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Ripping out my phone, I shot off a text in the group chat with my brothers.

Fin: She’s gone.

Hunter rang almost immediately, even as the others shot back messages. “What do you mean?” he rumbled, spitting out each word.

“I mean, she’s not in the fucking house and she left a goodbye note.”

Props to Hunter for even understanding me through the growls of my distraught bear.

“There’s no way,” he said, voice shaking. “Our bond is stable. Her emotions are very calm, almost clinical?—”

When he broke off, I pressed the phone harder to my ear, desperate to hear his next words.

“She’s too subdued,” he murmured in a raw whisper. “If she was running, she’d be sad and panicked. She’d be hurting and screaming for her mates. She can’t leave us without pain now, but it’s as if she’s not even feeling anything .”

I straightened, letting the note fall to the desk as a sliver of logic pushed through my panicked mind. “The note is also very neat and spelled completely correctly,” I said quickly. “And she signed it as Emmeline… She never calls herself that. This has to be fake, right?”

Or I was just a stupid, hopeful bastard desperately attempting to keep my sanity intact.

Hunter growled so loudly my ear ached. “I’ll be home in ten.”

The phone went dead and I was left with a dozen frantic messages from Kellan. Slade called me right after, having no doubt listened to my exchange with Hunter through our security cameras.

“She scrambled the cameras to prank me,” he growled down the line, and I could feel the heat of his rage, even over the phone. “I didn’t watch the footage. I wanted to experience it all— FUCK!”

If my eardrum wasn’t already busted from Hunter, Slade had finished the job.

“I saw her not long ago,” I managed to get out. “She can’t have gone far. I’m going to head out and search for clues, but just know it’s going to be harder to track her scent. She used the blocking spray as part of her prank.”

I was front row and center to Slade’s heavy breathing until he uttered in a tone so flat it was chilling: “When I get my hands on whoever touched our omega, they will pray for death.”

With that, he was gone as well, and I threw my phone on the bed. I’d be shifting to track her as my bear’s nose could detect even the smallest scent fluctuation. If I got on the right path, eventually that spray would wear off, and I’d be able to hunt her down.

Giving her room another once-over for clues, I noticed her window was slightly ajar, and a sniff along the sill produced a minute trace of her scent.

Without another thought, I ditched my clothes and shifted to my bear, launching through the window.

With the glass and shutters shattering around me, I landed heavily on the ground below, Florence’s shriek following the rumble of the house.

I was out of control, lost to the rage of my beast, unable to do more than track our prey.

There was no time to lose, and waiting for the others would cost another ten minutes at least, allowing whoever had Emme to get too much distance on us.

I was the best chance of closing that gap.

The dusting of snow from the previous day had already melted, leaving the ground muddy, which helped me track Emme’s steps across our estate. At the back perimeter, a fence lay on the ground, looking like it had been blasted inward.

There was the faintest scent of sulfur coating the area, and my hackles raised at the way magic was screwing with our lives once again. Those with magic were at the advantage, which had me in a full blown rage.

Beyond our territory, Emme’s footprints joined a set of boots, which were small like hers, and I finally picked up a faint scent. Only it wasn’t Emme’s.

Unsure if this other shifter was involved, or if they’d been here recently for another reason, I followed the tracks until I reached a clearing filled with the distinct odor of burning oil. An older-model vehicle with an engine in need of repair, which was unusual for Golden Claw.

Resisting the urge to bellow, I followed the burning oil all the way to the front gate, finding security standing in the shadows. One stepped forward as I approached, before backing up just as quickly when he realized I was not only in bear form—I was in enraged bear form.

For a long second, my bear wouldn’t let me change back, but when I reminded him that we wouldn’t get the information if I couldn’t ask questions, he released his hold.

Even in my human skin, I could scent that same shifter who’d been behind our house, and I swore her low citrus tones intermingled with Emme’s sweetness. Chelsea .

Could the other omega be involved somehow? As far as I knew, the two of them weren’t really friends, and didn’t hang out. I wasn’t sure Emme had even contacted her since the day she’d dropped those books off. But her scent was definitely here, and I would be finding out why.

“Did you let two omegas leave Golden Claw?” I snapped at the closest guard, who I was fairly sure was an enforcer, though his name eluded me in my current state.

The wolf shifter didn’t even flinch. “Nope,” he spat out, eyes hard. “No one has been out of here in hours.”

I sensed the lie, but his balls of steel wouldn’t save him today. Lashing out with my hand, long claws topped my fingertips, and I cut through his chest.

His wolf’s howl rang out through the night, and I withdrew slightly to give him a shot at the truth. One last fucking chance.

“Let’s try this again,” I rumbled quickly, aware that with every second wasted here, Emme was getting farther away.

“How fucking long ago did you let Chelsea of the Thenguard pack steal my mate? What car were they in? What direction did they drive?” There was a chance that Chelsea was also a victim of whoever took Emme, but until I heard differently, I had her pegged as the instigator.

He swallowed roughly, face pale as blood seeped out from behind his hand. “I-I don’t know what you’re ta-talking about.”

I took one step forward, and he choked before backing away. “Wait! She didn’t tell me anything. I was paid to look the other way and not sound an alarm. They took off east. It was an old piece-of-shit car. I don’t know the make.”

He was dead before he hit the ground, and I fought the urge to tear into his body until nothing but blood and entrails remained. Weak-willed shifters had no place in Golden Claw, especially not when they got my pack hurt.

The other guard stood trembling nearby, clutching his Taser which would do very little against me.

I’d been preparing myself to withstand the voltage of our technology for years, determined that nothing would ever render me weak or incapacitated again.

“Alert the council and the rest of Reeves Pack. Tell them Omega Chelsea of Thenguard Pack has stolen Omega Emmeline of Reeves Pack. I’m going after them in bear form and won’t have a phone. ”

I waited for his shaky nod, and when he reached for his radio I knew he’d do as I asked.

Not that it would hurt to add a little extra incentive.

I closed in on him: “And if I find out you had anything to do with this, or you didn’t pass on the correct message, I will make his death look like a pleasure cruise. ”

The other guard shook his head so violently that it had to hurt. “I only started my shift a few minutes ago. Owens and Carter were on before that, but Carter is still patrolling. There’s usually only one of us here at the gate.”

That lined up with what I knew of patrols, so I shifted back into my bear form and left him to pass on my message, hand trembling as he held the radio.

My bear was bigger and far more brutal than most shifters of my kind. I’d learned to be meaner and grouchier, which would hopefully be to my advantage when I caught up to Chelsea and Emme.

Bonded or not, Emmeline Anders was my scent match, and no fucker was stealing her out from under me. Not while I was alive.