CHAPTER <b>80 </b>


    <b>Luke </b><b>POV </b>


    I’d managed to fully integrate Thorne’s former pack with Elias’s, and they were finally pulling their weight at the castle.


    Those still fiercely loyal to Thorne were either dead or locked away in the castle’s dungeon- and that dungeon was no joke. It was thergest, most secure prison I had ever seen, built in such a way that escape was utterly impossible. But even so, we had guards stationed at every entrance and corridor, just in case.


    Once I’d seen to every piece of pack business that needed handling, I decided it was time to head back to North Carolina. My destination was that same cursed field–the one where Lyra <fneab9> Latest content published on f?ndnovel</fneab9>


    had vanished.


    When I arrived, the ce was eerily quiet. A solitary tent was pitched near the center of the field, but there was no sign of life around it.


    I scoured the area for a while, searching for any trace of Elias, but came up empty. So I settled at the entrance of the tent and waited. And waited. Hours passed until the sun had nearly dipped below the horizon.


    Finally, I heard footsteps behind me.


    “What are you doing here?” Elias’s voice was low and rough.


    I rose to my feet and turned to face him. He was nearly unrecognizable. His beard had grown thick and wild, and his clothes–tattered and dirty–were the same ones he’d been wearing the day Lyra disappeared. In his hands, he carried two freshly killed rabbits, no doubt his dinner.


    “Everyone at the castle has been asking about you,” I said quietly.


    “You know what to tell them,” Elias muttered, walking past me and crouching by the firepit to start skinning the rabbits.


    “I know what you told me <i>to </i>tell them,” I said sharply. “But you never came back when you said <i>you </i>would,”


    “I never told you when I wasing back,” Elias replied tly, not even ncing my way.


    “Elias… are you really just going to sit here waiting for Lyra? What if she <i>can’t </ie back?” I


    asked.


    He froze for just a second before speaking again. “Then you don’t know Lyra as well as I do.


    < CHAPTER 80


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    She’lle back. She’ll find her way to me. I believe that with everything I have left.”


    “It’s been three weeks,” I reminded him. “There hasn’t been a single sign that the portal is even trying to open. We’ve gone through every book in the castle, every spell, every scrap of information we could find, and nothing. There’s nothing about opening portals to other


    realms.”


    “I know,” Elias said simply. “Which means it’s in her hands now. She’s the one with the magic. She’lle back when she can.”


    I stepped closer. “You need toe home. The pack needs its Alpha.”


    “I’m not their Alpha right now,” he said coldly. “Not until she’s back. Just… keep doing what you’re doing. And leave me the hell alone.”


    I sighed, defeated. “Fine. I’lle back in a couple of weeks and see if you’vee to your senses by then.”


    “I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” Elias replied without looking up.


    I left him to his fire and his solitude, heading back to the road where my car was parked. By the time I pulled up to the castle, night had fully fallen.


    “Well?” Liam asked as soon as I walked in.


    “He’s not budging,” I admitted. “At least not yet. He’s absolutely convinced Lyra will find her way back to him.”


    “He <i>needs </i>to believe that,” Rowan said softly. “It’s the only thing keeping him going.”


    “I <i>know</i><i>,</i><i>” </i>I said, rubbing a hand over my face. “But isting himself out there isn’t doing him any favors.”


    “What’s the n?” Corbin asked.


    “There is no n,” I said firmly. “He’s our Alpha, and he just lost his mate. We’ll let him grieve the way he needs to. In the meantime, I’ll take care of everything that needs to be handled around here.”


    The others nodded solemnly, bowing their heads in quiet acknowledgment.


    I headed <i>to </i>the kitchen to grab something to eat, and Rowan quietly slipped into the room behind me. She looked hesitant, almost shy, like she’d been working up the courage to say something.


    “What’s going on?” I asked, turning to face her.


    “Well… you know how there are second–chance mates?” Rowan began, fidgeting with her hands.


    “Yeah,” I said slowly.


    “I found mine,” she admitted, a small smile tugging at her lips. “He was in Thorne’s pack this whole time. He lost his mate a few years ago, and I… I guess we just found each other.”


    “That’s great, Rowan. Who is he?” I asked.


    “His name is Reeve,” she said softly.


    “Oh yeah, I remember him,” I replied with a nod.


    Rowan’s expression sobered, and her voice faltered. “I wish Lyra were here to see this. I know she hated me… or at least, that’s how it felt. But she… she died to protect me.”


    I shook my head. “We don’t know that, Rowan. She fell into a portal that leads to another world. That’s the one thing I fully agree with Elias about–she could still be alive.”


    “We both know the horrors of that realm,” she whispered. “There’s no guarantee she’s making


    it out of there alive.”


    “Then maybe you need to have a little more faith in your daughter,” I said firmly.


    Rowan pressed her lips together, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she hesitated again before saying, “I overheard some of your men talking earlier. They mentioned a pack that’s been mistreating their omegas. Some of them are nning to go and rescue them.”


    “Where <i>are </i>they now?” I asked sharply.


    “They went to the war room,” she answered.


    I immediately left the kitchen and headed down the hall. When I entered the war room, I found some of our best soldiers gathered around therge table, maps and aerial images spread out in front of them.


    “What’s going on?” I asked.


    “We need to get back to why this pack was formed in the first ce,” Chris exined. ““A pack about two hours away has been reported for abusing their omegas.”


    “Alright,” I said. “All you had to do wase to me with this. I would’ve approved the mission. This is exactly why we started this pack in the first ce. It’s a good idea–go. Now, how many omegas are we talking about?”


    “At least twenty,” Chris said. “Maybe more.”


    :


    < CHAPTER 80


    “Then you’ll need a couple of vans to bring them back, I instructed.


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    “That’s what we were thinking,” he agreed. “We’re reviewing aerial views of the pack’s territory now, trying to figure out the best way in and how we can get the omegas out quickly.”


    I sat down at the table and leaned over the maps with them. For the next couple of hours, we worked on the details until we finally had a n we were confident in.


    “What about the Alpha?” Chris asked quietly.


    “He just needs more time,” I said, my jaw tightening.


    “Alright. We’ll let you know when we’re on our way back,” Chris replied, and I nodded before watching them file out.


    After they left, I stepped outside to the massive clearing beside the castle. Where once it had been nothing but open space, it was now slowly transforming into something extraordinary- a vige.


    Workers were everywhere, busy hammering, hauling, and lifting. From where I stood, I could see the skeletal frames ofrge medieval–style buildings taking shape. We’d decided on apartment–style housing instead of single–family homes so everyone could fitfortably.


    I stood there for a moment, tall and proud of the progress we were making. It meant that the people we’d rescued and the ones from Thorne’s pack wouldn’t have to camp outside forever. Soon, they’d each have a home–somewhere they could call their own.


    But as I looked out over the construction site, a single thought weighed heavy on me:


    Now we needed to figure out how to bring our Alpha back.


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