A Howling Heart
Chapter sixty-four

Matias's POV.

'GET HER NOW!'

The command rings out through the entire pack the moment I am freed from the walls of the suffocating lodge. Out into the back, where the woods greet me, trees swaying in the wind of the brisk night as if welcoming me, I shift into my wolf form and take off.

Fear presses down on me. Anxiety companions with it until my thoughts race and I begin to submerge beneath the darkness. My stride slows, paws misstepping the more the negative thoughts beat me down.

What if I don't get her back? What if my wife fades in on herself? What if this is the beginning and the end of our legacy, our reign, to us entirely? I can't imagine my fragile Fae coming back from losing her child and her mother. I am unsure if I'm equipped to handle this.

God, please help me. You've given me this family. You've gifted me these children. Please help me protect my family, as you've called me to be a man and an alpha.

God may not answer, but my pack does, and the concern and determination in their voices in my head are uplifting.

'What's happening, Alpha?'

'Who should we seek?

'Whatever you need, Alpha, we will do!'

"MARIAH! SHE HAS MY DAUGHTER! SHE MUST BE FOUND!'

Confirming howls pierce the air, and I know it is their submission. This is what a pack is all about- coming together quickly in action for a member, whether they are the Alpha or another rank. We are one.

I rely on my heightened senses, filtering out what doesn't suit my pursuit of my mother-in-law with my daughter. She couldn't have gotten far herself.

Unless Tonya is helping her. Tonya is a regret that seems to be hovering over me day after day. Just when I think things have dissolved into a semblance of normalcy, she surprises the pack with something else that threatens to tear us apart. The thought makes my blood boil. The intensity of my rage sharpens my movements and senses. I can see clearer even with the darkness surrounding us now that evening is present. The wind whips wildly around me, and still, I push on and on, with the image of my newborn daughter fueling me further.

I will go to the ends of the earth and will tear down anyone who gets in my way to get my daughter back. Even if that person is my mother-in-law.

This whole time, she has been smiling in our faces, with the facade that she has accepted her life as a wolf. The curse has been subdued. I'm not sure why, but she hasn't had an agonizing nine months, even after the death of Esai. Fae believed she was truly happy, and then she went and did this.

Despicable! 'Matias?'

Fae's worried voice enters my head and destroys me inside. Her pain is evident even in our mental connection. I howl loud enough so my anger is heard across all surrounding lands. It is a threat that whoever helps her, if there are any that allow that woman passage with my child or that have conspired with her for this horrible moment, will meet their end at my hands.

'Get her back, Matias. You have to!' Fae's soul cries those words out to me.

'I WILL, WHATEVER IT TAKES!'

The protector in me promises to find our daughter and return her to the woman who has spent the last nine months growing her, bonding with her in a way they could, but there is a small threat dwelling in the back of my mind, taunting me with impending failure. I can do nothing but shove the feeling down repeatedly until it submits to me, and I realize I will not give up.

Her scent is stronger than ever at the edge of the woods. It's far too close to the Amoux territory, but that doesn't stop me. It won't now. Mariah has my daughter! Amoux will commit an act of war if they allow Mariah to cross, knowing she has stolen something that didn't belong to her.

'MARIAH-'

Wolves slam into me from all sides, some bouncing off me because of how small they are compared to my size, but enough of them use the forces of their bodies, and I end up flying against a tree. The power of the crash against it knocks the breath out of me.

I growl at them, letting them know they better get out of my way, but they surround me. They are not familiar. They look grungy, unhinged, like rogues.

This isn't the Amoux pack clans, that's for sure.

They look like a pack of rabid dogs. Did the rogues from Timberland somehow get involved with Mariah?

A commanding growl sounds from the shadows of some trees where moonlight has not touched, and the snapping of thick branches beneath the weight of a wolf follows.

Out emerges Austin, the Alpha of the Amoux. A large sandy-colored wolf that may not be as muscular as me but is taller.

I could fight him. I will inevitably have to, depending on how this goes. I can't say whether I will be victorious. Not if he allows this pack of mutts to come after me, but also before a majority of my pack makes it to this spot. Mariah had multiple scents as if she had planned this, but I followed this one because I caught my daughter's scent, whereas my pack had yet to meet her.

Austin stalks toward me, sizing me up, hoping I'll bow in submission like all the mutts surrounding me have.

They may be rogues, but they definitely answer to him as if he is their king. What is happening?

Why is he padding his pack with these rejects?

Austin shifts when he must conclude I am not a threat, but the joke is on him. I am always a threat.

"Shift back, Matias," he instructs.

I disobey. He is not my Alpha. Instead, I growl, and a few rogues snap at me.

"I know why you're here. It's about your daughter. Shift back. You and I have to have a discussion. I think it's much more wise that we have it before we try and kill each other. Wouldn't you agree?"

I snarl and snap at him, which only makes him chuckle. "You can either shift back into your human form and follow me, or you can try and fight your way out of this. Even if your members show up, it is no match for the number of members I have amassed, and even then, who is to say you will make it out alive, and then the fate of your daughter will truly be out of your hands?"

By the way, he speaks, he knows where she is. He knows more than I do about what is going on, which infuriates me because I have seemingly no control over this situation. The last thing I want to do is listen to Austin, but I will get nowhere if I fight.

Damnit!

'FAE, FORGIVE ME.'

If I shift and this has been all a ploy to get me at my most vulnerable, it will have worked. Austin will have me right where he wants me. He will be able to kill me, absorb my pack and everything I've gone through, all that Fae and I have fought for, everything that would've been our children's futures, will have been for nothing.

I shift into human form, accepting my fate.