011.

Axel.

The pub was quiet enough to hear my pulse pound in my ears. Warren and my cousin, Jake, sat across from me, drinking, but I felt no pull toward the bottle in front of me tonight. I’d come here to forget, but not even Jake’s best whiskey couldn’t blunt the fury boiling inside me.

My mind circled back to the rogues. I’d torn through them without a second thought. I’d made it quick, but now? Now, I regretted it. They’d deserved so much worse. If I’d known my son was dead, I’d have made them beg to die. They would’ve paid with blood, their last breaths spent pleading for mercy I would never give.

A shift from across the table caught my attention. Jake cleared his throat, darting a glance at Warren.

“You know, I… feel bad for her,” he said, a little hesitant but loud enough to break through the silence, “Cassie, I mean. Little Cam… died in her arms.”

Warren nudged Jake hard, his glare sharp, a warning without words. His eyes met mine briefly, then flicked back to Jake, urging him to shut up. Jake met my gaze for a split second, then took a long drink. The tension grew thicker, and I let it.

It was rare for anyone to bring up Cassie around me. I’d made it clear my family was a topic I would control—but I held my silence.

Jake ignored Warren’s silent warning. He took another swig and cleared his throat again.

“I never liked how you treated her, Couz,” he said, his words slurred but laced with challenge.

“Tonight of all nights you should be with her, not sitting here with us.”

Warren’s warning voice came out sharp, a snap in his tone. “Jake.”

Jake ignored him, lifting his glass in my direction as he drank. I stood slowly, meeting his gaze, letting him see the storm gathering behind my eyes.

We were close, close enough for me to regard him as a friend despite sharing the same blood, but there were limits. I was his Alpha first, before anything else.

Jake stilled under my stare, tension rippling through him as I stepped closer.

“If you weren’t right,” I said coldly, my voice a low growl, “I’d peel the skin off your lips and feed it to your precious dogs.”

Jake held his silence, his expression taut, while Warren looked away, not daring to intervene. I left without another word, the heavy door swinging shut behind me.

The night air was crisp, but it did nothing to cool the fire raging inside me.

My mind drifted to Cassie.

I wasn’t a man built to comfort or coddle, but I wasn’t going to leave her to face the loss alone, so I strode through the night, back to the pack house, each step bringing me closer to her door.

I stopped just outside, my jaw clenched as memories clawed through me. In my mind, I could hear Cam’s cries, and Cassie rushing to take him in her arms, cooing at him, calming him as if he were the only thing that mattered.

In her arms, he would feel safe and his cries would turn to soft giggles. But now he was gone, leaving behind a void I could barely bring myself to acknowledge.

My hand hovered over the door, ready to knock, but I hesitated. Cassie hadn’t wanted me before, and now… I knew I was the last person she’d want to see. But that didn’t matter. She was part of this pack, under my protection. I had a duty—to her, to Cam. And nothing she could say or do would break that bond.

I raised my hand again to knock, but then something snapped inside me instantly. It was a sharp emptiness where Cassie’s wolf should’ve been.

Her wolf was handicapped and had always been weaker, harder to sense, but there’d always been a connection—a faint pull, something that tied her to me because of Cam. But now that bond was gone, as though it was severed.

Alarmed, my hand clenched into a fist as I shoved the door open, only to be met by a gaping emptiness.

The room was cold, her belongings scattered like she’d left in a hurry. I scanned the space, my mind racing as her last words came crashing back.

“You’re going to lose me, too. Not that I ever mattered to you.”

I’d dismissed her words, thrown them back at her without a second thought.

I’d once told her to leave the pack if she wanted, but she wasn’t taking my son with her, and with Cam gone, she decided to leave?

I scoffed as I ran my fingers through my hair.

"No way in fucking hell," I muttered under my breath. Something about her being gone left a bad taste in my mouth.

I hadn’t taken her words seriously earlier—because who was she to decide her fate? She’d been bound to me by our son, and her place was here. My pack. My rules.

I turned on my heel and strode back down the hall, fury pouring off me. My voice was a command that echoed through the walls as I called for the scout guards. They gathered within moments, tense, waiting. Warren and Jake appeared too, their expressions sharpening as they sensed my anger and urgency.

No one left my pack. Cassie was a part of it, a part of me, whether she liked it or not. She thought she could disappear into the shadows like some rogue? She was fucking wrong.

“Find her,” I ordered with my tone like steel. The guards exchanged confused looks, while Warren and Jake searched my face, realization dawning on them that Cassie was gone.

“I don’t care how far she’s gone, or what she thinks she can do. Cassie belongs to this pack, and I want her back. Now!”