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But she didn’t finish the job.

Four are missing. And so are they.

I shift back, my bones cracking as I return to human form. The air hits my naked skin, but I barely notice.

“Selena!” I shout, my voice raw. “ARLENE!”

No answer. Just the whisper of wind through the trees and the buzzing of flies already gathering around the dead.

I reach for Selena through our mate bond again. "Selena! Where are you?"

Nothing. The bond remains intact, but there is nothing from Selena on the other end. No answer. No thought. No voice.

Mate is alive.

My eyes close for half a second.

"Yes."

Find her.

Fear claws at my chest, sharp and cold. I drop to my knees, pressing my palms against the blood soaked earth where the last of the fighting must have happened. Selena’s scent is strongest here, mixed with Arlene’s, both of them spiked with fear and pain.

But the trail ends.

I crawl forward, sniffing, desperate to find some indication of which way they went. Her scent should lead me to her. Should show me the direction they took her.

Nothing.

It simply... stops. As if someone erased it.

“Alpha!” Warriors crash through the trees behind me. I don’t turn.

“Spread out. Search for any sign of them. Now!”

They scatter, moving quickly through the park. I force myself to my feet and scan the clearing, trying to see past the fear long enough to understand what happened here. The pattern of bodies tells a story I can read as clearly as words. Arlene positioned herself between Selena and the rogues. She moved in a defensive pattern, never chasing too far, always staying between her Luna and the threat. She killed sixteen of them before something changed.

Something small glints in the grass near where the trail ends. I crouch down, carefully picking it up. A dart. The tip stained with something dark. Not blood. Something else.

Wolfsbane. And something stronger. Something designed specifically to suppress shifting.

This is how they got her. Arlene was poisoned. Unable to shift, unable to fight at full strength, she fell.

And Selena was left vulnerable.

They touched our mate.

A growl rumbles from my chest.

Kill them.

"After we find her."

Then kill them.

"Yes."

“Alpha.” One of my trackers approaches, his face grim. “We’ve found nothing. No tracks. No scent trail. No broken branches indicating which direction they went.”