Tᴇᴛʜᴇʀᴇᴅ

❄︎𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 36❄︎

•Isadora•

It's been 10 whole hours since I lost Zephyr. 10 hours of pure agony, Brielle's lost and isn't talking to me, we both are too captivated mourning our mate's disappearance to think rationally.

My heart's feeling like someone's constantly scribbling at it with the edge of a knife and the bleeding won't stop. The worst part is, I can't feel Zephyr, or his emotions. That fuckhead probably did something to severe the connection temporaliy, otherwise this was impossible for bonded mates to not feel each other.

"We'll do whatever it takes to find Zephyr, Isa. I promise you."

Cory had come and tried his best to comfort me earlier, but nothing can pacify me except my mate being safe and sound in my arms.

All the patrol teams, other youngster groups, even our elders are working on the search for my mate, all but me.

I'm standing on the balcony, focusing all of my senses into digging out his emotions and hoping to find a trail or something. Also, I'm waiting for Irvin to give me a signal, to date the meeting.

I swear I'll kill him with my bare hands if he touches even a single hair on Zephyr's head. I don't care what ma thinks, if she can't care about anyone else above her son, then I don't give a fuck about her loser son as well.

She has kept her distance from me since the meeting that day, and I'm very glad for that because I don't think I can handle being around her now.

"Isa," Papa calls, I spin around and search in his eyes frantically, hopeful to have any new information from the teams.

He softly shakes his head, ashamed and upset to have borrowed no new news, I release a quivering breath and let my gaze travel back at the trees that surround our house.

"They're working really hard, baby. I don't know how is it possible to not have found him yet. Your mother even tried to contact Irvin but it wo-"

"Wait." I whip around to face my father to notice all the colors have drained off his face and he looks even more ashamed than before. "How can ma contact him? And how was he able to use the mind-link in the first place? It should've been severed a long ago when he went rogue."

Papa hangs his head down and fidgets with his fingers, I can see his eyes getting watery as they refuse to meet mine, rage starts to fill my veins once again.

My hands ball in fists as I take deep breaths and try my best to think otherwise, it can't be.

"Ma kept contact with him all this time, didn't she?"

A single tear rolls down papa's cheek as he suddenly grabs my hand tightly.

"I-I tried to stop her, baby. I promise." His voice cracks. "But she's a mother, she can't just abandon her son."

I scoff, a delirious laughter escaping me as I yank my hand away from his grip, disbelief and betrayal gnawing at my chest as it thuds in pain.

"Don't tell me she knew about his plan to abduct Zephyr as well."

"No!" Papa interjects quickly. "She didn't, Irvin was using her and she had no idea. Irvin was using her to gain information about the pack and she fell right into his trap, we are both extremely sorry and ashamed for what happened, Isa. I swear. Your mother hasn't stopped blaming herself since it happened, she's so guilty. She knows her mistake now."

I squeeze my eyes shut and grip the bannister of the railing tightly, so tight my knuckles turn white while hot tears spew down my face.

"It's too late now, papa." I whisper in a broken voice.