Chapter 13

It was his assistant.

"I told you not to call me during this time. I'm focused on getting Aria back — I don't have time for Pack business."

"Alpha, I'm not calling about the Pack. The authorities contacted us. Vivienne was being transferred when there was an accident on the road. By the time help arrived, she was gone."

"What?"

Ethan's expression darkened.

"She hasn't been found?"

"No. But a witness says she was seen boarding a ship headed for the Coastal Territory."

He ended the call and immediately went to the local authorities.

To avoid tipping her off, the authorities agreed to assign undercover officers to watch Aria closely.

In the days that followed, Ethan didn't go near Aria.

He still stood guard near her building, but only watched from a distance.

A week passed. No trace of Vivienne in the Northern Territory. No sign of her here either.

The local officers decided there was no longer a credible threat and pulled everyone out.

And then it happened.

One afternoon, Aria went out to walk Goldie. Caius had something to handle and couldn't come with her. That was when Vivienne finally showed herself.

The evening sky was beautiful. Aria walked along the coastal cliffs at the edge of Mercer Pack Territory with Goldie on the lead, a small smile on her face.

She didn't notice that two pairs of eyes were fixed on her from somewhere nearby.

One pair belonged to Vivienne. The other to Ethan.

Ethan had been here, watching from a distance, when he spotted her. He'd started moving the moment he did. He was too far away.

Vivienne watched that figure with open hatred.

When the foot traffic thinned, she moved — fast, silent — and pressed a cloth over Aria's mouth and nose.

Before Aria could see who it was, she lost consciousness and crumpled into Vivienne's arms.

Goldie launched into furious barking. Vivienne drew a knife, ready to silence the dog, when another figure came sprinting out of nowhere.

"Vivienne. It really is you. You actually came here?"

"Ethan. You're here too."

She saw him and didn't flinch. She just smiled. "Even better. Both of you, then."

She clapped her hands twice. Two men appeared from the shadows and brought a metal bar down on Ethan's head.

When he came to, he was tied to a tree at the edge of the cliffs.

He saw Aria. Her hands were bound with rope and she was suspended high up from a crane arm above the water.

Below her, the sea heaved and crashed. If the rope slipped at all, she'd fall straight in.

She was still unconscious, eyes closed, her face contorted with pain.

The sight of it made Ethan's chest seize.

She was still alive. She was still breathing. He could see her chest moving even from here.

"Vivienne! What are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Let her down! Whatever you want, do it to me!"

"Do it to you?"

Vivienne's smile went cold. "Don't worry. You're not getting away either."

"Why are you doing this? You already knew you were wrong. Vivienne — I'm warning you. If you hurt Aria, I will destroy you and everything you care about."

"My son?"

The word set her off completely. Her voice cracked with fury.

She picked up the knife and walked toward Ethan. Before he could react, she drove it into his thigh.

Ethan let out a raw cry.

The pain cut straight through him. He clenched his jaw, staring at the woman in front of him.

In the months they'd been apart, Vivienne had gotten worse.

"My son was sent to a shelter by you and died not long after! Ethan — you and Aria killed my son. Did you think I'd let that go? Even the universe helped me — that crash freed me so I could come here and make you pay."

Nearby, Aria had started to wake.

She looked around and saw herself suspended in the air, the sea crashing below her feet. Terror hit her all at once.

"Even if your son died, it was an accident! Vivienne — you killed my pup with Aria. That's justice."

"Shut your mouth!"

Vivienne's rage exploded. She yanked the knife out of his thigh.

Blood sprayed across her face, making her look unhinged.

She looked at Ethan's face, twisted in pain, and felt nothing. She turned and walked toward Aria.

"No! Vivienne — whatever you want, take it out on me. Don't touch Aria. Please."

Ethan's voice dropped to something raw and low, nothing like him.

But the more desperate he sounded, the deeper Vivienne's hatred for Aria became.

She smiled, cold and slow, and told the men: "Lower the rope. I want her to know what it feels like to suffer."