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“That’s impossible,” I growl. “They had to have taken them somewhere.”

“We found something else.” He holds out a small pouch. Inside, crushed herbs release a faint, acrid scent. “Scent blocker. Powerful stuff. Combined with something else, I think it might be transportation magic residue.”

My blood runs cold. “Transportation magic?”

“It would explain why there’s no trail. If they used transportation magic, they didn’t physically leave the park. They were taken directly from here to wherever they are now.”

I stare at the pouch, then at the empty clearing where my mate should be. Someone planned this. Someone came prepared with poison, scent blockers, transportation magic, and enough rogues to overwhelm anyone they expected to encounter.

My Lycan surges forward, rage and fear mixing into something primal and desperate. I throw my head back and howl, a sound of pure anguish that echoes through the trees, through the park, through the very territory of Silver Moon.

My mate is gone. My daughter is gone. And I have no idea where to find them.

Darian

I hear Rylan’s howl before I reach the park, and it stops me dead in my tracks. I know that sound. I’ve heard it before, in another life, when Arlene died in my arms.

No.

Mate.

"She's alive."

Find mate.

Not again.

I shift back to human form, my body still aching from the battle at the border, and run the last hundred yards on two legs. My heart hammers against my ribs, each beat screaming her name. I watched Arlene die once. Held her while the life left her body and lived with the knowledge that I couldn’t save her. The Moon Goddess gave us another chance. She gave me Arlene, Damian, Darlene, and now Arian. She gave me my family back. I will not lose Arlene again.

"Arlene. Arlene. Arlene."

Nothing. Our mate bond remains intact, unmistakably there, but Arlene is completely silent on the other end. I reach for her again, searching for her thoughts, her voice, anything, but she doesn't answer me.

She’s alive. The bond tells me that much. Whatever they did to her has silenced everything else.

Mate lives.

"Yes."

Bring her home.

"I will."

I burst into the clearing and stop. The smell hits me first, blood and death and fear. Bodies scattered everywhere, torn apart with brutal efficiency. And among the carnage, Rylan stands naked and shaking, his face twisted in anguish.

“Where is she?” My voice comes out raw, broken. “Where’s Arlene?”

Rylan turns to me, and the look in his eyes tells me everything I need to know. “Gone.”

I stumble forward, scanning the clearing. Sixteen rogue corpses. All killed with the same vicious precision. Claw marks I’d recognize anywhere.

“She did this,” I whisper. “She took down sixteen of them.”

My mate, days after giving birth, killed sixteen rogues to protect our Luna. And still, they took her.

Our mate fought.

Pride crashes into the terror already filling my chest.