The Plan

I clenched my jaw tightly, trying to hold myself together, but it hurt. It hurt because I knew what Levi was really asking. Would finding out the truth change what we felt for her? Would it undo our feelings for her?

I turned to Dustin. “Get our best spies… Place them on each of the Alphas that are suspects…” Dustin nodded and left.

I nodded. “Do it tonight. No mistakes.”

“Tonight,” I said firmly, “we dig out the body.”

“Then someone faked her death… and Olivia is still alive.”

They both stared at me, waiting.

“What if…” Louis started, then hesitated. “What if she doesn’t want to come back?”

I turned away and closed my eyes. Until now, everything we’d found, every piece of evidence, proved the body was Olivia. But this new result turned everything I believed upside down.

I nodded, then faced Dustin and my brothers, who were still waiting for my decision. I fixed my eyes on Dustin, my jaw tightening.

“If she is truly alive, then where is she?” I looked at my brothers, their faces mirroring my own mixture of hope and fear. “Is she okay? Is she safe? Is someone hurting her?”

A thousand possibilities stormed my mind, and none of them were good. If she wasn’t dead… if someone had gone so far as to fake her death… then what were they doing with her now?

Louis stiffened beside me.

I looked down at the file again, at the pregnancy report. If the result were true, that body was definitely not Olivia.

Dustin nodded obediently. “I’ll make the arrangements. Quietly. No one outside this room will know.”

I closed my eyes briefly. The thought of her being alive was driving my wolf restless.

He was howling inside me. Despite the broken mate bond, he still felt attached to Olivia.

Louis spoke. “But we carried out a DNA test on it, and it came back positive, and our seer told us it was Olivia,” Louis sounded more confused.

The words landed like a blade straight into my chest. I looked away. I couldn’t answer him. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t know how to.

“What should I do?” I whispered to my wolf.

Louis whispered, “It was shaped like a crescent wrapped in flame."

Louis swallowed hard. “And if the mark’s not there…?”

Levi’s fists clenched. “What if it’s one of the Alphas? What if she’s being held in one of their packs?”

I looked at each of them slowly, then said, “Do you remember… Olivia had a dark god mark? On her lower back. A distinct one. It was there since birth–regardless of what happened to her, that mark couldn’t disappear.”

“Whoever has her…” I said slowly, my voice full of rage, “will pay for it.”

Lennox’s POV

I blinked. “What?”

I nodded, though part of me already knew. Deep in my gut, in my soul. I knew she’s alive. And I would burn down the world to bring her back.

He responded immediately. “Follow your gut.”

“I want to check something,” I responded.

After Dustin left the room, a tense silence hung in the study… My brothers and I were consumed by our deep thoughts.

Louis frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would Damien be there?”

The silence returned. Only this time, it was heavier.

Louis rubbed his face harshly, pacing a few steps. “If she’s alive, then someone has been keeping her from us. Someone powerful enough to hide her, and fake her death.”

He stopped himself. But he didn’t need to say it. We all felt the same.

Levi stepped forward, his eyes clouded with confusion. “What if that body isn’t Olivia?” He said exactly what I was thinking.

Because everything in me still screamed mine when I thought of Olivia. Even after all this time. Even after all the pain. Even after discovering things that should’ve made me back away.

“What… what are we going to do if we find her?”

Levi’s eyes weren’t angry anymore. They were tired. Confused. “We already believe she’s alive,” he continued, glancing between us. “And deep down, I think we are right. So… if we do find her, then what?”

Levi’s brows shot up, realization flashing across his face. “That’s right…”

Then Levi broke it again–his voice soft, almost hesitant, like he wasn’t sure if he should even say what he was thinking.

Louis broke the silence. “She’s still Olivia,” he said roughly. “No matter what. She’s still the same girl we-”

I looked at my brothers. They both looked confused but also angry. I glanced at the file again and shook my head. “Olivia can’t be two months pregnant,” I said in disbelief.

“First,” he said, “the day Olivia’s body was found at the border… Damien was seen in Alpha Gabriel’s Pack.”

My heart twisted painfully. I looked up at him, but his eyes were already on me–haunted, afraid of the answer.

I met his gaze, my heart racing at the thought of it.

Levi’s voice broke a little. “Are we going to see her differently? Are we going to love her differently?”

“Exactly,” Dustin replied. “He had no official reason to be there. But according to the trackers and a few insiders, he came with a few of his men… it was late at night… which made me wonder why he would pay a visit to Gabriel at such a time.”

Because how do you explain loving someone so deeply… when fate keeps pulling you further from them? How do you hold on when everything around you keeps trying to tear it apart?

Levi didn’t stop. “Are we going to tell her the truth?” he asked quietly. “That we’re related? That we share bloodlines with her?”

Louis and I both looked at him.

Dustin spoke. “I’ll prepare the site. By midnight, we’ll know the truth.”

My jaw clenched as unease settled in my gut. “That’s not a coincidence.”

“Exactly,” I said. “If that mark isn’t on that body, then we’ve been mourning the wrong person all this time.”

My throat tightened.

“Are you serious?” Levi asked, stepping closer. “Why would we do that?”

I turned away from them both and whispered so softly I wasn’t sure they even heard me- “We find her first.”

Then maybe–maybe—we’d figure the rest out.

Dustin nodded. “So these are the three suspects we have in hand. What do you want us to do?” Dustin asked.

I forced my voice to stay calm. “Then we’ll earn our place back in her life. No matter how long it takes.”

But I couldn’t. Neither of us could.

“What are the reasons?” I asked eagerly.

My heart beat hard in my chest. What do we do if she’s alive? I didn’t have an answer, so I stayed quiet.

The thought of that brought a sweet, bitter feeling. The idea that Olivia might still be alive… it was mesmerizing, like a dream I didn’t dare believe. But if she is alive, then where is she? How is she doing? My throat tightened.

Louis’s eyes widened. “What?”