Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 93

Chapter 93

Chapter 93

*Xander*

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The caves spat us out into colder air, the kind that carried damp and rot and something sharper I couldn’t place.

Azrien pressed hard against my ribs, restless and antsy which was making me exhausted.

His claws raked at my skin from the inside. He wanted speed. He wanted teeth and ground and blood. And for once I didn’t have the strength to leash him.

The phantom thread that I could now identify as some connection to my mate-than the moon goddess- yanked me forward. It was sharper now and insistent. Every pull scraped along my chest like wire.

She was here.

Rory was here. I would bet every scar I carried that she had just passed this way.

“Slow down,” Matt called, though he was the only one who could match my pace. His hand came up, pointing toward the ground. “Look.”

I forced myself to stop, my breaths coming out harsh and ragged. The dirt showed smears where boots had slipped. There were broken branches bent low where bodies had pushed through. What made it even worse, was that the air reeked of blood.

Fresh blood.

Matt swore under his breath. “This was a fight.”

No kidding.

“It’s fresh,” Dhara murmured. She crouched, pressing her palm against the soil. “Less than an hour.”

Mona crouched near her, fingers brushing at a darker patch. She sniffed then frowned. “It’s wet. But it hasn’t rained in weeks.”

My throat tightened as Azrien growled low.

“It’s not natural,” Dhara said as she stood. Her eyes flicked to mine, unreadable but knowing.

I didn’t need her to explain. This was done by a Tidal wolf. That meant Rory wasn’t the only gifted wolf with Durnham. But I knew for sure that he wasn’t going around collecting them. He paid little to no attention to the ones exposed at Azure Crest days ago.

So what was his connection and what did it have to do with Rory?

“No doubt they encountered scouts like we had. If it were assassins, we’d see bodies, not aftermath,” Matt said, and the thought of Venatorum assassins being near Rory made my insides boil. There were still no bodies, which meant the scouts escaped or they took the bodies with them.

13:22 Wed, Sep 17

Chapter 93

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I surged forward again, dragging the others into a run. My legs burned, but it didn’t matter. The phantom thread wasn’t just a hum now-it was a pulse, beating in rhythm with my heart. Every throb screamed she was

close.

We broke through the trees into a clearing, and the world stank of iron and ash.

But the place was empty.

“She’s gone,” I rasped. “She was moved again.”

Rage tore through me before grief could. I slammed my fist into the tree trunk, causinng the bark to split. Blood ran from my knuckles, but I ignored it. Azrien surged, begging for release, begging to rip apart anything in reach. My skin rippled with the shift, bones threatening to snap.

“Xander!” Matt shouted, his voice cutting sharp through my senses. His hand closed on my shoulder, dragging me back. “Not here. Not now.”

“I could’ve had her,” I snapped, shaking him off. “If those scouts hadn’t slowed up, we would’ve been here in time.”

“Yes you’re right. But it happened, it sucked and it slowed us down. If you shift now and go on a rage, leaving us behind, you’d only slow us down and yourself too. You wont see clearly through rage. Let Azrien know that too,” Matt shot back.

Azrien growled so loud that it echoed through my chest.

But Matt was right, though Az wouldn’t see it that way.

‘Easy boy. He has a point. We can’t go on a killing spree until we find Rory,’ I told him, causing him to scoff loudly.

‘I am not a dog, was all he said, but him not opposing meant he got the point, which was really all that was important. You’d be bleeding out instead of standing,”

Matt rested a hand on my shoulder, his jaw was tight and his eyes locked on mine. “Do you want to be dead when she needs you alive?”

The words cut deeper than I wanted to admit. My breath came out ragged and uneven.

Mona stepped closer, her voice low. “Look around. She fought. She didn’t let them drag her without a fight. That chain-” She pointed toward the stake driven into the ground. The chain bolted there was broken, one link snapped clean. “She probably did that. Not them.”

I crossed the clearing in three strides and crouched, fingers closing around the chain. It was still faintly warm. Blood marked it too. My chest ached as the familiar scent of her slapped me in the face, My throat burned as I gripped it tight, knuckles white.

“She’s alive,” I said, my voice breaking rough. “She’s alive and they’re moving her. We don’t stop. Not again. Next time, anyone between me and her dies without asking questions.”

No one argued, but no one looked comforted either. Dhara shifted uncomfortably, glancing toward the trees

13:22 Wed, Sep 17 N

Chapter 93

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as if she expected assassins to follow the trail. Mona cleaned her knife against her thigh, lips pressed into a line she wouldn’t let wobble, which was so unlike her. And Matt rubbed the back of his neck, watching me like he expected me to break again if he so much as breathed wrong.

I shoved the broken chain into my pack like it was sacred. My knuckles still bled, bark splinters jutting from the skin, but I didn’t care. Pain meant I was still moving.

“We move fast,” I said. “We don’t sleep until I have her back.”

Matt started to object, but I cut him off with a look that must have been half Azrien because he shut his mouth.

We left the clearing, stepping over mud and blood and smoke. The phantom thread still pulled, lighter now, but still dragging me deeper into the dark.

Azrien pressed close, snarling agreement, and for the first time since the Solstice, his hunger matched mine.