Chapter 151: Shattered bonds

***Grayson’s pov***

I have been two days without sleep. Every passing hour teases me with a crushing weight, the weight of uncertainty, loss, and void that can never be filled. Two days since Althea was abducted, and not one strand of a clue has shown up to inform us where she is and by whom she has been taken from me. I tread the corridors of the pack house, my footsteps ringing with the merciless tick of time, a bitter reminder that each second I am not by her side, a second is lost. I remember that day too well.

My wolf was upset from the very start, he knew something was wrong, I should have paid more attention to his growl, the tremble of his ears, the way he moved around in my mind with an air of tension that I could not shake. And now, when I fruitlessly try to locate her by our mindlink, I am greeted with a cold, black expanse of nothingness. Any attempts at forced entry are rebuffed by nothingness, a nothingness in which the very fabric of herself would exist. I’ve scoured every corner of the marketplace, combed through every alley, and questioned every familiar face in our community, but it’s as if she’s been erased from our world.

Leah and Calista came to me that day with devastating news. They told me that Althea had been kidnapped , taken away without any traces left behind. The starkness of her loss is a rough splinter embedded in my heart, each recollection of her laughter, her soft smile, her soft touch now a searing pain. My wolf's restlessness is a mirror to my own restlessness.

Every time I close my eyes, I feel my wolf’s frustration, his eyes burning with a silent cry that we must find her. I recall how he whined that evening, his sorrowful moan shattering the quietness of the pack house, a moan with a promise that something was quite wrong. I tried to reach out to her mentally, vainly making the connection I had relied on, but a solid barrier now stands in my path. It is as if some ancient force has severed the link, and I found myself alone in an ocean of despair. I pace the somber corridors, the soft sheen of lamps sending long, leaping shadows on walls that seem to writhe in satiric verse to the pounding in my heart.

Every gasp of wind, every groan of boards beneath my steps, causes me to shiver. I am filled with a corrosive blend of fury and frustration. How could they have abducted her and leave no trace behind? And why is it that it feels as though the very innermost heart of our bond, our mindlink, has been severed, leaving a cold, impenetrable void? I can barely recall all that happened on that fateful day, every memory a lifeline in the emptiness. The day had started promisingly, Althea's laughter echoing in the morning, the soothing balm of her presence holding out promise.

And then, in a series of unearthly moments, she was gone. I remember when I had last seen her smile, the gleam in her eyes that hinted at quiet determination. That flame is out now, and I am left grappling with questions that only add to my grief. Desperation drives me to the bazaar. I run from stall to stall and side alley, questioning vendors and acquaintances with a voice that shakes with urgency and desperation.

But she hasn't been seen. Questions elicit only a head shake or furrowed brow. The market that once was an oasis of warmth and lost brotherhood is now a labyrinth of confusion, a venue where any face casting a shadow may be hauling a lead, and any breath of rumor a body blow. I try every night to find a bridge across from her thoughts and mine. I focus, giving every last bit of energy to making the bond we share stronger.

I attempt to recall her, her voice, that gentle laugh she saves for me. But each try is met with a silence so profound, a cold, acrid nothing that teases my soul. I am left with the feeling that I am shouting into some grand, echoing canyon, my calls for harmony consumed by some supernatural power bent on isolating us. I pace up and down in my room, walls encroaching upon me with memories of her. I am repeating, "Althea, come back to me… I need you." The silence is so crushing, though, and the unspoken words thin out the distance between us. My wolf's pained howls are echoes as if my anguish in here, that savage, mournful melody no longer longs but only betrays my loneliness. Nights are becoming cold now, and I am still not warm in the embers of our earlier meetings. Even the air has an ominous, sad presence filling it. My mind goes awry, is anything that I ever had without her? Will our union's warmth ever be regained by me again? The uncertainty lingers, suffocating me like a vice, wiping out all final semblance of hope.

I sit beside the window, looking out into the night, starless as my own despair.

I vow to myself solemnly in this stillness of the moment: I will not give up until I have found her, until I bridge this gulf so brutally thrown between us.

I hold onto whatever is left of my vigor, to remembrance of the way she used to smile, and I swear to the emptiness, "I will find you, Althea. I promise it." And yet in the instant of the oath, there is this visceral, unspoken fear that eats away within me, a fear that someone or thing has gone ahead and shut us out, that powers that have seized her are strong as they are malevolent. I am powerless to avoid giving the impression that our separation was not an accident, but design, a cold calculating design, meant to snap the tie which has ever been my anchor. The days blend together as I move from wild searches in the market to wilder efforts at mindlink, both of them wearing me down more and more, driving me more and more desperate. I am tormented by the thudding of my own heart, by the growl of my wolf in the dark night. Each failure of an empty mindlink, each call left unanswered, is a knife in my heart.

I walk, I hunt, and I wait, each second a battle between hope and despair.

The darkness that closes around me is unforgiving, and my head, once full of the promise of Althea's light, now harbors a battleground of will and fear.

I know that somewhere, somewhere out there, she is fighting her own battle. And I vow that I will fight against all the power that lies within me to topple this wall, to find her, and to bring her home. The night crawls on, and my eyelids grow thick with exhaustion, but sleep does not come. I lean against the damp stone of the wall in my bedroom, and the quiet closes in around me like a shroud. My head is a stormy sea of memories, her smile, her hand, the twinkle of life in her eyes, and I cling to those memories for dear life.

I won't let them go. I must keep struggling, even if it is struggling against the choking weight of this impossible emptiness alone. In that endless night, I promise myself that tomorrow I'll search twice as hard. I will not let this block go unvanquished, nor let the darkness claim the light that is Althea. But in the deep silence of my bedchamber, the questions which have gone unspoken echo still within my mind, reminding me how far I've fallen—and how much more I'll lose. I whisper softly to the silence, "I will find you, Althea." 

I already lost one mate, I couldn’t sit by and lose another.