Chapter 229

Chapter 229:

Ryder’s POV

My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth might shatter. Every muscle in my body vibrated with the need to move, to hunt, to find Jasmine before it was too late. My mate was out there, taken by some bastard who clearly had no regard for his own life. They’d pay for that. They’d pay in blood.

Ace, my wolf, was a storm inside me. His fury was a living, breathing thing, clawing at the edges of my mind, demanding release.

We need to go now! he roared. They took her. Our mate. We should be hunting, not standing here!

The walls of the house felt like they were closing in on me, suffocating me. I couldn’t stay still. My patience was gone, drained like poison from a wound. I needed to act—to tear through every forest, every building, every obstacle until Jasmine was in my arms again.

Kade stepped in front of me, his eyes serious, his stance firm. “Ryder, wait p>

Wrong move. My eyes narrowed into slits, and a snarl rumbled low in my chest. “Move, Kade. Now p>

He didn’t budge. My hands curled into fists, the veins in my arms bulging with restrained violence. I was seconds away from ripping him apart when he said, “It’s about Jasmine p>

My fury paused for half a second, but the storm inside me kept building. “You’ve got ten seconds,” I growled, my voice a deadly rasp. “Make it worth it p>

Kade took a deep breath, his jaw tight. “It’s about the research I’ve been doing on Enzo’s missing sister p>

My patience snapped like a brittle twig. My hands shot out, grabbing Kade by the collar and yanking him so close our noses almost touched. My voice was pure venom. “You want to talk about Enzo’s sister now? Jasmine is missing, and you’re wasting my time with this p>

Kade didn’t flinch. His eyes, steady and unwavering, held mine. “I’m telling you this because Jasmine is missing. I think Jasmine is Enzo’s sister p>

The words slammed into me, a punch to the gut that left me reeling. My grip on his shirt loosened. My mind struggled to process what he’d just said. “What did you just say p>

𝔐𝔬𝔯𝔢 𝔲𝔭𝔡𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔰 𝔦𝔫

Jasmine’s POV

“Jasmine is Enzo’s sister?” The words barely registered. What the hell was Kade talking about? Don’t tell me he’d been drinking while I was out here, furious.

Kade’s voice was grim, deliberate. “I think Luna Anna kidnapped Jasmine when she was a baby p>

My heart froze. My blood turned to ice. The air around me seemed to thicken, suffocating me with its weight. Luna Anna. The woman who had raised Jasmine. Jason’s mother. The cold, calculating Luna of the Silverclaw Pack. I’d always hated her, always distrusted her, and now my instincts were screaming that I’d been right all along.

“Kill. Destroy.” Ace’s voice growled low, echoing in my head. The fury inside us both was reaching a breaking point.

I tried to reason with him, to keep my mind clear. “We need to know more before we rip her apart p>

Ace wasn’t having it. “She took our mate! There’s nothing more to know!” His growl was enough to push me to the edge. He was demanding, and whenever Ace was like this, blood would roll.

“Why?” I rasped, my voice deadly and low. “Why the hell would Luna Anna kidnap Jasmine?” I was trying to stay rational, even with Ace crawling inside me.

Kade stepped back, his hands trembling slightly as he smoothed down his shirt. “I don’t know the full reason yet. But when I went to the orphanage to dig up information, I found out a baby girl disappeared the same night the head caretaker was murdered. I bribed a woman who worked there to talk. But she didn’t want money. She wanted revenge. She told me she saw it all—saw who took the baby and killed the caretaker. It was Luna Anna. She swore it was her p>

The words rattled in my head, each one like a dagger, stabbing deeper into my sanity. My gut twisted into knots, bile rising in my throat. Luna Anna—the woman who had claimed to be Jasmine’s foster mother, who had pretended to care for her—had stolen her. Raised her in lies and deception.