Chapter 175

The ballroom was unrecognizable.

Cracked marble tiles were buried under a haze of dust and shattered glass, with chandelier fragments scattered like bones across the floor. Soot clung to the columns, and the reek of ozone from shorted wiring lingered in the air. Somewhere behind the chaos, a fire alarm screamed like a living thing. I crouched near what was left of the stage and curled my fingers around the chain I’d found.

Her pendant. Still warm, still carrying her.

I didn’t need confirmation. She’d been here seconds ago, and someone had taken her.

Behind me, Nathan’s voice cut through the comm feed. "Evac complete. North and East wings clear. We’re sealing exits now."

I stood slowly, my jaw locked tight and my lungs burning.

"Seal the borders. Lock every gate, every tunnel, every roof exit," I said, my voice cracking with the force of it. "I don’t care if it traps half the Council’s fucking relatives. No one gets in. No one gets out. Not a single person breathes outside this city unless I say so."

I input the override myself, pressed my own thumbprint against the securepad, and bypassed the Council's hesitation. Every tunnel, airstrip, gate, and rooftop would be under lockdown before sunset. Let the Elders scream and let David posture. It didn’t matter. None of them understood what this was.

A second chance bond didn’t just vanish. It didn’t dissolve quietly. It tore.

The snap hit me in the sternum like a boot to the chest. I felt it rupture through the bond like someone had jammed a knife through both of us. One second, her presence was warm and humming at the edge of my awareness. The next, it was gone.

Not faded, not quiet, gone.

Simon was crouched near a beam that had fallen across one of the corner pillars, scanning with the portable sensor array. Red pulses blinked in sharp, steady rhythm.

"What the hell is that?"

"Residual energy traces," he said without looking up. "Not wolf, not human, not our tech."

I crossed to him. "So what is it?"

He adjusted the frequency. The lights went yellow, then red again.

"Engineered vampire," he said quietly. "Older than the serum sites. Cruder. It came in raw."

"Through the tunnels?"

"Yes. This wing sits over an old municipal grid that predates the Pack’s takeover. We thought it was waste management, but it lines up with the bell relay schema. They tunneled in."

My hands curled into fists. "They came through the floor."

He nodded. "Slipped past every scanner and every visible checkpoint."

I didn’t speak. I just turned and walked. My stride was calm, far too calm. My wolf pressed under my skin, claws scraping the inside of my ribs. It wanted to drop to all fours. It wanted to bite through steel. Security officers tried to speak as I passed, but I didn’t hear them and I didn’t care.

I didn’t stop until the ballroom doors slammed behind me.

I needed air. I needed quiet. I needed her, and she was—

"Dad."

Jenny’s voice stopped me cold.

She stood barefoot at the top of the hall stairs, her formal gown torn at the hem and dried blood still dark at her temple. Her eyes locked on mine.

"Are you hurt?"

She shook her head. "You know who did this."

I took a step toward her. "We’re still gathering intel."

"It was her."

My pulse spiked. "Jenny."

"Don’t do that," she said, sharp now. "Don’t act like you’re surprised. Amelia’s been at the center of every disaster since the Hollow burned. She had motive, she had access, and you handed her the kingdom."

I stared at her. I should’ve stayed above it. I should’ve controlled the narrative. But I didn’t.

I stepped in close enough that she had to tilt her chin to keep eye contact.

"That’s enough."

But she didn’t back down.

"She’s not even one of us. You knew that. You knew what she was and you still—"

"Still what?" My voice dropped. "Let her have a voice in this house? Let her speak beside me when you were told to sit down? Let her matter to me more than you? Go ahead. Say it."

Her lips parted like she might, but she didn’t.

"You’re disgusting."

"I’m devoted," I said. "And you hate her because she has something you never will."

Jenny went still.

"She replaced Mom."

The line hit harder than I expected. Guilt slashed through me before I could stop it. I should’ve kept Amelia closer. I should’ve had guards on her or kept her at my side, even if it jeopardized the gala optics. I’d known the threats were evolving. I’d known she was vulnerable.

And I’d left her alone.

"You’ll ruin yourself for her," Jenny whispered. "You already have."

"If you accuse her again, if you so much as breathe her name with that tone in your mouth, I will remove you from the Council, the estate, and my will."

Her face twisted. "You’d choose her over me."

"I already did."

She turned and left. Not stomping. Just leaving, her spine straight. And for the first time, I saw it clearly. She wasn’t heartbroken. She was calculating. She’d come to test the boundary. She had her answer.

And I had just made her an enemy.

The council room smelled like ozone and sweat. Nathan had the satellite maps up, and the Elders were watching me like they didn’t know who I was anymore. Maybe they didn’t.

"Start with the west grid," I said. "If they came through once, they’ll come again."

One of them spoke. "Alpha King, with respect, we need—"

"If anyone leaks this, I’ll pull their name off the door myself and let the public think they ran. No press. No briefings. If the people want answers, they can survive long enough to get them from me directly."

"With respect, your presence—"

"If you want a king who stays behind a podium while his mate is dragged underground, vote me out."

One of them exchanged a glance with a councilor to his left. I couldn't reprimand him now. There would be time for that later.

"Until then," I said, "I’ll lead from wherever she is."

In my quarters, I didn’t breathe. I didn’t blink. I stared at the wall for hours while the maps ran in loops across my tablet, while Nathan fed me updates I barely absorbed. We cross-referenced council schedules, public footage, scent trails, even lunar rhythms. I rewrote the same search grid five times.

Eventually, Nathan stepped into the doorway. "You’re no good to her like this. Get two hours of sleep, or I’ll sedate you myself."

I didn’t argue. I couldn’t. My hands were shaking too badly to hold the stylus.

I stood, slowly, and went to bed alone.

Her nightgown hung off the chair like she’d just stepped out of it. The lipstick print on the glass beside the bed looked half-finished, as if she’d meant to return. On the pillow, the strands of her hair curled against the linen like they hadn’t realized she was gone.

I undressed slowly, shirt off, pants down. Bruises littered my hips where she’d gripped me. Her bite mark was still visible at the base of my throat. I touched it, pressing my thumb to the place where her teeth had sunk in. The skin was sore. I pressed harder.

I sat on the bed. The sheet beneath me still carried the heat of her. I grabbed a handful of it and squeezed.

I remembered last night. I had bent her over this mattress. Held her by the waist while she gasped my name into the wood. She had cried when she came. Whispered that she felt safe. That she wanted to stay.

I didn’t make her.

That choice sat in my chest like a stone. The moment I let her walk out, even with guards on every wall, I made her a target.

Her scent hit me like heat. Like blood. Like purpose.

I opened my palm.

The pendant lay there. It had cut into my skin, and a line of blood ran down my wrist. I let it. I wanted it to scar.

"I’m coming," I said.

Then quieter, to the empty room. "Please. Hold on."

I looked around. My room. Our room. My whole fucking kingdom, and it meant nothing without her in it.

If they touched her. If they hurt her. I would crush every stronghold they built. I would make a trail of bodies out of their command structure. I would salt the tunnels with their teeth, rip the minds from every lab rat who touched her, and drag the last one screaming into the sun.

I would bring her back.

Or I would drag the entire world down with me trying.