Free Web NovelChapter 178: Chapter 178
Nathan’s POV
“She’s has been discharged? And you didn’t pick her up?” My voice sharpened, a growl scraping the edges.
Ethan paled. “I...I went to the address. She wasn’t there...”
“Call Collins. Pull hospital surveillance. Check every exit,” I ordered, my tone leaving no room for hesitation.
Ethan bolted.
Beside me, Sophia hesitated, watching my reaction with unease. “Nathan... maybe...”
I brushed past her without touching her. Her fingers grazed my sleeve; I shook them off like a thorn.
“Get a cab. Leave early,” I said, already sprinting toward the garage.
Her scent soured behind me, but I didn’t look back.
Wind whipped through my hair as I dashed into the garage, adrenaline singing through my veins like wildfire. My hands trembled as I reached for my keys.
“Damn it, Aria,” I thought, heart pounding. “With the online frenzy, you’re vulnerable. If anything’s happened...”
My chest constricted.
My wolf howled inside me.
Find her. Find her NOW.
The Maybach, usually smooth as a heartbeat, growled beneath me as I pushed it faster, the engine responding to the rising panic clawing at my chest. My wolf paced inside me, restless, snarling, urging me to run, find her, track our mate.
My phone rang. It was Collins.
I snatched it up. “Speak.”
My voice came out clipped, sharp... too sharp for a man who was supposedly calm. But the wolf in me was barely leashed.
My eyes were locked on the blur of traffic ahead, but my mind was nowhere near the road. My senses were flaring outward, instinctively searching for Aria’s scent. My wolf kept slamming against my ribs, furious that we couldn’t find her.
Collins’s voice crackled through the receiver. “Alpha Nathan, I confirmed with the hospital. It was Luna Aria who personally instructed them to delay notifying us of her discharge.”
A low, involuntary growl ripped from my throat.
“Ridiculous,” I snapped, the word vibrating with something feral.
I could practically feel Collins flinch on the other end. Yeah, I wasn’t exactly sounding like the emotionless corporate wolf the world thought I was.
He must’ve been thinking it too...Is this still the calm Mr. Hemsworth I know?
Calm? What a joke.
Whenever it involved Aria, calm ceased to exist.
My wolf didn’t do calm when she might be in danger.
And right now, she was out there alone, vulnerable, with a storm of enemies circling her. My instincts screamed that something was wrong, deeply wrong.
I tightened my grip on the wheel, my claws threatening to push through my fingertips. I forced them back, barely.
“Did you pull the surveillance footage?” I demanded. “She must have taken a cab. Track her departure direction, start from the hospital exit and follow every possible route.”
My anger was coiled tight, hot and barely contained. The car felt too small, too suffocating. My wolf wanted to tear through the city, shift, hunt her scent down.
“Check it as fast as you can,” I growled.
That wasn’t a request. It was an Alpha command.
Collins stammered a quick, “Yes, sir,” before cutting the line, and I shoved the phone aside.
My jaw clenched as the car sped forward, my heart hammering, my wolf roaring:
Find Aria...Find our mate....before it’s too late.
Aria’s POV
My mind was consumed by one thing...how to escape. Every rattling bump of the car, every shift of the man’s breathing made my wolf coil tighter beneath my skin.
The man slapped the steering wheel with a snarl. “I’ve been driving for years, and no one who messes with me ends up well.”
His voice crackled with rage. He reached out to me when we got into a lonely, deserted pathway and dragged the mouth tape off my mouth.
My wolf growled softly in my chest, as pain shot through me, urging me to stay alert, to be ready. freewebnøvel.coɱ
His cold eyes stared at me through the rearview mirror, dark and calculating, as if he was already deciding how to... use me.
I forced my voice steady. “This is a law-abiding society. Do you know the consequences of what you’re doing?”
He barked out a laugh. “Consequences? I’m mentally ill. Otherwise, how do you think I’ve been driving freely even after those incidents?”
A shiver slid down my spine, My wolf bared her teeth.
Mentally ill? Yet he drives freely? Takes jobs? No oversight? No proof? No justice?
Everything about him felt wrong, like rot beneath skin.
My fear tightened around my ribs. My limbs felt cold and numb. Even my wolf bristled uneasily.
“Where are you taking me? What do you plan to do?” I asked. My voice wavered, but I held his gaze through the mirror.
“You’ll find out soon. But I must say, you’re prettier than the others.”
His chuckle was lewd and filthy.
My stomach rolled. My wolf snarled, wanting to leap out and tear his throat, but she was trapped by the silver chain.
I looked away angrily, but my eyes flicked to the blurred scenery outside. The greenery. The dips of the road. The way the car jerked.
We weren’t heading deeper into the city.
We were leaving it.
The realization made my blood freeze.
“I need to use the restroom,” I said quickly.
The man frowned, suspicious, but the humiliation on my face seemed to please him.
He hit the brakes abruptly.
The window slid down, revealing the remote landscape...gravel roads, overgrown grass, dense forest. No houses. No signs of life. No scents of other wolves.
Only wilderness.
He grinned. “Go on. Get out.”
“I am bound”, I said.
“Well I can’t help with that, you will have to wait until we reach our destination”, he replied coldly.
“Where are you taking me?.”
