Page 211 of Alpha Mates

What words?he replies. Fearful worry skips through our bond, chilling it at its core.Wait—

I force the channel shut between us before he can say another word, blocking him out as I stomp along beside Isabel.

Aiden can wait, and whether the one I find will be the man I fell in love with or this withdrawn version of him, I have no clue. And for now, I don’t care.

For once, I can take some time for myself, and I fucking will.

Chapter 42

Aiden

My fingersjerk at my sides, itching to dig into something and tear it apart.

I’ve been fighting that ache all day, all month really, but now it’s a pounding jackhammer in the back of my skull, loud enough to drown out thought.

“Aiden?” Emitt calls, but he shuts up when I lift a hand.

I need to think. I need a fucking second to think.

I stare past the borders, chest heaving with each breath. The scouts had spotted three rogues, which is nothing in theory—except they’d been closer than usual. Too close. And they’d been watchingus. That didn’t happen—wasn’t supposed to happen—only it did, and it isn’t the first strange thing the mutts had been doing lately.

Since August, we’ve taken down three of their ragtag groups. Shifted, clothed, and not crazed. And here we’d found another set. Only three this time, but still too many.

A pattern is forming, and I hate the picture it’s making. My skin crawls.

I should be out there already, ripping them apart before they vanish. I would be, if not for the anchor of my soul that is somewhere I don’t know.

Goddess, what was Julian thinking going outside of the pack without me? And why had he chosen today of all days to be rebellious and leave the pack without telling anyone where he was going?

My instincts bellow at me to find him first. But the bloodlust curdling in my veins snarls back to end the rogues first.

If they’re gone, then they’re no threat to Julian. and the world would be one step closer to being free of them.I’llbe one step closer to being free of them. But there are threats beyond rogues—hunters, witches, lone supernatural creatures with territories Julian doesn’t know how to identify yet.

I have to find Julian. I have to kill the rogues.

I snarl as red eyes flicker through my head. Above me and in the mirror.

Rogues. It’s always fucking rogues.

They’re why Julian’s angry right now. They weren’t the ones to pull away from him this morning. They hadn’t been in the room when I left him, and they hadn’t shown up this whole month while we’d grown further and further apart, but they’re there. Always there in places he couldn’t see.

The hands that overshadow his when he touches me. Red eyes in the dark, in my dreams, in the daylight. Haunting me. Always fucking haunting me.

If not for them, Julian and I wouldn’t even be fighting. He’d be home in the pack, safe.

If not for them, I’d be normal. I wouldn’t be carrying all this shit with me.

If not for them—

“Aiden.” Emitt’s voice drags me back to the present.

I blink and turn to find wolves staring at me, waiting for my word. Dean and Mads stand among the four, never mind that they aren’t scouts. They were the first to get here the second I said the word “rogue” through the link.

“Send Beckett to find Julian. I’ll take Madison and Dean after the rogues. You stay here and protect the pack,” I order, quick and clipped, ignoring the concern Emitt aims my way.

He wants to say something, but wisely keeps quiet.

He knows what month this is. He knows not to push.