Chapter 181
Blake
The silence that followed felt like drowning.
She's pregnant and she's in their fucking hands.
The thought kept looping through my mind, each repetition like a blade between my ribs. She was going through the early stages alone, without us to help with morning sickness or food cravings or the thousand small discomforts pregnancy brought. Did those bastards even know? Were they feeding her properly? Making sure she had water? Or was she trapped in some cold cell, terrified and sick and convinced we weren't coming for her because we never fucking had before—
Stop. Asher's mental command cracked through my spiraling thoughts like a whip. We will find her. Once we do, she'll never leave our sight again. But right now, we need to keep our heads and keep moving.
I forced myself to release the pillow, though every instinct screamed at me to stay here, to guard this last trace of her presence like the feral thing I was rapidly becoming. Cole had curled around another pillow, his mint scent gone sharp and brittle with barely contained anguish, tears streaming silently down his face.
"We'll find her," I said, the words emerging as half-growl, half-prayer. Through our bond, I pushed the promise toward both my brothers with everything I had. "And when we do, I'm never letting her out of my sight. I'll feed her every goddamn meal myself. Carry her everywhere if that's what it takes. She and our child—our children—are going to be safe and protected and so fucking loved they'll never doubt it for a second."
"Blake." Cole's voice was thick with tears, but steady. Stronger than I felt. "We all will. All three of us. She won't face a single moment of this pregnancy alone once we get her back. I swear it."
Asher's hand tightened on my shoulder, his ebony scent wrapping around us both in wordless agreement. But I could feel the truth through our bond—the crushing weight of responsibility and fear he was carrying. As the eldest, as the one who'd made the call to split our focus between border security and Kara's safety, he was drowning in guilt that tasted like ash and blood.
This isn't your fault, I sent through our link, even as my own self-recrimination tried to drag me under. We all made mistakes. We all failed her. But we're going to fix this. We're going to get her back, and then we're going to spend the rest of our lives making sure she knows exactly how wanted she is.
His mental presence flickered with something that might have been gratitude before hardening into pure Alpha determination. "Ethan," he called out, voice steady despite the chaos in our bond. "I need ownership records for this property. Tax documents, utility bills, purchase history—every fucking thing. Someone owns this house, and I want to know who. Now."
"Already on it, Alpha." Ethan's voice drifted up from somewhere downstairs, accompanied by the rapid clicking of keys. "Property's registered to a shell corporation, but I'm tracing the paper trail. Should have something soon. Also, I've arranged that meeting with Jasper Rook for this afternoon. He can see you in two hours."
"Jasper Rook?" Cole's head lifted, confusion cutting through his anguish. "That conspiracy nut who writes for those tabloid blogs? Connor's old friend?"
"Connor's last known contact before he disappeared," Asher corrected, moving toward the door with purpose that pulled Cole and me after him like iron filings to a magnet. "If anyone knows what Connor was really into, what he might have been running from, it's him."
I wanted to snarl that we didn't have time for this bullshit, that every second wasted on some paranoid blogger was a second Kara remained in danger. But Dmitri's low voice from the doorway stopped me.
"Jasper may be obsessive, but his investigations into Court run deeper than anyone else's." The old wolf's weathered face was grave, shadows pooling in the lines around his eyes. "Connor trusted him with information he wouldn't share with anyone else—not even me. If there's a lead to where they might be holding Kara, or what they want with her, Jasper Rook will know."
Through our bond, I felt Asher's reluctant acceptance. We needed information, and right now, this paranoid blogger was our best shot at getting it.
"Fine." I forced the word out between gritted teeth, my hands clenching into fists. "But we're not wasting time. Ethan, send the address. We leave in five."
---
Cole
The drive to Jasper Rook's residence should have taken twenty minutes. Blake made it in twelve, his driving just barely on the sane side of suicidal as he took corners too fast and blew through yellow lights that were already turning red. I didn't call him on it—my own wolf was clawing at my insides with the same desperate need to move, to act, to find our mate before it was too goddamn late.
The route took us past Glacier Point, that windswept overlook where the cliff dropped away to reveal the massive frozen river below. Where, just a month ago, Kara had stood in the moonlight and marked me, her teeth sinking into my neck with a certainty that had made my wolf sing with joy.
"You're mine, Cole Sterling. Forever."
The memory was so vivid I could almost smell her—white musk and first snow, untainted by fear or captivity or the fucking terror she must be feeling right now. Could almost feel the warmth of her skin against mine as she'd pressed close, her heartbeat steady and sure beneath my palm.
Now that heartbeat was somewhere we couldn't reach, and she was carrying our child in a place where no one would care for her needs or comfort her fears or tell her she was safe.
My fingers found the mark on my neck, tracing the crescent-moon scar through my shirt. The permanent nature of it should have been comforting—proof that no matter where Kara was, we were bound together. But all I could think was: what if I forget?