The Alpha I'd been smitten with, the partner I'd trusted, the man who'd made me believe pack bonds could transcend traditional hierarchies before demonstrating exactly how wrong I'd been.
The relationship that burned to ash spectacularly enough that we haven't spoken in three years.
Silas's hand lands on my shoulder—grounding, warning, pack solidarity communicating without words that he sees, understands, will support whatever comes next.
But nothing can prepare me for this onslaught of unraveling events…
As Calder finally releases Murphy's mouth, as she sways slightly in his grip, as he murmurs something too quiet for anyone else to hear?—
She turns.
Looks directly at me.
And the recognition in her eyes—the sudden, horrified understanding—tells me she knows exactly who I am.
Knows exactly what Calder and I were to each other.
Knows that she's somehow become the connection point between past and present, between the Alpha I tried to forget and the future I've been working toward.
The fire behind them seems almost quaint compared to the conflagration currently igniting between three people who should never have intersected, whose collision promises to burn down carefully constructed walls and expose vulnerabilities none of us are prepared to acknowledge.
This is going to get complicated.
The understatement of the decade, probably, but it's all my shocked brain can manage while staring at the impossible tableau.
The Omega who might have just single-handedly taken my promoted position being kissed by my ex, the Alpha I'd dared believe I was smitten with until it all burned to ash.
DESPERATION AND DECLARATIONS
~CALDER~
My heart hammers against my ribcage with enough force to crack bone, adrenaline flooding my system in waves that make rational thought nearly impossible.
She could be anywhere.
The thought has been circling my skull for the past hour, growing more frantic with each passing minute, each unanswered call, each text that delivers but receives no response.
Sweetwater Falls is supposed to be small—barely five thousand residents, Main Street you can walk end-to-end in twenty minutes, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone's business. But when you're searching for one specific Omega who has a talent for finding trouble, the town suddenly feels vast as a metropolitan sprawl.
Where the fuck is she?
I'd started at her rental cottage—empty, truck gone, no note explaining her departure.
Then Cactus Rose Ranch, where one of the ranch employees had informed me she'd left hours ago for supply runs. The hardware store, the feed shop, Rosie's Diner where Miss Rosiehad given me the kind of pitying look reserved for men who've clearly lost their minds over a woman.
"Haven't seen her today, dear. But if I do, I'll tell her you're looking."
Helpful. Absolutely fucking helpful when Wendy could be literally anywhere, doing literally anything, probably endangering herself because that's apparently her new hobby.
My phone had buzzed with the emergency alert—structure fire, heritage building, east district—and every instinct I possessed had screamed that she'd be there.
No doubt.
Zero question.
Wendolyn Murphy doesn't hear about fires and stay away.
She runs toward them like a moth to flame, consequences be damned.
