Chapter 4

I shook my head and tried to scream. "Damon! These men were switched!"

His laugh came back, cold.

"You think I'd buy that?"

Then the screen piped in soft moans.

"Damon — slow down. You're hurting me."

"How can I go slow? Looking at you — I can't."

Every word was a blade sinking into the softest part of me.

I swallowed the humiliation and screamed for help again and again.

Their moans were loud enough to shake the roof.

Just when the men were about to finish what they started, I yanked out the knife I'd hidden, sliced the rope, and ran for the next room where they were keeping my pup.

I threw the door open. Serena's hired nurse was just lifting her hands from my pup's throat. He wasn't breathing.

"My baby—" The scream ripped out of me.

Terror and hatred poured into me like a flood.

I pounded on his back, tried to breathe into him. He didn't move. My heart tore apart.

My face went numb. The men outside kicked the door down.

I was already at the roof window. Every moment Damon had once loved me flashed past.

When the men rushed in, I spread my arms, ready for what came next.

"Ivy! Stop!"

Damon's eyes shook. Half-dressed, he bolted for the window.

Too late. The moment Damon's hand was about to catch Ivy's sleeve, a gust of wind cut past.

All he held was a shred of cloth.

The Pack Tower was twenty-eight floors high. Anyone who fell from here would be pulp on the ground, Alpha or not.

Damon's pupils shrank. He stared at the torn fabric in his hand, panic clamping his throat so hard no sound came out.

Some time passed. The thugs slipped away in fear.

Damon's head snapped around. His eyes blew wide.

"Go! Go help her! Didn't you see someone fell? It's my mate! My mate fell!"

He was on his knees, screaming. Regret and rage threatened to swallow him whole.

Serena bit her lip, pretending, and waved.

"Get down there and find her! If anything's happened to my sister, none of you are getting out alive!"

The thugs let out a breath and turned to leave.

That was when Damon noticed something. He pushed up against the wall.

A vicious, brittle voice came through his teeth.

"You… who are you?"

"My men all have the Thorne Pack crest tattooed on their chests. You don't. Why?"

Their faces went pale. One dropped to his knees, legs shaking.

"Alpha Thorne — your men ran into trouble. They hired us to scare the Luna, that's all!"

Damon's mind was a mess. He wanted to press them, but the panic and grief in his chest wouldn't let him stay.

He staggered downstairs. Ambulance and Pack Enforcement vehicles were already at the scene.

Medics were wheeling a stretcher. The body was under a white sheet.

Damon's face went white as paper.

He forced his way forward.

The Enforcement officers and the coroner turned respectful when they saw him.

"Alpha Thorne. The deceased jumped from the 28th floor. Word is your mate and her friend Serena were fighting over the bond, and there are witnesses who say she was being held and threatened. Our preliminary finding is that your mate couldn't bear the betrayal and the mistress's taunts. She took her own life."

"Jumped? Have you confirmed it?" Damon forced his voice steady, holding his Alpha composure.

"Did you run scent match and DNA? She can't really be dead!"

The coroner handed him the fresh scent-match and DNA report.

"Alpha Thorne. Genetic match is one hundred percent. This is your Luna."

"Alpha. Our condolences. We need your cooperation for the investigation into the cause of death."

Whatever the officer said after, Damon didn't hear.

His head was static. His throat ached like it had been cut. He couldn't speak.

Ivy was dead?

How?

Ivy was too proud to die.

She… she still had the pup. That was right. They still had a pup.

The thought of the pup gave Damon something to hold on to.

He clung to it. Fueled by desperate hope, he turned to run back to the 28th floor to find the pup.

Serena came out of nowhere and grabbed Damon's leg, sobbing.

"Damon, I'm sorry. I couldn't take care of the pup. The pup's dead. What do we do, Damon!"

That sentence dragged Damon's heart out of heaven and into hell.

The smile that had just started forming froze.

"What did you say?"

Serena wiped her tears, sobbing harder.

"Your pup with Ivy — he's dead. I don't know what happened. I'm sorry, Damon. The nurse took money and ran. I didn't know she was a baby abuser. She strangled him."

"Don't grieve too much. I've been treating my body. The Pack Healer says I can still carry pups."

"Ivy hurt me a lot. Ivy was spreading lies, nearly telling everyone I'm a shameless home-wrecker — but she was still my sister. Damon, don't hate her. Don't chase her down even in death, alright?"

"Once I scatter her ashes in the Coastal Pack Waters and send her to meet her mother, we'll—"

She didn't finish. Damon's hand clamped around her throat.