Chapter 154

Chapter 154
Axel

The safe house walls felt like they were closing in on me. A whole week. Seven fucking days since Calla had vanished, and we had nothing to show for it.

I slammed my fist into the wooden table, sending maps and photos flying across the room. "This is bullshit," I growled, my voice rough from not sleeping. "We've contacted every source, checked every lead, searched every goddamn place we can think of."

Jace looked up from his laptop, dark circles under his eyes matching mine. "Axel, we've been over this. Blake's got resources we can't compete with. Military connections, vampire backing—"

"I don't care!" The words tore from my throat. "She's out there somewhere, scared, maybe hurt, and we're sitting here doing nothing."

Malachai shifted in his chair by the window, his massive frame tense with barely controlled anger. "We're not doing nothing man. Marcus's team hit three potential sites yesterday. Thomas checked those warehouse locations you marked. We've followed up on every damn tip we've gotten."

I ran my hands through my hair, trying to keep the desperation from eating me alive. The mate bond hummed faintly in my chest, just enough to tell me Calla was alive but not nearly enough to find her.

"Maybe we should try the coalition contacts again," suggested Eden from her spot against the wall where she was going through some papers. "Derek might have new intelligence."

"Already called twice today," I muttered. "Nothing."

The room fell into that familiar heavy silence. My pack was trying, I knew that. Hell, they were all exhausted from the constant searching. But knowing Calla was somewhere out there, trapped with that bastard Blake, was driving me insane.

That's when it hit me.

Pain. Raw, overwhelming agony that wasn't mine.

I jerked upright, my hand flying to my chest where the mate bond suddenly blazed like fire. The sensation was so intense it drove me to my feet, chair crashing backward.

"What the hell?" Jace started.

But I wasn't listening. Calla's pain poured through our connection - not physical hurt, but something deeper. Terror mixed with confusion, desperation so thick I could taste it.

Everyone in the room went rigid as they felt it too - the supernatural power that suddenly filled the air like electricity before a storm. But this was different from anything I'd experienced before. This was ancient power, overwhelming and pure, spreading outward in waves that made every werewolf within miles stop what they were doing.

"Jesus Christ," Malachai whispered, his face gone pale. "What is that?"

I turned around slowly, following an impossible sensation that made the hair on my arms stand up. For just a moment, I could have sworn I felt her presence right here in the room with us.

"Calla?" The word slipped out before I could stop it. "Is that you?"

Jace and Malachai exchanged worried looks.

"Boss, you okay?" Malachai asked carefully. "We all felt that surge, but—"

"No," I interrupted, my voice shaking. "Not just the surge. She was here. Right fucking here, I swear it."

I could feel their concern, their worry that the stress was finally getting to me. But I knew what I'd sensed. For one incredible moment, Calla's presence had filled this room so completely I could have reached out and touched her.

Then I heard it. Faint, like an echo from far away, but definitely real.

Axel.

My name, spoken in her voice through the mate bond.

The world shifted.

One second I was standing in the safe house, and the next I found myself somewhere else entirely. A dreamscape, all silver light and impossible space that felt both vast and intimate.

And there she was.

Calla stood before me wearing a hospital gown that was torn at the front, the fabric hanging open to reveal her bare skin underneath. But that wasn't what made my heart stop - it was the fear in her eyes, the way she held herself like someone who'd been through hell.

She ran to me, colliding with my chest so hard we both staggered. Her arms wrapped around me desperately, her face pressing against my neck as she started to cry.

"Axel, oh god, I thought I'd never see you again."

The emotions pouring off her through our bond nearly drove me to my knees. Terror, relief, love, and something else - a power that hummed just beneath her skin like electricity. I held her tight, breathing in her scent, feeling her warmth against me.

"I'm here," I whispered, my own voice breaking. "I'm right here, sweetheart."

"They hurt me," she sobbed against my shoulder. "That vampire, Raven, she used blood magic to break something inside me, and now I can feel everything, see everything, and it's too much, Axel. It's too much."

Tears burned my eyes as I felt her pain, her confusion, her desperate need for safety that I couldn't provide from wherever she was being held.

"Where are you?" I pulled back to look at her face, needing answers. "Do you know where they're keeping you?"

She nodded quickly, her golden eyes bright with tears. "When my consciousness left my body, I could see everything. But it's easier if I just show you."

Her hand found mine, and suddenly the dreamscape around us changed.

I saw it all through her eyes - Raven's body on the laboratory floor, blood pooled around her head. Blake standing over the scene with fury twisting his features. Dante beside him, with a cold look on his face. The cartel members suspended from the ceiling like meat in a butcher shop.

And Calla's own body on that medical bed, vulnerable and exposed in ways that made rage burn in my chest.

Then her consciousness pulled mine upward, expanding our view beyond the laboratory. I saw the building - some kind of government facility with high walls. The perspective kept widening, showing forest, roads, landmarks...

My heart hammered as I tried to memorize everything, but the terrain looked unfamiliar and too generic. Where the hell was this place?

Panic started to set in when I couldn't recognize anything until I saw it - a distinctive rock formation jutting up from the treeline like a broken finger pointing at the sky. I knew that landmark. We'd passed it during one of our search runs two days ago when Marcus had gotten a tip about an abandoned facility.

"I know where you are," I said, excitement flooding through me. "That rock formation, we searched near there already. The facility must be hidden in the valley beyond it."

But Calla's image was already starting to fade, her power weakening.

"I can't hold the connection much longer," she whispered, her voice growing distant. "The binding breaking killed Raven, and now every vampire for miles knows what I am."

"Stay strong," I told her desperately. "I'm coming for you, I swear it."

"I love you," she said, and then she was gone.

I jerked back to consciousness, hitting the safe house floor hard. Jace and Malachai were crouched beside me, their faces tight with worry.

"How long was I out?" I gasped, pushing myself upright.

"Out?" Jace looked confused. "You just stood there for like ten seconds, then said something about sensing Calla, then you hit the ground."

"Seconds?" It had felt like minutes, maybe longer. But time worked differently in dreamscapes.

I scrambled to my feet, energy coursing through me for the first time in days. "I know where she is."

Malachai raised an eyebrow. "Boss, maybe you should sit down—"

"No, listen to me." I grabbed the map from the table, spreading it out and pointing to the rock formation I'd recognized. "Here. There's a facility hidden in the valley beyond this landmark. That's where Blake is holding her."

The certainty in my voice must have convinced them because Jace moved to look at the map instead of trying to talk me down.

"That's government land," he said slowly. "Restricted access. If there's a facility there, it would be off the books."

"Perfect place to hide someone," Thomas added, joining us around the table. "Remote, secure, officially doesn't exist."

I could feel it in my bones - this was it. This was where we'd find her.

"I know where they're keeping her," I said again, my voice steady with absolute conviction.