Contract Marriage With Alpha Snow - Chapter 509

Chapter 509: He Didn’t Mark Her

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CHAPTER 509

~Zara’s POV~

“Oh, and… we know of your little alliance and plans. All I can say is, they’d never see this coming… Besides, we’d be taking them by surprise on the day your powers are taken from you.”

Just the thought brought tears to my eyes. Just the idea of the innocents who would die was something that made my insides churn.

This fucking freaking lunatic. What did the werewolves ever do to your kind?

Smiling, Vera turned and walked away. The guards came for me then—silent men in ash-colored robes, their eyes empty, like husks.

They didn’t bind me. Why would they need to?

Because I couldn’t move unless the magic allowed me to, I was trapped inside my own skin and mind, dragged deeper into the belly of a place that reeked of ancient magic, old bones, and death.

Still, I knew that as much as they thought they could control my body, take my voice, it doesn’t change the fact that they hadn’t broken me.

Snow, please… please find me. Find me before they do something we hate.

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~Snow’s POV~

“Have you found her yet?” I asked, pacing across the study floor, my phone pressed tight to my ear, and the words spilled out faster than I could control.

Three different screens lit up in front of me—Jupiter, Dare Devil, and Golden God. Each of their faces stared back, tense and drained.

Dare Devil shook his head slowly, lips pressed into a tight line. “I scouted the borders around your territory. We’ve had eyes in the skies and boots on every road she might’ve taken. Still nothing.”

“Same here,” Jupiter added, leaning back in his chair, visibly frustrated. “I even tapped into a few rogue networks. Nada.”

Golden God glanced to the side like he’d already known what my answer would be, but asked anyway. “What about using your mate bond? Can’t you sense her through it?”

I stopped pacing as silence ensued.

The question hung there, suspended between us. None of them said anything, waiting for my answer.

“Snow?” Jupiter prompted.

My throat felt tight.

That was when Zade finally walked into the room, his face grim, phone in hand. He didn’t wait for me to say anything. He walked in front of me so the others could see him.

“He didn’t mark her,” he said simply, his voice like a quiet slap to the face.

Dare Devil blinked. “Wait. What?”

Golden God leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “You’re kidding.”

“What the fuck, Snow?!” Jupiter’s voice rose.

I closed my eyes, jaw clenching.

“You had one job!” Dare Devil barked. “You almost lost her once before—after the whole divorce, after all the chaos—and you still didn’t seal the bond?”

Golden God jumped in, his voice sharp and filled with disbelief. “You were given a second chance, a golden opportunity to claim your mate, to mark her. And you waited? For what?”

Zade tried to cut in, lifting a hand slightly. “Maybe he was waiting for the right moment—”

Golden God’s voice snapped harshly again. “Right moment? Right moment? This is the perfect moment. We need it now that she’s gone to find her. That bond should’ve been ironclad when he can’t feel her.”

I didn’t speak. I couldn’t.

Every word they said stabbed at something I’d already been beating black and blue inside my chest. And still, I let it in.

Glacier growled in my head, his rage simmering just beneath the surface. “You failed her. You were supposed to protect her, and you hesitated. Again.”

“SHUT UP!” I snapped, voice booming through the study.

Everyone went quiet.

I raked a hand down my face and turned my back to the screens, pressing my fists to the table as the silence rang louder than any of their scolding.

“Do you think I don’t know that?” I said, my voice lower now, hoarse. “Do you think I haven’t gone over every moment, every chance, every kiss I didn’t use to seal that bond?”

They said nothing.

“I wanted to,” I continued, throat burning. “We were going to—back at my father’s pack, the day after everything settled. We talked about it. But things… kept getting in the way after sex and we got interrupted, then other things occurred. War, councils. Rogue uprisings. Every time I looked at her and thought, now, something dragged us away.”

Zade leaned forward slightly. “What about yesterday? When you came back?”

I lowered my gaze.

My chest constricted. All I could see was how she looked at me when I came down from the vehicle.

The softness in her smile. The way she melted in my arms like she had never wanted to leave. The way she held on longer than usual.

The way she trusted me.

And I… I wasted that moment too.

“I messed up,” I said finally, quietly. “I know. You don’t have to keep rubbing it in. I know it more than any of you could imagine.”

Jupiter exhaled hard, rubbing his chin. “Then let’s fix it.”

Golden God nodded. “We’re not giving up. We find her. You make it right. Period.”

I gave a sharp nod, grateful for their shift back to focus.

Golden God leaned toward his screen. “I did some digging. Traced every traffic camera from your district outward and before the time of her supposed kidnapping. I managed to isolate a black SUV—the same make and colour that picked her up on the footage. I cross-checked the plate number. It’s fake… but the car passed two junctions and hit a gas station cam outside city bounds.”

My pulse surged. “You have the route?”

“I do,” he said, fingers already flying over his keyboard. “Sending it now.”

The massive projector screen on my wall blinked to life as Jupiter took over control. A digital map stretched across the surface, glowing red dots marking each known stop.

“Okay,” I muttered, moving toward it. “I’m ready. Show me the route. Zoom in on the last two confirmed pings.”

“Copy that,” Jupiter said. “Watch closely. You’ll want to see this.”

As the map zoomed in, my fingers curled into fists.

Every stop. Every turn. Every hour she was away from me burned into my mind.

And underneath the focused urgency, beneath the stillness of my team, was a single truth echoing like a war drum:

I let her slip away. And this time, it might cost me everything.

I tried not to guilt-trip myself so much that I lost focus. I needed to be sure. I needed to see Zara and confirm her words.

There was no way in hell that letter was valid.

If it were true that Zara wanted to leave me, she wouldn’t have waited for me to return before breaking my heart over a letter.

Suddenly, I heard Glacier’s whine in my mind.

“What is it?”

“I cannot feel Astrid.”

I felt my heart skip a beat at his words. “Huh?”

“Something indeed has happened to Zara. Snow, hurry and find our mate.”

“There… found the car’s last spot. At an abandoned garden,” Jupiter called out.

“Good.”

“Oh and,” Zade’s voice interrupted, making Snow and the others turn their attention to him. “She’s here?”

“Who?”

“Lady Siona.”