Chapter 321 321
Maurice POV
I’ve been to Damien and Aurélie’s new home countless times but always as a guest, never with an agenda heavier than shared meals and easy laughter. Today is different. Today has purpose, sharp and relentless.
If Damien’s trackers haven’t crossed paths with mine, then the answer is painfully simple: he never sent them out in the first place.
Fate bound Damien and me together early. Our fathers were inseparable once until their feud tore that bond apart and dragged us with it, turning friendship into rivalry, then into something edged and complicated. We traded blows as teenagers more than once, one of those fights sparked by the stupidity of both wanting the same girl. Then destiny, with its cruel sense of humor, crossed our paths again the day Damien carried an unconscious Aurélie from a warehouse on my outer pack lands.
I won’t pretend I didn’t enjoy myself back then flirting shamelessly with her right in front of him, especially while he denied their bond and clung to Geneviève. Now their children call me uncle. Life has a way of circling back on itself.
The Royal Alpha family’s home sits deliberately apart from both packs, balanced geographically between Bloodnight and Darkvale. Neutral ground. It allows them to live as a family while still being able to move freely between packs when duty calls. For the children’s sake, there’s an unspoken border here something meant to give them peace after everything they’ve endured. Especially Delphine.
She suffered the most during the Darkvale attack. Locked in a dark basement, listening as chaos unfolded above her, not knowing if her parents were alive. Just thinking about it knots something ugly in my chest.
Guards are everywhere strategically placed, invisible unless you know how to look. Don’t be fooled by the calm; they’re ready to intercept at a second’s notice. I have unrestricted access, though. Family privileges.
Still, the house is quiet. Too quiet.
Normally it hums with children’s laughter, sound ricocheting joyfully off every surface. Today, silence presses in.
I find Damien standing alone, staring into nothing. He doesn’t notice me at all as I approach.
The Alpha King. The highest-ranking wolf in our nation and he doesn’t sense someone entering his home where his family sleeps.
Something is wrong.
“Damien?” I keep my voice cautious. For a moment I wonder if he’s locked in a mind-link, but the packs are too far away for that to be possible here everything on this property runs on tech. Besides, his eyes aren’t glazed, the telltale sign of a link in progress.
The guards nearby Bloodnight and Darkvale alike maintain their own mind-link network. That at least still functions when pack members are close.
“Maurice…” he says at last, voice distant. “Back for more mayhem.”
His eyes linger in that faraway place before he visibly shakes himself free.
He looks exhausted.
He lost the first four years of Dominique’s and Aurélie’s lives. Knowing Damien, he’s trying to make up for it now with Frédéric, with sleepless nights, with stretching himself thin for a newborn who doesn’t understand mercy.
“Something like that,” I say. “I need to talk to you.”
“Drink?” he offers. “About what?”
“Sure.” I pause. “I’ve had trackers out for the past three months.”
“You have?” His brow furrows. “Why?”
I bite the inside of my cheek. Isn’t it obvious? But I remind myself they’ve been wrapped in a newborn bubble the outside world reduced to background noise.
“To search for Bee.”
“I told you my men were handling it. We’ll find her soon.”
“Damien,” I snap, my patience fraying. “Cut the crap.”
His head lifts sharply.
“I know you haven’t had men out there looking for her,” I continue, the bitterness slipping into my voice. “Have you ever?”
“Of course I have”
“Show me.” I push for proof. I may not have a family waiting on me like he does, but I’m just as tired. A mate bond stretched to breaking point has a way of hollowing you out.
“Excuse me?”
“Show me,” I repeat. “Show me what your men have reported.”
“Maurice”
“Show me.” A growl creeps into my voice, triggered by the faint humor I hear in his tone.
He has his mate. He’s forgotten what it feels like to be torn from the one person made for you.
“You need to give it time”
“I have,” I cut in. “Six months. I can’t keep doing this. I need to find her.”
The words scrape out of me, raw and exhausted. I inhale deeply before forcing myself to continue.
“I’ve put Maxime in charge of Ash Valley for as long as it takes. I can’t even feel her anymore, Damien. Not through the mate bond.”
Silence stretches between us.
He turns inward, eyes closing briefly, as if weighing something he doesn’t want to say. If he knows anything anything at all he has to tell me now. What means nothing to him could be the thread that saves me.
“I just need to know she’s alive,” I say, my voice breaking despite myself. “That she’s safe.”
He turns away.
I grab his shoulder, forcing him to face me again.
That’s when he finally gives me the truth the admission that confirms what I’ve suspected all along. That he’s been holding back, letting me drown in the dark.
“She is safe.”