Chapter 2

Sylvia's POV

I waited exactly thirty seconds. Then I turned to the nearest warrior. "Make sure everyone gets to the shelters. I'm going to fight."

"But the Alpha said—"

"I don't care what he said." I was already pulling off my clothes, feeling my wolf surge forward with relief. "My pack is dying out there. I'm not hiding while they bleed."

I shifted and the world sharpened into focus, scents and sounds amplified a hundred times over. I could smell the blood already, could hear the screams and snarls of wolves tearing into each other.

Hold on. I'm coming.

The battle was chaos.

I'd trained for combat my whole life but nothing prepared me for the reality of war. Wolves everywhere, snapping and clawing and dying. The metallic tang of blood so thick in the air I could taste it. The screams, goddess, the screams of my pack members, people I'd known since childhood, people who shouldn't be dying for a lie.

I threw myself into the fray. Bite. Dodge. Claw. Protect. Over and over until my muscles burned and my fur was matted with blood, mine and theirs, I couldn't tell anymore.

Through it all I searched for Ethan. Found him eventually, fighting near the border with a ferocity that would have been beautiful if it wasn't so terrible. We fought side by side for a moment, moving in sync like we used to when we first mated, when things were good between us.

"Tell me why," I linked him. "Why are we fighting? What did we take from them?"

Silence. He didn't answer, just kept fighting, kept killing, kept pretending I didn't exist.

Fine. If he wouldn't tell me I'd protect our pack anyway.

Three days. Three endless days of blood and death and exhaustion so deep I could barely stand. When it finally ended, when the last of the Crimson Valley warriors retreated, I counted the cost.

One third of our warriors were dead. Names I knew, faces I'd grown up with, gone forever.

And for what? What had we stolen that was worth this many lives?

I limped back toward the shelters, my wolf form barely holding together. My left shoulder was torn open, my ribs cracked, and every breath felt like knives in my lungs. But I had to see Lily. Had to hold my daughter and know she was safe.

The shelter was in ruins.

My heart stopped. The walls were collapsed, the entrance torn open like something had ripped through it with claws.

"No," I whispered, forcing my battered body to move faster. "No, no, no."

I found Clara near the entrance, her clothes torn and her face streaked with tears. She was surrounded by other women, all of them crying, all of them saying words that didn't make sense.

"Gone." "Taken." "Rogue wolves." "So sorry."

I shifted back to human form, not caring about my nakedness or my wounds. "Where's Lily?" My voice cracked. "Where is my daughter?"

Clara looked up at me and I swear to the goddess, I saw something flicker in her eyes. Something that wasn't quite grief.

"I'm so sorry," she sobbed, reaching for me with trembling hands. "The rogues came while we were hiding. There were so many of them. I tried to protect her, I swear I did, but they were too strong. They took her. They took Lily."

The world tilted. My knees hit the ground, sharp rocks biting into skin I couldn't feel. "No. No, she has to be here. She has to—" I pushed past Clara, ignoring her protests, and started tearing through the rubble. "Lily! Lily, baby, where are you?"

Nothing. No answer. No little voice calling for mama. Just silence and ruins.

"Sylvia." Ethan's voice behind me, rough with exhaustion. "Sylvia, stop."

I spun around. He stood there, still covered in blood and barely standing.

Not devastated. Not frantic. Not anything a father should feel when his child is missing.

"Still standing there?" I screamed at him. "Our daughter is gone and you're just standing there?"

"We're injured," he said, his voice flat. "We need to recover first. We'll search tomorrow."

Tomorrow.

"She could be dying right now!" My voice broke, my wolf howling in my mind with grief so sharp it felt like dying. "She's five years old and terrified and you want to wait until tomorrow?"

"Sylvia—"

"I'll go myself." I turned away from him, from his cold eyes and his empty voice, and stumbled toward the forest. My wounds screamed with every step but I didn't care. I couldn't care. I had to find my baby girl.

"Sylvia, stop. That's an order."

The Alpha command slammed into me, freezing my muscles mid-step. I fought against it, my wolf snarling and clawing, but I couldn't move.

I looked back at him over my shoulder and I barely recognized the man standing there. This wasn't my mate. This wasn't the wolf I'd bound my life to.

"We'll search tomorrow," Ethan repeated. Then he turned and walked toward Clara, leaving me frozen in place, unable to even fall to my knees and scream.