Aiden POV:
I woke up in the driver's seat of my SUV.
It was parked on the shoulder of the highway, miles from the estate. Rain hammered the roof. My head felt split open with an axe. I looked down at my hands. Knuckles bruised and bloody.
"What the hell..."
My memory was Swiss cheese. I remembered the alarm... Leo being found... then a red haze.
I drove home. Inside, Leo was eating ice cream on the couch. Safe.
"Where is Haven?" I asked the head maid.
"Guest cottage, Alpha. You ordered it before you left. Said no one enters the main house until the Luna returns."
Did I?
I walked to the master bedroom. Empty. Closet half-emptied.
"Charlotte?"
Silence. I sat on the bed. Sheets smelled of jasmine and vanilla, fading fast.
I tried the Mind-Link. Usually, it's a hum in the back of your head.
Charlotte?
Nothing. Just... void. Like stepping off a cliff.
Panic spiked. "Kayla!" I roared over the pack link. "Office. Now!"
Five minutes later, she stood there, terrified.
"Where is she?"
"I don't know, Alpha. She texted me she was going on a trip."
"Liar." My wolf paced, whining. Mate gone.
I logged into the tracker interface. I'd given her the anklet to keep her safe. The dot blinked. Not the airport. Not a hotel.
It was in the industrial district. Warehouse 4. The place we used for interrogating Rogues.
"No," I whispered.
I stood up, and a sudden pain ripped through my chest—a tearing sensation over my heart. I doubled over. Every wolf knew this pain.
The bond. It hadn't just faded. It had been violently severed.
"Get the car," I wheezed. "Now!"
