrong? Why did you run after her?"
I can't answer. I'm staring at my phone, watching my entire life crumble in real-time.
"Killian?" Vanessa's voice gets sharp. "Hello? I'm talking to you."
"She's Phantom_N0va," I whisper.
"What?"
"Nora. My wife. She's Phantom_N0va. The hacker. The one we tried to hire for two million dollars last month." I look at Vanessa. "That was her. The whole time."
Vanessa's face goes pale. "That's impossible. Nora's an idiot. She can barely use email—"
"It was an act. All of it. The ugly clothes. The glasses. Being stupid and weak." My wolf is still howling, getting louder. "She was hiding. And we never saw it."
"So what?" Vanessa crosses her arms. "She's gone now. That's what we wanted. Now we can finally be together without that pathetic woman in the way."
That word—pathetic—makes my wolf snarl.
She was never pathetic. We were blind. We were fools.
"Killian, are you listening?" Vanessa snaps her fingers in my face. "I said we should celebrate. She's finally gone. We won."
Won? This doesn't feel like winning.
My phone rings. It's the Alpha Council Chairman.
"Blackthorn," he growls. "You have exactly twenty-four hours to explain these embezzlement charges, or you're removed as Alpha. Understood?"
"Sir, those documents are fake—"
"Then prove it. Twenty-four hours." He hangs up.
I call Marcus back. "Get our tech team on this NOW. I need them to restore everything Nora deleted."
"Already tried, sir. She didn't just delete things. She... I don't know how to explain it. She destroyed them. Burned them. There's nothing left to restore. It's like she nuked our entire digital infrastructure."
"There has to be backups—"
"She got those too. All of them. Every single backup, every redundancy, everything. Sir, she was our security administrator for five years. She knew where everything was hidden."
Because I trusted her with it. Because I thought she was too stupid to be a threat.
Goddess, I'm an idiot.
"How long to rebuild?" I ask.
"Weeks. Maybe months. And that's if we can find someone as good as she was." Marcus pauses. "Sir, how did we not know she could do this?"
"Because I told her to be boring," I say quietly. "I told her to be simple and plain and forgettable. And she did exactly what I asked."
I hang up and stare at my house. Our house. Except it was never really ours, was it? It was mine. She was just living in it. Existing in the spaces I allowed her.
The mate bond in my chest twists painfully. It's been weak for years—so weak I barely felt it. I thought that was normal. Thought that's just how it worked when you weren't really in love with your mate.
But now it's screaming. Dying. Pulling apart like threads unraveling.
"Killian." Vanessa grabs my arm. "Stop thinking about her. She's gone. It's done. Now we can finally have the life we always wanted."
I look at her. Really look at her.
She's beautiful. She always has been. Her red hair, her perfect smile, her confidence. Everything Nora wasn't.
Except...
"How long have you been giving Nora special tea?" I ask suddenly.
Vanessa's eyes flicker. Just for a second. "What?"
"The herbal tea. You brought it to her every morning. Said it would help with her energy."
"I was being nice—"
"Nora said her wolf got weak three years ago. That's when you started bringing the tea."
"So?" Vanessa's voice gets defensive. "Maybe she was just naturally weak—"
"And the lotion. You gave her special lotion for her skin."
"Killian, why are you interrogating me about skincare products?"
"Because Nora said something before she left. She said I didn't know her at all. That she'd been hiding." I step closer to Vanessa. "What did you do?"
"Nothing! I didn't—"
"WHAT. DID. YOU. DO."
My Alpha command rolls out. Vanessa's eyes go wide. She tries to resist, but pack law is clear—wolves can't lie to their Alpha under direct command.
"Just... small spells," she whispers. "To make her weaker. More tired. So she'd seem less capable—"
My wolf explodes with rage. "You used magic on my mate?"
"She was in the way! You and I were supposed to be together, Killian. Since we were teenagers. Then your father forced you to marry some random nobody—"
"She wasn't nobody. She was my MATE. The Moon Goddess chose her for me."
"The Moon Goddess made a mistake!" Vanessa shouts. "I'm the one who knows you. Who understands you. Who's perfect for you. Not some weak little girl who cried every time you raised your voice—"
I grab Vanessa's arm. Not hard. But firm. "What else did you do?"
"Nothing—"
"TELL ME."
She breaks. "The blocking spell. On her shifting. I made it so she couldn't transform for two years. Made her look defective in front of the pack. And the... the pheromone dampener. So you couldn't smell her properly. So the mate bond wouldn't work right."
The world tilts sideways.
All of it. Every moment I thought Nora was weak, inadequate, wrong for me—it was manufactured. Created by Vanessa's magic.
"You manipulated me," I breathe. "For years. You made me think—"
"I saved you from a terrible match!" Vanessa's crying now. "She was wrong for you, Killian. I'm right for you. You know I am—"
I drop her arm like it burns.
"Get out of my pack."
"What?"
"You heard me. Get out. Now. Before I do something I regret."
"But Killian, I love you—"
"You don't love me. You love the idea of being Luna. Of having power." My voice is cold. "You used dark magic on my mate. Made her sick. Made her weak. Turned my own daughter against her."
"Mira loves me more—"
"BECAUSE YOU CURSED HER MOTHER!" My roar echoes through the night. "You poisoned everything. Our marriage. My daughter. My pack. And I was too blind to see it."
Vanessa's face twists with rage. "Fine. FINE. But you'll regret this. You'll come crawling back to me when you realize Nora's not coming back. When you're dying from the broken mate bond—"
"I already am dying," I say quietly. "I just didn't notice until now."
Vanessa storms off toward her car. I don't watch her leave.
Instead, I pull out my phone and call Nora's number.
It goes straight to voicemail. Her voice—soft, uncertain, nothing like the cold woman who destroyed my systems—says: "Hi, you've reached Nora. Leave a message."
"Nora." My voice cracks. "I know you won't listen to this. But I need you to know... I'm sorry. For everything. I was wrong. About all of it. Please... please come home. We can fix this."
I hang up.
Marcus appears beside me. "Alpha? What are your orders?"
"Find her," I say. "I don't care what it takes. Find my mate."
Marcus nods and walks away.
I stand in my driveway alone, feeling the mate bond dying in my chest, and finally understand what I've lost.
My phone buzzes one more time. An email from an unknown sender.
I open it.
It's a single photograph.
Nora, sitting in a car. Her hair is down, flowing and beautiful. No glasses. No ugly cardigan. She's stunning. Absolutely breathtaking.
And her eyes—her eyes are glowing silver. Bright, ancient, powerful silver.
Below the photo, one line of text:
"You threw away a queen, Alpha Blackthorn. I wonder what she really is?"