Raiden's POV
Blood dripped from my knuckles as I pulled my hand from the stone wall. The pain felt good. Real. It was better than the void eating me alive.
"Where is she?" I roared, spinning to face Marcus.
He stood in the entry of my office, his face pale. "Alpha, I—I don't know. The trail finishes at the human town. She was working at some diner, but when I went to get her, she ran."
I grabbed the heavy wood desk and flipped it over with a crash. Papers, my laptop, and a bottle of whiskey went flying. The whiskey broke, filling the room with its sharp smell.
"You had her!" I slammed Marcus against the wall, my hand around his throat. His feet dangled above the ground. "You had her and you let her slip away!"
"She...had...help," Marcus choked out.
I relaxed my grip just enough for him to speak. "What help? Who?"
"Luca," he gasped. "Luca was there."
I dropped Marcus to the floor. Something cold and dark twisted in my gut.
"Luca?" I whispered. My beta's son. The quiet one. The watcher.
The world around me turned red. I felt my wolf rising, trying to get out. To hunt. To kill.
"Get out," I told Marcus, my voice dangerously quiet.
He scrambled to his feet and backed toward the door.
"Not you," I said. "Everyone. Get everyone out of the packhouse. Now."
Marcus nodded and ran from the room. Minutes later, I heard the alarm—three short howls that meant all pack members must leave the main house. It was a warning I had used only once before, the night my father died.
When the house was empty, I let my wolf free. Bones cracked and skin ripped as I shifted. My clothes tore away. In seconds, I stood on four feet, a massive silver wolf with eyes like storm clouds.
I destroyed everything.
Tables cracked under my weight. Chairs became fire. I tore paintings from walls and shredded chairs with my claws. I ran up the grand stairs, leaving deep gouges in the wood, and burst into Maeve's old room.
Her scent still remained, faint but there. I howled in rage and sadness, a sound that echoed through the empty house and into the forest beyond.
She was gone. My mate was gone. And my child with her.
The thought brought me up short. My child. For the first time, I really let myself think about the baby. My baby. Growing inside Maeve even now.
I hadn't planned for this. A child had never been part of my future, at least not with anyone but Ariana. The pack expected a child from their Alpha and Luna. But Maeve... Maeve was supposed to be different. Special, yes, but not this. Never this.
I shifted back slowly, the anger draining from me, leaving only a hollow ache. Naked and bleeding from my self-inflicted cuts, I sat on the floor of her room. The destruction around me fit how I felt inside.
A soft knock came at the door.
"I said everyone out!" I growled.
"Even your Luna?" Ariana's cool voice drifted through the door.
I didn't answer. The door opened anyway. Ariana stepped inside, her face showing no response to my nakedness or the destruction.
"Feel better?" she asked, looking around at the wrecked room.
I glared at her. "What do you want?"
She crossed to the window, carefully stepping over broken furniture. "I want what I've always wanted, Raiden. A strong pack. A good Alpha." She turned to face me. "A mate who isn't obsessed with a pregnant omega."
Her words hurt like a slap. "She's carrying my child."
"So you believe." Ariana's blue eyes were cold. "How do you know it's yours? Omegas aren't known for their loyalty."
I was on my feet in an instant, standing over her, anger boiling up again. "Don't."
Ariana didn't back down. She never did. It was one of the things that had drawn me to her in the first place. "The pack is talking, Raiden. They see their Alpha ruining our home over an omega who ran away. They see weakness."
"I don't care what they see."
"You should." She put a hand on my chest, right over my heart. "The red moon comes in three days. The rite must happen. With or without your little omega."
I grabbed her wrist and pushed her hand away. "The ritual? Is that all you care about? Ancient magic that might not even work?"
Something flashed in her eyes. "It will work. If done right." She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Your child is the key, Raiden. The blood of an Alpha and a special omega, born under the blood moon. That power could save our pack, make us stronger than ever. Make you stronger."
I stepped back, suddenly nervous. "What do you know about Maeve? About why she's special?"
Ariana smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "More than you, apparently. Did you really think I married you just for your title? For love?" She laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "I married you because the stars aligned. Because you, stupid Alpha, bedded the one omega who could give us what we need."
"And what's that?" I asked, though part of me didn't want to know.
"Power." Ariana's eyes seemed to glow in the fading light. "The kind that comes once in a hundred years. The kind that can break curses... or make new ones."
Cold dread washed over me. "What have you done, Ariana?"
She turned away. "Nothing yet. But I will, with or without you." She walked to the door, then paused. "Find her, Raiden. Find her before the blood moon. Or I'll send others who won't be as... gentle... as Marcus."
When she was gone, I sank back to the floor. What had I gotten myself into? What had I dragged Maeve into?
I thought of her face the last time I saw her. The hurt in her eyes when I told her the pregnancy was a problem. The way she'd put her hand protectively over her belly before walking away.
And now Luca was with her. Luca, who had always watched her from afar. Whose father had told me years ago that there was something special about Maeve, something I couldn't see.
I needed to find her. Not for the ritual. Not for Ariana's plans. But to warn her. To protect her and my child from whatever Ariana was planning.
I rose and dressed in clothes I found in a closet that had escaped my rage. Then I called the one person I could still trust.
"Meet me at the old hunting cabin," I told him when he answered. "Tell no one. Not even your son."
I hung up and slipped out of the packhouse through a back door. The forest welcomed me, dark and full of secrets. Somewhere out there was Maeve. And Luca.
The thought of them together made my blood boil all over again. I had to find her first. Before the blood moon. Before it was too late.
As I ran through the woods, a howl rose behind me. It wasn't one of my dogs. This howl was different. Ancient. Powerful.
I stopped, listening. The howl came again, closer now. Then another joined it. And another.
The Wild Ones. Wolves who listened to no Alpha. Wolves who hadn't been seen in these woods for decades.
They were coming. And somehow, I knew they were coming for Maeve.