Chapter 8: Tainted Territory

Jasper’s voice came through the link, tight and strained.

“Alpha Hale, we’ve deployed over a hundred trackers and water scouts. The river’s been combed from the cliffs to the southern border. Every current, every bank… but there’s still no scent, no trace of Luna Elena.”

Only then did Julian’s shoulders ease slightly. He exhaled a sharp breath and leaned back in his chair, his expression cold detached. A faint, bitter smirk ghosted across his lips.

“I told you,” he said flatly. “She’s dramatic. Always has been. This is just another one of her emotional stunts. That’s enough. Pull the search teams back.”

But Jasper didn’t respond right away. Even through the mind-link, I could sense his unease.

“Alpha,” he said slowly, “even if it wasn’t a self-inflicted disappearance, she’s still missing. What if something did happen? The rogues have been sighted near the northern ridge ”

Julian cut him off with a low growl.

“She’s not dead, Jasper. She’s hiding. Probably waiting until the entire pack is in chaos so she can return and make a spectacle of it. You know how she is. Give it time. She’ll come crawling back when she’s done sulking.”

He ended the link abruptly.

For a long moment, he just sat there, alone in his office. The moonlight filtered through the wide glass window, catching the edge of a framed photograph on his desk.

It was from years ago before everything fell apart. I was seventeen, sweat glistening on my skin after a pack training match. My smile had been bright then, unguarded. The kind that came before heartbreak ever touched me.

Julian’s golden eyes softened. A flicker of something guilt, regret, maybe even longing passed through them before vanishing as quickly as it came.

Nostalgia, perhaps.

For the version of me he helped destroy.

The same Alpha who had ignored my cries, who had let my wolf fade beneath the weight of betrayal, now sat here mourning a ghost.

He was the reason my light had dimmed.

He was the reason I was gone.

And still… he looked at that picture as if he deserved to miss me.

Then, the door creaked open.

“Julian!”

Camilla’s voice was a purr, sickly sweet. She stepped into the room without knocking, her perfume too sugary tainting the air. She closed the door quietly, locking it with a soft click.

Before Julian could react, she crossed the room, her hips swaying like she owned the place. Then, without hesitation, she straddled his lap.

“Camilla,” he muttered, his body going rigid. “Enough. Get off me.”

But she only smiled, brushing against him deliberately, her wolf energy slithering through the air like a lure.

“Don’t pretend, Julian,” she whispered against his jaw. “You wanted me last night. You love me. You just won’t admit it.”

I felt my rage flare like wildfire. My wolf clawed inside me, desperate to burst free.

Get out, I wanted to scream. Get out of his lap. Get out of my life.

She leaned closer, her voice sultry and venomous all at once.

“This was Elena’s old room, wasn’t it? Doesn’t that make it more exciting?”

I screamed then a sound that ripped from my soul rather than my throat.

“Get out! Both of you! GET OUT!”

But my voice didn’t exist.

No one heard me.

I was a ghost an echo bound to the Alpha who had stopped feeling me long before I died.

Julian’s expression hardened. Whatever desire Camilla expected to find wasn’t there. His eyes were cold steel now.

“We agreed,” he said, his voice low, dangerous. “What happened last night was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

Camilla’s smile faltered, but she masked it quickly with feigned innocence.

“Don’t worry,” she purred. “I won’t tell anyone. It’s not like you’re losing anything. I just… missed you.”

She caught his hand, pressing it against her chest.

“Feel that? My heart’s racing. You do that to me.”

But Julian didn’t move.

He didn’t even look at her.

Then, with a suddenness that made her flinch, he stood up, pushing her gently but firmly aside.

“I have things to take care of,” he said curtly. “This conversation is over.”

He walked out, his aura heavy, his wolf energy rippling through the air like thunder.

And I bound to him even in death had no choice but to follow.

But before I left, I turned back to look at her.

Camilla sat on the edge of the bed, her expression sour and cold more lifeless than I was, though I was the one who had died.

Her aura flickered like black flame, twisted and sharp, the scent of deceit heavy in the air.

Then she whispered something. So faint that even Julian’s wolf ears didn’t catch it.

But mine did.

Even as spirit and shadow, the bond between us made every vibration clear.

“Julian,” she murmured, her voice soft as poison. “It’s such a shame… Elena will never come back.”

Her lips curved with satisfaction. Each word dripped with venom.

I froze.

It wasn’t just a suspicion anymore.

It was truth.

Camilla killed me.

A snarl tore from my throat primal, furious, echoing only inside the void where my body used to be. My wolf raged beneath the surface, clawing at the barrier that chained me to Julian’s presence. I wanted to tear her apart, to make her feel every ounce of agony she’d caused me.

But I couldn’t move beyond the invisible tether that bound my spirit to my mate.

No matter how I fought, I remained anchored to Julian to the Alpha who once swore to protect me, yet let another take my life.

All I could do was watch, helpless, as Camilla’s smug, victorious face blurred into the distance when Julian turned and left.

He started the car, the low growl of the engine blending with the faint hum of his wolf’s restlessness.

And I was there trapped beside him in the passenger seat, the bond pulling my ghostly form wherever he went.

Outside, the forest blurred into streaks of light and shadow. But to me, nothing felt real anymore. My world had already ended.

My thoughts circled endlessly, a storm I couldn’t silence.

Was the assassin merely a hired rogue sent by Camilla?

Or was there something more something darker that I had missed?

I remembered his eyes.

Cold. Predatory.

They had glowed faintly amber beneath the mask. That wasn’t human. That was wolf.

Someone from within the pack.

I had seen those eyes before. I knew that energy familiar, dangerous.

But before I could connect the memory, claws of pain had dragged me into death… and then I had awakened here, bound to the man who destroyed me.

After killing me, the rogue had thrown my ceremonial gown my Luna dress into the river. But not my body.

That’s what haunted me most.

If the goal was to erase me completely, why not destroy it all the body, the proof, the jewels sewn into the fabric?

The diamonds alone were worth millions of crescent coins, yet the investigators found the dress mostly intact. Torn in a few places by a blade, yes, but not destroyed.

Why cut it… and then toss it into the river?

Was it a warning to Julian?

Or a message meant for me one that I had yet to decode?

The thought burned through the haze of death, and with it came a vow.

Camilla might believe she’s won. She might think her little act of betrayal sealed my fate forever.

But she’s wrong.

I may be dead but my wolf still breathes within me.

And I will uncover the truth.

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