KADEN’S P.O.V

Against my better judgment, I found myself getting ready to meet Brittany tomorrow. I knew it was an incredibly stupid and rash decision- Caleb told me as much as well- but it wasn’t much of a choice. I needed a man inside the pack and she was the only one I could get my hands on. I didn’t trust her- it was becoming too much of a pattern to be around people that I didn’t trust- but I could tolerate her until I found Amelia.


I followed her instructions to the letter and it wasn’t long before I found myself inside the goddess’ temple. I found some spare priest clothes at the back and quickly changed to finalize the plan. It didn’t take long before four rolled around and I saw her walk in. She had three guards behind her and I watched as she stopped in front of a marble statue.

“Are you going to follow me around the entire time?” she spat in their direction. “Can’t a girl just pray on her own?”

“We were instructed not to leave you alone. The Alpha doesn’t trust that you won’t try anything.”


She rolled her eyes. “Right, because I would spread my legs and fuck one of the priests or the statues. Do you realize just how stupid you sound? All I am asking for is a few minutes to be alone.”

They glanced over at each other, clearly uncomfortable at the small scene she had somehow created. There weren’t a lot of people in the temple but the few that were here were staring at them without shame. The guards whispered between themselves before nodding and walking out.


As soon as she was alone, she went down on her knees in front of one of the statues and closed her eyes. The temple servants left to give her privacy as was expected and I found my way over to her. I pretended to be busy so as not to draw attention.

“You look nothing like a priest,” she drawled opening her eyes a little. “Did you really think it would work?”

“I didn’t come here to discuss with you.”

She sighed before getting to her feet. “Pity, you seem like an excellent conversationalist.”

Her voice dripped with sarcasm. I finally turned to her and she somehow looked worse than she did the last time. There were deep purple bags under her eyes that she tried to hide with makeup, she looked exhausted and to make matters worse, I could see the hint of a bruise peeking out from under her long sleeve.

Her eyes tracked my movements and she scoffed. “Don’t pity me, Kaden. I deserve what I have and I know the kind of man Blake is. He doesn’t love me so he can treat me however he wants. I don’t need him to love me, I just need the power.”

Brittany was a strange girl, that much was certain. She would have made an interesting subject to study but unfortunately, I had much more important things on my mind.

“Do you have news on Amelia?” I asked steering the conversation back on track.

“I have something, I don’t know how useful it will be for you,” she began slowly. “Blake returned yesterday with grass on his clothes and dirt under his shoes. Wherever he is keeping her, there is a lot of grass and a lot of mud.”

“That narrows it down a lot,” I couldn’t help the edge that had creeped into my tone. “You made me come all the way for that?”

“No, I made you come all the way for this,” she pulled out a small crumpled flower from her pocket. I recognized it, I just couldn’t tell where. “This was on his clothes as well.”

“What is it?”

“A very special flower that only grows in a northern area where it is colder. It doesn’t narrow it down much but at least it helps.”

I took the flower from her. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, find Amelia and take her as far away from Blake as possible. He wants to mate with her.”

“He can’t mate with her, I already marked her.”

She smiled ruefully. “You would be shocked at how easy it is to break a mating bond, Kaden. Find Amelia while you still have the chance.”

With that ominous warning, she turned on her heels and walked out of the temple.

I waited half an hour before changing my clothes back and sneaking out the way I had come. I didn’t bring a car and ran the entire way here so as not to rouse suspicion. It was already late, the sun was beginning to set and typically, I wouldn’t be out this late because of rogues.

I shot a text to Caleb telling him where to meet me so I wouldn’t risk being out too late. If I ran on my own, I wasn’t going to get back to the pack until something around eleven and that was dangerous- even for me. While I could probably handle a few rogues, some of them ran in packs. I was strong but I wasn’t a miracle worker and I couldn’t fight off an entire rogue pack alone.

I ran in silence, sticking closer to the roads so as to spot trouble easily. I had been running for exactly one hour when I felt the air shift. I stopped in my tracks looking around to be sure that I was alone. I couldn’t see anyone but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t see me.

I chose to stay in my wolf form, I was much stronger this way and I gave up control to my wolf who was more than willing to take it. He was itching for a fight, he had been on edge ever since Amelia went missing.

After a few minutes of silence, I kept running when I heard a twig snapping to my right. My head whipped in that direction but once again, I was met with nothing but silence. I wanted to keep moving when I noticed that it was truly silent. There were no birds chirping, no crickets. I let out a curse and picked up speed when I was knocked to the side by a large body.