Chapter 0163

Nathaniel updates me on warrior training, border patrols, and rogue sightings as we head toward my quarters.

The restless itch beneath my skin won’t fade. If anything, it’s grown worse. I thought capturing Victor would help. When it didn’t, I hoped beating him senseless would. No confession yet, but the violence hasn’t soothed this gnawing unease.

I step into the shower while Nathaniel continues his report. When I emerge, his expression makes my spine stiffen.

“What?” I snap.

“You know damn well what.” His voice is steady, unflinching. “You’re spiraling, Sebastian. The signs are there—the aggression, the recklessness. You’re slipping toward feral. You need a Luna. A mate. You can’t keep carrying this alone.”

“I had a Luna.” My growl rattles the mirror. “She chose someone else.”

“Wrong.” He doesn’t back down. He’s the only one in Nightshade Pack who dares challenge me—which is why he’s my Beta. “She chose her fated mate. If he hadn’t been, her decision might’ve been different. It’s been six months. You need to start considering who could stand beside you.”

I slam my fist into the counter. “You think I haven’t tried? That I haven’t searched for someone strong enough to handle this pack? To handle me? I was leading Nightshade long before I took the Alpha title. No she-wolf here can shoulder that.”

“What about Alpha Alistair’s daughter? She’s Alpha-blooded. Raised to be a Luna.”

I scoff. “That timid little thing? I need a partner, Nathaniel. Someone who can match me in battle, in bed. Not some decorum-obsessed puppet who frets over table settings.” I shove past him, yanking open my closet.

“I’m going into the city tonight. To find a warm body that isn’t from this pack. Tomorrow—”

A patrol’s mind-link cuts me off. Alpha. Beta. Breach at the eastern border.

“Rogues?” Nathaniel asks.

Just one. But you need to see this.

“Donovan, you can’t handle a single rogue?”

It’s not that. Just—come.

Nathaniel moves first. “I’ll go.”

“No.” I’m already striding past him. “I’m coming.”

We jog toward the border. Halfway there, a scent hits me—raspberries and fresh cream. Dorian, dormant since Evelyn’s rejection, surges forward with a possessive snarl.

Dorian?

He doesn’t answer, but his focus locks onto the intruder.

When we reach the patrol, one of my warriors cradles a limp figure. The moment I see her, a roar tears from my throat. Dorian forces me into an aggressive stance, hackles raised. Nathaniel blocks me. “Alpha?”

Mate. Dorian’s voice is a thunderclap in my skull. He shoves past Nathaniel and rips her from Donovan’s grasp.

She’s slight. Fragile. Skin like frosted glass, white hair tangled with dirt. Her face is hollowed by starvation. Beneath the tattered jacket she wears, puncture wounds litter her body.

Dorian, is she human?

I drag her against my chest, inhaling deeply. No. But her wolf… it’s silent. Gone.

It wouldn’t matter if she were human. The Moon Goddess made her for me. She’s mine.

Her scent alone dissolves the tension that’s plagued me for months. My body settles, the war inside me stilling. A calm I’ve never known washes through my veins.

“Mate,” I rasp.