Brian’s POV
Empty.
The bed was untouched. The room was still. Scattered on the floor was untouched food, and the lingering scent of her hung in the air, faint but fresh. My eyes scanned every corner, my senses on high alert.
She wasn’t here.
A low growl rumbled in my chest, my wolf stirring with rage. Cara had been here, but she hadn’t been gone for long.
How could she have escaped? My orders had been clear. She wasn’t supposed to leave. She wasn’t supposed to run.
But she had.
I clenched my fists, anger surging through me. Gareth had lied. He’d said she was safe, that she was suffering in the cottage, but now she was gone.
Where the hell is that damn Omega?
I stormed out of the cottage, my mind racing with a thousand possibilities. Has someone helped her? Or had she foolishly gone off on her own, thinking she could hide from me?
Foolish girl.
The emergency bell rang again, but I barely heard it over the sound of my own fury. The entire pack would feel my wrath if I didn’t find her. No one defied me, not even Cara.
My wolf roared within me, demanding I find her, demanding retribution. She wouldn’t get far. And when I found her, she would learn what it meant to defy the Rogue King.
Garreth’s footsteps echoed as he ran up to me. The first words out of my mouth were, “Where is Cara?”
He stood frozen, dumbstruck as he looked into the empty cottage. “Alpha, there’s something wrong. The alarm… It was a ploy. A distraction.”
“What do you mean, a ploy?” I asked, barely concealing my rage as I fought to think straight.
“The emergency bell was rung to distract us. We were attacked by the Red Knife pack. I found this on my way here,” he said, holding out a torn piece of fabric bearing the Red Knife pack’s emblem.
“How dare they touch the lion’s tail,” I growled, my voice low and threatening.
“And Alpha, that’s not all,” Garreth hesitated. “I don’t think their goal was to wage war against us.”
“Then why would they sign their death warrant?” I demanded.
“I believe their purpose was to kidnap Cara. The attack was just a distraction. They didn’t put up much of a fight when we retaliated. They fled almost immediately.”
I saw red. Hearing that Cara might have been kidnapped by the enemy filled me with an uncontrollable rage. A deep rumble grew inside me. Asher, my wolf, stirred awake after ten years of silence.
“We will hunt them down and kill them all,” Asher growled within me, his voice more dangerous than I remembered. His first words in a decade, and they intruded into my thoughts with a force that made it hard to think straight. Out of fury, I punched a nearby tree, splintering it into pieces.
“Alpha… your wolf has…” Gareth was speechless, shocked to sense Asher’s return.
I stood there, trying to gather myself, feeling a surge of strength I hadn’t experienced in years. With Asher awake, my blood boiled, and my power felt limitless, I felt finally alive.
“Our mate,” Asher said, jolting me out of my shock. His feelings of anxiousness and desperation to be with Cara threatened to overwhelm me.
“Who rang the pack bell?” I asked Garreth, trying to control my newly awakened wolf.
“I don’t know, Alpha, but my men have rounded up everyone in the pack,” he replied, clearly rattled by the situation.
The thought that someone in my pack could be working for an outsider made my skin crawl with disgust. “Good. A betrayer among us. I will have their head,” I growled.
“Gather the Elders as well,” I commanded.
“Alpha, the Elders rarely come out, and they hardly listen to anyone but you. What should I tell them? Won’t they refuse?” Gareth asked, his voice full of uncertainty.
“Tell them their Alpha and their King demands their presence,” I replied, my voice laced with dominance. There was no room for defiance.
Within the hour, the pack members had gathered in the main hall, including the Elders who had been summoned at my command. The room buzzed with tension as they sensed the storm brewing inside me. I stood at the head of the room, radiating authority, my presence alone commanding their obedience.
“I want every last one of you to know this. There is a traitor among us. Someone who dared to defy their Alpha to betray our pack,” I declared, my voice cutting through the air like a blade. “And we will find them. Garreth, task your best men with finding out who the trator is, search everyone. Leave no stone unturned.”
Gareth nodded and immediately began organising his men. The Elders exchanged wary glances but remained silent. None would dare challenge me now.
Just as I was about to end the meeting, I felt something, something deep and urgent, pull at me. A cry.
“Help me.”
It was faint but unmistakable.
Cara.
It was Cara’s voice, her plea echoing through the mate bond, a thread that connected us now that my wolf was awake. My breath caught in my throat as I felt her desperation, her fear, her pain. It hit me like a physical blow.
I staggered for a moment, stunned by the intensity of the connection. Asher growled with recognition, his voice thundering in my mind, “She’s in danger. We have to go to her, NOW!”
The bond between us, the mating bond, pulsed with life, more vibrant than ever before. Cara was in danger.
Without a word, I turned and stormed out of the hall, the pack members looking on in confusion.
What’s the matter, Alpha? Garreth followed me outside.
“It’s Cara, she is in trouble” I said immediately, turning to leave. I didn’t have time to explain. Cara was in trouble, and the bond between us was guiding me straight to her.
I raced through the woods, my senses sharper than ever, I followed the invincible thread that connected us, my heart pounded with every step as the bond grew closer, leading me closer to her.
I felt the pain that came with the pull. Earlier on, she was in pain. I growled, “Nobody has the right to cause her pain, nor to torture her. It must only be me, and anybody who does must answer to me.
I would find her and heaven help anyone who stands in my way