POV - James
The Conclave Hall felt like it had been built to make people small.
High stone walls, long shadows, the smell of old power in the air. Every sound echoed — footsteps, whispers, even breathing.
We entered together.
Elena walked beside me, holding Aurora in her arms. Lucian, Selene, and Rowan followed just behind.
She looked like light walking through a storm — calm, proud, unafraid.
The Council sat above us, twelve old wolves dressed in dark robes, each with their own symbol carved into the stone behind them.
And in the center, the High Warden — Eryndor — with a voice that could silence an army.
"Alpha James Ashford," he said, his tone as sharp as a blade. "And your Luna, Elena Dorne. You stand before the Council to answer for the child born under forbidden power — the power of the Veil."
Elena squeezed my hand. Her pulse was steady. Mine wasn't.
They read their accusations slowly, like a sermon:
Our union was unnatural. Our child's power was dangerous.
The law must decide what becomes of her.
I forced my voice to stay calm.
"My daughter," I said, "is not your experiment. She is ours. And she will stay with us."
The room stirred. Eryndor's eyes narrowed.
"You misunderstand, Alpha. The Council must test the child — for the safety of all packs."
That was when I saw Elena's jaw tighten.
She turned toward him and said, with perfect calm, "You don't want to test her. You want to control her."
A few murmurs rose among the Council.
Eryndor smiled — a thin, cold smile.
"If that is what you believe, then let us see her power for ourselves. Bring the child forward."
I knew what they were doing.
They wanted to provoke her — to make her lose control, to prove their point.
"Elena," I whispered, "don't."
But she already knew what to do.
She stepped forward, the baby still in her arms.
Her power — the Veil — woke like a heartbeat. The air shimmered, the candles bent, and the room began to hum.
The light coming from her wasn't bright — it was soft, like the glow before dawn.
It wrapped around her, then around Aurora.
Every Council member froze. The smell of fear filled the air.
And then — in one breath — they were gone.
Just like that.
Elena and Aurora vanished.
Only the shawl she had wrapped the baby in was left, slowly falling to the floor.
For a second, no one moved.
Then the hall exploded into chaos.
Eryndor shouted for guards. Council members called for containment spells, for arrests, for punishment.
I stood there, unable to breathe.
"Elena!" I shouted. My voice cracked, raw and desperate.
Lucian's hand grabbed my arm. "She's gone through the Veil," he said. "She's protecting your child."
I could barely think.
"She shouldn't have had to," I muttered. "They were going to take her—"
"They would have," Lucian said quietly. "And now they'll come for us instead."
The Council declared me an enemy before the day ended.
They accused me of helping my mate escape with the child, of defying centuries of law.
And just like that — I went from respected Alpha to hunted outlaw.
But I didn't care.
They could call me a criminal, a traitor, a monster.
They would never touch my family.
Back at the estate, the pack waited.
Selene tried to calm me, but her eyes showed the same fear. Rowan stood by the window, quiet and alert.
Lucian placed the folded letter — the official Council decree — on the table.
"They'll send others," he said. "Trackers. Spies. They'll want to find her before we do."
"Then we find her first," I said. My voice didn't sound like mine anymore.
Cold. Sharp. Empty.
I looked around the room — my family, my pack.
"They want to see what an Alpha looks like without mercy?" I said quietly. "Then they'll see."
Selene stepped closer. "James… you can't fight the whole Council."
"I don't need to," I said. "I just need to make them afraid to touch us again."
She studied me for a moment, then nodded. "Then let me help. You're not doing this alone."
Lucian added, "We'll find her. The Veil has patterns — places it connects to. She'll be safe until we reach her."
I nodded, but my heart was breaking in my chest.
All I could see was Elena's face when she looked at me before disappearing. That calm, steady look — as if saying trust me.
But trust didn't stop the ache.
The next morning, I went to work.
To the outside world, I was still CEO of Ashford Industries.
Meetings, reports, calls — everything had to go on like nothing had happened.
I wore a dark suit, spoke in clipped tones, and signed every document with precision.
But underneath the surface, I was steel. Cold, unbreakable, ready to wage war.
The board noticed the change immediately.
I could see it in their faces — they were afraid to breathe wrong around me.
Good. Fear kept them obedient.
By afternoon, Lucian came to my office.
"We've found traces," he said. "The Veil opened near the northern moors. She's alive."
Alive.
That one word almost dropped me to my knees.
I turned to the window, staring at the rain.
"Then we move. Quietly. Carefully. The Council won't expect us to strike fast."
Lucian nodded. "And if they do?"
"Then," I said, "they'll learn what happens when you threaten my family."
That night, when the house was finally quiet, I walked to Aurora's empty room.
The small cradle stood by the window. The mobile above it still turned slightly, even though the air was still.
I placed my hand on the blanket inside.
"Elena," I whispered, "wherever you are… hold her tight. Don't look back. I'll find you. I swear it."
And as I stood there in the silence, I realized what I had become.
No longer just Alpha.
No longer just man.
A father.
A protector.
And the kind of monster the Council should have never made.
…
Six months.
Half a year without her.
Without them.
The days had bled together — an endless cycle of work, duty, and rage barely kept under control.
Every morning I woke up in the same bed, in the same house, that still smelled faintly of her jasmine perfume.
And every morning, I wished it would fade.
Because remembering was worse than forgetting.
The world still thought I was fine — James Ashford, the calm, composed CEO, the efficient Alpha.
But I wasn't fine. I was hollow.
The kind of hollow that even victory couldn't fill.
Lucian tried to keep me steady. Selene visited often.
Rowan led our fighters whenever the Council's hounds came too close to our borders.
And I fought beside them — because fighting was the only time my mind stopped replaying her last words.
Run.
That single word haunted me.
It wasn't fear that had driven her — it was love.
And that made it so much harder to bear.
…
Two months ago, the first Council member was found dead.
High Warden Eryndor's right hand — a cruel bastard named Cael — collapsed in his own chamber during a closed meeting.
No wounds. No poison. No spell residue.
He just… stopped breathing.
A month later, another.
Lady Varrin — the one who had demanded Aurora be taken from us.
Dead in her sleep, heart turned to stone.
No tracks. No scent. No trace of magic.
The Council tried to blame us, of course.
They summoned me to questionings, sent spies to the estate, even tried to pressure my company through legal channels.
But they found nothing.
The night Cael died, I was in a board meeting with twelve witnesses.
When Varrin's heart turned to stone, I was giving a speech in London — recorded, televised, timestamped.
I was angry, yes.
But not stupid.
Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching.
Something older. Colder.
And that whatever was killing them wasn't random.
Tonight, the manor was silent except for the fire.
Lucian sat across from me, elbows on his knees, eyes serious.
"You can't keep doing this, James," he said quietly. "You're burning yourself out."
"I'm fine."
"You're not."
I poured another drink. "Then tell me what else I should do, Lucian. Wait? Sit in silence while the Council hunts her?"
He sighed. "You've done everything you can. You've protected the pack, the company, the borders—"
"And failed to protect my mate and child."
The words came out too sharp. Too bitter.
Lucian didn't flinch. "They're not dead."
I looked into the flames. "You don't know that."
He didn't answer, and that silence was worse than any lie.
Later, when the house was asleep, I walked out onto the balcony.
The night smelled of wet stone and pine. The moon hung low, heavy and red — the kind of moon that made wolves restless.
I rested my hands on the railing, looking out at the forest.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath.
And then I felt it — a faint pulse under my skin.
Not pain. Not heat.
Something… familiar.
For the first time in six months, the bond stirred.
It wasn't strong — just a whisper, like a breath against my mind.
A flicker of warmth.
Elena.
My heart stopped.
"Lucian!" I called, voice breaking through the stillness.
He was there within seconds, half-dressed, armed as always.
"What is it?"
"I felt her."
He froze. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "It was faint, but it was her. She's alive."
Lucian exhaled slowly. "Then maybe that's why the Council members are dying."
I turned to him sharply. "What are you saying?"
He stepped closer, voice low. "Think about it. Cael. Varrin. Both had direct hands in what happened at the Conclave. Both wanted Aurora taken. And both died in ways that defy every natural rule we know."
"You think she's killing them?"
Lucian hesitated. "Or something is — something tied to her power. Maybe the Veil is protecting its own."
I wanted to deny it.
But the truth was, I didn't know what Elena had become.
I'd always known there was more to her — the way the air bent around her when she was angry, the strange hum of her bloodline.
And when she vanished with Aurora, she'd taken that power with her.
If the Veil was now hunting the ones who had tried to harm them…
Part of me was terrified.
The other part wanted to let it burn the world clean.
Later that night, I sat in my office, staring at the reports from Lucian's scouts.
The Council had increased patrols near their borders. Fear was spreading through their ranks.
But there was something else — something hidden between the lines.
In one of the reports, there was mention of a light — pale silver, seen near the northern forests.
It didn't last long, but it made the air hum and the ground tremble.
My pulse raced.
The northern forests.
That was where Elena's mother had been born.
Where the Veil was strongest.
I stood so fast my chair hit the floor.
Lucian appeared at the door again, reading my face. "You felt it again, didn't you?"
"Yes," I said. "And this time, I'm going after it."
He didn't try to stop me.
He just nodded, grabbed his coat, and said, "Then I'm coming with you."
As we stepped out into the cold night, the pack stirred awake, readying for orders.
And for the first time in months, my heart wasn't hollow.
It was alive.
Because even if the world was burning,
even if the Council hunted us,
even if the Veil itself was turning against its makers —
She was out there.
And I was going to find her.
Even if I had to tear the world apart to do it.