"Alright, listen up! Some of you head back and get the car ready. We’re taking her to the hospital. The rest stay and keep searching for Clarissa. If we still can’t find her, call the rangers!"

The man who had pulled Ashley from the lake took charge without hesitation, his tone sharp, leaving no room for argument. He quickly dragged his shirt and shoes back on before lifting Ashley into his arms, and the others moved at once, following his orders without question.

In his hold, Ashley had already gone limp again. After coughing up the water, whatever strength she had left gave out. Blood loss and pain dragged her back into unconsciousness, her body frighteningly still.

A ripple of panic spread through the group.

"Wait... did she... ?!"

The man’s expression tightened, but he didn’t falter. He pressed his fingers beneath her nose, holding his breath for a second, then felt the faint breath.

He exhaled sharply. "She’s alive," he said, voice hard with urgency. "But barely. We need to move, now. Stop standing around!"

Without waiting for a response, he adjusted his grip and started back toward the camp, carrying her as fast as he could.

As soon as they reached the camp, the girls waiting anxiously rushed out of their tents at the sound of hurried footsteps and raised voices coming from the forest. But the moment they saw the men emerge, carrying an unfamiliar, badly injured woman, their relief twisted into fear.

If this wasn’t Clarissa... then where was she?

"What happened?" Clarissa’s friend asked, her voice tight, dread creeping in as her eyes locked onto the unconscious woman in their arms.

"We don’t know," the man carrying Ashley said, his voice strained but steady. "We haven’t found Clarissa. We found her instead, out in the lake. She was barely conscious, had almost drowned, and was covered in injuries. Could be she ran from an attacker... or fell from one of the cliffs... maybe even escaped something worse. There’s no ID on her, so we can’t confirm anything yet. We’ll know more once we get her to the hospital."

A heavy silence followed, his words settling over them like a shadow.

"What about Clarissa?" one of the girls pressed, her voice trembling.

But the fear had already taken root. Because now, the possibility they hadn’t dared to voice was staring them in the face...

If something had happened to this woman... then what about Clarissa?

"We’ll keep searching, and we’ll get the forest rangers involved," the man replied, not breaking stride as he headed straight for the car the others had already prepared.

He set Ashley carefully on the blanket inside the backseat of the car before rushing back to his tent, grabbing his bag with his phone and wallet. Within minutes, they were gone, the vehicle tearing out of the forest and into the night.

Those left behind didn’t waste time. Fear drove them straight to the forest ranger station, a small cabin located deeper in the woods, where they reported everything. Soon, search efforts spread across the forest and along the lakeside, flashlights cutting through the dark until dawn. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

But Clarissa was nowhere to be found.

By morning, the situation had escalated. The rangers, recognizing the severity of the disappearance, escorted the campers to the police for a formal investigation. At the same time, they quietly reported the incident to the peacekeepers.

Because they knew.

They knew what lived beyond the unclaimed lands.

Despite the rumors and the unease, the rangers didn’t jump to conclusions. A werewolf attack was a possibility, but not the only one. Humans were just as capable of cruelty, and until there was proof, they treated it as an open case.

Still, one thing was certain.

What started as a simple camping trip had turned into a possible murder case or kidnapping.

For two days straight, Nathan combed every stretch of the lakeshore without rest, without sleep, driven by nothing but obsession. By then, the campers were long gone, and even the forest rangers who usually kept watch over the unclaimed lands were nowhere to be found. There was no one left to question, no trace to follow.

Everyone involved had already been taken to the police station and pulled into the investigation surrounding Clarissa’s disappearance. Statements were being recorded, timelines dissected, and every detail scrutinized.

At the same time, the peacekeepers turned their attention to Nathan’s pack.

They came looking for answers.

Instead, they found something else.

The pack had just reported a death, and the body had already been cremated under Maddison’s orders. It didn’t matter to her whether the remains truly belonged to Ashley or someone else. It was handled, finished, erased.

And when the peacekeepers arrived to question them, Nathan wasn’t there.

He was still out by the lake, chasing ghosts, tearing through the shoreline like a madman, refusing to stop.

Which meant there was only one person left to face them.

Maddison.

"I presume you are Alpha Nathan’s recently found fated mate... Miss Maddison?" one of the peacekeepers asked, jotting down notes as they made their way toward the Alpha’s office.

"Yes..." Maddison replied, offering a soft, composed smile.

To anyone watching, she looked harmless, gentle, well-mannered, exactly what one would expect from a Luna. Even the peacekeepers found nothing out of place. They had dealt with countless supernatural beings before, and while werewolves carried a reputation for violence and aggression, they knew better than to judge them all the same. Not every werewolf was ruled by aggression. Many were calm, controlled... even kind.

And most Lunas they had encountered fit that image perfectly.

So they didn’t question her.

They didn’t see the performance behind the softness, the careful restraint in every expression.

To them, Maddison was simply another composed Luna.

Nothing more.

"We’re currently investigating a disappearance case near your territory," one of the peacekeepers said, his tone measured as he flipped a page in his notes. "At the same time, we’ve received reports that a high-ranking member of your pack died on the very same day a human woman went missing."

His gaze lifted, steady and probing. "We’d like to understand the situation within your pack."

At the mention of a "high-ranking wolf," Maddison’s hand curled subtly at her side, her smile tightening for just a fraction of a second.

The title didn’t sit well with her.

After all, Ashley had already been cast aside, rejected, and stripped of standing. A wolfless mutt born of an Omega. A disgrace in the eyes of the pack. Calling her "high-ranking" felt almost insulting.

So Maddison corrected them.

"I’m afraid there’s been some misinformation," she said gently, her tone composed, almost apologetic. "The she-wolf who died... wasn’t of any rank. She was wolfless, born of an Omega."

She paused just enough to let it settle before continuing.

"She fell from one of the steeper cliffs near the lakeside. The impact..." Maddison lowered her gaze slightly, as if recalling something unpleasant.

"It was severe. Her face was completely destroyed against the rocks below. We attempted to reconstruct it, but..." She shook her head lightly. "It wasn’t possible. So we proceeded with cremation."

Her voice remained calm. Controlled. Not a single crack.

But beneath that composed exterior, she was more than satisfied.

The image of Ashley’s beautiful, ruined face lingered in her mind, and no matter how well she masked it, there was a quiet, private sense of triumph she couldn’t quite suppress.

Still, none of it reached her expression.

To the peacekeepers, Maddison remained nothing but composed and sincere.

As Maddison finished recounting the incident, the peacekeeper assigned to documentation continued writing, his pen moving steadily across the page. When he was done, he exchanged a brief look with his partner, the one leading the questioning.

They had already done their groundwork.

Before coming here, they had visited the site Maddison mentioned, examining the cliff and the rocks below. They had also checked on the unidentified woman who had been sent to the hospital. With those details in mind, her account aligned cleanly with what they had seen.

The height of the cliff alone was enough to make survival nearly impossible. Add the jagged rocks beneath it, and the outcome Maddison described made sense.

Which meant...

The missing Clarissa, the unidentified woman, and the woman Nathan’s pack had cremated were not the same person.

If Clarissa had gone to the same cliff where the she-wolf fell, the witnesses who saw that fall would have noticed Clarissa and mentioned it to them. There would have been no way to miss it.

And if the unidentified woman pulled from the lake had been the one who fell from that height... then her survival bordered on impossible. No one could take that drop, strike the rocks below, and still live, not without an absurd stroke of luck.

Which left only one reasonable conclusion.

Nathan’s pack had recovered their own. They had pulled the body from the lake, examined the injuries, and matched them to the fall. Even if the scent had weakened after prolonged exposure to water, it was unthinkable that a pack would fail to identify one of their own. Werewolves relied on unity and on recognition. They wouldn’t handle something like that carelessly.