_Alaric’s POV_
My wolf refused to settle.
That was the thing that told me something beyond the search was wrong. Phillip had been restless since the morning Rowena disappeared, which made sense, which was expected, but this was a specific kind of restlessness that had a different quality to it. Not frustration at a stalled search, or the general agitation of a wolf whose instincts were being kept on a leash.
He was feeling something happening to her in real time. We weren’t even mates, how was that possible?
“Rowena is in great pain,” he said. He didn’t say that once. He kept saying it throughout the morning with persistence, as if reporting a fact that he needed me to act on. “Right now, she’s in pain and we’re standing here.”
“How can you eceh feel it? We have no bond to
