Aidan.

I was in my room, trying unsuccessfully to gather my thoughts.

They refused to settle.

Every time I tried to focus on one thing, another forced its way in, louder, heavier, demanding attention. It was chaos, unrelenting, exhausting.

Everything had been spiraling out of control lately.

Nothing was where it should be anymore.

We had completely lost track of Galen, and that alone was enough to keep tension coiled tightly in my chest. But it didn’t stop there. The poison in Adrien was getting worse each passing hour making it more dangerous, more unpredictable.

Time was slipping and we were running out of it, and then there was Maria. She wasn’t helping matters at all. If anything, she was making it worse.

No...Not just worse.

She was becoming a problem.

The thought settled bitterly in my mind, sharp and unwelcome.

A distraction.

And I hated it.

I leaned back against the chair, exhaling slowly as I dragged a hand through my hair, the motion rough, frustrated. My fingers tightened briefly at the roots before I let them fall, my jaw clenching as I tried again to steady my thoughts.

It wasn’t working.

Nothing was working.

And then...

The door burst open.

The sound was sudden, violent, cutting through the tension in the room like a blade.

My head snapped up instantly, irritation flaring before I could stop it.

"Noah?" I frowned, the annoyance clear in my voice as my eyes landed on him.

He stood at the entrance, unmoving for a second, but it wasn’t stillness.

It was tension.

His breathing was heavy, uneven, his chest rising and falling like he had run across the entire pack just to get here. His hair was slightly disheveled, his posture rigid, and his eyes...His eyes were wild.

Unsettled.

There was something off about him.

Something wrong.

The irritation in me didn’t disappear, but it shifted, tempered slightly by the tension radiating off him.

"Where is Maria?" he demanded immediately.

I blinked once, caught off guard by the abruptness, before letting out a small scoff.

"Excuse me?" I said dryly, leaning back again in my chair, deliberately casual, like his urgency meant nothing to me. "And why exactly would I know where Maria is?"

His jaw tightened instantly, the muscle ticking in a way that made it clear my answer didn’t sit well with him.

"Don’t do this, Aidan," he snapped, his voice sharp, strained. "Not now."

A humorless chuckle slipped from my lips, quiet but edged with irritation.

"Oh? Not now?" I tilted my head slightly, my gaze fixed on him with faint amusement. "Last I checked, she’s always glued to you."

I let the words hang for a brief moment before adding, my tone turning colder, more pointed...

"Or what," I continued, a slight smirk tugging at my lips, "did you suddenly lose track of your little possession?"

His fists clenched at his sides.

"I’ve been looking for her for hours," he said, his voice lower now, but far more dangerous. "Eight hours, Aidan. I’ve searched everywhere."

That made me pause.

Eight hours? 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The sarcasm on my face faded—just slightly.

Noah wasn’t joking.

He looked... desperate.

And Noah didn’t get desperate.

"Check your tone," I muttered, straightening a bit. "And don’t start throwing accusations around like a fool. If she’s missing, how is that my problem?"

His eyes burned into mine.

"Because you and your brothers always have something to do with everything that happens in this pack, and mostly about her." he shot back. "So don’t act like you don’t know anything."

That did it.

I stood up slowly, my expression darkening.

"You think I’d waste my time hiding someone like her?" I asked coldly. "If I wanted Maria, I wouldn’t hide her."

The tension in the room thickened instantly.

For a second, neither of us spoke.

Then Noah scoffed, shaking his head.

"So you really don’t know," he muttered under his breath.

I studied him carefully.

The way his shoulders were stiff. The way his breathing hadn’t steadied.

This wasn’t anger.

This was fear.

And that realization sent a strange, uneasy feeling through me.

If Maria was really missing...and we didn’t know where she was...then...something was wrong.

Very wrong.

I turned sharply toward the door.

"Guards!" I barked.

Two of them appeared almost immediately.

"Search for Maria. Every corner of this pack. Now."

"Yes, Alpha!" they responded in unison before rushing off.

I clenched my jaw, my mind already racing.

Noah let out a breath behind me.

"So you really didn’t take her..." he said quietly, almost to himself.

I shot him an annoyed look.

"Do you think I have nothing better to do?" I snapped. "I don’t hide people like a coward."

He didn’t respond this time.

Instead, he turned and walked out of the room without another word.

I watched him leave, my brows furrowing slightly, something wasn’t right and I didn’t like it.

Not one bit.

I didn’t waste another second.

I headed straight to my brothers.

The moment I pushed open the door to their room, both Davian and Damien looked up.

"What is it?" Davian asked immediately, sensing the shift in my aura.

"Maria is missing," I said bluntly.

That was all it took and the atmosphere in the room changed instantly.

Damien stood up first. "What do you mean missing?"

"Noah’s been searching for her for eight hours," I replied. "He can’t find her anywhere."

Davian’s expression darkened. "Impossible," he muttered. "No one leaves this pack without us knowing."

"That’s what I thought," I said grimly.

Silence fell for a moment as all three of us processed it.

Then Damien cursed under his breath. "This is bad," he said. "If something happened to her..."

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t need to.

We all knew.

Davian ran a hand through his hair, pacing slightly.

"Spread the search," he ordered. "Every guard, every patrol. Check the borders again."

"They’re already searching," I said.

"Not enough," he snapped. "Double it."

Something about the way he said it...it wasn’t just authority, it was urgency, fear and that only made things worse.

Because I somehow hated it.

But before I could respond...

The door suddenly burst open again.

A guard stumbled in, breathing heavily.

"Alpha!" he called out urgently.

All three of us turned toward him at once.

"What is it?" Davian demanded sharply.

The guard swallowed hard, trying to steady his breath.

"Alpha... something just happened."

My chest tightened instantly.

"What happened?" I stepped forward, my voice low and dangerous.

The guard hesitated for a split second.