(Back at the Blackmoon stronghold- back at Beta Dax’s end.)

Boots approached behind him as he stood there still...contemplating.

Judging by how measured and restrained their footsteps were, it was certain his men feared disturbing the silence that had settled around their Beta.

The wind tugged at his clothes, lifting the edge just enough to reveal the tension locked into his shoulders.

Dax did not turn when he heard them stop right behind him.

"Beta Dax," one of the guards said quietly.

Dax remained at the balcony’s edge, his gaze fixed on the stone floor below, on impressions only his instincts seemed willing to acknowledge.

"Report," he said, his voice low, steady...too steady like it should be, but uncharacteristically cold.

The men stopped a few paces back.

"We searched the inner fortress, the outer walls, the gardens, the lower halls," another guard spoke, swallowing hard. "The tunnels too. No scent. No signs of forced entry. No witnesses.Nothing."

A pause.

Then, heavier.

"But it’s confirmed, sir," the first guard added. "Master Jasper and Lady Willa are...definitely missing."

The word hung there for a few breaths.

Missing.Yeah.Dax knew it already. Under his watch. His Alpha’s heirs. He had failed miserably.

Dax closed his eyes.

For a fraction of a second...barely noticeable...his jaw tightened. His wolf stirred violently beneath his skin, pacing, snarling, restrained only by iron will.

When he opened his eyes again, the grief was gone.

What remained was command.

"Then first things first. We need to stop pretending this is an accident," Dax said.

He finally turned to face them.

"Announce it."

The guards stiffened.

"Officially," he continued. "The heirs are missing. Sound the high alert. Seal the outer gates. Deploy scouts...north, south, east, west. Double patrols at the borders. I want trackers in the forests and runners sent to our allied packs.We are officially under attack."

"Yes, Beta," they responded in unison.

"No one leaves the territory without being questioned," Dax added. "No exceptions. I don’t care if it’s an elder or a mourning widow."

The men exchanged glances, then nodded again.

"And tell the pack this," Dax said, his voice cutting through them like steel. "We are not searching for lost children."

He stepped closer.

"We are hunting whoever was bold enough to take our heirs."

The weight of those words settled deep into the men’s chests as they exhaled, synchronized.

"Move," he ordered.

Some moved at once...splitting off, barking commands, the fortress erupting into controlled chaos once more.

Dax watched them go.

Only when the echoes of their footsteps faded did he allow the stillness to return. But a few of his men remained. Perhaps hoping for a different order or perhaps to accompany him.

He exhaled slowly.

"Go," he murmured without turning. "All of you."

A hesitant voice answered, "Sir?"

"I will continue from here," he said. "Alone."

There was reluctance...but obedience won.

"Yes, Beta."

And then he was by himself.

The world narrowed.

Every sound stretched thin...the whisper of wind across stone, the distant clang of gates sealing shut, the low hum of the pack link thrumming with...fear...urgency... action.

Dax crouched once more, fingers hovering just above the faint impressions on the balcony floor.

"Show me," he whispered...not to the stone, but to whatever had dared linger here.

His wolf pressed forward, senses unfurling, reaching beyond sight and scent, following the residue of something wrong.

Something deliberate... with which he felt a connection... somehow...

He rose slowly, like a predator slipping back into motion.

And without another word, Beta Dax stepped forward...back onto the trail he had already begun to follow.

Into an unexplainable quiet.

Blind.

The stone beneath Dax’s boots changed almost imperceptibly.

At first, it was only a difference in sound...less echo, more absorption, as if the fortress itself had begun swallowing his footsteps. Then the air shifted. Cooler. Damp. Old in a way that had nothing to do with neglect and everything to do with being forgotten.

He was being led underground.

Dax slowed.

His hand brushed the wall as he descended the narrow stair he hadn’t known existed...stone worn smooth by time, not traffic.

No torch brackets. No markings of patrol routes. This wasn’t part of the fortress plans.

It seemed like this space wasn’t meant to be found.

"Impossible..." he muttered under his breath.

As Beta, he knew every corridor, every escape route, every tunnel used during the past sieges.

Or so he had thought.

The steps curved downward...shallow...uneven, carved directly into bedrock. The further he went, the quieter the world became...until even the hum of the pack link felt distant, muffled, like sound traveling through water.

He paused.

Breathed in.

There it was.

Not strong. Not obvious.

But familiar.

Dax’s fingers curled slowly.

"No...no fucking way..." he whispered.

The scent wasn’t prominent enough to be alarming at first glance...masked beneath earth, but it threaded through it all like a memory refusing to die.

Like ash.

Like moon warmed rain.

His chest tightened.

"That’s not possible," he said aloud now, his voice low, almost pleading with the dark.

He continued anyway.

The tunnel widened gradually, the ceiling lifting just enough for torchlight...though no torches burned. Strange markings appeared along the walls, half eroded symbols that pulsed faintly when his wolf brushed against them. Defensive wards, old ones. The kind woven by hands that understood power differently.

Dax noticed the floor next.

Small disturbances in the dust.

Not footprints exactly...but patterns. Drag marks softened deliberately. Weight shifted to one side, then the other. Someone small.

Two someones.

His throat went dry.

"Jasper... Willa..." he murmured, voice rough.

The trail curved left.

And then...

There.

A faint scuff in the stone where a smaller foot had stumbled.

Dax crouched instantly, fingers hovering just above it. His heart pounded so loudly he was certain the tunnel could hear it.

A child’s scent lingered there.

Fear. Confusion.

But beneath it...

Comfort.

Trust.

His wolf recoiled violently.

"No," Dax said sharply, shaking his head as if the thought itself were an enemy. "You are wrong. You are reading it wrong."

But his instincts did not yield.

The air ahead carried intention.

Not violence.

Not panic.

But definitely purpose.

And threading through all of it...was his mate.

The realization didn’t strike like lightning.

It seeped in slowly, like cold water rising inch by inch.

His mind latched onto logic immediately.

She knew the fortress better than anyone thought.

She knew how to erase scent.

She knew the old magics.

She knew how to move unseen.

"She wouldn’t," he said, more firmly now, as if daring the tunnel to contradict him. "Not without telling me. Not like this.Would she? " 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

But his heart...

His heart stuttered.

Memories surfaced unbidden.

The way Veera watched his Alpha’s child children when no one noticed.

How Willa clung to her skirts.

Dax pressed his palm to the stone wall, steadying himself.

"This isn’t real," he whispered, voice breaking just slightly. "You didn’t take them. You wouldn’t.She is a changed person. She won’t go back to her old ways. She promised...she promised on our mate bond..."

The tunnel opened further ahead, curving out of sight, carrying her scent with it...fading but deliberate, like breadcrumbs meant only for him.

His brain knew the truth.

Every instinct screamed it.

But his heart...

His heart lagged behind, dragging its heels, refusing to step over the edge of that understanding.

Dax straightened slowly.

His jaw clenched.

And without another word, he followed the trail deeper underground...into a place that should never have existed, chasing a truth he was not yet ready to face.

Every step weighed more than the last.

The tunnel narrowed again, then widened, then dipped...its rhythm uneven, almost organic. The walls here were darker, threaded with veins of stone that glimmered faintly when his presence passed, reacting to his wolf like a living thing recognizing an intruder.

His breath sounded too loud in his ears.

"Damn it, Veera!" Dax muttered.

But the scent refused to disappear.

It lingered in soft pulses...stronger near turns, fading in the straight stretches...Veera had walked this path unafraid. Had known exactly where she was going.More importantly... what she was doing.

His wolf growled low, restless.

Trust had nothing to do with it.

Dax shook his head hard, as if he could dislodge the thought.

The children were safe.

They had to be.

Nothing in the air spoke of blood or panic. No sharp terror. Only... urgency.

"That doesn’t make it right," he whispered, jaw tightening. This was definitely not a place she would bring them to play hide and seek.

He stopped abruptly.

Something brushed the edge of his hearing.

Not a sound at first...more like pressure.

A vibration carried through the stone beneath his boots.

Dax held his breath.

The tunnel went deathly still.

Then...

One subtle knock.

Soft.

Hollow.

His pulse slammed hard against his ribs.

He tilted his head slightly, listening...not just with ears, but with instinct.

Then there it was again.

Knock. Knock...

As if someone on the other side of the stone was trying to be heard... to get out...

Dax’s hand slid to his weapon without conscious thought.

"Who’s there?" he whispered, voice barely disturbing the air.

Silence answered.

Then...fainter this time...

Knock.

His breath caught.

Children sometimes knock like that.

Careful.

Hopeful.

Dax swallowed hard, his chest tightening painfully as he stared into the darkness ahead.

"Jasper?" he murmured. "Willa?"

The stone gave no answer.

Only the echo of that faint knocking...patient, waiting...somewhere deeper within the walls.