CHAPTER 64 — Raevan Learns the Truth

POV: Raevan

Something was wrong.

The moment I woke, the air felt different—too still, too quiet, too cold for Ashra. A tension coiled inside my chest, sharp and immediate, like claws digging between my ribs.

My wolf stirred uneasily.

Find her. I jolted upright.

Soraya.

Last night’s chaos had left little time for sleep. After sending riders to scout the dunes and preparing for a war that felt inevitable, exhaustion finally forced me to rest for an hour. One hour.

And in that single hour—

She vanished.

I swung out of bed, ignoring the pain in my half-healed wounds. I threw on my cloak, storming into the hallway. Guards snapped to attention as I passed, but I barely saw them. My mind was focused entirely on one thing.

Her scent.

Her heartbeat—absence of it.

Her presence—gone.

I reached her chamber door and shoved it open with a force that rattled the hinges.

Empty.

Her scent clung to the air, faint but present—like moonlight lingering after a storm. But underneath it, something else lingered.

Sand. Wind. Fear.

“No…” I whispered. “No, no, no.”

Footsteps echoed behind me.

Kaide appeared, face tired, hair tied back sloppily as if he ran here half-dressed. “Raevan—”

“She’s gone.”

He closed his eyes briefly, jaw tightening. “I know.”

My blood roared. “What did you just say?”

Kaide didn’t flinch. “I checked the stables before coming here. A hidden gate was unlatched, tracks heading north. Only one rider.”

Rage blurred the edges of my vision. “She went alone?”

“Looks like it.”

I slammed my fist into the stone wall. Dust rained from the ceiling, and the guards nearby flinched.

“WHY WOULD SHE LEAVE!” I roared.

Kaide stepped forward, placing a firm hand on my chest to halt my advance. “Because she thinks she’s saving us.”

“Saving—?” My voice broke, disbelief cracking through the fury. “By running into Zarek’s hands alone?!”

Kaide’s eyes softened, but only barely. “She overheard the elders yesterday. She knows what the scouts mean to you, to the pack. She knows you planned a retrieval mission.”

“And she THOUGHT SHE COULD TRADE HERSELF!” I bellowed.

Kaide didn’t deny it.

My wolf surged forward, slamming against my control so violently that the air around me pulsed with heat. I dragged in a breath that tasted like blood and metal.

“She was supposed to be safe here,” I choked out. “Protected. Guarded.”

Kaide’s voice softened. “She never felt safe here, Raevan. Not with the stares. Not with the whispers. Not with Azhara poisoning every room she walks into.”

I froze.

Guilt shot through my chest like an arrow.

This was my fault.

My divided loyalties. My cowardice. My failure to choose Soraya openly. My inability to protect her from Azhara’s venom and the pack’s judgment.

Kaide placed a hand on my shoulder. “Raevan… she didn’t run because she hates you.”

I swallowed past the tightness in my throat. “Then why?”

“She ran because she thinks she’s the reason Ashra is suffering.” His voice cracked with frustration. “She thinks we bleed for her.”

“We do bleed for her,” I whispered.

Kaide’s gaze dropped. “I know.”

A beat of silence.

Then, a scout sprinted down the corridor. “Alpha! Message from the northern border!”

I grabbed him by the armor. “What message?”

The scout handed me a scrap of fabric soaked in sand and blood. My heart twisted violently. I recognized the emblem.

One of the kidnapped Ashra scouts.

“We found this near an abandoned dune-crawler,” the scout said breathlessly. “And… tracks. Signs of a struggle. Signs of—” He swallowed. “Signs of Soraya.”

My world tilted.

“What kind of signs?” My voice was a low, lethal growl.

The scout hesitated. “Wolf prints… but not like any wolf we’ve seen.”

My wolf bared its teeth.

My pulse thundered.

My bones shook with something ancient and violent.

“What else?” I demanded.

“A second crawler took off toward Saren,” the scout said. “Fast. We think… we think she was taken.”

Taken.

The word detonated inside me like fire.

Kaide whispered, “Zarek has her.”

I didn’t hear anything after that.

The corridors blurred as fury consumed every breath I took. I stormed out of the palace, marching toward the war courtyard. Warriors scattered at my approach, eyes widening in fear.

“Riders!” I barked. “Arm yourselves!”

Kaide ran after me. “Raevan—wait!”

I spun, grabbing him by the collar in blind anger. “Do NOT tell me to wait!”

“You’re injured,” Kaide hissed. “You can’t—”

“I CAN AND I WILL!” I roared.

Guards froze.

The courtyard fell silent.

Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Kaide’s eyes softened with sorrow. “You’re not thinking clearly.”

“I am thinking more clearly than ever,” I growled. “Soraya is alone. She’s terrified. She’s in Zarek’s hands—because of ME.”

“That’s not true—”

“YES IT IS!” The words tore from my throat. “Everything that has happened to her—every wound, every whisper, every danger—happened under MY watch.”

Kaide’s silence was as loud as a scream.

“We ride NOW,” I said, voice shaking from the force of my own resolve. “Every second I waste here, Zarek tightens his grip.”

“Raevan—”

“She is MINE TO PROTECT!”

The words burst out before I could stop them.

Kaide inhaled sharply.

I shut my eyes, breath unsteady. I didn’t take the words back.

Because they were true.

Soraya wasn’t a political pawn. Wasn’t a girl I occasionally kissed in the shadows. Wasn’t a weakness.

She was the one thing my wolf could not live without.

When I opened my eyes, I forced my voice steady. “Kaide. Stand with me.”

He studied me for a long moment.

Then nodded.

“Always.”

A roar built in my chest, escaping as a primal sound that shook the courtyard. Wolves emerged from barracks at the sound—some shifting, some grabbing weapons, all answering the call of their Alpha.

“Prepare the riders!” I commanded. “We take her back alive. And if Zarek stands in the way—”

My eyes burned with something savage.

“—we burn Saren to the ground.”

No one argued.

No one hesitated.

War had begun.

And I would bring the dunes crashing down to get her back.