Bound By Moonlight to My Mates (by Sofange Daye) novel Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Charlotte

I race into the bedroom that used to be mine. Lucian is sprawled out on my bed, face down, snoring. Pressing my hands onto his shoulders, I shake him awake.

He rolls over onto his back, groaning loudly. “What?”

“We have to go back.”

He opens a single eye, squinting through the darkness. “What?”

“We have to go back to the Southpaw Pack.”

Throwing an arm over his head, he groans again. “You are a pain in the ass. Did you know that?”

Ripping his arm away from his face, I snarl. “I left something behind. Something important.”

“Goddess, I hate you.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I step back from the bed. “I will go alone if you don’t come with me.”

Lucian gets to his feet, pulling a shirt over his head. “Pick a mate so I can stop babysitting you.”

I scoff loudly. “You wish.”

The morning sun is peeking over the horizon as we return to Southpaw territory. The wheels against the gravel driveway make my stomach churn with anticipation. I am just a few minutes away from knowing the truth that my father kept hidden from me.

“Thanks for coming back,” I whisper to Lucian.

He rolls his eyes, annoyed. “This is my home. Why wouldn’t I want to come back?”

I bite my tongue and step out of the car. The carved numbers from my mother’s wall still burn behind my eyelids: 3 – 1 – 7 – 4. I’d dreamed of that box for months. I had foolishly left it behind because I couldn’t crack it. Honestly, I wanted to forget that it had existed, but now the memory of it pulses in my brain.

We slip in through the main entrance of the pack house, and the air is tense. Something is not right here. Jake pushes me behind him, trying to protect me from the hidden threat.

Lucian mutters, “You feel that?”

“My wolf does.” My heart thrums in my throat.

Lucian pushes me aside, calling for his sister. She appears from a room, eyes wide and scared. Leah drops into her brother’s arms and whimpers. “The hunters…”

Panic surges through me, and I dart up the stairs to where my room used to be. Their scent is thick as I push the door open. My room, once again, is torn to pieces. My feet drag against the floor to the closet, but I already know it is missing.

I freeze, but only for a second.

I drop to my knees, crawling across the carpet to where I had hidden the box. I pull away the bag, which I stupidly assumed would hide it, and stare at the empty space.

“No…” The word scrapes out of me.

WID

I crawl along the floor, pulling everything out of the closet, thinking maybe I was the one who misplaced it. There is nothing there, only the scent of the hunters tainting the small space. A scream rips from my lips, and I claw at the carpet, frantic and

angry.

The carpet tears away from the floor easily, too easily. The floor beneath still smokes, a sigil burned into the wood. A circle with four lines radiating outward. Crudely drawn, like a sun sketched by a child. It pulses red for a singular second before extinguishing out.

Jake crouches beside me, resting a gentle hand on my shoulder. “That looks ominous.”

I drop the carpet, and my pulse spikes. “The box, my box…”

“Gone,” Lucian

says flatly from the room.

press my hands against the sigil, trying to keep my head from spinning. The only thing my father left me vanished as if it never existed. I will never forgive myself for leaving it behind.

My despair is replaced by anger, and a growl rumbles in my chest. “Someone knew. They knew about the code, and they knew it was here.”

Lucian’s gaze sharpens. “You think your mother…”

“No,” I cut him off. “She is barely hanging on. Her mind is gone. This couldn’t have been here. It feels deeper than her betrayal.”

Jake gets to his feet, sniffing the air. “Do you smell that? It is the scent of the hunters, but it’s wrong. There was something else here.”

Lucian does the same. “Not rogue,” he mutters. “Not demon either. Something else entirely.”

Tala claws at my mind, trying to find the scent they are speaking of. The box meant something to her, too, but I am not sure what. “We have to find it.”

Lucian straightens, rolling his shoulders like a predator. “We will. But not tonight.”

“I can’t wait,” I scoff.

“My father is dead,” he says without a hint of emotion in his voice. “I need to be here for my pack.”

Jake helps me to my feet, pulling me to his chest. I breathe in his scent, letting it wash over me. “Whoever took it knows you’ll come for it. That’s bait, Lotte.”

The realization lands like a punch to the ribs. They wanted me to come back. They wanted me here.

“My father died to protect me. That box… it mattered.”

Lucian tilts his head. “Then we hunt smarter. Not harder. But I need to be here for my pack. Perhaps I should appoint you another knight.”

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