Nicholas’s POV

I woke up with a violent jolt.

My chest heaved. I was covered in a cold sweat. I sat up in the massive, empty bed, my hands gripping the silk sheets so hard the fabric tore.

The dream was gone, but the physical sensation remained. It burned like a brand. The phantom touch of tiny, chubby fingers still lingered against my own scarred skin. The image of those eyes—those deep, clear, forest green eyes—was seared into the back of my eyelids.

My child.

My son.

He was out there.

My wolf was awake. He wasn’t snarling. He wasn’t pacing in endless, rabid circles of grief and rage. He was standing perfectly still, his ears perked, fully focused on something in the distance.

I closed my eyes and reached inward.

For three agonizing months, the mate bond had been nothing but a dull, empty ache. A severed nerve. A stretched wire pulling into a terrifying void. But now? Now it was vibrating. A faint, steady thrum that pulsed in time with my own racing heart.

The seal, or whatever had been blocking her from me, had cracked.

I felt her. I felt *them*.

I threw the sheets back and stood up. I didn’t change out of my dark clothes. I strode straight to the door, my bare feet silent on the cold stone floor, and yanked it open.

"Get Roman and Andrei," I barked at the guard stationed at the end of the hall. He flinched at the sudden explosive volume of my voice. "My study. Right now."

I didn’t wait to see him run. I turned and walked down the heavy, shadowed corridors of the headquarters. The building was completely silent. It was early, the dawn barely starting to bleed over the Greystone skyline. I pushed through the heavy oak doors of my study, walked straight to the liquor cabinet, and poured a glass of amber whiskey. I didn’t drink it. I just gripped the heavy crystal glass, staring blankly at the city below.

Less than five minutes later, the heavy doors opened.

Roman and Andrei walked in. Roman looked tense, his posture stiff and his jaw tight, his pragmatic mind already calculating worst-case scenarios. Andrei walked in quietly, his eyes immediately scanning my face, reading my erratic energy. They probably thought I had completely lost my mind after Sofia’s death in the dungeon.

"You called," Roman said. He kept his distance near the center of the room.

I set the glass down. It hit the mahogany desk with a sharp, heavy thud.

"Pack your bags, or don’t. It doesn’t matter to me," I said, my voice dead calm. "But I am leaving."

Roman froze. He exchanged a quick, alarmed look with Andrei. "Leaving? Leaving for where?"

"The human world," I said. I leaned my hands flat on the desk, looking directly at my Royal Beta. "I am leaving Greystone."

The silence in the room was absolute. It stretched tight for three seconds before Roman exploded.

"Are you completely insane?" Roman took a step forward, dropping any pretense of formality. "You can’t just leave! You are the Alpha King! You are the head of this entire underground empire!"

"I am well aware of my titles, Roman."

"Then start acting like it!" Roman shot back. He was the only person in this world who dared to speak to me with that tone. "The Kossarov syndicate is actively pushing our borders! The elders are practically beating down the doors demanding an audience. We have forty-two different families looking to you for direction. If you vanish into the human cities right now, this entire syndicate will collapse into a bloodbath!"

"Roman is right," Andrei added quietly. His tone was much softer, trying to de-escalate the tension, but he was just as firm. "Nicholas, you walking away right now is an open invitation for a coup. You can’t just abandon the throne because of a whim. What about the territory? What about the pack?"

I slammed my fist onto the desk. The solid mahogany cracked under the force.

"Screw the territory!" I roared.

My eyes flashed black. The suffocating, crushing weight of my alpha aura flooded the room instantly. Both Roman and Andrei stiffened, their knees bucking slightly under the sheer physical pressure of my dominance.

I forced myself to pull the aura back. Barely. I needed them to understand, not just submit in terror.

"It is not a whim," I said. My voice dropped to a rough, gravelly whisper. I pressed a hand flat against the center of my chest. "The bond. I felt it."

Andrei’s eyes widened. "What?"

"I felt it tonight. It’s awake," I said, staring at the shattered wood of my desk. "She’s out there. And I felt my child."

The shock hit them physically. Roman’s mouth parted slightly. The argument died right in his throat.

"They are in the human world," I continued, my voice gaining terrifying strength. "I can feel the direction of the pull. She’s far away, buried somewhere in a human city. And I am going to find them."

"Nicholas, the human cities are massive," Roman argued, though the fire had completely left his voice. He was reasoning now. "It’s a needle in a haystack. We don’t have the supernatural tracking infrastructure out there that we have in the werewolf territories. The scent trails will be dead. It will take years."

I let out a harsh, cold laugh.

"You forget exactly who I am," I said, straightening up to my full height. "We are not just a wolf pack hiding in the woods. We run a massive global holding company. We control real estate, finance, and logistics across the entire human world."

I walked around the desk, closing the distance between us. The predator inside me was wide awake and hungry for a hunt.

"I am the Capo di tutti Capi," I said softly, the title tasting like blood and iron. "I have human gangs, fixers, and illegal businesses operating in every major human city on this continent. I have more money, more eyes, and more guns out there than any human police force."

I stopped right in front of Roman, holding his gaze.

"I will mobilize every single human asset we own. I will buy every camera feed. I will tear the human world apart, brick by brick, street by street, until I find her." I paused, letting the absolute finality of my words sink into his bones. "And I am not coming back to this palace until I have my wife and my son."

Roman stared at me. He looked deep into my eyes, searching for the madness. He looked for the reckless, violent king who just wanted an excuse to destroy things.

But he didn’t find it. He only found absolute, unbreakable resolve.

Roman let out a long, heavy breath. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose, a gesture of pure exhaustion.

"The elders are going to absolutely lose their minds," Roman muttered.

"Let them," I said flatly. "If they step out of line, kill them."

Andrei stepped up beside Roman. He looked at me, a faint, genuine smile finally returning to his face. The Royal Gamma understood the emotional stakes better than anyone.

"Go find her, Nicholas," Andrei said softly. "Bring them home."

"I will." I turned back to the desk and grabbed my heavy jacket from the back of the chair. My blood was practically singing. For the first time in months, I had a direction. "Until I do, this empire is yours to hold."

Roman straightened his posture, slipping flawlessly back into his role as the Royal Beta. "We will hold it. But don’t take forever. I really don’t want to fight a war with the Kossarovs without you."

I didn’t smile, but the crushing tension in my chest finally eased. The hunt was on.

I looked at both of my most trusted men, the only family I had left.

"Keep the borders tight," I commanded, pulling my jacket on. I walked toward the heavy oak doors, not looking back.