LOGINJaxon looked like a little kid who had just been handed the keys to a candy store as he hurried toward the door.Lucien gave Voss a pat on the shoulder. “Keep trying to find that truck. Text or call us if you discover anything else that can tell us exactly where that guy is taking Kael.” Then he pointed at Elias. “You stay here. Keep Elara safe. Got it?”Elias gave a playful salute. “Ten-four, buddy.”Everything around me, including reality itself, felt like it was spinning out of control. Was I even really here?How had I become so useless in such a short time? Lucien had come in like some superhero with his team and had taken charge of everything. Once again, that painful and unreasonable jealousy rose inside me, making my chest hurt.“You coming?” Lucien asked.I flinched as I tried to pull my thoughts away from the resentment I was feeling. “What?”“I asked if you were coming. Or are you staying here?” Lucien asked.I honestly wished he had said it in a mocking way, as if I would
“So, uh, what are you doing?” I asked.“Bro is doing that black-hat stuff,” Elias said with a grin.Voss raised one eyebrow. “Are you saying that because I’m black?”Elias’s expression immediately changed, and his mouth fell open in shock. “Wait, what? No, I didn’t—”“I’m messing with you. Relax.” Voss smiled and turned back to his work.“What’s black hat?” I asked.“He’s a hacker,” Jaxon explained.“Actually,” Voss said while his fingers moved quickly across the keyboard and his eyes stayed fixed on the screen, “this kind of thing is technically called cracking. It means getting into protected systems and searching for hidden information. There are white hat, black hat, and gray hat hackers.”“What?” Elara asked, looking just as confused as I felt.Voss sighed and looked up from the computer. “White hats work in cyber security. They purposely look for weak spots and help companies, organizations, and people protect themselves from black hats. Black hats get into systems for bad reaso
The happy reunion started making me feel worse. Lucien and Jaxon kept joking with each other every few minutes and started sharing stories about their time together in the service. But Lucien was not only joking around with Jaxon. He was doing the same with Elara too. I sat there and watched everything happen, not really knowing how I felt about it. In some ways, I felt like I was standing outside a house and looking through the window at a party.It took a huge amount of self-control for me not to make some careless comment or act like a dick. I kept all of that inside, but those feelings kept trying to rise up while I watched Lucien around my mate. Neither I nor my wolf liked it. They acted so comfortable around each other that it made my stomach twist in a strange way, like someone had reached inside me and squeezed my insides like a wet towel. No matter what Elara had told me, I still could not stop wondering if something had happened between them before. Just thinking about it ma
A loud buzzing sound suddenly pulled me out of sleep the next morning. It was my phone. I quickly got out of bed and looked around the room, trying to find it.After finally spotting it inside my jeans on the floor, I pulled it out and answered quietly so I would not wake Orion.“Hello?”“Elara? It’s Lucien. We just landed at the airport with Voss and Elias. Voss is renting a car for us. We should be at your house in about an hour.”Even though things were still dangerous and we still did not have a solid plan, knowing that trusted help was coming made me feel a lot better. I let out a small breath and looked over at Orion, who was softly snoring in bed.“Okay,” I said. “Do you have the address I sent you?”“Yup. I already put it into my maps app. We’ll see you soon.”“Be careful. See you soon.”“Bye.”I quickly got dressed and quietly walked to the bed before gently shaking Orion.“Orion, wake up.”His eyes slowly opened, and he squinted because of the morning sunlight coming through
I believed him. I could see the strong determination burning in his eyes. His plan had not really been careless after all. Orion understood how dangerous it was, but he simply did not care. He was ready to die if that meant bringing Kael back home. He would rather give up his own life than leave our child trapped with that crazy man. As I looked into his eyes, I realized I had never loved him more than I did at that moment. After everything that had happened between us—after how deeply I loved him when we were younger and after how badly he had hurt me—this was what touched my heart the most. The powerful love he had for a boy he had only known for a few weeks completely melted my heart. No matter what happened, I loved this man.“Take me to bed, Orion,” I whispered.In response, he let out a deep growl of approval and kissed me again. He lifted me into his arms and carried me down the hallway toward my bedroom. All I wanted was to let out all the stress, fear, frustration, and worry
I chewed on my lower lip and let the silence stay between us for a while. Stormy sat beside me and gave me time to think through everything. When I looked at her, my eyes were a little blurry because of my tears.“I keep wondering if all of this is going to make a crack between us that is so big we’ll never fix it,” I said, then let out a tired groan. “Does thinking about something like that make me a bad mother when my son is in danger?”“Oh, sweetie. No,” Stormy said as she reached over and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I truly believe that Kael is coming back safely. Don’t even let yourself think about anything else. And when your son is safe again, then you can think about what your life will be like after that. Worrying about it is completely normal.”I wiped my eyes and shook my head. “Orion and I haven’t been treating each other very well lately. We’re not being openly mean, but we’ve been cold and distant with each other, you know? Maybe it’s because of the kidnapping,
I had never loved any other man the way I had loved Orion. Not even Travis. I was never completely in love with Travis like I had been with Orion. I was only twenty when Orion left, still just a kid, but we were soulmates. More than that, I was his fated mate. When Orion left, my heart had broken
She sighed and dropped into the chair facing me. “I didn’t question it. Honestly, I was still shocked about his death. I wasn’t thinking about anyone else. I’ve been gone for a long time. Long enough not to see how bad things had gotten. Orion, Dad was only fifty-seven when he died. That’s not old
I threw my engagement ring into the toilet, and then we left. Before getting into the car, I blocked Travis’s number. In less than a day, my life had completely changed.Now we were on the worst road trip ever, heading toward a future I never planned. Kael, however, was trying to stay positive.“Is
In just a few seconds, everything in my life flipped completely. It felt like my world had been turned upside down, shaken hard, and then thrown away. I had a son? Was this really happening? So many thoughts and emotions rushed through my head at once. How could I have walked away from Elara? I ha







