CONNOR

"What is it?" I ask, irritated that I had to leave my mate, naked and all soft in her bed, early in the morning when all I wanted to do was love her thoroughly.

"Another sighting at the local hospital," answers Yuri, with a very grim expression.

"Blyad!"

"Yes, blyad! Luna works there and she's in danger. While I was patrolling in the human side of the town yesterday night, I found this scent trail and it leads straight from the Silver Oak to the hospital," he explains.

"Shit!"

"Alpha, it would be helpful if you stop cursing and give your next orders," pipes up Yuri, not quite afraid of me at this moment. He's more level-headed at the moment than me whereas I am panicking.

My father brings out that side of me to the surface. He's one mean bastard who didn't spare his own daughter. I don't know to what lengths he'll go to take my mate from me just because she's dormant. My wolf claws inside my mind with the thought of something happening to my mate.

Fuck! My mate is in danger! I need to go get her now!

Thinking of a way to keep Catrina out of harm's way and also to clear out this issue with my father, I totally remain unaware that Cayden and Fenris have walked up behind me.

"We'll figure it out, Connor," whispers Fenris, and I shake my head.

"How? I am quite sure that it's my father who's snuck inside that hospital. I just don't want my Cat to witness my father's shallow-mind. She's only now trusting me," I whisper. The image of my mate in the hands of my father threatens my composure. His manipulations. His cold-heartedness. Catrina will crumble under all that hatred.

Raking my fingers through my hair, I try to think of a solution where I get to pounce on my father and bury him six feet under the ground and to also make sure that Catrina remains untouched in this entire event.

"Fenris, can you take Catrina with you to the school?" I ask, not able to find any other reasonable solution.

"I can take her. Christine and my beta will definitely agree," Fenris says immediately, ready to help me and then adding, "but the main problem here is not their consent but your mate's. Will she agree to come with us?"

"I'll convince her!"

"Think before you act, brother," warns Fenris making me look at him. His sparkling blue eyes always saw so much more than any of us. I understand what he's trying to tell me without speaking. 

Not let my obsessive and protective thoughts take over and ruin my future. Not let my fear of my father's cruelty ruin my one chance.

I nod in understanding, urging myself to calm down and think before forcing Catrina to not move in with me but to go away with her family to her home-town.

Goddess! Such hard choices are going to end my mating before it ever began.

~~~~~

For once in my life could things fall into place? 

No, fate is a bitch!

I try to keep it cool. To ignore my wolf's constant growling and my own panic. Weaving through the town's traffic and not at all paying attention to the accident that has happened which led to such a traffic jam, I speed off and soon park my vehicle just outside Catrina's apartment.

Quickly entering into the building and taking the elevator to reach Catrina and just see her face, I have this feeling, as if something is seriously wrong with this whole situation. My gut's warning me, but with what, I don't know. Something's off, I am sure of that.

Getting out of the elevator, I am assaulted by the stench. I barely control the need to cover my nose, to block this smell but I do not. Because something is very wrong.

There's a rogue on this floor and the realization has me running towards Catrina's door but I think I am a few seconds too late.

I feel my knees tremble when I find the door unlocked. She never keeps her door unlocked.

Fuck!

Trying to gather all my wits and to keep from worrying about my mate, I slowly stealthily enter the apartment. The heater's on but the living room has no signs of life in it.

Looking at the time, I find it is just 11.47 am. I am early to pick her up for lunch.

Taking a deep breath, I try to take note of all the scents inside this room but all I can smell is that awful stench.

Room freshener! The rogue knew of me, that's why he sprayed the room freshener in here, to block my senses.

Good for him. Bad for me!

Where is she? My wolf's raking havoc in my mind at the fear of something happening to Catrina but the detective inside me needs to keep calm and think of what might have happened. 

I think of calling for her but do not want to risk it if at all he's still here or if any of his minions is here. One person cannot do this, that's what I am sure about.

Steadily I walk into the bedroom and notice the steam wafting off from the bathroom. Her towel's carelessly dumped onto the table. Her blow drier is switched off but perched on the dressing table.

Her bed's made up. No signs of struggle. It means whoever it was, she must be knowing him.

Or he was waiting for her to open the door and that's when he must have attacked.

I pull out my cell phone and dial her number but it rings right beside me. Shit! Her phone's not on her. The realization of my Cat's disappearance sets in and I barely conceal my urge to roar.

How the hell am I going to track her down?

I've checked the entire apartment and there's not a damn clue for me to know about Catrina's whereabouts.

Walking out of her apartment, I close her door and lock it with a spare lock that I found in one of the wardrobes during my search. I lock it to make sure that no one interferes in this matter. The humans should stay away from this mess since I am damn sure that a rogue is involved in my mate's abduction.

It is an abduction, I am sure of that and whoever it is, will not be alive to ask for forgiveness. I just need to find out who he is and then he'll be dead meat.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, making me stop thinking about my plan of ripping off that fucker's limbs.

"Hello?"

"Alpha, we have a problem here."

"What? I am in the middle of a problem. Cat's gone missing," I speak barely managing to keep my voice low but the words make the situation sound very real and it causes another jolt of panic to flow through my veins. My wolf pacing in my mind as if caged. I just want her back.

"Your father's in front of me and he wants to speak to you," says Yuri from the other end. 

My heart threatens to jump out of my chest while all the blood drains from my face at the thought of my father's role in this. I don't even pay attention to the fact that I am already deciding that my father is the culprit here but if he had hurt even a single hair on my mate's body, I swear to the moon goddess that I'll rip off his throat by my bare hands.

This one thing, bullying my mate, threatening her, is enough to push me over the edge. 

"I'll be there in the next half an hour," I tell Yuri and hang up.

~~~~~

"Where's he?" I ask Yuri the moment I get out of my car. He's standing at the entrance of my house, waiting for me with a very grim expression on his face.

"He's inside," he answers and I pause not believing him for a second.

"What? Why?" I bark, my wolf slipping out not at all happy with this news. 

"The Luna..."

"Mother?"

Fuck!

"She saw your father and he requested to talk to her. She accepted and..."

"Shit!"

"Yes," he replies solemnly.

I shake my head in disbelief. Why come back now? He has my mate kidnapped somewhere and he comes here to meet his rejected mate? What did he think? He would convince my soft-hearted mother somehow and I'll let him go? He committed a crime, the moment he thought of hurting my mate and I'll die before I let him escape.

I don't know for sure if my father's behind Cat's disappearance but hell, I'll be damned if I let him go unscathed for coming in my pack unannounced.

I am the Alpha of this pack and my Luna will not be harmed. My wolf growls in my mind, portraying his rage at this situation.

"Make sure no one knows that my father's here," I order Yuri, not waiting for him to nod before marching into my house but the moment I walk into my home, I stop dead in my tracks. 

The scene in front of me is not what I had ever imagined. I expected my mother and father to be away from each other, engaged in a verbal fight about why and how their relationship ended.

But what I see is completely different. Never in my life did I imagine my mother to be in my father's arms. My mom's sniffling, her cries loud and clear but what stuns me in my tracks is the sight of tears in my father's eyes. He's silently crying as he holds on to my mother with his eyes closed and an expression of pure rapture on his face.

The sight makes me feel like an outsider in my own home and I take a step back involuntarily.

Not knowing what else to do but desperately wanting my own mate back, I clear my throat in the hopes of not startling them but to let them know that I have something important to discuss.

My mother stiffens first at my disturbance and steps out of my father's arms. He holds onto her for a moment longer but eventually lets her go. She stands beside him while turning to look at me and for the first time, I see how much the lack of my father's presence in her life has affected her, negatively.

"I... I... What are you doing here?" I ask, finally, finding my voice.

"I am sorry to come uninvited in our... your territory but I couldn't stay away from her," my father replies looking back at my mom.

I look away not at all wanting to believe his words but the longing in his gaze, the desperation in his voice, makes me want to think before I ask him to get out of my pack.

"You knew she was here?" I ask, not quite believing him. If he wanted to meet her, he should've gone to Crimson Shadow first.

"Yes, I knew. My wolf guided me here, I tracked Aurora's scent," he confesses.

"So..." I go to interrogate him more but my mother interrupts me.

"Connor. If you don't mind, can we both stay here for some time?" she asks and once again I am speechless. After my father's behavior, after suffering through all that cruelty, she wants to stay with him. Here of all places?

"I have more important problems to deal with," I answer, choosing not to answer her question. "My mate's been kidnapped," I direct this sentence to my father. I know he knows something. I am not sure if he is involved but I know the extent to which my father can go to achieve his goals.

He's a very mean bastard.

"I don't know anything about your mate. Congratulations on finding her. I'll help as much as I can to find her. If you allow me?" he asks carefully and I stifle the urge to take a step forward and strangle him.

"We'll see," is all I say, not wanting to give away anything.

"Conan wouldn't play a role in kidnapping your mate, Connor," says my mother, predicting my thoughts as only a mother would, and corners of my mouth lift up in a sarcastic smile.

"That's what you said before he promised our Tatiana to that foreigner," I bit out, barely containing my anger.

She opens her mouth to argue but I cut her off, not at all bothered by the fact that I am disobeying the current Luna.

"Where's Fenris and Cayden?" I ask.

"They left. I told them to go," answers my mother and I feel another fit of rage bubbling inside me.

"I want to know where my mate's been holed up," I ask my father ignoring my mother's words. I am just pissed off at her for letting my father walk into our house as if nothing's wrong.

"I don't know. I don't even know your mate. Is she our pack wolf?" he asks, so innocently and I barely control my urge to throttle him. My wolf roars in my head, wanting to let go and track Catrina but I can't just blindly search for her. It'll consume too much of my time.

"She's not. And it's none of your business." I snarl at him, letting some of my pent-up anger slip in my voice.

"Watch out how you speak, Connor," chastises my mother.

"Well, why don't you teach your mate? How to treat your loved ones?" I smirk, letting my anger take over. My mother's shocked gasp doesn't stop me as I walk out of my house in search of my new Beta.

"Yuri," I call waiting for only a second before he trots out in his wolf form. I wait for him to shift back and throw a pair of jeans that I keep stashed up on the shelf beside the shoe rack.

"Your father's scent doesn't match the rogue scent that I tracked from Silver Oak to the town hospital," he answers my unspoken question and my steps falter.

If my father's not behind this then who is?

The scent in Cat's apartment was blocked because of the room freshener so I couldn't get a hint of that scent. The realization that this rogue is a step ahead of me makes me want to break something.

I think and think, pressuring my memory to recollect any enemy of hers who can do this to her.

And just a second later, the only person who's hell-bent on destroying Fenris's newfound family crosses my mind.

The thought of my mate in the hands of that treacherous, slimy excuse of a wolf turns my blood cold.

Fuck!

~~~~~~~~~

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