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Chapter 6-Five Years On, His Life Remains a Mess
Aiden’s POV
It’s been five years since Rue walked out of my life, since she disappeared with our daughter and took whatever remained of my soul with her. And still, the emptiness refuses to leave me.
Time was supposed to numb it. Everyone said it would. That the sting of betrayal would dull, that grief would eventually give way to peace. But for me, it didn’t.
If anything, the edges grew sharper, more jagged, carving deeper every time I remembered how she looked at me before she left. The stubborn defiance in her eyes. The bitterness in her voice. The silence she left behind.
Every year since then, I’ve found myself replaying the same damn scenes, the sting of that divorce decree, the eerie way she vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind. No goodbye. No clue. Nothing.
I’ve lived every season haunted by the thought of her out there, maybe just across the city line, maybe sipping coffee with Iris, maybe laughing. Peaceful. Untouched. Unbothered.
While I rot in this slow-burning hell.
And I hate that. I hate the thought that she’s living any kind of peace while I carry the weight of her absence like a chain around my neck.
I want her to feel this hollowness too. I want her to remember me every night she tucks Iris into bed, to feel the sting of what she took from me when she walked away.
But she’s vanished like smoke.
In all these years, I’ve never stopped looking. I’ve pushed Beta Vance to the edge of his limits, sending him through every back alley, rogue channel, and underground informant network. Always the same answer. No sign, no scent and no rumors.
Nothing.
It never made sense to me. How conveniently she disappeared after filing for a divorce, because a woman like Rue doesn’t just vanish.
This morning, I had reached out through the link again, sending the thought sharp and laced with impatience.” Find her. Use everything at your disposal.”
Vance’s response was solemn, as always. “I’ll do everything I can, Alpha. I always do.”
That’s what made him loyal. And loyalty is what I clung to when everything else failed. After that I headed to the hospital.
The scent of antiseptic hit me as I entered the hospital. Clean and sharp, with an undertone of wolf musk and the cold sterility of filtered air. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting pale shadows across the polished floors.
The voices hit me before I turned the corner.
Loud and familiar, it was Haven and my mother, again.
Haven stood in the doorway of the ward room, arms crossed tight, tension radiating from every inch of her. Her voice was sharp with frustration, her face flushed.
“…not my responsibility,” she was saying. “I didn’t enter into this family to play nursemaid for someone who
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doesn’t even like me.”
She gestured toward the small table inside the room, where an old photo of Iris sat in a silver frame. The edges were worn, the image slightly faded. It was the last picture ever taken of her before she disappeared.
She jabbed a manicured finger toward the framed photograph of Iris sitting on the side table near the door. “Do you know how morbid and unnecessary that is? She disappeared, Veronica. You expect me to live in a house that still retains her memory?”
The fury came fast and hot, rising like a storm in my chest.
“Enough,” I growled, stepping forward. My voice wasn’t loud, but it didn’t need to be. Haven flinched as the weight of it silenced the corridor. She turned slowly, surprise flickering in her eyes before she masked it.
“You can’t keep doing this,” she hissed. “Pretending everything is fine, acting like they’re coming back. Rue abandoned you. She abandoned us.”
“Haven, leave,” I said.
She froze, stunned at the dismissal. For a heartbeat, she waited, expecting me to soften.
I didn’t.
I walked past her, into the room where my mother lay propped against thin hospital pillows. Her skin was pale, more translucent than I remembered. Her fingers trembled slightly as she reached to adjust her blanket, eyes fluttering open when she sensed me enter.
She looked smaller. Weaker. The once-formidable woman who used to lecture pack elders into submission now struggled just to keep her eyes open.
The doctor stood at her bedside, flipping through her chart. “Alpha,” he greeted with a nod. “Her condition has deteriorated further. I strongly advise moving her to a more specialized facility. We may be able to slow the progression there, but…”
His words trailed off, eyes flicking toward her.
I looked at my mother. At the faint lines around her mouth, the creases of pain on her brow. She never admitted
she missed Rue.
Never said Iris’s name aloud. But I saw it in her eyes. She’d held onto the guilt like an anchor and it was finally dragging her down.
“Arrange the transfer,” I said quietly. “Do whatever’s needed. Money isn’t the issue.”
The doctor nodded and left, leaving us in silence. I sat beside her, just for a moment, staring at her face as her breathing slowed into the rhythm of sleep. It used to be her voice I sought when the weight of being Alpha grew too heavy. Now, all I had left were tired nods and drug-induced slumbers.
When I stepped into the hallway again, Haven was waiting with her arms folded and face composed.
“We can start preparing for the wedding,” I told her. My voice was flat, without emotion. But her face lit up I’d handed her the moon.
She smiled and her eyes gleamed with something close to triumph, and I hated the sight of it.
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Not because I hated her. But because everything about this arrangement had become a performance I no longer believed in.
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Years On In Life Remains a Mess
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I hadn’t planned on marrying Haven. She knew that. Everyone knew that. But somehow, she’d worked her way into the plan, and now that plan was too tangled to undo.
My wolves needed a Luna. My pack needed stability. And the pressure to deliver had boxed me in.
A flicker of thought interrupted my spiral. A voice, clear and crisp, through the psychic link.
“Alpha, don’t forget, the Blood Claw pack dinner is tonight. You said you wanted to attend.”
Vance. Always on time.
That one line shifted everything.
The Blood Claw Pack, the most secretive, powerful, and untouchable clan on the continent. A dinner invitation from them was unheard of.
They didn’t host outsiders and they didn’t forge alliances lightly. But somehow, I had pulled it off. Or maybe… fate had intervened.
For the first time in weeks, something stirred in me. A thread of possibility and of purpose.
“Yes,” I answered through the link. My voice was sharper now. Focused. “I’ll be there.”
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