Chapter 5

Lucas crushed the Moon Brooch's empty velvet box before he realized it was in his hand.

At 6:40 a.m., twelve people had entered the top-floor conference room at Blackwood Manor. After the first wave of pain drove him against the table, he dismissed everyone except Cole, the head of Pack security, and the physician who had treated his family since childhood.

Lucas had not slept. Ivy's blood marked his cuff where he had touched her at the hospital, and her wedding ring and wolf-fang necklace rested in his pocket like two small accusations.

"The taxi was struck at the Briar Road intersection," Cole reported. "Our escort vehicle overturned, one guard is dead, and the second is in surgery. The taxi driver is alive, but Ivy was gone before the recovery team arrived."

Lucas gripped the edge of the table. "She was injured."

"We found her blood beside the passenger door," Cole said. "There were three additional sets of tracks leading into the forest."

Pain pierced Lucas's left shoulder before Cole finished. It burned through muscle and bone, dropping him to one knee as sweat broke across his back.

The physician reached for him. Lucas shoved the man's hand away and forced himself upright.

"It is not my injury," Lucas said through clenched teeth.

He had felt the first warning during the Council briefing: a glass Ivy had painted for him cracked beneath his fingers, followed by a spasm behind his heart. The second wave came while security traced her taxi, and this one carried the unmistakable stink of silver through his wolf's senses.

Mate, his wolf snarled inside him.

The word had never come before. Lucas had spent three years believing Ivy's inability to shift proved that the signs between them were habit, proximity, or the residue of a legal marriage imposed by his grandmother.

Now his wolf clawed through his mind with one command.

Find her.

"Seal every road around Briar Forest," Lucas ordered. "Put aircraft above the canopy and send medical teams without Blackwood clinic credentials. No one connected to Mercer goes near her."

Cole hesitated. "The Council will call that an unauthorized mobilization."

"They can call it whatever they want after my wife is safe," Lucas replied.

His wife had returned her ring and asked for a divorce. Lucas knew the word no longer belonged comfortably in his mouth, but nothing else could contain what tore through him when he imagined her bleeding beneath the trees.

The physician placed a monitor against Lucas's chest. "Your heart rhythm is unstable. If this is bond feedback, forcing a shift could make it worse."

"There is no bond," Lucas said automatically.

His wolf struck the inside of his ribs with such force that the room tilted.

Cole stared at him. "Then whose pain are you feeling?"

Lucas had no answer. He remembered Ivy at fifteen beneath his coat, Ivy asleep over a cold dinner, Ivy swallowing pills while he stood beside the bed and mistook obedience for health.

Mercer had prescribed those pills. Lucas had approved every renewal without reading the formula because a trusted Blackwood doctor had assured him the medication would help.

He had placed Seraphina in the Luna seat for access to Europe, telling himself Ivy would remain protected at home. The solution had seemed efficient until Ivy put her ring in his hand and looked at him as if he were the last person she could trust.

"Mercer is gone," Cole said after checking his phone. "The guards found his holding room empty, and his security access was erased at 3:07 a.m."

Lucas rose too quickly and nearly fell. He caught the table, breathing through another surge of pain that seemed to peel the skin from his shoulder.

"Seraphina?" Lucas asked.

"Her driver says she left the city after the ceremony," Cole replied. "The Vale residence is empty."

Lucas pulled the Moon Brooch box open again. Seraphina had worn the heirloom for less than an hour before returning the empty case to his office, claiming she would collect the brooch after the formal confirmation.

He had never actually checked whether she still possessed it.

The lights flickered. Every wolf in the manor fell silent at once, as if a pressure had passed through the Pack and forced their instincts flat.

Lucas's wolf stopped fighting him.

For one terrible second, he felt Ivy's terror, the silver burning through her body, and two frantic heartbeats beneath her own.

Then the connection vanished.

Lucas hit the floor hard enough to split his knuckles. His body curled around a pain that belonged to someone miles away, and cold sweat soaked through his shirt.

Cole knelt beside him. "Lucas, tell me what you need."

Lucas lifted his head, his eyes fully silver. Somewhere beyond the manor, hundreds of wolves began to howl.

"Find her," Lucas said as blood ran between his fingers. "No matter what it costs."