「Meanwhile, on Nathan’s side, after some time...」

"Hurry up! Deploy more men, search the lake again!" Nathan’s voice cracked like a whip, sharp and merciless. "I don’t care what it takes, I want Ashley’s body. Dead or alive."

His warriors scattered under the force of his Alpha aura; they didn’t even dare make a sound as they lowered their heads in submission.

Patrol units assigned to that stretch of the border had already been dragged in, forced to stand before him while he tore into them for hours. His anger hadn’t cooled, not even close. Instead, it burned in his eyes, raw and unrestrained, making it hard for anyone to meet his gaze without flinching.

If he didn’t need them now, if he didn’t need the manpower to comb through the area faster, some of them were certain he would’ve killed them where they stood.

For their failure.

For not noticing anything out of place the night before.

For letting Ashley reach this section of the territory, where the cliffs dropped steep and unforgiving, where the land edged close to the unclaimed zones where humans wandered, unchecked and unknown.

A place no one should have overlooked.

And now, it was too late.

Nathan had long since petitioned to the human government to restrict access to the lakeside bordering his territory and the nearby unclaimed land. It wasn’t an unreasonable demand, because there are too many risks, and too many chances for humans to stumble onto things they weren’t meant to see. One accident was all it would take to expose the supernatural.

But the humans were never that easy to deal with.

They refused to concede without leverage. To them, Nathan wasn’t just any Alpha; he was young, powerful, and expanding his territory at an alarming pace. If he wanted cooperation, then he had to offer something of equal value in return.

And legally... they weren’t wrong.

The lake, which lay within the unclaimed land was considered a neutral ground. No pack, no race held authority over it. That meant anyone could access it freely, humans included. Campers, travelers, wanderers... as long as they didn’t cross into Nathan’s marked borders, the government wasn’t violating any agreement by allowing them near the lakeside.

They hadn’t crossed a line.

But right now, reason didn’t matter.

All Nathan felt was frustration, and maybe someone or something to use as a target to redirect his anger and frustration that was boiling inside him right now.

The moment the order left Nathan’s mouth, his warriors scattered, moving with urgency, edged in fear. Clothes were stripped off in haste, gear hauled out and thrown on, some preparing to dive, others coordinating from the shore.

They were positioned at the base of the cliff, the exact spot where Ashley was said to have fallen, according to the two warriors who reported it.

No one wasted a second.

Divers slipped into the water one after another, vanishing beneath the surface in search of any trace of her. At the same time, speedboats were launched across the lake, engines roaring as they cut through the water, spreading out to cover as much ground as possible.

Nathan wanted everything searched.

Every inch.

Because as long as Ashley’s body wasn’t found, there was still something he could hold onto, something he refused to let go of. Whether it was denial or desperation, it didn’t matter.

Without proof, he could still believe she wasn’t gone.

Nathan stood at the edge of the lake, unmoving, like a stone, his gaze locked on the speedboats slicing across the once-calm water. Hours passed, the sky dimming inch by inch, but he didn’t shift, didn’t speak, didn’t look away.

Not until night began to settle.

That was when something changed.

After countless dives, the team beneath the surface resurfaced again, but this time, they didn’t head straight for shore to swap out their oxygen tanks. Instead, they signaled one of the nearby speedboats. The operator reacted immediately, steering toward them with urgency.

Another two divers broke through the surface beside the first.

From where Nathan stood, he couldn’t see what they had found. The speedboat blocked his view completely, cutting him off from whatever was happening in the water. All he could do was watch... and wait.

And as he did, something cold tightened in his chest.

A quiet, creeping dread, like instinct was warning him, like some part of him already knew that whatever they had found... Was something he would never want to see.

He wasn’t given time to brace himself.

The speedboat cut toward the shore, grinding against the edge as four divers sat in the speedboat heading back to where he is. Nathan stepped forward, the question already at his throat, but before he could speak, they dragged something up from the boat.

Not something.

Someone.

A woman’s body.

For a second, his mind refused to process it. The face... There was no face, only ruin. It had been completely smashed in, as if the impact against the rocks had crushed it beyond recognition. What remained was barely human.

Her clothes were no better, torn apart into strips, clinging to her body in pieces. The sight dragged up the memory of the shredded fabric the two warriors had brought earlier, and his mind forced the connection. A fall from that height... the rocks below...

It would end like this.

His thoughts broke.

A violent heave tore through him as he staggered, bile rising fast and uncontrollable. He doubled over, vomiting hard, his body rejecting the reality his eyes couldn’t deny. His vision blurred, tears burning as they gathered, spilling before he could stop them.

"No... no..." His voice cracked, raw and desperate as he forced himself upright, shaking his head like he could undo it. "That’s not her..."

His roar tore through the air.

"She’s not Ashley!"

"Nathan!"

He didn’t hear anything, or refused to. The revelation had shattered whatever restraint he had left, his wolf clawing at the surface as his sanity buckled under the weight of it.

Then Maddison arrived.

Dressed in an innocent white dress and flat shoes, she closed the distance without hesitation, cupping his face in both hands and forcing him to look at her. Her grip was firm, grounding, just enough to anchor him as he spiraled.

"Nathan, listen to me," she whispered, steady and soft, as if she were the only thing keeping him from breaking apart. "None of this is your fault... if anyone’s to blame, it’s me. You did everything for me... all of this, because of me."

Her eyes locked onto his, those deep blue eyes clouded with grief and rage. His sharp features, the hard line of his jaw, the tension in his brows, it all made him devastating to look at, even like this. Maddison drank it in, memorizing every detail.

And beneath that soft, trembling exterior of hers.

She was seething.

Not with sorrow but with fury.

Because even now, even like this, he was grieving for her.

For Ashley.

The thought burned, ugly and vicious, but Maddison swallowed it whole. Not a flicker of it touched her expression. Instead, her fingers softened against his cheeks, her gaze turning fragile, almost pleading.

Inside, though, satisfaction coiled tight in her chest.

Ashley was gone.