Chapter 57 Chapter 56

Chapter 57 Chapter 56
Katrina.

“They wouldn’t just leave. They wouldn’t…” Archer’s voice was barely audible, as if he couldn’t quite believe the words himself. His eyes were fixed ahead, lost in thoughts I couldn’t reach.

I stepped closer, trying to offer some comfort, but he moved away, the distance between us growing. “I need to go and see our house,” he muttered, his voice strained.

“I’ll go with you,” I said softly, knowing he didn’t have to face this alone.

The drive to the Madsun Pack was heavy with silence. Archer sat beside me, stiff, his gaze locked on the passing trees but seeing none of them. I wanted to say something, but the weight of his past hung too thick between us.

When we arrived, the house looked like it had been forgotten by time. Rusted metal lined the once-sturdy fence, and weeds choked the front yard. The windows, now dark and cracked, seemed to stare at us like empty eyes. I felt a chill crawl up my spine. 

Archer’s steps faltered as we approached, his breath coming in short, uneven gasps. “It’s… it’s worse than I thought,” he whispered, his voice broken.

We stepped inside, the creak of the floorboards echoing through the vacant space. Dust coated every surface, and it was clear no one had been here for a long time. My heart ached for him, for the home that had once been filled with life but now stood hollow and forgotten.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in the doorway—Alpha Drake. His eyes widened, mouth parting in disbelief. “Archer?” he breathed, as if seeing a ghost. “Is it really you?”

Archer’s eyes narrowed, his voice hard. “It’s me.”

Drake took a shaky step forward, his face pale. “But… how? Everyone thought—” He stopped, glancing at me as if needing an explanation, unable to piece it together.

I stepped forward, swallowing the lump in my throat. “It’s not what you think, Alpha. Archer wasn’t the one who betrayed us.” My voice was steady, but the truth still weighed heavy. “It was Damien. Archer was framed and locked away in his place.”

Drake’s eyes flickered between us, trying to process the revelation. “Damien? But how…?”

“He’s been manipulating everyone from the start,” I continued, holding Drake’s gaze. “Archer took the fall, and no one knew the truth. He’s been in prison all this time.”

Drake’s face paled further, his breath shallow. “My goodness, Archer. I didn’t know. We thought you were kidnapped... or worse.” His eyes glistened with regret, but the news we came for hadn’t even been spoken yet.

Archer’s voice cut through the moment. “Where is my family, Drake? Why is the house empty?”

Drake’s expression shifted. He sighed heavily, running a hand through his thinning hair. “It’s already abandoned. Your mother and baby Emily… they didn’t come back.”

Archer froze, his eyes wide, heart visibly shattering. “What do you mean they didn’t come back?” he whispered, like the words would stop hurting if he said them quietly enough.

Drake’s jaw tightened. “We searched. We waited. But they… they never returned. There was no note. No sign of where they could’ve gone.” His voice cracked slightly, the weight of his own helplessness hanging in the air. “We thought they might’ve gone looking for you.”

Archer clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. The silence between us felt suffocating, and I could feel the storm brewing inside him.

He had lost so much already, and now this.

“And the pack?” Archer’s voice was hollow now, each word drenched in disbelief.

Drake hesitated, a flash of guilt crossing his face. “I tried to keep things together. I did. But after you went missing… your absence took its toll, and we needed leadership.”

Archer’s eyes darkened, but he kept his voice steady. “So you found a new Beta.”

Drake nodded, his posture tense. “I had no choice. You were gone, and the pack was falling apart. I had to make decisions to keep things running.”

Archer stood still, absorbing the blow. 

“I’m sorry, Archer,” Drake whispered, his voice filled with the weight of everything that had been lost. “If I had known the truth, I would have done things differently.”

Archer’s chest rose and fell. I reached for his hand again, and this time, he didn’t pull away. He didn’t say anything either, but his grip tightened just enough for me to know he wasn’t alone in this.

“We’ll find them,” I whispered, though my heart felt heavy with doubt. “We’ll find your family, and we’ll fix this.”

Archer nodded, though his eyes stayed locked on the empty house in front of him, as if the ghosts of his past were still haunting the walls.

“Let’s go and see my friends,” Archer said, his voice tight with determination. I nodded silently, knowing how much this moment meant to him. There were so many questions left unanswered, but the one thing he needed most right now was to find his family.

The walk to Teddy’s felt longer than it should have. Archer moved with purpose, but I could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his fingers twitched slightly as if he was already bracing for the worst.

When we arrived, the door to Teddy’s bar creaked open, revealing a group of familiar faces. But as soon as they saw Archer, time seemed to freeze.

Their expressions shifted from shock to disbelief, as though they were staring at a ghost.

“Archer?!” Leon’s voice broke the silence, his eyes wide with a mix of anger, desperation, and something like hope. “You’re… you’re back? We thought you were dead, man! Where the hell did you go?”

Archer’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t let the question sink in.

He had only one thing on his mind. “My mother, Leon! Baby Emily! Have you seen them?” His voice cracked slightly, betraying the worry that had been building since the moment we arrived at the pack.

Leon blinked, taken aback by the urgency in Archer’s voice. “We thought… we thought you brought them, Archer.”

Archer’s expression hardened. “I didn’t. I’ve been in prison this whole time.”

The room went silent again, the weight of his words hanging in the air. Teddy stepped forward, his face pale with confusion. “Wait—prison? You? But Damien said—”

“Forget that fucking liar bastard,” Archer cut him off sharply, his voice rising with barely contained anger. “Just tell me where my family is!”

Teddy exchanged a quick, tense glance with Leon, both of them hesitating. Teddy’s shoulders slumped slightly as he shook his head, his voice low. “We don’t know, Archer. We thought… we thought they were with you. After you went missing, everything fell apart.”

Archer’s fists clenched at his sides, knuckles turning white. His body trembled with the effort to hold it all in—the fury, the panic, the grief. His voice, when it came, was hoarse, barely more than a whisper. “So they just… vanished?”

The word hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. Leon stepped forward, his eyes softening with the kind of understanding that came from too many losses.

He reached out, placing a firm hand on Archer’s shoulder. “We didn’t know what to think, man. You were gone. People thought the worst. But we never stopped hoping—”

“I don’t care about me,” Archer snapped, jerking away from Leon’s touch, his voice cracking under the weight of his fear. “I need to know where my mother and Emily are.”

Teddy let out a frustrated sigh, rubbing the back of his neck, his brow furrowed in helplessness. “We’ve searched, Archer. We’ve been looking since the day they disappeared. But there’s been no trace. No word. It’s like they just… vanished into thin air.”

The silence was so thick it was almost unbearable, pressing in on all sides. I could feel Archer’s pain, the desperation clawing at his every breath. The reunion he had hoped for, fought for, seemed to be slipping through his fingers.

And then, like a dam breaking, the room erupted.

“Fuck it, man, you’re alive!” Leon’s voice broke, rough and wet with emotion. Tears welled up in his eyes, his bravado cracking as he pulled Archer into a fierce hug. “You’re alive!”

The others followed, the shock still painted across their faces, but it didn’t stop them from wrapping their arms around Archer, clutching him like they were afraid he might disappear again.

“We thought you abandoned us!” Leon choked out between sobs, his voice thick with a mix of anger and relief. “You and your mother, baby Emily… or worse, we thought you were dead!”

Archer stood stiffly in their embrace, his expression frozen in a mask of conflicting emotions. His hands hung awkwardly at his sides, as if he didn’t know where they belonged anymore.

The weight of Leon’s words hung heavily in the air, and for a moment, I saw the pain flicker in Archer’s eyes before he blinked it away.

“I’m… tired,” he finally muttered, his voice hollow and distant. The fight that had driven him here was fading, replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion.

He pulled back from his friends, offering a weak smile. “I should get some rest.”

Leon wiped his face, stepping back as Teddy placed a hand on Archer’s shoulder. "Yes, you need some rest, son. Let's talk about this tomorrow, shall we?" 

Archer nodded at Teddy.

“You can stay at our place,” I offered. “There are plenty of empty guest rooms. You don’t have to be alone tonight.”

Archer nodded, his voice barely a whisper. “Alright.”

We left soon after.

I walked beside Archer in silence, glancing at him from time to time, trying to gauge his mood. He seemed distant, lost in his own world, but I could feel the storm of emotions raging beneath his calm exterior.

When we arrived at the house, the quietness of the guest room felt suffocating as I helped Archer settle in, grabbing a few blankets and putting them on the bed.

The silence between us had a weight to it, a tension that I wasn’t sure how to navigate.

Just as I turned to hand him another blanket, he was suddenly there—closer than I expected.

Before I could react, Archer’s lips crashed against mine, his kiss fierce and desperate, like a man drowning.

His hands gripped my arms, pulling me into him as if he couldn’t bear the space between us.

“A-Archer…” I gasped against his lips, my breath catching in my throat.

“I just miss you… so much,” he whispered, his voice raw, heavy with unspoken longing and pain. His forehead pressed against mine, his breath shaky. I could feel the weight of everything he’d been holding back—grief, fear, desperation.

“I miss you, too,” I whispered back, my hand finding his cheek. My heart ached for him, for everything he had gone through. “Don’t worry. I’ll ask my father for help. We’ll find your mother and baby Emily, I promise.”

He let out a shaky breath, his lips brushing against mine again, softer this time, but no less filled with need. “I couldn’t thank you enough, Katrina,” he murmured, his hands cupping my face, his eyes searching mine for something—comfort, reassurance, maybe both.

Before I could respond, his lips were on mine again, more insistent, more urgent.

The blankets fell from my hands as I wrapped my arms around him, feeling the weight of his body pressing against me. The kiss deepened, and suddenly, it was as though nothing else existed—just the two of us, wrapped in a moment too powerful to resist.