Chapter 21
Valrek made his way back to the cave after his meeting with Korrin with something unfamiliar warming his chest. Hope.
He’d almost forgotten what it felt like—that tentative flutter of possibility, the sense that maybe the future held something other than isolation and struggle.
A pack that accepted mixed bonds. A community where Lilani could grow up without shame.
A place where he and Ariella could build something together.
Ariella.
The thought of her made his beast rumble with satisfaction. She should be at the cave by now, waiting for him with that shy smile that made his heart stutter. He’d been gone longer than he’d intended, but she would understand. She always understood.
The bond hummed at the edge of his awareness. He reached for it automatically, then tensed. Something was wrong. The connection was muted and distant, like hearing a beloved voice through layers of stone, but the emotion was clear. She was afraid.
He broke into a run.
The cave was empty. He knew it the moment he entered—the absence of warmth, of life, of the honey-and-salt scent that meant his mate. The fire had burned down to embers, casting dim shadows across the stone walls.
“Ariella?” His voice echoed off the walls. “Lilani?”
No response.
His beast surged to the surface, and he let it come as he dropped to his knees, pressing his nose to the cave floor.
Scents. Multiple scents.
Ariella’s trail led out of the cave towards the water, unchanged from when they’d parted earlier that day. She hadn’t returned, even though it was long after midday.
Lilani’s trail followed Ariella’s, but it was more recent. Much more recent.
No.
His heart stopped. Ariella had promised to come back, but something had prevented her. And Lilani, Lilani had gone after her.
His daughter was out there somewhere. Alone. Following a trail towards the human village, towards danger, and towards Merrick Bane and his mercenaries.
The transformation was instinctive. He didn’t fight it this time—didn’t struggle against the beast that clawed at his chest, demanding release. The world went red and sharp, his senses expanding to impossible clarity. Muscles rippled and shifted beneath his skin. Fangs lengthened. Claws extended.
He was Vultor in his truest form now—a predator carved from fury and fear, built for one purpose and one purpose only. Kill anything that threatens what’s mine.
The storm found him as he crested the first cliff.
It was massive, the kind of tempest that only Cresca could produce—wind screaming off the ocean, waves rising like mountains, the sky churning with black clouds that seemed to swallow the light itself. Lightning cracked across the horizon, and thunder rolled like the laughter of angry gods.
He didn’t slow down.
He ran along the clifftops with supernatural speed, his enhanced vision cutting through the rain and spray. The wind tore at his fur, the cold bit into his skin, but he felt nothing except the desperate need to find his daughter.
Lilani. Where are you?
His beast reached out with senses that went beyond the physical—the primal connection between parent and child, the unbreakable thread that tied them together regardless of distance. There. Faint, but present. A spark of golden warmth in the storm’s chaos.
The coastline appeared through the sheets of rain, rocks jutting from the churning water, slick with spray and treacherous in the darkness. The waves crashed against them with enough force to shatter bone, and the wind howled like a beast in its own right, trying to tear him from the cliffs.
He ignored it all.
His eyes were fixed on the lab ahead—the cluster of ugly buildings huddled against the cliff face, lit from within by emergency lights that flickered in the storm’s fury.
At the back of the complex, a wildly tossing shuttle was moored at the small dock that jutted out into the harbor.
A luxury class shuttle, based on the sleek lines and expensive materials.
The kind of vessel that wealthy humans used to travel along the coast, equipped with every comfort and convenience money could buy.
It was preparing to launch despite the storm, its engines glowing blue through the rain.
Merrick.
He knew, with the absolute certainty of a predator who’d identified his prey, that Ariella was on that shuttle. He could feel her through the bond—the muted, distant pulse of her fear and pain that meant the humans had done something to suppress her abilities.
But that wasn’t what made him lose control.
What made him lose control was the small face pressed against one of the shuttle’s portholes.
Lilani.
Her golden eyes were wide with terror, her small hands splayed against the glass as she stared out into the storm. She was saying something—he could see her lips moving—but the wind and rain and distance swallowed the sound.
Papa.
He heard it anyway. Felt it in his bones.
Papa, help me!
The shuttle’s engines roared to full power.
“No!”
He launched himself down the cliff face, claws digging into stone and spray as he descended with reckless speed. The shuttle was pulling away from the dock, the blue glow of its engines intensifying as it fought against the storm’s fury.
He reached the dock just as the vessel cleared the harbor entrance.
For one impossible moment, he considered jumping—throwing himself across the churning water, somehow catching the shuttle’s hull, and clawing his way inside. His beast howled for it, demanding action, refusing to accept that his daughter and his mate were being taken from him.
But the distance was too great, and the waves were too high. Even a Vultor in full transformation couldn’t survive that water.
He stood at the edge of the dock, rain streaming down his face, and watched the shuttle disappear into the storm’s fury.
I’m coming, he thought savagely, throwing the feeling through the bond with everything he had. Both of you. Hold on. I’m coming.
The shuttle was heading north along the coast, past his home, and towards the cove where the fishermen lived. If he could get there first… If he could reach their boat…
He was running before he even completed the thought.
The run along the clifftops was brutal. The storm showed no signs of weakening—if anything, it intensified as he ran, the wind screaming louder, the waves crashing higher, the rain driving into his face like needles.
Visibility dropped to almost nothing, and even his beast’s senses struggled against the chaos.
But he didn’t slow down.
Every step carried him closer to Lilani. Closer to Ariella. Closer to the confrontation that would determine whether he lived as a mated male with a family, or died trying to save them.
I’m coming, he repeated, hurling the thought through the bond. Both of you. I’m coming.
The response was faint—barely a whisper through the storm—but it was there. They were still alive. He ran faster.
The northern cliffs rose ahead, shrouded in rain and darkness, and somewhere beyond them waited a ship that could carry him into the heart of the tempest.
He would find them.
He would save them.
Or he would tear the world apart trying.