CHAPTER 19
1256 Words
XAVIER’S POV
By the time I stepped out of that place, my hands were already stained with blood.
Not enough of it was theirs.
The cold night air hit my face, but it did nothing to calm the rage clawing through me. I kept walking until I was far enough from the building that I couldn’t hear them anymore. Only then did I stop.
My chest rose and fell heavily. My jaw was tight, my thoughts even tighter.
I had been close.
Too close.
I had seen her. Heard her voice. Broken her chains with my own hands. And still, I had walked out without her.
The thought burned.
I bent slightly, bracing a hand against a tree trunk as I forced myself to breathe through the anger. Losing control now would solve nothing. It would only make me easier to predict, easier to trap.
And that was exactly what this had been.
A trap.
Not just for Mia.
For me.
I straightened slowly and wiped the blood from my hand onto my shirt. The scent of the place still clung to me—stone, blood, rot, and that strange sweetness that seemed to hang around vampires. Beneath all of it, there was still Mia. Faint. Frightened. Alive.
That was the only thing stopping me from tearing that entire place apart with my bare hands.
A rustle came from behind me.
I turned sharply, ready to strike, but it was Yuli.
He slowed when he saw my face.
“Well,” he said after a pause, “I’m guessing it didn’t go well.”
I didn’t answer.
His eyes moved briefly to the blood on my hands, then back to me. “Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
He let out a breath. “Good.”
I looked away, my eyes settling back on the dark line of trees ahead. “Not for long if I go back there the same way.”
Yuli came to stand beside me, quieter now than usual. “How many?”
“Enough.”
“That bad?”
“Worse.”
He didn’t speak for a moment. That alone told me he understood I wasn’t in the mood for his usual remarks.
“What happened?” he asked at last.
I thought about answering him with something simple. Something short. But there was too much moving in my mind for that.
“They wanted me there,” I said. “Everything about it was arranged. The trail, the ones waiting outside, the way they slowed me down instead of killing me. None of that was random.”
Yuli frowned. “Why?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
He folded his arms and glanced toward the direction I had come from. “Do you think this is just about Mia?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly, too easily. Because deep down, I already knew it.
It started with her.
But it wasn’t just about taking her.
It was about drawing me in.
About making me react.
About testing what I’d do for her.
The realization sat heavily in my chest.
Yuli noticed the change in my expression. “What?”
I looked at him. “They know she matters.”
His brows drew together. “That much is obvious.”
“No,” I said, more quietly now. “They know she matters to me.”
He stared at me for a second longer than usual. I didn’t care. I was too busy replaying every second of what had happened in that cellar.
The way the vampire watched me.
The way he spoke about her.
The way he looked at us both, like he was standing in the middle of something he already understood better than I did.
I hated that most of all.
Yuli exhaled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Then this gets worse.”
“It already has.”
He didn’t argue with that.
For a while, neither of us spoke. The forest around us stayed still, but the silence was different now. Less unnatural than the one around the vampire grounds. This was our side. Familiar. Even with everything wrong, I could still feel the difference.
I started walking again, back toward pack territory. Yuli followed.
“She told me something before he appeared,” I said after a while.
“What?”
“She said they didn’t act alone. Someone helped them.”
Yuli’s face darkened immediately. “Inside the pack?”
“I don’t know.”
But even as I said it, my mind was already moving through possibilities.
Someone had helped them.
Someone who knew enough.
Someone with access.
Someone who understood exactly when she would be vulnerable.
And then, without warning, a scent drifted through my memory. Not from the vampire den. Not from the forest.
From earlier.
From the hall outside Ember’s room.
Julio.
I stopped walking so suddenly Yuli nearly stepped into me.
“What now?”
I turned slowly. “Julio knew too quickly.”
Yuli blinked. “What?”
“He came to see Ember after the bleeding started. Said he had heard about her accident.”
Yuli’s expression shifted. “You think he’s involved?”
“I think he shouldn’t have known that fast.”
Yuli looked troubled now. Good. He should be.
“Ember met him while hunting,” he said after a moment. “That’s what she told you.”
“Yes.”
“You think she lied?”
I held his gaze.
“I think everyone is lying.”
That shut him up.
We resumed walking, but more slowly this time. My thoughts had moved beyond Mia’s capture now. Not away from it—never that—but around it. Looking for shape. For pattern.
Ember’s pregnancy.
Julio’s sudden appearance.
The vampires waiting for me.
None of it felt separate anymore.
I just didn’t know how it connected yet.
When we reached the edge of the pack grounds, two guards straightened immediately. Their faces told me enough—they had heard something had gone wrong, but not what.
“Alpha—”
“Get the elders ready,” I said before either of them could continue. “No one leaves the grounds without my permission. No one enters without being searched.”
They exchanged a glance. “Yes, Alpha.”
“And find out who was on watch when Mia was taken. I want every name.”
They moved quickly after that.
Yuli looked at me sideways. “You think someone here opened the door for them?”
“Maybe.”
“And if they did?”
I looked ahead, toward the house, toward the rooms where too many lies had already been spoken.
“Then they made the worst mistake of their life.”
My voice was calm, but I meant every word.
By the time I stepped inside, I had already decided what came next.
I was not going back to the vampires blindly. Not again.
If they wanted me angry, they had it.
If they wanted me reckless, they’d be disappointed.
I was going to find out who helped them.
I was going to pull apart every lie in this house, every story that no longer sat right.
And then I was going to go back for Mia.
This time prepared.
This time ready.
Because this was no longer just a rescue.
It was war.
And whoever had put her in the middle of it was going to regret ever touching her.
- Writer
