Chapter 105

Dane

I looked at the crowd of wolves gathered outside my pack house. “Fall Line is gone. Their Alpha has taken Luna—heir DeVere—when I promised her protection.”

“What if she chose to go with them?” someone called.

Trajan stood behind me and to one side. He growled low in his throat. “My Luna-heir did not go with Coleridge of her own free will. She wouldn’t have left with things in their current state.”

I admired Trajan’s strength as he stood there, revealing nothing. After I’d returned and met with him about Aurora going missing, he confided that Evander had stopped responding to him the night before.

Everything was falling apart. It was time to dig my claws in and pull it all back together. The children were still my main concern. I had people looking for them. But Aurora had disappeared with Fall Line. That meant, with her, at least, I knew where to begin.

Except when I called the Fall Line pack house, his parents seemed just as confused as I was. Apparently, Holden had taken the dozen warriors he had with him…and disappeared.

“Whatever he’s done, he’s done it without the support or knowledge of the pack elders,” said his father, the former Alpha James Coleridge, over video call. The old man had jowls like a bulldog but still had a full head of steel-gray hair. “The Alpha makes all final decisions for the pack, but this…” He bared his teeth. “I thought I raised the boy better.”

“This isn’t the first time he’s tried to take her against her will.” It had been a handful of hours since she disappeared. Rage surged through me as I thought what he could have done to her in that amount of time.

“Elder Coleridge,” I said, barely hanging onto my calm by a thread, “Can you use your pack bond to talk sense into him?”

James didn’t answer for a long moment, then said heavily, “He’s blocking us.”

“Excuse me?”

He cleared his throat. “He’s blocking us. I’m running the pack in addition to my Council duties.”

The muscles in my jaw tensed. “Then, as acting Alpha, I need your consent to allow my wolves onto Fall Line land to search.”

His overgrown white brows drew together. “No! That’s unthinkable. No pack has ever allowed another free reign in their territory like that.”

I knew I shouldn’t threaten a Council member, but I no longer gave a shit. “Then this time will be the first. Because I’m coming with my wolves, Elder. You decide whether it’s going to mean war or not.”

There was another long moment of hesitation, then Elder Coleridge nodded and growled, “I’ll allow it, as long as your wolves are discreet.”

“My wolves will be whatever they need to be to ensure Aurora is safe.”

By any other standards, Holden was a wolf who’d gone rogue. But because he was an Alpha, he’d never be punished for it. Not unless he did something so terrible the Council stepped in. But short of stopping all-out pack wars, the Council tended not to get involved.

If Augusta DeVere pushed, maybe they’d do it. But when I called her, the only person she blamed was me.

“You knew my granddaughter was in this kind of danger and still allowed this to happen?”

Again, I had to control my rage. My wolf was snarling for these people’s blood. Useless, every single one of them.

“With respect, Luna,” I growled, respect the furthest thing from my mind, “You are the one who insisted the Fall Line Alpha stay.”

The old woman pulled back like I had thrown a glass of wine in her face. “Maybe I put more confidence in your abilities to keep her safe than I should have. Take care of it, or you can be certain the blame for what comes next will fall on you.”

Of course, she fucking would. Senile old bat. I was still pissed off when I took two dozen wolves, including Trajan, and went to Fall Line territory. We started the search. Fall Line wolves watched us from a distance. None of them moved to stop us. None of them moved to help, either.

I broke the wolves into pairs. Trajan insisted on running alone. Evelyn had insisted on coming—and since Archer was still gone and she had powers none of the rest of us had, I let her. On the condition that she stayed with me.

The sun went down. The moon rose. We’d had our noses to the ground for at least two hours when I paused. We were just at the top of a pine-covered ridge, and the place looked shockingly familiar.

“What is it?” she asked.

“This place,” I said, “we’re at least fifty miles from where we were kidnapped as children, but for a minute, it looked similar. Don’t you remember? The way the stream comes down over the rocks there, and that small cliff?”

It was strange, seeing a place like this while traveling alone with Evelyn. Guilt washed over me all over again. Guilt I’d carried since I was a child. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you out of that place.”

Evelyn hesitated. “Oh. It’s… fine. I got out. I ran away on my own, remember?”

I nodded my wolf head, and silence fell between us. Then she said, “Danc… about that. The kidnapping thing. I’ve been thinking lately that I need to tell you…”

A twig snapped. I shushed her. A second later, I scented wolves. Not Fall Line wolves. Rogues.

I moved in front of Evelyn, but they stepped out of the forest on all sides of us. We were surrounded. We’d been betrayed.