Chapter 26 Chapter 26
Chapter 26
DEREK
It wasn't Selene's voice. It was chaos—the screech of metal tearing, car alarms blaring, the sickening crunch of impact. And underneath it all, barely audible, the sound of someone crying.
Someone crying in pain.
"Selene?" I said again, louder this time, standing up from my desk. "Selene, what's happening? Where are you?"
More sounds—footsteps, heavy and purposeful. A male voice speaking in low tones, words I couldn't make out. Then Selene's voice, so faint I had to strain to hear it:
"Derek... help me. Please, I need—"
The phone cut off. Just stopped, mid-sentence, leaving me holding a dead line and a racing heart.
"What's wrong?" Jasmine asked, but I was already redialing.
It rang once, twice, three times. Then went to voicemail.
I tried again. Same result.
"Fuck." I grabbed my keys, heading for the door. "Something's wrong."
"Derek, wait—" Jasmine caught my arm. "Maybe she just dropped the phone. Maybe it's nothing."
"That wasn't nothing." I pulled free of her grip, my wolf surging beneath my skin, responding to the threat I couldn't see but could sense. "That was an accident. Or worse."
I yanked the door open and nearly collided with Marcus in the hallway. "Get the tracking team up here. Now. I need to locate Selene's phone."
Marcus's expression shifted immediately from casual to alert. "What happened?"
"I don't know. But we need to find her. Now."
He pulled out his phone, making the call as we strode down the hallway toward the security center. My company occupied the top fifteen floors of this building, with the uppermost level dedicated to pack business—surveillance, security, the operations that kept the werewolf world hidden and protected.
We burst into the security center, where three of my pack members were monitoring various feeds and systems. They jumped to attention when they saw me, recognizing the expression on my face.
"I need a location on Selene Sterling's phone," I barked. "Immediately."
"Yes, Alpha." One of them—Connor, a tech specialist—turned to his computer and started typing rapidly.
I'd had a tracking chip installed in Selene's phone when we'd married, standard security protocol for any Sterling family member. She didn't know about it, of course. Just like she didn't know about most things in my life.
"Got it," Connor said after what felt like an eternity but was probably only thirty seconds. "Pulling up the location now."
A map appeared on the main screen, showing a red dot on Highway 47, just outside the city limits. Not moving. Just stationary, which could mean she'd parked somewhere, or...
"Bring up traffic cameras for that area," I ordered. "I want to see what happened."
Connor's fingers flew over the keyboard. "Accessing the highway cam network. This might take a minute—"
"We don't have a minute." My wolf was snarling now, demanding I shift, demanding I run to wherever Selene was and protect her. The urge was almost overwhelming, which didn't make sense. Selene was my wife in name only, a human I'd been forced to marry. I shouldn't care this much about her safety.
But the thought of something happening to her, of her being hurt or afraid or...
"Got it," Connor said. "Pulling up footage from approximately fifteen minutes ago."
The screen changed, showing a grainy overhead view of the highway. I saw Selene's car—Derek's Mercedes, actually—in the center lane. Then two black SUVs, one behind her, one pulling up alongside.
"Fuck," I breathed, because I knew what was about to happen before it did.
The SUV behind her accelerated, ramming into her rear bumper hard enough to make the Mercedes swerve. Selene tried to correct, but then the second SUV cut her off, forcing her toward the concrete barrier.
I watched—helpless, furious, terrified—as the collision played out. The Mercedes hit the barrier and went airborne, flipping once, twice, three times before landing upside down in a crumpled heap.
"No," I heard myself say. "No, no, no."
The SUVs stopped. Men got out—I counted three—all wearing black and moving with a coordination that immediately set off alarms. They approached the wrecked Mercedes with purpose.
"Zoom in," I demanded. "I need to see their faces."
Connor zoomed the camera, but the men were wearing ski masks. Smart. But not smart enough.
I watched as one of them reached the Mercedes and looked inside. He said something to the others, then reached through the shattered window. A moment later, I saw him pull out a phone—Selene's phone—and crush it beneath his boot.
That's why my call hadn't gone through.
Then the same man grabbed the driver's side door and simply ripped it off the car, metal screeching as it tore free. He tossed it aside like it weighed nothing, like physics and human strength didn't matter.
Because he wasn't human.
"Werewolves," Marcus said quietly, confirming what I already knew.
The men pulled Selene from the car, and even through the grainy camera footage, I could see she was hurt. Badly hurt. Her body was limp, her dress soaked with blood. She wasn't fighting, wasn't struggling.
My wolf howled inside me, a sound of pure rage and anguish.
They dragged her to one of the SUVs, and I saw her mouth moving, forming words I couldn't hear. She looked directly at the camera for just a second—had she seen it? Did she know she was being recorded?—and her face was a mask of pain and terror.
Then they threw her into the back of the SUV like she was cargo, like she meant nothing.
"Follow them," I snarled. "Traffic cams, satellites, whatever you have. I want to know where they're taking her."