2026-06-01 01:40:27Chase returned around eight, the sounds of his heavy boots against the hardwood floor echoing through the silence I had cultivated in his absence. He didn't notice my stillness immediately; he was too consumed by his own narrative, his voice light and airy as he recounted the trivial, sun-drenched details of his day with Brianna. He spoke of the way she laughed, the way she looked at the city lights, and his absolute, unwavering certainty that she would make a magnificent Luna for our pack. I listened with a forced, brittle smile, playing the part of the brother-in-arms, while inside, I was drowning in an ocean of my own misery. He was standing on the threshold of a new life, a future bright with the promise of his mate, while I was anchored in the wreckage of a past that refused to stay buried. The envy that gnawed at my insides wasn't for his power or his status—it was for the simple, agonizing normalcy of being able to see the woman he loved.
"You haven't said a word, Aiden," Chase noted, his footsteps halting as he finally sensed the oppressive atmosphere. His hand rested on my shoulder, his touch grounding but painful. His tone shifted, the playfulness evaporating instantly, replaced by a sharp, probing concern. "What happened? You didn't return to the station as planned. You look like you’ve been through hell."
I took a shaky, ragged breath, the ghost of her scent—roasted chestnuts, bay leaves, and old, dusty books—still clinging to the fabric of my reality. It was a memory that felt more real than the air I was breathing. "I found her, Chase," I whispered, my voice thick, raw with the grief of a man who had touched salvation only to have it ripped away by the cruel, indifferent mechanics of a train. "I smelled her. I lost her on that train, and I don't know who she is, where she went, or what she looks like. I am alone again, and the silence she left behind is louder than any scream."
Tears, hot and searing, spilled down my cheeks, tracking paths through the exhaustion etched into my face. My wolf was in agony, a separation crisis that mirrored the deepest, most primal trauma of losing my parents. It was a physical ache, a tearing of the soul. "I have to find her. Even if I have to scour every corner of this godforsaken world, even if I have to burn every map and bribe every official, I won't lose that scent again. She is my life, Chase. She is the only thing that makes this darkness worth enduring."
Chase pulled me into a fierce, grounding hug, his guilt radiating off him in waves. He knew he had left me behind, and the weight of that realization sat heavy between us. "I'm sorry. I was a terrible friend to leave you to this. I was so caught up in my own miracle that I failed to see your tragedy. We will find her. You aren't alone in this hunt. I swear it on my life."
But before I could find the words to thank him, the world tilted. A sharp, searing pain erupted in the pit of my gut, followed by a shockwave of agony that slammed into my ribs. I collapsed, gasping for air as phantom blows rained down on my body. I felt the impact, the sickening crunch of bone, the crushing weight of violence. It wasn't my pain; it was hers.
Then, the impossible happened.
After eleven years of living in a world of absolute, unforgiving darkness, my vision sparked to life. But it wasn't my apartment I saw. I didn't see the familiar shapes of the furniture or the shadow of my friend. I saw a rustic, wooden cabin, its walls stained with age and neglect. I saw a man—a mountain of a monster, his face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred—raining kicks down on a girl curled on the floor. I felt every strike in my own body; I tasted her blood on my tongue, metallic and bitter. I looked through her eyes at a frost-covered window, watching the slow, lonely descent of snow over a dense, dark forest that stood as a silent witness to her suffering.
"Do you have anything else to say, you whore?" the man roared, his voice shaking the very foundations of the cabin.
Her voice, broken, fragile, and achingly melodic, tore through the connection, vibrating in my own throat. "No..."
She was my mate. My heart surged with a possessive, protective fury so intense it felt like my blood was boiling. I saw the old, ugly bruises on her arms—she had been suffering for a long time, held captive by this monster. My wolf roared, a sound of pure, primal rage that threatened to break my own bones from the inside out. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to tear him apart until there was nothing left but ash.
Then, just as quickly as it had arrived, the connection snapped. The light was extinguished, and darkness rushed back in, colder and more suffocating than ever before.
"Aiden! Aiden, wake up!" Chase was shaking me, his heart hammering against his chest like a panicked drum.
"She's being tortured!" I choked out, my voice raw with terror, my hands clawing at the floorboards. "I saw her through her eyes. A cabin, the snow, the forest... she's in pain, Chase! He's killing her, and I can't reach her!"
I scrambled to my feet, my blood boiling with the desperate, feral need to hunt. "I'm going. I don't care about the trains, the cold, or the distance. I will tear this country apart if I have to. I will find that cabin, and I will make him pay for every second he touched her."
"You aren't lucid, Aiden!" Chase grabbed me, trying to hold me back, his strength straining against my frenzy. "You're blinded by trauma. You'll die out there before you even find a lead! You can't even see the road!"
"Then let me die trying!" I snarled, my voice vibrating with a lethal threat that made even my brother-in-arms flinch. "I will not sit here in this luxury while she suffers! What kind of Alpha would I be? What kind of mate?"
"I'm sorry, Aiden," he whispered, his voice trembling with a resolve I hadn't expected.
I felt the sharp, sudden sting of a needle at my neck. The sedative was cold, creeping through my veins with predatory speed, numbing my limbs, stealing the rage right out of my heart.
"You... bastard," I whispered, my knees hitting the floor as the world dissolved into the blackness of forced sleep, the image of her face burned into my eyelids, waiting for me to wake up and finish the war I had just declared.
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8
After nearly two hours of travel, the train hissed to a final stop at Vanderhoof. As I stepped onto the platform, the sheer scale of the challenge hit me like a physical blow. The town was larger than McBride, housing over four thousand souls, and divided into two distinct districts. The density of human life here felt like a labyrinth designed to keep me from her."It won't be simple to find her in the middle of all these people," I muttered, my voice tight with frustration as we exited the station.Chase shifted his weight, his tone hardening from brotherly comfort to Alpha-level intensity. "Come on, friend. Don’t fall apart now. We need to find this blessed mate of yours and put an end to this torment. Like McBride, we start with the gathering spots—bars, restaurants, shops, schools. And the libraries. We check every single public library first.""Why the libraries?" Chase asked, his brow furrowed."Her scent... it reminds me of a new book," I replied, though the uncertainty gnawed
7
The morning was a relentless blur of physical exertion, a necessary distraction from the suffocating weight of my own thoughts. I spent the hours deep within the forests bordering the town, pushing my body until my muscles screamed and my lungs burned, trying to outrun the phantom scent of chestnuts and bay leaves that haunted every breath I drew. Chase had a date with his mate, a prospect that clearly occupied every corner of his mind. He was radiant, glowing with a happiness that felt both enviable and alien. As for me, I had a mission that weighed heavier than stone. Tonight, we were scheduled to reach the next town. If she wasn't there—if this second attempt failed—I wasn't sure I could survive the crushing disappointment.To drown out the incessant chatter of my own mind, I shifted. The transformation was a familiar, jarring process, a rush of cold air meeting skin that felt too sensitive. In my lupine form, the world was not a place of sight, but a tapestry of vibrations, heat s
6
The waking world didn’t greet me with the gentle morning sun; it crashed into me like a freezing bucket of icy water—a classic, brutal tactic employed by none other than Chase. I gasped, my lungs seizing as the cold liquid soaked into my clothes, pulling me violently from the dark, drug-induced abyss I had been trapped in."Wake up, you lazy bastard," Chase’s voice boomed, devoid of sympathy. "We have a train to catch in an hour. I’m sacrificing a perfectly good day with Brianna to drag you across the province to find your mate. Move."His command was absolute, leaving no room for argument or the lingering haze of the sedative. I groaned, my body feeling heavy and uncoordinated, and dragged myself up by clutching the armrest of the sofa. My head pounded, a rhythmic, pulsing throb that mirrored the instability of my heart."What do I look like?" I muttered, running a shaky hand over my face. The skin felt rough, sensitive, and somehow foreign.Chase paced the length of the apartment, t
5
Chase returned around eight, the sounds of his heavy boots against the hardwood floor echoing through the silence I had cultivated in his absence. He didn't notice my stillness immediately; he was too consumed by his own narrative, his voice light and airy as he recounted the trivial, sun-drenched details of his day with Brianna. He spoke of the way she laughed, the way she looked at the city lights, and his absolute, unwavering certainty that she would make a magnificent Luna for our pack. I listened with a forced, brittle smile, playing the part of the brother-in-arms, while inside, I was drowning in an ocean of my own misery. He was standing on the threshold of a new life, a future bright with the promise of his mate, while I was anchored in the wreckage of a past that refused to stay buried. The envy that gnawed at my insides wasn't for his power or his status—it was for the simple, agonizing normalcy of being able to see the woman he loved."You haven't said a word, Aiden," Chase
4
To say that my world collapsed at that moment is an understatement of the raw, visceral agony that consumed me. I had finally found my mate—the missing piece of my soul—only to lose her in a heartbeat, swallowed by the indifferent tide of a train station crowd. I knew nothing of her, not her face, not the sound of her voice, only the intoxicating ghost of her scent lingering in my senses like a bittersweet memory.It was a perfume that defied definition; a delicate symphony of roasted chestnuts, the sharp, refreshing bite of bay leaves, and the ancient, comforting smell of old books. It was a scent that spoke of secrets, of stories waiting to be told, and of a belonging I had never known. A scent that would haunt my existence forever.I had tasted the heavens, felt the rhythm of the universe pulsating in my own veins, only to be cast back into the darkest abyss of solitude. "Why, Moon Goddess?" I screamed silently into the void. "What is the meaning of this cruelty? Why show me my hea
3
And that is how I found myself being tossed from one side to another on a direct train, along with my Alpha, at the main station of Prince George. We were standing in the only car packed with people, which we had managed to board at the last minute.It seems that, so as not to traumatize his mate, Chase decided to lie about where he came from, also because saying that he came from a werewolf pack located less than 5 kilometers from her, in the middle of the forest, would not have made a good impression..."You'll see, Kaelen, you'll like her too; she is simply fantastic," Chase repeated to me for the fifteenth time."For the fifteenth time, I answer that: one, it seems unlikely given my condition that I'll be able to see her; and two, seeing how you are describing her to me, I think I basically know her already," I reply, summoning all my patience."Yeah, well, it's just that I care a lot about her," he replies, almost... embarrassed."It wasn't obvious at all, look. But satisfy a cur
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