Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

GHOST

" S omething's fucking strange. Why the hell show up, then run from us?" Knut quips beside me, his combat boots crunching over broken branches as we stride from our territory perimeter close to Sten's border. Dark stains mark his clothes where he'd thrown himself into the underbrush after Sten's men.

Yet, irritation gnaws at my gut as reality hits me hard. "They weren't there to attack us. It was a fucking decoy." My head pounds as I piece it together. "It had to be… they were distracting us from something. Why else run the moment they see us? Why were they just standing there?"

"Sten's never been fucking subtle," he adds. "This isn't his style—sending men to breach, then retreat? He likes blood, chaos." He spits on the ground, and I catch the metallic scent of blood.

I exchange a dark glance with him, then we're both speeding up our pace to the mansion, fear clawing at my chest that we fell for his damn trap. My thoughts fly to Hel.

Barking over my shoulder, I instruct the rest of the guards to search the whole fucking perimeter urgently.

A grumble from overhead draws my attention.

I glance up at the unnatural green-black mass of clouds rolling in from Sten's side of the island. Lightning crackles within the darkness. I've never seen such a storm roll in so quickly, seeing as the morning was bright without a cloud in sight.

"What the fuck's up with the sky?" Knut mutters.

The truth is like a blade to my throat, and a dreadful fear sinks through me, turning my blood to ice.

Hel!

She's in danger! It has to be her calling the storm.

"I have to go," I bark at Knut, already moving. "Get all the men ready and head to Sten's. We're going to war today."

At the mansion, I shoulder past guards and servants, taking the stairs three at a time. There's a hollow feeling in my chest, an emptiness that shouldn't exist. The mating bite I gave Hel last night created a bond between us, one that lets me sense her presence in the mansion. Instead, there's nothing but a void where she should be.

An ache starts in my chest, and I run like a madman, praying I find her in her room and that I'm freaking out over nothing.

I slam my bedroom door open so hard it cracks the frame, but the sheets where I left her sleeping are empty. Her scent lingers. The pillow still holds the impression of her head, and my wolf howls at the memory of how she looked there just hours ago.

And where the fuck is Axel? I specifically ordered him to guard her. I rush out and find his room empty, too, bed made.

Something feels fucking wrong, and my head's spinning. Then I rush wildly through the mansion, not finding them, and no one's seen them.

The storm. No sign of Hel or Axel. The attacks.

"They were a fucking distraction," I snarl, putting my fist through a wall in the corridor. Blood drips from my knuckles, but I barely feel it. I promised to protect her.

Movement from my left catches my attention.

I glance over to Eve, freezing at having spotted me. She's fidgeting with her flowered dress, her brown curls tucked behind her ears.

"Eve." My tone is a pure Alpha command. I march over to her.

She lifts her chin to meet me, a half smile on her lips. "Ghost, is everything all right?"

"Have you seen Hel this morning?" The question comes out as a growl. "And where's Axel?" I'm going to wring his neck when I find him.

She bites her lower lip, and my patience snaps like a wire. Through the windows behind her, I spy that the storm has turned the day to almost night. Trees bend, nearly doubling in the wind. What the fuck?

"Hel's in danger," I snarl, closing the distance between us. The scent of her fear is cloying, suffocating. "And I can't wait. Fucking talk!"

"I saw her," she whispers, tears welling up. Her hands twist in her dress, wrinkling the fabric. "She was on the balcony alone, staring out, and she seemed fine, but…"

"But what?" I grab her arm, beyond caring about gentleness. My claws have partially extended, pricking through her skin.

"You're hurting me!"

"I'll hurt you a lot more if you're keeping anything from me." Another crack of thunder makes the windows rattle in their frames.

"She was alone when I left her, but I warned her to be careful." The tears spill over, rolling down her cheeks.

"Careful of what, Eve?" I square my shoulders square, and I'm barely holding on to a thread of patience.

"Axel betrayed me… and you. He promised to make me his mate once he took over your pack and territory. Then he turned on me and threatened to kill me if I told you."

The words collide into me, knocking the air out of my lungs. "What the fuck did you say?"

My wolf howls for blood, and I struggle to think through the rage. My second-in-command wants my position? After everything I entrusted and shared with him? Everything I did for him?

A burning fire ignites in my chest, and with it comes a brutal fury.

Looking back, I can see some of the clues—his convenient absences, his probing questions in meetings, the times he seemed to vanish from the mansion entirely. The way he'd ask about our defenses, our patrol schedules. All under the guise of being my second, my brother in everything but blood.

The ones who'll stab you in the back are always the closest to you, boy. They know exactly where to slide the knife. My grandfather once whispered those words to me before he passed. Words that now sit heavily on my chest.

Axel, who's been by my side for three years. Axel, who helped me survive my first weeks here when I was nothing but a half-starved prisoner, dropped onto this hell of an island.

Zeus , I'd been blind.

All of it lies. All of it preparation for this moment.

"Where the fuck is Hel?" I hiss through clenched teeth.

A nod as she wipes her face. "He took her to Sten."

The growl that tears from my chest feels like it might split me in two.

Running for the stairs, I shout back, "Don't you fucking leave the mansion! When I'm back, you're going to tell me everything, or I'll hunt you down until you're fucking dead!"

I burst out of the mansion at a dead sprint, my voice carrying to the guards over the howling wind.

"Get everyone together! Today, we paint this island with Sten's blood!"

The rain is coming down heavily as I burst into the woods, running ferociously.

I'll destroy the whole fucking island to rescue her, starting with Sten. And Axel? I'll save him for last, make him watch as I destroy everything he thought he could steal from me. Then I'll take my time showing him exactly what happens to traitors.

The rain soaks through my clothes while the forest around me groans under the storm's assault.

Hold on, Hel. I'm coming.

And may the gods help anyone who stands in my way.