KADEN’S P.O.V

Amelia wasn’t here. I wasn’t sure if I was more pissed off or relieved by that.


Just because she wasn’t here didn’t mean she wasn’t with Blake though. He seemed too much at ease for someone who was obsessed with Amelia. I wasn’t going to find her here, that much was clear. I had to return to my pack and search for Amelia from a safe enough distance. While I was here, Blake wasn’t going to mess up, I knew that better than I knew my own name.

As soon as the sun was up, I gathered the guards I had brought and we were set to leave. Blake looked pleased even though he tried to hide it. He made a show of walking us to the car and Brittany was by his side but she wouldn’t even look at me. It was almost as if she wanted to make herself look smaller.

“Maybe next time you can tell me before you come to visit,” Blake said snapping me out of my thoughts. “I have a feeling it will be a better visit then.”


“I have no intentions of returning here unless it is to take my mate,” I told him simply and the muscle in his jaw twitched.

“I hope you find Amelia, truly, I do,” he held out his hand for me to shake and I reluctantly did.


I turned to Brittany who was by his side and held out my hand to her. She glanced over at Blake in a silent question and although I didn’t like the girl, I hated what he had turned her into. She was annoying the first time I met her, but she had spunk, she had sass and she had life to her. The girl standing in front of me was a shell of a person and the thought of it happening to Amelia made me want to throw up.

Blake gave her a subtle nod and she placed her hand in mine. I felt something between out palms and I leaned down to kiss the back of her hand as I took the piece of paper she had somehow managed to slip into my hands. I released her immediately after and her face betrayed nothing. Her eyes remained lifeless and cold and it struck me that Brittany was a much better actress than I gave her credit for.

I felt Blake’s eyes on me as I walked back to my car. He was probably searching for any sign that Brittany has said anything to me but unless he was a mind reader, he would never know. I said nothing until we had driven out of the pack just in case he was watching or listening somehow.

The moment we were gone and it was just Caleb and I, I pulled the paper out of my sleeve and unfolded it.

“What is that?” Caleb asked. “Where did you get it?”

“It is a little gift from Amelia’s sister,” I said simply and he frowned.

“Why would she help you? She doesn’t even like Amelia.”

“I don’t know, and in all honesty, I don’t care enough to know. All that matters is that I get my mate back.”

The letter was simple and short.

He has her. I don’t know where, but he does. Do not mistake this for me being kind. Do not call me, texts only.

She had scribbled down a hasty number. It only left me more confused than before I started. She definitely had her own selfish reasons for wanting to help and I would have questioned it more if Amelia’s life was not in danger at the moment.

“How is it going with Clara and those drawings?” I asked and Caleb sighed.

“She has been trying her best, honestly. I don’t know if it was the impact but her recollection of their faces is a bit hazy. She says if she sees them she will know but she cannot draw them properly. I am trying everything possible.”

It took everything in me to not let out a frustrated growl. It was almost like the universe was conspiring against me and trying to make it more difficult for me to find Amelia. With each passing second in the car, it felt like I was going crazy.

“Stop the car,” I announced and Caleb turned to me like I was insane. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

He stopped almost immediately. “What is going on?”

“I’ll meet you at the pack. Leave some clean clothes out for me.”

Before he could say anything else, I shifted and took off into the woods.

A run was exactly what I needed to clear my head and breathe. The feeling of the wind in my fur and the trees around me momentarily blinded me to everything going on. It was incredibly selfish of me to be taking a run not knowing what was going on with Amelia but my wolf was a second away from snapping and he needed the rest.

By the time I got back to the pack, it was sundown and just as I had asked, Caleb had left clothes at my front door but I was more shocked to see him there as well. He was seated in front of the steps and when he saw me, he stood. I shifted and quickly put on the shorts he had brought.

“You didn’t have to stay,” I muttered and he shrugged. “Go home, Caleb.”

“Clara has our grandparents, you have no one, I’m fine here.”

“I don’t need-” I was cut off by a searing pain in my chest. It felt like someone had taken a pricked my heart with a thousand needles.

I could vaguely hear Caleb talking to me but his words didn’t register. It took me a second to realize that the pain wasn’t coming from me, it was coming from my wolf.

“What is this?” I asked him but he remained silent. “Answer me for fucks sake.”

“It is Amelia, she is with someone else.”