The first thing that penetrated my consciousness was my mother's breathing — slow and uneven, but present. Alive. I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it.

A single light hung from the warehouse ceiling, swinging slightly and casting harsh shadows. The walls were bare concrete, scarred from years of use. The air smelled of dust, metal, and something bitter that burned my throat — wolfsbane. Fear spiked through me immediately.

My wrists were bound behind my back, secured to a metal chair with restraints so tight they cut off circulation. A few feet away, my mother sat in an identical chair, similarly restrained. At least we could see each other. At least I knew she was still breathing.

"Mom?" My voice came out hoarse, unfamiliar.

Her head lifted slowly. "Belle."

The way she said my name broke something inside me. I pulled against the restraints, ignoring the bite of metal into my skin. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay," she said, but she wasn't. I could see it in the careful way she held her shoulders, in the fear she was desperately trying to hide from me for my sake.

Then heels clicked against the concrete floor with methodical precision. Kacie stepped out of the shadows, her appearance immaculate. Not a strand of hair out of place.

She stopped directly in front of me. "I gave you a chance," she said conversationally.

I stared up at her. "You kidnapped my mother."

"And you made this necessary."

My mother pulled against her restraints. "Leave my daughter alone."

Kacie barely glanced at her. "You're pregnant."

My hand moved instinctively toward my stomach. Kacie's smile widened, cold and sharp as broken glass.

"That's the problem," she said simply.

My heart began pounding. "What do you want?"

"You to end the pregnancy," she said, the words falling between us like a blade.

"No."

"You didn't even think about it," she observed.

"Because there is nothing to think about," I said, and though my voice shook, I forced the words out. "That's my child."

Kacie crouched until we were eye level. "That child is Chase's heir," she said softly. "Which means it has power I cannot allow to exist."

"He's my baby," I repeated.

"And that baby can destroy everything I've spent years building," Kacie continued, standing and walking slowly around my chair. "You think this is about jealousy? It's about power. Chase will choose his child over our marriage the moment he knows about the pregnancy. Instinct alone will demand it. And I won't allow that."

My mother's voice cut through the room. "You're afraid."

Kacie turned toward her sharply. My mother met her gaze without flinching.

"That's what this is," my mother said, smiling bitterly. "You're terrified that an unborn child has more power over Chase than you do. All these alliances, all this maneuvering — and you're still second to a baby he doesn't even know exists yet."

Kacie's expression hardened. "You should be careful."

"Why?" my mother challenged. "Because you might kill me?"

The silence that followed was devastating in its answer.

Kacie walked back to stand in front of me. "Choose," she said.

"Choose what?"

"Your child," she said, "or yourself."

My mother's eyes widened in horror. "Belle, don't listen to her."

I looked at my mother, watching her shake her head with the desperation of someone who could see exactly where this was leading. "No," she said, her voice breaking. "Whatever she does, don't give up your baby."

My throat closed entirely. I looked down at my stomach. There was nothing visible yet. And yet this baby was real in a way nothing else had been since Chase rejected me.

I raised my eyes to Kacie's. "I choose my child."

Her face went completely still. My mother closed her eyes as if she'd known this would be my answer.

"Then you've chosen your fate," Kacie whispered.

She turned toward one of the men near the door. "Take care of the mother."

My blood froze. "No." I threw myself against the restraints, the metal chair scraping violently against concrete. "NO!"

My mother looked at me, and her expression shifted. The fear was still there, but it was no longer fear for herself. "Belle," she said, strangely calm now. "Don't be afraid."

"Mom!" I screamed, pulling so hard against the restraints that skin tore. Blood ran down my wrists, but I didn't stop.

She never looked away from me. She was trying to die knowing her daughter wouldn't be destroyed by that knowledge.

"Please! Take me instead!"

But her eyes never left mine. "Protect my grandbaby," she said, her voice steady. "That's all that matters now."

The men pulled her from the room. I heard her footsteps. Heard Kacie's voice giving final instructions. Heard my mother's name escaping my throat over and over.

Then silence.

That silence was worse than any scream. When the door closed and that heavy quiet settled over the warehouse, I understood that something fundamental had fractured inside me. Not broken — fractured. There would be pieces of who I had been before this moment that I would never recover.

I hung against the restraints, and I survived. That was all.

Chase

The council chamber was already full when Chase walked in the next morning. This wasn't a routine meeting, and he knew it before he'd even sat down.

The council members ringed the long table, faces hard, unwelcoming. No congratulations. No mention of the mating ceremony. The oldest of them laid both hands flat on the table and got straight to it.

"We called this meeting because your Gamma failed to appear."

Chase's jaw tightened. "I know."

"No," another cut in, leaning forward. "You don't understand. He wasn't just absent from your mating ceremony. He's been absent from his duties for weeks. Pack reports unanswered. Patrol decisions delayed. Everything he should be handling has landed on this council."

"And last night," the first added, "he wasn't there when his Alpha took a mate."

The silence that followed had weight to it.

Chase leaned back. "He's my brother."

"Exactly," came the cold reply. "Which makes it worse, not better."

Chase's jaw tightened further. The council was right, and he hated that. His Gamma should have stood beside him — not for tradition's sake, but because the Gamma was the Alpha's second, the one man trusted to stand there while the whole pack watched. Instead, he'd vanished without a word.

"How long are we supposed to tolerate this?" one of them asked, quieter now.

"Until he returns."

"And if he doesn't?"

Chase looked up. The man held his stare. "Then perhaps we need to ask ourselves why."

Silence. Then another voice broke it.

"There are whispers."

Chase's eyes narrowed. "What whispers?"

"That your Gamma's been gathering influence outside this council." Another picked it up before he could answer. "That wolves listen to him faster than they listen to some of us. That he spends more time away from the pack than in it."

The room felt heavier with every word. Chase's temper rose beneath the surface. "You're suggesting he's planning something?"

Nobody answered right away. Then the oldest of them said what the rest had been circling.

"We're asking whether your brother intends to take the pack from you."

Chase went still. "That's enough."

"We're not accusing him," the man said evenly. "We're questioning his intentions."

"He would never—" Chase stopped, the words dying in his throat. For the first time, he wasn't sure he could finish that sentence and mean it.

River had always been hard to rein in. Independent. Powerful. Respected — maybe too respected. And lately, absent in a way that no longer felt like coincidence.

"Your Gamma has a duty to this pack," the council member said, watching him. Another added, quieter, no less pointed: "And right now, he's failing it."

Chase's fingers curled against the arm of his chair. "His name is River." Low. Edged.

That killed the room.

"Then find River."

No one moved.

Chase looked around the table, meeting every set of eyes. "Until he tells me himself why he's been gone, I won't make assumptions about my own brother."

But the question had already taken root beneath his anger, one he couldn't shake and didn't want to answer.

Where was River?

And why now?