<h4>Chapter 79: Alpha Hunt</h4>


    <strong>Reed POV:</strong>


    By the time I got back to the city, the blood had dried under my fingernails.


    It wasn’t hers.


    That thought kept repeating in my skull like a taunt. It wasn’t her blood. It wasn’t her scent in that cage. Eleven humans saved, and it still wasn’t enough.


    Because she wasn’t among them.


    My mate.


    use.


    I tasted the name on my tongue like ash. Every second she was missing, the tether between us pulled tighter. Snapping wasn’t an option. Not anymore.


    I was going to find her.


    And if I had to burn the bones of every goddamned supernatural to get there, I would.


    The door to the boarding house was already open when I arrived — ze’s scent thick in the air like crushed roses and smoke. I hated that I could tell his mood by scent alone. It meant I was paying too much attention.


    He stood in themon room, shirt unbuttoned, blood on his cor, hands clenched around a piece of broken wood.


    He didn’t even look at me.


    "You reek of witches," he muttered.


    "They’re dead."


    He looked up at that.


    "All of them?"


    "Everyst one but one," I said. "She’s bleeding out in a pack medical cell. I left her alive so she could confirm what I already knew."


    ze arched a brow. "And what’s that?"


    "The goblins," I said, stepping forward, letting the satisfaction curl through my voice like smoke. "They’re the ones selling humans. They’re supplying the witches, the rogues, even vampires. There’s a whole trade now. A ck market."


    His jaw tightened. "That’s not new."


    "Maybe not to you," I snapped. "But I followed the trail. You didn’t. While you were brooding in corners and torturing the same vampires over and over, I got us a real lead."


    He moved then — fast, sudden — the air rippling with his elemental heat. His eyes shed red, bright and furious.


    "Say that again," he said, voice low. "Say it like you mean it."


    I stepped forward too, the Alpha rising under my skin. "I do mean it. You want to stake im over her like she’s your Beloved, then act like it. Because I’m done sitting around watching you y prince while she’s suffering gods-know-where."


    ze’s mouth curled into a snarl, but he didn’t strike.


    He knew I was right.


    "Where?" he asked finally, through gritted teeth.


    "The ck market. Neutral grounds." I smirked. "You know it. The ce you all pretend not to frequent. Vampires buying wolf ws. Wolves buying spell-brewed aphrodisiacs from witches. And humans? Bought and sold like furniture."


    "I’ve been there," ze said darkly. "It’s disgusting."


    "It’s a starting point. That’s all I care about."


    Silence settled between us like a de.


    For a second, I thought he might tell me to go alone. Fine. I would’ve.


    But then he exhaled and tossed the broken wood aside.


    "When do we leave?"


    <strong>?</strong>


    The ck Market wasn’t a ce so much as a concept twisted into physical form.


    Hidden beneath the rusted ruins of an old subway line, you didn’t find it unless someone wanted you to. The entrance shimmered between realities, guarded by goblins and banshees wrapped in tattered cloaks, speakingnguages older than dust.


    ze and I walked side by side, our silence uneasy but focused.


    The second we stepped through the barrier, the noise hit.


    It was chaos.


    Magic hung in the air like humidity — thick, pulsing, foul. Stalls lined the underground cavern, glowing under eldritch lights. Creatures bustled through like ants in a nest — goblins haggling over tooth-bags, trolls offering shifter hides, banshees whispering curses for gold.


    I caught a glimpse of a rogue vampire trading a polished wolf fang to a veiled fairy. She tucked it into her robes like a treasure. That fang had been yanked from a living werewolf — I could smell the pain still clinging to it.


    We passed another stall where a caged human girl knelt inside a wrought-iron kennel. Her eyes were nk. Enchanted, maybe. Drugged. Her blood was up for auction.


    ze’s jaw flexed. He didn’t speak. But I felt the fire under his skin rise.


    Good.


    Let him boil. Let him burn.


    This ce needed to feel our presence.


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    A goblin with too many teeth and three gold hoops in his nose caught our scent and immediately straightened behind his stall. He wore a stitched leather vest and had a ledger in his wed hand.


    "Alpha Reed. Prince ze," he said, a little too politely. "How unexpected. Looking for potions? Curses? Something more exotic?"


    "We’re looking for a human," I growled.


    ze stepped forward. "A girl. Brown hair. Human. Small. Pretty. Might have been sold within this night."


    "Sold?" The goblin scratched behind one ear. "That’s vague. We move a lot of inventory."


    "Make it specific," I said. "Before I start removing your fingers one at a time."


    He looked between us and realized we weren’t bluffing.


    He reached under the table and pulled out a second ledger — thicker, iron-bound, marked with blood.


    "We don’t ask names. Just species, condition, price, and where they go. Client confidentiality. But..." He flipped pages with a long nail. "There was a batch of twelve humans sold. Two to witches. One to a vampire n in the east — high nobles. The others... scattered. Some went to wolf dens in the south."


    "Locations," I snapped.


    "Encrypted," the goblin said. "We don’t write down exact drop points for safety reasons. But if you know the n symbols, you could trace them. Or you could ask around. Discreetly."


    ze leaned forward, shadows flickering in his eyes.


    "Do you see either of us as discreet?"


    The goblin swallowed.


    "No."


    "Good."


    We left the stall, my gut twisting tighter.


    We had a trail now — faint, ugly, but real. If re had passed through this ce, if any of her scent lingered in these stone halls, I’d find it.


    "So," ze muttered as we stalked down the narrow, crookedne of stalls. "We hunt through this den of filth together?"


    "Unless you’d rather go back and interrogate more of your kind."


    He smirked. "I like it when you’re angry."


    "Careful," I growled. "Push me, and I’ll remind you what wolves do when they’re angry."


    His eyes glowed. "Maybe like a dog."


    I shoved him into a stone wall hard enough to crack the edge. Heughed, brushing off dust.


    "Let’s get to work," I said, voice sharp as broken ss. "We find the vendors. The buyers. We follow every shipment of humans. I don’t care if I have to tear open every stall and rip the truth from every creature in this pit."


    "And when we find them?" ze asked.


    "We take her back," I said simply. "And we burn everything else."


    <strong>******</strong>


    The ck Market didn’t sleep. It pulsed — a beast without a heart, fed by whispers and the glint of coin. Every alley stank of deals sealed with blood. You could buy a soul here if you knew who to ask — or sell one if you had no use for it anymore.


    ze and I carved a path through it like fire and fang.


    The first vendor we cornered was a banshee. Pretty thing with eyes like cracked porcin. She tried to charm ze into forgetting why we came. He burned her hair off with a flick of his finger. She shrieked. Then she talked.


    She’d heard of a goblin group moving high-value humans. Special orders. Quick turnover. No questions.


    We moved fast.


    A golem tried to lie. ze shattered his kneecap.


    A pair of fairies tried to spin riddles. I snapped one of their wings.


    We weren’t here to y diplomat. Every second we wasted was another beat of her heart under someone else’s control.


    "I caught her scent," ze growled as we turned down a narrow corridor strung with dim runemps. "Just now. Faint. Recent."


    "Then we’re close," I said. "Don’t lose it."


    The deeper we went, the filthier the market became. Stalls turned to cages. Lights gave way to shadow. The air tasted like iron and decay. And that’s where we found them — a den of goblins, clustered around a bonefire, chewing roasted rat and counting silver teeth like currency.


    Seven of them.


    Sleek. Armed. Green-blooded vermin, all wearing the same rust-colored crest stitched onto their vests — a fang pierced through an open eye.


    "That’s the mark," ze murmured. "Same crest in the ledger. That’s them."


    I didn’t bother with a warning.


    "A girl. Brown hair. Human. Small. Pretty." I said, stepping forward, aura already rising. "Where is she?"


    Theyughed.


    One of them — a bigger brute with glowing yellow eyes and ears pierced with broken ws — spat on the floor. "We don’t talk topdogs."


    ze didn’t even speak.


    He ignited.


    A whip of meshed across the firepit and exploded outward. Goblins screamed, some diving for cover. One tried to run — ze caught him mid-leap with a jet of fire that turned him into a torch.


    "Subtle," I muttered, watching limbs il.


    "You wanted answers," ze said without looking back. "They’re more honest when they’re terrified."


    He wasn’t wrong.


    I grabbed one as he tried to slink away. mmed him against the stone wall so hard his skull cracked. His beady eyes widened in panic as I bared my teeth.


    "You moved humans. Where did you send the girl?" I hissed. "Small. Brown hair. Big eyes. Smelled like honey and sun."


    "Y-you have to be more specific!" he whined. "We move a lot of girls—"


    ze’s fire crackled, drawing closer.


    The goblin sobbed. "O-okay! Okay! She was part of the different group! Special order! High price. Said to be strong. Not for potion. Not for feeding."


    "Then what for?" I growled.


    "H-hunt," he stammered. "Alpha Hunt."


    Everything in me went still.


    ze blinked. "You mean like training? Warriors-to-be?"


    The goblin nodded frantically. "King Alpha’s pack. His beta came himself. Wanted a humans with fire in their eyes. Said they needed to run. They paid in enchanted bone and moonstone — ancient shit. Meant it."


    "Where?" I demanded.


    "Southern forests. The Blood Pine Range. That’s where the hunt happens. They take the humans there, release them in the dark. Then the wolves run."


    "And she’s supposed to die," I said tly.


    The goblin nodded, eyes wide. "No human survives the Hunt."


    ze looked at me.


    "They’re using her in a fucking Hunt."


    My nails dug into the goblin’s throat. I wanted to rip it out. Wanted to smear his blood across this filthy stone.


    But we needed him.


    "Who authorized it?"


    "The King’s beta. Said he was preparing for the ceremony. Said the Hunt was to honor the old bloodline. Looking for the heir mate."


    "And who’s the stupid heir?" ze asked.


    The goblin looked at me.


    Everything went silent.


    Even the mes dulled.


    "Him," the goblin whispered.


    I dropped him. My hands felt suddenly too hot.


    ze turned to me slowly, his eyes searching my face.


    "You didn’t tell me."


    "It’s not your business."


    "You’re the Alpha King’s son."


    "I didn’t ask to be."


    ze looked at thest surviving goblin. "Let me."


    I shrugged. "Go on. You’ve been itching to show off."


    ze smiled coldly, then snapped his fingers.


    The goblin erupted into a twisting inferno of screaming ash. The scent of burning cartge filled the air.


    "Show off," I muttered again.


    "You’re just jealous I make it look good."


    I turned from the mes, jaw set.