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The ground beneath my feet shakes. My wolf growls so loud, I can almost hear him tearing me from the inside so I can let him out.

“She took Lina to him?” My voice is jagged.

After everything that Julian did?

After everything we spoke about, she went to Julian?

“She thinks Julian is Lina’s father, boss”, Ethan says, his voice a low whisper, “Before we left the hospital yesterday, she uh, she requested a paternity test between you and Lina. I called the hospital and they said they sent her the results this morning. The results might have come back negative, boss and when Julian called her, I believe she thought she was doing the right thing.”

“What?”

Thunder quakes harder above me. The rain starts falling like tiny pricks piercing every inch of my skin. I don’t fucking move as Ethan explains what’s happened in the span of the last thirty-eight hours I have been away from Lila and Lina.

Lina has Moonborne syndrome, her condition is only getting worse. Her chance of a cure is the bloodline bond from her biological parents. And worse, the results… they named Julian as her father. My heart constricts in my chest, my lungburning like someone’s just shoved a shrapnel through my chest. Everything tilts and I try to breathe through the cold, dull pain slowly creeping up on my senses.

“Where are they right now? Send me the address, I’ll go get them.”

Ethan pauses, my heart fucking stops.

“That’s the thing…boss. Lila and Lina are missing and so is Julian.”

I try to rein in the panic clawing at my chest. I’ve faced a lot of shitty things and handled them head on but I have never felt as helpless as I do standing here in the rain with the words ‘Lila and Lina are missing’ ringing in my ears like static.

“Ethan,” I say, breathing through clenched teeth. “Find the cab driver. Get traffic cams. Restaurant footage. Cell towers. I want you to try and track her phone.”

“I’m on it, boss. I’m sorry about this.”

I hang up, getting into my car and speeding home.

By the time I get home, Ethan already has footage from outside the restaurant. I watch as Lila shouts and fights in Julian’s arms. I watch as Julian’s guards carry Lina into a black Range with more force than necessary and I watch as Lila looks around helplessly as if calling for someone to rescue her.

The footage ends.

I turn to Ethan and I bark out an order.

“Send word to the Delta unit. Blackwood territory goes on lockdown. Julian’s just declared war by taking what’s mine.”

She might have gone to him.

The fucking bastard might have kidnapped her.

But she has no idea she is mine.

No idea that she’s the future of this pack. My Luna.

And no idea that I would burn this world down to bring her and Lina back.

Because Lina is mine too, no matter what.

And no disease, no paternity test, no power-hungry bastard is going to take them away from me again.

Chapter Twenty-Four

LILA WINTER

The air is thick and metallic.

It smells like rust, reeks of blood, and the stench of something foul—something dead—chokes my nostrils like smog.