Connor POV:
The island was beautiful. White sand, turquoise water. It was paradise.
It was hell.
For three days, Gemma clung to me. She wanted sex constantly, but every time I touched her, my skin crawled. My wolf refused to surface. I couldn't perform. I blamed it on exhaustion, on the alcohol she kept pouring me.
She had taken my phone. "Digital detox," she called it.
On the fourth morning, I woke up with a headache that split my skull. Gemma was asleep next to me, snoring softly.
I needed to check in. The Pack couldn't run itself for four days without the Alpha.
I found my phone hidden in her purse. I turned it on.
The device vibrated so hard it almost fell out of my hand. Hundreds of notifications. Missed calls from my Beta. Texts from the Council.
And the news alerts.
APEX MANOR DESTROYED IN SUSPICIOUS FIRE.
LUNA HAVEN JONES MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD.
POLICE FIND HUMAN REMAINS IN THE RUINS.
The air left my lungs.
"No," I choked out. "No, no, no."
I dialed my Beta, Josh.
"Alpha!" Josh picked up on the first ring. He sounded frantic. "Where the hell have you been? The Pack is in chaos!"
"Haven," I gasped. "Is she..."
"The house is gone, Connor. It's just ash. We found... we found the safe box melted. We haven't found a body yet, but the scent of death is everywhere."
"I'm coming back," I said. I was shaking. My vision tunneled.
"Connor?" Gemma stirred in the bed. "Put the phone away."
I turned on her. A growl ripped from my throat, so loud and primal that she scrambled back against the headboard, terrified.
"You knew," I snarled. "You took my phone so I wouldn't know."
"I just wanted us to be happy!" she cried.
"Happy?" I roared. "My mate might be dead!"
"I am your wife now!"
"YOU ARE NOTHING!"
I grabbed my clothes. I didn't button my shirt. I ran out of the bungalow, barefoot, sprinting toward the airstrip where the private jet was parked.
Haven, I screamed through the Mind-Link. Haven, answer me!
Silence.
Not the silence of someone ignoring you. The silence of an empty room. The silence of a grave.
Please, I begged the Moon Goddess as I ran, tears streaming down my face. Take anything. Take the company. Take my rank. Just don't take her.
I boarded the plane, screaming at the pilot to take off. As the island shrank beneath us, panic consumed me.
I had chosen the girl who needed saving.
And in doing so, I had killed the woman who was my soul.
