chapter 10

"Ha." Edward let out a cold laugh, his eyes full of mockery. "What is this, some kind of hide-and-seek?"

The Alpha pressure radiating from him made the air itself feel heavy and still.

Catherine had wanted to break their mate bond from the start, and now she was hiding in the Bloodmoon Pack Alpha Manor, refusing to come out. So they'd cooked up this story about her being dead.

Edward's gaze fixed on the urn cradled in the arms of the maid standing behind Mary. The corners of his eyes burned red.

They were really committing to this act.

But he didn't believe Catherine was dead. If she were actually dead, if Mary had truly lost her daughter, wouldn't there be even a trace of grief on her face?

"Open the gate." Edward jerked his chin toward the Alpha Manor entrance.

Mary's brows furrowed. He clearly didn't believe her anymore.

She gestured to a servant to open the gate, and Edward strode through with long, purposeful steps.

He went straight to Catherine's bedroom and reached for the door handle, ready to push it open. But something made him hesitate—something heavy that sank through his chest like a stone dropping into dark water. His hand faltered, and he knocked instead.

"Catherine, come out."

Silence answered him. The kind that felt final.

"Stop throwing a tantrum," he said, his lips pressed into a thin line. "You don't have the right to be upset. You betrayed me first. You have no right to be angry."

As he spoke to the door, his hands trembled. He couldn't stop them. Deep inside, his wolf let out a low, mournful howl.

Behind him, Mary stood with her arms crossed and watched coldly. Then she stepped forward and opened the door right in front of him.

The bedroom was empty. Clean and sparse, as if no one had ever lived there at all.

Mary's voice was flat. "Catherine hasn't been back to Bloodmoon Pack in a long time. When I got the news, she was critical. She'd signed an organ donation agreement. Her heart—I don't know who received it."

"Stop lying." Edward's fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white.

Jane had just had a heart transplant, and now Mary was claiming Catherine had donated her heart?

Ridiculous.

Catherine would never donate her heart to Jane. She didn't even like Jane.

Mary clearly wasn't going to tell him the truth. Edward stormed out of the room and pulled out his phone, already dialing his beta. "Simon, I need you to pull the hotel records for every place in Stormclaw Pack territory. Find Catherine. Now."

How dare she just leave without a word? She was the one who screwed up, so why was she acting like the victim?

What bothered him more was that he couldn't sense her anymore. Fated mates shared a bond, a mental link that let him track her location whenever he wanted. Unless she was really...

His phone rang.

"Alpha, the Luna forgot her moonstone ring." It was one of the maids from the Stormhowl Pack Alpha Manor.

Catherine had said she wanted to stay somewhere else for a few days, so the staff had been dismissed. The maid only came back to clean once she heard the Alpha was returning, and that was when she found the ring on the table—the one Catherine never took off.

"Got it." Edward turned and walked out of the Bloodmoon Pack Alpha Manor, heading straight for his car.

He rubbed his left ring finger absently, his jaw tight.

Catherine had fought with him about this before, about how he refused to wear his mate ring.

"It's not like I wanted to be bonded to you anyway," he'd told her. "You think you even deserve to wear a ring that matches mine?"

Those were the exact words Edward had said to Catherine back then, and she'd cried when she heard them.

At the time, he'd felt vindicated. Satisfied, even.

Edward couldn't understand how Catherine could betray him and then act like nothing happened, like she could just go ahead and form a mate bond with him as if the past didn't exist.

And he'd heard she'd taken a huge sum of money from the Stormclaw Pack too.

The car pulled up to the Stormclaw Pack Alpha Manor, and a maid was waiting by the door. She opened it for Edward as he approached.

The moonstone ring sat on the coffee table, untouched. The maid hadn't dared move anything belonging to the Luna, so she led the Alpha over to it.

Edward stared at the ring, the one Catherine wore every day. She'd really left it behind.

That was when it hit him. She actually wanted to break their mate bond.

He closed his fist around the ring and lit a cigarette, and that was when he got the message back from Simon.

Catherine hadn't checked into any hotels in the Stormclaw Pack territory.

Edward's jaw tightened. "Check her travel records."

He paused, then added, "And Leon's whereabouts."

Simon hesitated for a moment before responding. "Thornhowl Pack's Alpha Leon went to the Bloodmoon Pack Alpha Manor."

*****

At the Bloodmoon Pack Alpha Manor, Mary sat on the sofa filing her nails while Leon sat across from her.

He pulled out a paper slip and pressed it onto the table. "I'm taking Catherine's ashes."

Mary's eyes lit up the moment she saw the check, and she quickly scanned the amount.

Three million dollars.

She cleared her throat. "Catherine's the Luna of Stormclaw Pack. If you take her, it won't look right. I should be handing her over to her mate, Edward."

Leon pulled out his phone and made a call. "Bring two million dollars in cash."

Mary couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips. She uncrossed her legs and picked up the check. "Thanks."

She added without thinking, "If only you'd been Catherine's mate instead."

Leon's mouth curved into something that might've been a smile, but his eyes stayed cold and empty.

"Bring me Catherine's urn," Mary said to the maid behind her.

Her mind was already spinning with ways to spend the money.

Catherine was dead, which meant she couldn't use Catherine's father as leverage to squeeze more money out of Stormclaw Pack anymore. That man was dying at Werewolf Alliance Hospital, and Mary was done with him. She didn't care anymore.

She was going to find Jack. Her real mate.

Leon picked up Catherine's urn and stood to leave.

Outside, he got into his car and sat there for a moment, the urn resting in his lap. It was a delicate thing—small and ornate—and it held all that remained of a life that had once been so vivid, so full of feeling.

His fingers traced the patterns carved into its surface.

He knew Catherine had late-stage Wolfsbane Syndrome. He knew there was no cure.

He also knew she'd made the decision to donate her heart, and he knew exactly she planned to give it to Jane.

During Catherine's time in the hospital, Leon visited her a few times, and each visit, she looked worse than the last.

Then one day, Catherine asked him for a favor.

"Don't come anymore," she said quietly. "But when I die, could you take my ashes?"

Catherine knew her father's condition would never improve. He wouldn't be able to handle her remains.

Her mother had always been obsessed with money, and Catherine suspected that instead of grieving, she'd probably just be angry.

As for Edward, he'd been waiting for her to die for years now. He'd probably be relieved when he heard the news.

Leon agreed not to return to Werewolf Alliance Hospital, but he kept his subordinates stationed nearby to monitor Catherine's condition.

He went through his days at Thornhowl Pack handling business as usual, but every moment he was waiting for news about her.

Every minute felt like torture—like someone sitting across from him at a table, carving into his heart with a silver blade dipped in wolfsbane. Slow. Deliberate. Agonizing.

The screech of brakes jolted him back to the present. Leon instinctively clutched the box in his arms tighter as his body slammed forward against the seat.

"Alpha, someone's blocking the road," his Beta said, panic edging into his voice.

Through the window, Leon saw Edward get out of the black car across from him. He was holding a spiked bat.

A second later, the windshield shattered with a deafening crack.

"Get out." Edward walked around to the driver's side and pressed his palm against the window, staring Leon down through the glass.

Leon's beta was frozen in the passenger seat, too terrified by Edward's Alpha aura to even breathe. He clutched his head and didn't make a sound.

Leon set the urn in the back seat and pushed the door open.

"Well, well. The Stormclaw Pack Alpha himself," Leon said, his voice dripping with mockery.

Edward's wolf caught a faint trace of Catherine's scent on Leon and howled in rage. "He smells like Catherine. Kill him. Rip his throat out!"

Edward's voice was ice-cold. "Give me the box."

"What do you want it for? You gonna keep it or destroy it?"

Leon hated Edward. Catherine had only gotten involved with him because of Edward in the first place.

Leon knew he wasn't a good man. He'd wanted to sleep with Catherine, tried to mark her, but she'd fought him off every time. She would've died before letting him mark her.

Sure, Edward was powerful, but Leon wasn't exactly lacking either.

Catherine was perfect in every way, except for her taste in mates.