The room fell completely silent.
Raquelle stared blankly at Jake.
The room was heavy, thick with tension.
For years, she had known him as the carefree Gamma.
He was the one who could walk into a dangerous situation and crack a joke just to break the tension.
She had seen him tease Dominic until they almost shifted, and irritate her on purpose just to see her glare.
But she had never heard him speak about a mate.
Not once.
In their world, a wolf without a mate was either rejected, waiting, or broken.
She had always assumed Jake was just waiting.
Dominic’s defensive anger slowly drained away.
His shoulders slumped, the tight stance he usually held melting into shock.
“You…” he began, his voice dropping to a quiet murmur.
“You lost your mate?” Jake offered a stiff, single nod.
He didn’t look at either of them.
His gaze was anchored to the leather armrest of his chair.
“Yes.” “When?” Dominic pressed, his tone entirely stripped of its previous malice.
“Jake, why didn’t you ever say anything to us?” Jake looked toward the window, his gaze completely hollow.
The afternoon sun hit his face, but his eyes looked far away.
“Before I ever became a part of Raquelle’s inner circle.
Before I took the Gamma title.” Jake’s jaw tightened until the bone showed through his skin.
He swallowed hard, his chest rising and falling in shallow breaths.
“I don’t like talking about it.
The pack didn’t need a mourning Gamma.
They needed a tracker.” Raquelle’s ruthless expression softened, just for a second.
The hard, unyielding Alpha facade she wore like armor cracked.
“Then you don’t have to explain it, Jake.” Jake snapped his eyes back to her.
There was a raw, watery shine in them that he quickly blinked away.
“But I know exactly what you’re going through, Alpha.
I see you every day.” Raquelle lowered her gaze to her desk, unable to hold his eyes.
“When you lose a fated mate, everyone expects you to just keep moving,” Jake continued, his voice tight and vibrating with years of buried agony.
“They see you working, talking, laughing, leading patrols…
They look at your strength and they think you’re fine.” He shook his head, staring at his knuckles.
“You’re not fine.
Your wolf is screaming inside your head every hour of the day.” Raquelle’s fingers curled tightly against her leather armrest, her nails digging into the material.
“You wake up every single morning knowing the person who was supposed to be the other half of your soul isn’t there anymore,” Jake whispered.
“The bond doesn’t just vanish.
It aches.” Raquelle swallowed hard.
His words were hitting far too close to home.
Images of the rogue in her dungeon—the man she had executed without knowing his name—flashed behind her eyelids.
The ache in her own chest throbbed.
“You don’t just lose a person,” Jake said, his voice dropping lower.
“You lose the entire future you thought you were going to have.
The pups you planned.
The pack structure you imagined.
It all burns.” Dominic looked down at the floor, his broad frame looking uncharacteristically small.
“I’m sorry, Jake.
Truly.” Jake studied him for a quiet moment, the tension in the room finally dissolving.
Dominic let out a rough sigh, rubbing the back of his neck before looking at Raquelle.
“I shouldn’t have said those things, Raquelle.
I went too far.
I was out of line.” “I know you’re angry, Dom,” Jake said softly.
“We all are.” “I am angry,” Dominic admitted, his eyes moving back to Raquelle, filled with a sudden vulnerability.
“But I’m also terrified.
I’ve never been this scared for the pack.” Raquelle’s golden eyes lifted.
“Terrified?” Dominic nodded grimly, pacing a few steps forward.
“Think about it.
Twenty children are missing from our pack, snatched in broad daylight.
One of our perimeter guards was just slaughtered.
Someone is forging signatures in our city headquarters, threatening our status.” He paused, his voice dropping into a dark whisper.
“And now we find out the rogue you executed was an Alpha’s twin brother.
A pack of seven hundred shouldn’t be able to touch us, but they are bleeding us from the inside out.
I don’t know how much worse this can get.” Raquelle understood his fear.
In fact, she felt the exact same way.
But as Alpha, she couldn’t afford to hesitate.
Fear was a luxury for ordinary wolves.
For her, it was a liability.
Slowly, she stood up behind her desk, planting her hands flat on the polished wood.
“Then we stop sitting around waiting for the next disaster to strike.
We take the fight to them.” Both men looked up at her, anchored by her sudden shift in energy.
“We find those twenty children,” Raquelle commanded, her Alpha aura vibrating through the room, forcing their inner wolves to stand at attention.
“We hunt down whoever is bypassing our borders.
And we find out exactly what happened to Pete.
No more defense.
We go on the offense.” Dominic nodded firmly, his spine straightening.
“Agreed.” Raquelle turned her sharp gaze to Jake.
“How much more can you dig up on the Evergreen Pack?
I know you ran the initial statistics, but we need deeper intelligence.” Jake calculated quickly, his analytical brain kicking back into gear.
“A lot, if I map their digital footprint, check their human shell companies, and track their physical border layout.” “Then do it.
I want a complete dossier by tomorrow morning.” “What exactly are we looking for, Alpha?” “The Alpha’s personal schedule.
His inner circle.
His territorial movements.
His businesses in the city.
His regular visitors.” Her eyes narrowed to slits, thinking back to the rumors.
“And that secret mistress he’s harboring.
If she’s from another pack, she’s crossing lines.
Find out who she belongs to.” Jake nodded.
“Consider it done.” “Good.” Raquelle turned to Dominic.
“And you…
you’re coming with me to look at the CCTV .” Dominic’s brow furrowed.
“The camera street near the school bus destination?
The IT security team already checked the feeds, Raquelle.
They went through thoroughly and said the footage was entirely clean.” “I don’t care what they said,” Raquelle cut him off cleanly, her tone sharp.
“Those tech analysts have been staring at those screens since the bus vanished, and they haven’t given me a single thing.
They are missing something.” She snatched her leather jacket from the back of her chair and threw it over her shoulders.
“It’s high time we review the footage ourselves.” Dominic stared at her, a realization dawning on him.
“You think the security team is compromised?
You think we have a mole in the tech division?” “I think somebody is missing something obvious, or someone is deliberately hiding it,” Raquelle snapped, walking toward the heavy doors.
“We’re going right now.” Dominic opened the door, and the three of them stepped out into the crowded hall.
Raquelle walked with long, aggressive strides, her mind racing.
They reached the security wing a few minutes later.
Two warriors stood at attention immediately, baring their necks slightly in respect.
“Alpha.” Raquelle didn’t even slow down.
“Take me to the main monitoring room.
Evacuate anyone who isn’t essential.” “Yes, Alpha.” The heavy steel door hissed open, revealing a darkened room illuminated by dozens of glowing, blue-tinted monitors.
Three security officers sat in rolling chairs, typing rapidly.
They shot to their feet the moment they caught her commanding scent.
“Alpha!” Raquelle marched straight down the center aisle, her boots clicking loudly against the tile.
“Have you found a anything yet?” The head technician swallowed hard, sweating under his collar.
He looked exhausted, his hair disheveled.
“Not yet, Alpha.
We’ve run the footage around the extraction zone through three different digital filters.
There is nothing unusual.” Raquelle marched up to the primary console, tapping his shoulder.
“Move.” The officer scrambled out of the way, gripping his clipboard tightly.
Raquelle dropped into the main seat, pulling the control deck toward her.
Jake and Dominic placed themselves right behind her shoulders, leaning over the console.
“Pull up the feed from the exact hour the school bus vanished,” she ordered, her fingers already flying across the interface.
The technician hit a few keys over her shoulder.
The center screen flickered to life, casting a harsh blue glow over their faces.
The timestamp read 07:42 AM.
The morning light on the screen was pale.
Cars passed normally.
Humans in heavy coats walked along the sidewalks, drinking coffee.
The yellow school bus came into view, turning down the corner of the main street.
Raquelle watched silently.
Her eyes scanned every corner of the screen.
Five minutes passed.
Ten.
Fifteen.
The video ran smoothly up until the exact frame where it cut to stop.
It looked completely normal.
“Rewind it,” Raquelle muttered, her jaw locking.
The footage reversed in a high-speed blur.
She watched it a second time, focusing on the background buildings.
Still absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
“Slower,” she demanded, her voice dropping.
“Drop the frame rate to ten frames per second.
Let’s look at the blind spots.” The video crawled forward, ticking frame by frame like a slow slideshow.
Raquelle leaned so close to the glass her breath fogged the lower corner of the screen.
She wiped it away impatiently with her sleeve.
“Right there.
Stop,” she commanded, slapping her hand against the desk.
The screen froze instantly.
“What is it?” Dominic asked, squinting over her shoulder.
“I just see the back of a delivery truck.” Raquelle pointed her finger at the very bottom left corner of the lens, right in the shadow of a large brick warehouse across the street.
“Look at that shadow.
It’s moving against the glare of the streetlamp.” A massive vehicle was creeping along the very edge of the frame, tucked away in the blind spot of the camera, driving without its headlights on.
“Zoom in on those specific coordinates,” Raquelle told the technician.
The image expanded.
The pixels stretched, fat and blurry, turning the dark shape into a blocky gray mass.
“It’s too dark,” Dominic frowned, shaking his head.
“It looks like a commercial transport van.
Hundreds of those drive through the city every morning for deliveries.” “Filter the contrast,” Raquelle ordered, her instincts screaming at her.
“Isolate the light exposure on the side panel.
Enhance the dark levels.” The technician tapped the deck frantically.
The shadow lifted slightly on the screen, sharpening the gray blur on the van’s side sliding door.
A pale, faded graphic began to take shape against the dark metal.
Raquelle’s breath caught in her throat.
Her eyes went completely wide, her pupils dilating.
Dominic leaned closer, his hand gripping the edge of the console.
“There is some kind of logo painted on the metal.
A symbol.
Can anyone read that text underneath?” “I’ve seen that exact symbol before,” Raquelle whispered, her voice dangerously steady.
Dominic’s face went entirely pale as he looked from the screen to her face.
“Where, Raquelle?” “The abandoned shipping warehouse on the edge of town,” Raquelle said, her words dropping like heavy stones in the silent room.
A heavy, terrifying silence fell over the monitoring room.
The technicians held their breath.
Jake gripped the back of her chair so hard the leather groaned under his strength.
“So whoever took our children…
isn’t just a random person.
It is someone in our pack.” Raquelle stood up, her leather jacket creaking in the quiet.
The vulnerability she had felt earlier was entirely gone, replaced by a focus.
“Save this timestamp, clone the data drive, and lock the security log,” she ordered the head technician, who nodded frantically, his fingers flying across the keys.
She turned to face Dominic and Jake, her golden eyes flashing.
“We are going back to that warehouse,” Raquelle declared.
Jake frowned, questioning the move.
“The warehouse is empty, Alpha.” “We missed something,” Raquelle snarled, pushing past them toward the exit.
“A hidden basement, a link, something.
And I’m going to rip that entire building apart brick by brick until I find it.” **** Go go go Raquelle!
I’m enjoying this book so much