Chapter Four
Okay,” Cameron said quietly, breaking the silence that had stretched too long, too tight. “We need to regroup. Josh...just drive. Nearest hotel, hostel, anywhere.”
Joshua didn’t argue. He started the truck and pulled back onto the road, tyres humming as the town slipped away behind them. Not one of them looked back.
Rian sat slumped in the rear seat, elbows on his knees, head bowed, ashy grey hair falling forward to hide his face. The energy rolling off him was wrong, fractured, restless, still edged with the echo of fur and teeth.
Dominik leaned back beside him, jaw set, eyes fixed on nothing.
Joshua’s grip on the steering wheel tightened until his knuckles went white. “Well?” he asked finally, voice sharp with forced calm. “What did you learn, Dom? Did you feel the same thing Rian did? Did your demon lose control too?”
Dominik exhaled slowly. “No. Not like Rian. But the pull was there. Clear as day.” He turned his head slightly, gaze hard. “She’s our mate. Without a shadow of a doubt.”
Joshua’s jaw flexed.
“I think...” Dominik continued, “I think we need to be in her proximity longer for the bond to snap fully into place. Rian felt it first because his wolf was closer to the surface.”
Rian huffed a humourless breath but didn’t lift his head.
Dominik shifted his attention. “Cameron. You said you ran her?”
“Yes.” Cameron straightened, tablet balanced on his knee. “I grabbed a still when she turned to you. Facial recognition flagged her immediately. Anabelle Clair Wyatt. Twenty-five years old.”
Rian’s head lifted slightly.
“The kid,” Cameron went on, “is her brother, Emmett David Wyatt. He’s five.”
Rian frowned. “Brother?”
“Half-brother,” Cameron corrected. “Which tracks. If she’s our mate, she wouldn’t have been able to have children with anyone else.”
Joshua shot him a look. “You’re already assuming that.”
Cameron levelled a look in his direction. “Both Ri and Dom felt it, I’m not assuming anything.” A beat then. “Here’s the part that doesn’t sit right. There’s nothing else. No employment records. No extended family. No vehicle registered. No address on file.”
Dominik went still.
“The kid,” Cameron added, “is enrolled in the local elementary school. That’s the only solid data point. Everything else is blank.”
Rian swore under his breath. “That’s not good. Our records are extensive. If her data’s missing, someone had to have wiped it. Deliberately.”
Joshua snorted, sharp and disbelieving. “Yeah? And why the hell would anyone erase a human from the system?”
His eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror...straight to Dominik. “She is human, right?”
“Yes,” Dominik said without hesitation. “She’s human. No supernatural signature. I would’ve detected it.”
He paused, then added evenly, “Is that going to be a problem for you, Joshua?”
Joshua’s temper snapped.
“I don’t give two shits that she’s human,” he barked. “What I care about is that she’s our mate.” His voice dropped, rougher now. “You all know we were never supposed to have one.”
Silence fell heavy in the cab.
Then Rian lifted his head. A low growl vibrated in his chest, not feral this time, but dangerous all the same.
“But we do,” he said flatly. His eyes cut to Joshua, bright with warning. “And you will treat her with respect, Josh. Or I swear to the Gods, I’ll petition the council to remove you from the Agency.”
Joshua bared his teeth in instinctive challenge, then forced it down.
“I wouldn’t dream of disrespecting our mate,” he said stiffly. “I just…” He dragged a hand through his hair, frustration bleeding out in a long sigh. “I don’t see this ending well. For anyone.”
Dominik leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees.
“Enough,” he said, voice carrying weight that brooked no argument. “We’re digressing.” He looked at each of them in turn. “Find a place. Soon. I need to let my demon loose before it decides to do it for me.” His gaze sharpened. “And then we sit down and decide our next move.”
Joshua nodded once and pressed harder on the accelerator.
The truck ate up miles through fading daylight, the town giving way to highway, then to a strip of aging buildings crouched low against the horizon.
It took longer than it should have to reach their destination. Not because the road was long, but because none of them spoke, and time stretched under the weight of everything left unsaid.
When Joshua finally slowed, the hostel looked like it had given up trying to be anything else.
Peeling paint. A flickering neon sign missing two letters.
Windows clouded with grime and old curtains that hadn’t been replaced in years.
The kind of place no one stayed unless they had to, or unless they needed to disappear for a night.
Joshua parked and killed the engine.
“I’ll get the room,” he muttered, already opening the door.
Dominik stayed seated, staring ahead as Joshua crossed the cracked pavement and pushed through the front entrance. Cameron leaned back in his seat, arms crossed, jaw tight. Rian hadn’t moved since they left town, shoulders hunched, guilt radiating off him like heat.
Then Dominik shifted. “I’ll be right back,” he said, already stepping out of the truck.
No one stopped him.
He found a bathroom barely large enough to turn around in. He closed the door and leaned both hands on the sink, head dropping forward as he breathed through his nose.
His demon surged hard against his control, horns elongating, claws emerging, responding to the ache beneath his sternum, the swirling mark above his heart throbbing, pulsing with a truth he could no longer deny.
Mate.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
She was beautiful. Not in a polished, effortless way, but real. Protective. Sharp-eyed. The way she’d stepped in front of her brother without hesitation, body angled instinctively to shield him. The way fear hadn’t frozen her, it had moved her.
Strong instincts. Survivor instincts. That alone told him she’d lived through more than she should have had to.
His jaw clenched.
Why were her records empty?
No job. No address. No history beyond what was necessary to exist. Someone had erased her. Carefully. Completely.
And why had she been walking for groceries?
No car. No backup. Just her and a five-year-old navigating the world alone.
Had she gone back for more food after running from them?
The thought twisted something ugly in his chest. They had scared her. Scared her badly enough to drop everything and run. And her brother had paid for it too.
Dominik cursed under his breath and straightened, splashing cold water over his face. It didn’t help. The guilt clung just as tightly as the pull of the bond.
For one unbearable moment, the urge hit him full force. Protect her. Serve her. Love her.
The bond tugged, insistent and ancient, demanding action, proximity, devotion. And gods help him...he wanted it. But want didn’t change reality.
There was too much to untangle first. The current mission was still unfinished. A demon on the loose. Her world already compromised by their existence. A system that complicated things for humans like her. And whatever the hell had erased her from the world.
“Fuck,” he whispered, pressing his palms to the sink.
He couldn’t approach her like this. Not when she saw them as monsters. Not when his demon was still clawing at the edges of his control. Not when every instinct in him screamed to claim instead of earn.
A knock sounded at the door.
“Dom,” Cameron called from the other side, voice steady but strained. “We got the key. Room three-oh-five. We’ll see you there.”
Dominik closed his eyes and counted to five.
Then ten.
He pulled his demon back in piece by piece, forcing discipline where instinct demanded surrender. The pressure eased, not gone but contained, coiled tight beneath his ribs.
When he opened the door, his expression was composed again. Controlled. Professional.
“Yeah,” he said, stepping out. “Coming.”
As he walked down the narrow hallway toward their room, the mark above his heart gave one last, steady pulse.
Right. Let’s sort this shit show out.
???
The room was dim, lit only by a single buzzing lamp near the door.
The others had drifted into their own corners.
Cameron by the window, arms folded as he stared out into the parking lot; Joshua sitting heavily on the edge of the bed; Rian pacing like a caged animal, boots scuffing the thin carpet over and over.
Dominik shut the door behind him.
“Rian,” he said calmly. “Don’t wallow. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
Rian stopped pacing, shoulders stiff.
“I get that your wolf was riding you,” Dominik continued, voice firm but not cruel. “But next time? Think. Do anything to pull him back. We can’t afford to scare her like that again.”
Rian nodded once, shame carved deep into his face. “I know.” He dragged a hand down his jaw. “Gods, when we pulled up… he wouldn't stop chanting ‘Mate. Home.’ I tried, Dom. I really fucking did. But he wouldn’t listen.”
Dominik exhaled slowly. “I know. And I don’t fully blame you.” His gaze softened just a fraction. “But if we’re moving forward, if we’re doing this right, we stay calm. Day by day. No rushing. No claiming. No instilling fear in who we’re meant to protect.”
Rian swallowed and nodded again.
Then Dominik frowned. “Actually...why did you roll up at all? We agreed I would be the one to come back to you.”
Joshua grimaced and reached into his bag, pulling out a bottle of scotch. He grabbed four glasses, setting them down with dull clinks.
“The tracking weave updated,” he said shortly. “The target shifted again. About three hours west of here.”
Dominik’s head snapped up. “Fuck. And you’re only saying this now?”
Joshua poured. “What would you have us do? Leave her there while we ran off to do our jobs?”
“But if we don’t do our job..,” Cameron cut in, finally turning from the window. “the Council has every right to ship us back to that hellhole. Who knows how long until we see daylight again. Until we could see her?”
“Fuck,” Rian muttered, rubbing his face.
Dominik dragged a hand through his hair. “Fine. We know where he was. We’ll get him.” He paused, jaw tightening. “But first we sort this mess out.”
Cameron hesitated. “Do we… do we tell them we found our mate?”
Dominik snapped his gaze to him. “And have them blame her for us missing a deadline?”
Joshua scoffed. “They’ll get the tracking receipts anyway. They’ll know there was a delay.”
“No,” Cameron said carefully. “They won’t receive them directly. The High Queen will. She oversees all those requests. At most it’ll be her team, if not her, personally.”
Dominik swore. “Fuck. We need to find him soon then,” he said tightly. “We can’t protect our mate if we’re moved back to Zaninsk.”
“She won’t just send us back,” Rian said. “You know she weighs everything. She’s not spiteful.”
“No,” Dominik shot back. “But she will demand an explanation.” His gaze cut through them. “And are any of you willing to throw our mate under the bus?”
Silence.
Cameron sighed. “Okay. Fine. We find Anabelle. We explain things calmly—”
Joshua snapped, “We can’t explain anything ourselves. There are protocols for this. If she bolts knowing we exist, and let’s be real she already ran, we risk exposing the supernatural community.”
“Fuck,” Cameron muttered. “She’d have to join the Human-Mate Society first. Which means introductions. To the whole Council. At the very least, our own faction leaders.”
Dominik laughed once, harsh and humourless. “And how exactly do you propose we do that? ‘Hey, Anabelle, for reasons we can’t explain, you need to come with us’?” He shook his head. “She’d never agree.”
“We could take her anyway,” Joshua said bluntly. “Have the Council explain it all to her. She’s a flight risk.”
Rian growled, low and dangerous. “We’re not kidnapping her.”
“Then how the fuck do we get her there?” Joshua demanded.
The room fell quiet again.
“Okay, we’ll split up,” Cameron said finally. “Two of us try to talk her into coming with us, and two of us go get the demon.”
Dominik exhaled hard. “Fuck. You might be right.”
“I’ll go with Rian,” Joshua continued. “We’ll take down the demon. So you and Cam can go find her yourselves.”
Rian spun on him. “No fucking way.”
Dominik held up a hand.
“Joshua,” he said calmly. “I need to be there for the demon. And there’s no chance Rian’s staying away from our mate right now. His wolf’s on edge.”
Joshua stared at him. “What... no—”
“I need Cam’s fire,” Dominik said, gentler now. “A shifter won’t be enough for this one. You know that.”
Joshua clenched his jaw. “Fucking fine.”
He turned to Rian. “But you’re scenting her out. I didn’t get so much as a whiff off her. I won’t be able to track.”
Rian’s expression shifted instantly: wolf brightening, energy snapping back into him as he bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. “Fine with me,” he said, already grinning.
Dominik watched them, chest tight. Two paths. One mate. And a ticking clock.
And somehow, they were going to have to make all of it work, without scaring her off again.