Freeing Starr

T’NIAH’S POV

Crash!

Thump!

“Fuck!”

I stared at the raging wolf before me in pity as he flung the coffee table into the wall and broke it, his chest heaving and eyes feral with emotion so dangerous, I didn’t dare to breathe wrongly.

The air was suffocating as his dominance and anger rolled off him in waves, forcing my head to tilt down in submission.

He was going crazy.

I mean why wouldn’t he?

He not only felt the death of his soulmate but felt the pain of his choice mate forcefully breaking their bond. Any other wolf would’ve turned rabid by now.

How could Starr do this to him?

“Zion, you need to calm down before you tear the building down,” I said soothingly, my voice soft and wary as I took a step toward him.

His glowing eyes snapped towards me as I got closer and I lowered my head and bared my neck as my heart stuttered in fear, “please see reason.”

“See reason!? What fucking reason!? The bitch killed my mate, my pup, and left me!! She fucking left me!!” He roared furiously, turning to throw a punch at the wall.

Dust and debris flew as his fist bored a hole into the wall.

I shuddered.

Helpless on what to do to resolve this issue, I turned to the man that sat on the sofa casually with a she-wolf wrapped in his arms.

He eyed Zion in amusement as if everything was just a big joke to him.

“Can you help me out here?” I asked in frustration.

The man turned his senile, smiling eyes to me and raised an eyebrow, “what can I possibly help with? I wasn’t the idiot that locked my soulmate in the same house I shared with my Alpha female of a choice mate.”

Crash!

Zion snarled, “Watch your mouth!”

Ryan, Starr’s father narrowed his eyes as they began to glow, “Your ego and irrational behavior were what got you into this situation, boy. You wanted both and failed. I may be old but I’m not weak so don’t you growl at me.”

Zion huffed and ran a hand over his head, inhaling deeply as if to calm down to no avail. His nails were beginning to lengthen and he was on the verge of shifting.

“It probably hurts like fuck, right now. I experienced the same thing when my Angel died. It almost drove me insane. Luckily, you didn’t mark the bitch otherwise you’d be worse off than you are now,” Ryan said.

“Don’t call Nadie a bitch.”

Ryan rolled his eyes, “she’s a bitch. You dare try to make my daughter take care of your mangy mate and her pup? I’m on my daughter’s side on this one. Kill them off.”

Zion clenched his jaw and began pacing the room anxiously.

I turned to the old man, “only now you consider her your daughter? Before you start coming after Zion. Why don’t you look at yourself first? You sick fuck. You tortured Starr the most.”

Ryan smirked and hugged the female closer to his chest, “and yet she never chose to leave me.”

Zion turned his intense stare to Ryan, “do you know where she’d go? Do you have any family members outside of the pack?”

Ryan shrugged, “I have a brother, sure but Starr doesn’t know him or which pack he’s in.”

“Then can you feel her? Every parent has a connection to their pup. Can you somehow sense her presence or how far away she is?”

“It’s not possible. She’s too far away for me to sense anything.”

I frowned, “How far could she have possibly gone? This is weak, spineless Starr we’re talking about. There’s no way she can hide from us.”

Ryan chuckled, “you underestimate my daughter. She might be spineless but that girl has a brain on her. If she decided to leave your stupid ass then she’s confident that she won’t get caught.”

I began pacing the room anxiously, biting at my fingernail, “then what are we going to do? If the pack finds out our Luna ran away, they’d start looking down on you Zion.”

He growled, “I know! Fuck! I shouldn’t have left her alone after that look she gave me.”

“She even gave you a look? Let me guess... it was an ‘I’ll do anything you say’ look, wasn’t it? Were you that confident in your hold over her or were you just dumb?”

“If you’re not going to help, why are you fucking here!?”

He shrugged and buried his face into his female’s neck, sprinkling it with kisses, “you sent for me, didn’t you?”

I wrinkled my nose in disgust and turned away from the sight and turned back to stare at Zion’s brooding figure.

“Have you heard back from the trackers yet?” I asked.

He grunted and ran a tired hand down his face, “I spoke to Raheem two hours ago. He tracked her down to this place called the Starfield Motel but after that, her trail ran cold and the credit card she used was found in one of the rooms there. She abandoned it after taking out a few hundred.”

“If that’s the case, that money can only last her a couple of months, right? She’ll resurface eventually. She has to. Did he ask the employees if they know anything?”

“They refuse to give out any information, so I plan to go down there myself and force it out of them.”

I nodded, “We’ll take care of the pack while you’re gone. Right, Ryan?”

The man in question glanced up from the she-wolf with hooded eyes, “yeah sure.”

I sighed in annoyance. Why the fuck was all of this happening?

“Remember, no one in the pack finds out about this. We’re gonna get Starr back as quietly and as quickly as we could,” Zion ordered.

Ryan snorted at that, “clueless.”

Zion turned his heated gaze to him, “what?”

“I know that rogues aren’t as knowledgeable due to isolation from other packs but c’mon man, this is common knowledge. You guys are going about this all wrong.”

Zion frowned, “what do you mean?”

Ryan placed up a finger, “first of all, Starr forcibly erased your mate bond but she couldn’t have done so alone. There’s only one way to get rid of a wolf’s mark.”

Shock filled my system as I muttered without thinking, “replacing it with another’s.”

I flinched as Zion’s anger grew to new heights and took a few steps away from him in case he lost control and shifted.

He muttered through clenched teeth, “what are you trying to say?”

“Don’t act like you didn’t already guess this. There are two options. Starr either found her soulmate and chose to be with him or she found another dominant alpha to help her override your mark and escape. Knowing her, the first option would be most likely.”

“I’ll kill her,” Zion muttered darkly, beginning to pace the room again.

“Instead of wondering where she ran off to, you should be looking for the male wolf who marked her. Which is simple. Since your mark got erased without your consent, it means that her mate is also a dominant Alpha male, and seeing as how you’ve gained control of most of the smaller packs in the area, he must be from one of the larger packs. That’s where you should start.”

I stared in amazement at the wolf before me as my image of him slightly improved, “hey old man. You’re not that bad. I’m impressed.”

He scanned his eyes across my body suggestively, “Do I get a reward for helping?”

I turned my nose up in disgust and flipped him off, “fuck you. If you knew your daughter was this brave, why didn’t you warn us?”

“My daughter fears the strong and fools the weak. If she managed to fool you guys into thinking she was helpless and docile... she’s not the problem.”

“Yo-” I was about to start cussing the old bastard when a loud shout was broadcasted across the entire pack link.

“A dead body! There’s a dead body found at the border! A pregnant female!”

Chaos immediately broke out over the link as everyone tried talking over each other.

A tense silence had fallen in the room as we all exchanged grave looks, frozen to our spots.

“Wait... why does the female smell like Alpha Zion? The pup as well... could it be...?”

Dread weighed on my chest as I watched Zion’s face as it flitted with many complicated emotions. His entire body began trembling and I took another step away from him in fear.

This was it. We couldn’t hide it anymore. Zion’s secret affairs were about to be exposed.

"There’s a note next to the body!”

“Goddess, why is she so mutilated!?”

“What does the note say!?”

“It says, ’Dear Mr. Rogue King, thank you for sending my mate right into my arms. As a token of appreciation, I’ve decided to send your mate and bastard child back to you for a proper burial. I’m nice, aren’t I? Don’t start thanking me yet, I plan to let you join them eventually. Count your days. My favorite number is thirty. Sincerely, Starr and her vengeful soulmate’.”

Ryan threw his head back and laughed, “Interesting. Things are getting interesting.”

The pressure in the room got worse as Zion’s form began to twist and convert into that of his wolf. I hurriedly went to stand behind Ryan to avoid getting attacked.

You could feel his rage and despair from a mile away as he shifted into his wolf and raised his head, howling.

“NOBODY TOUCHES HER!” He snarled over the pack link and hurriedly smashed his way through the window and out of the house.

I stared at his retreating figure in astonishment. Fear began to cloud my heart as I listened in on the pack link. This soulmate of Starr knew who Zion was and still provoked him anyway... meaning that he wasn’t afraid of him... which meant that he was confident in winning against not only Zion but our entire rogue army as well.

Who the fuck was it?

I cursed under my breath, “Why would you fucking keep your soulmate in the same house as your chosen mate!?”

Ryan chuckled.

Our pack was thrown into chaos.