Page 18 of Claiming His Rejected Mate

“Don’t.” I chose to forgive him for the error of not cross-checking his facts before presenting the information to me that day. But he is not blameless. He had a hand in this, and I can't excuse him of that.

He doesn’t flinch, though, more used to my reactions than anyone else. “You’ve done everything you can to find her. The trackers, theinformants, the surveillance teams—we’ve combed every corner of the territory and beyond. You even sent another spy to Nightclaw. If she doesn’t want to be found—”

I swam in guilt for so long about turning my back on my Mate. I had to make sure of what happened and sent a spy, to validate myself, ease this guilt. Yet Damon sounds like I should just get over the fact that she was severely punished because of my actions. After finding out what happened to her in Nightclaw from my spy, my heart was shattered, and the guilt pierced deeper by the day. I was wrong.

I couldn’t protect her from Jag and Magnus. I couldn’t protect her from her own pack. The scent of her wolf was gone when she left the neutral territory and went back to her pack, making it nearly impossible to trace her. But I know that doesn’t mean she’s dead. I can still feel her through the divine bond that wraps around my heart.

“She is out there,” I snap now, finally turning to face him. “I feel it. The bond hasn’t broken.”

Damon exhales slowly, like he’s trying to muster all the patience that he can. “I’m not saying you should give up. But this…obsession? It’s consuming you.”

“She’s my Mate, my Luna.” Anger flares across my chest. “I was supposed to protect her. I need to make this right.”

Damon studies me for a long moment, his gaze searching. “You’ve always put the pack first without remorse. Always. But this? This is personal.”

“Of course it’s personal,” I snarl. “It’s my Mate.”

His expression shifts, a flicker of something unspoken crossing his face. Damon has always been practical, logical. But even he can’t deny the weight of my guilt now. He knows what it feels like to lose a Mate. To lose your Goddess-ordained family.

“She can’t be the same wolf you knew,” Damon says quietly.

“I don’t care. Whatever she’s become, wherever she is, she’s still mine.”

The search for Hazel has taken me to places I never thought I’d go. For months, I scoured the territories surrounding Moonfang, following every whisper of a rogue pack, every report of a lone wolf matchingher description. Every account of an Omega that was sent to the dungeons. Every wolf that was reported dead.

I sent trackers to the neutral zones, informants to Nightclaw, even rogues willing to trade information for safe passage. Each lead brought me closer, but never close enough. She always seemed to slip through my fingers, a shadow I could never quite catch.

The nights were the hardest. That was when the bond burned brightest, my need for her racking through my body like a curse. My wolf howled for her, restless and angry, demanding I find her, demanding that I undo what I had done.

“You’ve changed,” Damon said to me once late at night when we were alone in the control center.

“How could I not?” I’d lived my life waiting for my Mate. And when I finally found her, worthy to be my Luna, a formidable warrior, I had fucked it all up.

He didn’t argue.

But now, two years later, even Damon’s trust in my decisions is beginning to waver. But he doesn’t dwell on it. He moves on to more important matters.

“What are we doing about Eldon, Alpha?”

The latest reports from Broadstone bring a new thread to pull. Eldon, a rogue leader I’ve been tracking for years, has established a base near the neutral city. His movements are calculated, and his attacks on us have been methodical, but it’s the location that catches my attention.

Broadstone.

I’ve avoided the city for years, its reputation for lawlessness and danger making it a last resort. But something about Eldon’s presence there feels…deliberate. He’s never in a place for long. But he’s been in Broadstone for the past year according to these reports. There must be something keeping him there. And so long as I don’t know why, he remains a threat I don’t want to tolerate.

I sit at my desk, staring at the map on the screen, my mind racing. What if…what if she’s in the one place I haven’t looked?

“I’m going,” I break the silence, not letting any other thought get in the way.

Damon looks up from his seat across the room, his brow furrowing. “To Broadstone?”

“Yes.”

“You don't have to personally be there for this mission. You're not exactly spy material.” And he's right. It's near impossible for an Alpha to “blend in” among other shifters. But it doesn't matter.

“I'm also going to look for Hazel.”

He shakes his head, his frustration evident. “You can't stop me, Damon.”

---