<b>Chapter </b><b>71 </b>


    Alexander


    60%


    I was buried in quarterly financial reports when my phone rang. The pack’s trade contracts needed reviewing, and Gabriel’s recent unauthorizedmunications had left me double–checking every single agreement we had in ce. I couldn’t afford to make mistakes now, even if I was exhausted from working on this paperwork all day.


    “Alexander speaking,” I answered the phone, expecting a pack official or my Beta.


    “Hey, it’s Liam. Are you busy?”


    I sat up at the sound of Liam’s voice and nced at the stack of papers on my desk. “Always. Did you need


    something?”


    “I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner tonight. Talk about some things.”


    Surprised, I blinked. Liam had mentioned wanting to go out and talk before, but I didn’t expect him to actually go through with it. I thought it was just one of those things that people say to each other, something in the same vein of “Yeah, we’ll definitely still be best friends after high school!”


    433


    I had to admit, though, I was exhausted after today. My eyes were bleary from looking at paperwork all day and my hand was cramping from writing. Maybe getting out for a bit wouldn’t be the worst thing, even if thepany was… interesting.


    “Alright,” I sighed. “Where do you want to go?”


    “There’s a new ce downtown. I’ll send you the address. Meet me in forty–five?”


    An hourter, I surprisingly found myself sitting next to Liam at the bar of a new restaurant in town. The ce was busy, as it was their grand opening today. I was cutting off a piece of an admittedly delicious steak, my usual ss of bourbon sitting beside me.


    We’d ordered our food and drinks and made small talk about pack politics for about twenty minutes, and I had to admit, Liam wasn’t badpany. But I could tell from the look on his face that there was more to say, and finally, he got to the point.


    “Alexander, I have to ask you something directly, and I need an honest answer.”


    I set down my ss of bourbon. “Go ahead.”


    “Do you n on marking E?”


    Fantastic. Of all the things I’d expected Liam to ask about, that was definitely one of them, but I’d hoped he would have the intelligence to not bring it up in a public ce.


    apter 1


    “Why do <i>you </i>want to know?”


    Liam shifted in his seat. “Because I care about her. And I think you do too, even if you won’t admit it.”


    “It’splicated.’


    “Everything’splicated with you two.” Liam huffed, clearly frustrated. “But she’s dying, Alexander. You know that now. So I’m asking you straight up–are you going to mark her or not?”


    I stared at him for a long moment, trying to read his expression. Why was he pushing this <i>so </i>hard? What did it matter to him what I did with my mate?


    And then it hit me.


    Liam had been in love with E since they were kids. He’d made that clear enough over the past months, even if he’d never acted on it while she was married. But if I divorced her, if I rejected her instead of marking


    her…


    She’d be free. Avable. And Liam would be right there waiting..


    The realization made something dark and possessive unfurl in my chest. My wolf snarled at the thought of another Alpha touching what was mine.


    “I see,” I said coldly. “So this is about you, not her.”


    Liam frowned. “What do you mean?”


    “You want to know if I’m going to mark her so you can n ordingly. Make your move after the divorce goes through.”


    “That’s not-”


    “You’ve been circling her like a vulture for months, ying the concerned friend. But really you’re just


    waiting for your chance, aren’t you?”


    Liam’s face went red. “Alexander, you’re being an ass<b>.</b>”


    “No need to get defensive just because you’ve been caught in the act.” I leaned back in my chair. “But since


    you asked <i>so </i>nicely, I’ll give you the answer you want to hear. No, I’m not marking her. E will be single after the divorce. Congrattions.”


    The words tasted like poison in my mouth, but I forced them out anyway. Because it was the truth. E had made herself perfectly clear when she told me she had no intention of letting me mark her. She just wanted to get through our contract and get divorced. She hated me.


    Why should I care if she ran to her childhood friend once our marriage was done?


    11:35 Sat, 23 Aug


    60%


    <b>+33 </b>


    Before Liam could respond, amotion suddenly erupted near the back of the restaurant, toward where the bathrooms were. I heard raised voices, followed by the sound of squealing tires in the street outside. Other diners were turning to look and murmuring amongst themselves.


    “What the hell?” Liam muttered, craning his neck to see what was happening.


    I turned, and saw… her.


    Lilith. She was stumbling through the restaurant, her silver hair disheveled and blood trickling down from a


    gash on her temple. She was crying, her face streaked with tears and dirt, looking around frantically.


    My heart stopped.


    “Lilith!” I shot to my feet with Liam right behind me. We pushed through the crowded restaurant toward


    her.


    “Alexander!” Lilith’s face crumpled with relief when she saw me. “Thank the Goddess you’re here!”


    “What happened?” I demanded, taking her by the shoulders. Up close, I could see that the cut on her head


    was deep, and her hands were shaking. “Where’s E?”


    “She’s gone,” Lilith sobbed. “He took her.”


    “Who?” I demanded. My wolf began to roil with fear and fury. If someone hadid a hand on my mate…


    “The man. The man who bought her the drink.” Lilith wiped at her eyes, smearing blood across her cheek.


    “We were having dinner here, just the two of us. This man at the bar sent E a cocktail. She epted it,


    and I… I should have stopped her, but she seemed so happy to feel normal for once.”


    My blood went cold, my wolf angrier than ever. But I maintained myposure, if only to get the precious details that could lead me to my mate. “Go on.”


    “I went to the restroom. When I came out, I spotted the man practically dragging her out the back door.”


    Lilith’s voice broke. “She was stumbling and he was holding her up. I knew something was wrong. I tried to


    stop him, but he shoved me against a wall and hit me. Then he carried E out into the alley and drove off.”


    The restaurant around us seemed to fade away as realization washed over me like a bucket of cold water.


    E had been drugged, Kidnapped. While I was sitting right here.


    “Did you call the police?” Liam asked.


    “It just happened. I didn’t have a chance.” Lilith fumbled with her phone. “But I got a picture. When he was


    putting her in the car, I managed to take a picture.”


    She handed me her phone, and I looked at the screen. The image was too blurry to read the license te, but clear enough to make out a red convertible speeding away from the restaurant. There was a man’s


    11:35 Sat, 23 Aug


    silhouette behind the wheel.


    But it wasn’t the kidnapper that made my heart stop.


    It was the car.


    60%


    33


    I knew that car. I’d seen it countless times over the years, parked in driveways during pack events, racing down country roads when its driver was in one of her moods. I didn’t have to see the license te to know


    that…


    It was Sophia’s car.