Corvin's Pov
I leaned against the wall outside the guest room and closed my eyes, trying to breathe normally, but my chest felt tight like someone was squeezing my lungs.
She was in there. Rael was in there, alive, breathing and real.
For five years, I thought she was dead, and now she was just behind this door, but I couldn't go in because she didn't want to see me. The doctor made that very clear a few minutes ago.
"She needs rest, Alpha," Doctor Lydia said softly. Her eyes looked like she was blaming me a little. "And she doesn't want visitors right now."
"I'm her husband," I said.
"She was very clear. She doesn't want to see you."
Those words hit me like a punch. I watched the doctor walk away, but I stayed right here because I couldn't make myself leave. I had to be close to her even if she didn't want me there.
My Beta, Marcus, came by two times to pull me away for pack stuff. Both times I went, but only because I had to. Then I came straight back here, right outside her door. I couldn't stay away now that I had her back.
I ran my hands through my hair and felt super tired. I hadn't slept at all since she collapsed yesterday. How could I sleep when she was hurt and pushing me away?
I let my head fall back against the wall, closed my eyes, and the memories came like a flood, just like always. That night, the worst night of my life.
I was at the Silver Fang Pack for a meeting that I didn't want to go to, but the messengers said it was urgent. Rael kissed my forehead and told me to go and take care of it. She said she'd be fine for one night, just one night.
I felt restless the whole meeting and couldn't focus. Alpha Garrett of Silver Fang noticed and asked if I was okay. I said yes even though something in my gut told me to go home but I didn't listen. I stayed and finished, then started heading back. That's when I felt it.
A sharp, terrible pain shooting through the mate bond like lightning. Rael was hurting, she was in danger.
I shifted right away and ran faster than ever. My warriors followed, but I was ahead of them all. All I thought about was getting to her, keeping her safe, and making sure she was okay. The bond pulled me home and I burst through the pack house doors, ran up the stairs to our chambers, and threw open the door.
Blood.
So much blood.
The bed was soaked. The white sheets were red. There were claw marks on the walls, the furniture was knocked over. The window was open, the curtains blew in the night breeze. I stood frozen, staring at the mess, feeling my wolf howl with pain inside me, so deep it felt like it would tear me apart.
"Rael!" I shouted, but my voice broke when I said her name. "RAEL!"
No answer.
I looked everywhere,under the bed, in the closet, every corner but she wasn't there. She was gone, only blood was left behind.
My warriors came then and searched the whole pack house, the grounds, and the forest, but found nothing. No trail, no scent, no clue. It was like she vanished into thin air.
I stood in that bloody room feeling the mate bond get weaker and weaker until it was almost gone. Not completely broken but so faint I could barely feel it anymore. Like she was slipping away, like I was losing her.
I threw my head back and howled. The sound echoed across the mountains. Every wolf in my pack heard their Alpha's grief and knew something bad had happened.
The next days blurred together. I sent search parties everywhere and offered rewards for information. I contacted every pack within five hundred miles and begged them to look. I hardly ate or slept and spent every moment searching, but found nothing.
Her parents came. Her mom collapsed when she saw the blood. Her dad looked like he'd aged ten years instantly. They looked at me with desperate hope in their eyes and asked if I'd found her. I had to say no. We'd find her soon.
But we didn't find her soon.
Weeks turned to months and months turned to a year and still no sign. The bond grew fainter until I couldn't feel it at all. Everyone said she was dead and I should accept it and move on but I didn't. I kept searching and i kept hoping.
But hope hurts when there's no proof and no leads and no reason to think she's alive.
Two years after she disappeared, I finally accepted what everyone else already knew. Rael was dead, my mate was gone. That blood in our room was hers. She had bled out somewhere, all alone and scared, and I wasn't there to protect her.
The guilt nearly destroyed me.
And now she's back.
Alive and here. Everything I built with Nyra suddenly feels like a huge mistake. I don't know how to fix it.
The door opened suddenly and Doctor Lydia walked out, carrying the empty tray. She looked at me with those judging eyes and shook her head.
"She didn't eat," the doctor said. "She needs to eat, Alpha. She's dangerously malnourished."
"Let me talk to her," I said. "Please. I can convince her."
"She doesn't want to see you."
"I don't care. She's still my mate, i have the right to see her."
Doctor Lydia looked at me for a long moment, then sighed. "Fine but if she tells you to leave, you leave. Got it?"
I nodded fast and moved toward the door, but the doctor grabbed my arm.
"Whatever happened to her out there," she said quietly, "it was really bad, Alpha. Be gentle with her."
