Chapter 171 Sleepless Night
Ethan’s POV
I didn’t sleep. Not a fucking second.
The sheets were tangled around my legs, damp with sweat despite the air conditioning running full blast. Every time I closed my eyes, I heard it—that breathy moan through the phone, the sound of her losing herself in someone else’s arms.
My chest felt like someone had carved it open with a dull blade.
Married. She said she was married.
And there was definitely a man there. I’d heard his voice—deep, possessive, threatening. The kind of voice that made my wolf bristle with territorial rage.
I sat up, running my hands through my hair hard enough to hurt. The clock on the nightstand glowed 3:47 AM in accusatory red numbers.
This couldn’t be real.
Aria didn’t know the truth about our marriage—the fake certificate, the manipulation. So how could she have married someone else?
She wouldn’t. She was mine. My True Mate, bound to me by the Moon Goddess herself, even if I’d been too much of a coward to complete the bond.
She was just trying to piss me off. Had to be.
But then why did it sound so real? Why did I hear sheets rustling, hear her gasping like—
"Fuck!" I grabbed the pillow and hurled it across the room.
My wolf was pacing restlessly inside me, snarling and snapping. *You lost her. You rejected her and now another male has claimed what should be ours.*
"Shut up," I growled out loud.
But he wouldn’t. The animal in me had been in chaos ever since that phone call, alternating between homicidal rage and pathetic whimpering.
The thought of another man touching her—kissing her, marking her, being inside her when I never had—
I was going to be sick.
I’d thought I could have both. Thought Aria would wait forever, patient and devoted like she’d always been.
I’d denied her the bond, marked Clara instead, and now Aria had found someone who apparently had no such hesitations.
My phone sat on the nightstand, dark and silent. I’d tried calling back three times after he hung up on me. All three went straight to voicemail.
She’d blocked me. Again.
"Alpha?"
Clara’s sleepy voice came from the doorway. She was wrapped in my robe, her blonde hair tousled, concern etched on her face. "You’re still up? It’s almost four in the morning."
"Go back to bed," I said flatly.
She padded over anyway, sitting on the edge of the mattress. Her hand reached for my shoulder but I shrugged it off.
"Is this about Aria?" Her voice went tight. "Ethan, you need to let her go. She clearly has—"
"Don’t." The word came out as a growl, my wolf rising to the surface. "Don’t fucking talk about her right now."
Clara’s eyes widened—I rarely used that tone with her. But I couldn’t help it.
Every cell in my body was screaming that I’d made a catastrophic mistake, that I’d thrown away something irreplaceable, and her presence just made it worse.
She stood up, hurt flickering across her features. "Fine. But you’re going to drive yourself insane over someone who’s already moved on."
The door clicked shut behind her.
Moved on. The words echoed in my skull like a death knell.
No. No, Aria wouldn’t just move on. She’d loved me too much, believed in us too completely.
This was a game, revenge for the divorce, for Clara, for everything. She was trying to hurt me the way I’d hurt her.
Except... the man’s voice on the phone hadn’t sounded like he was playing a game. He’d sounded like he owned her. Like he’d rip my throat out for even calling.
And Aria—god, the way she’d moaned, the breathless sounds she made—
I couldn’t do this. Couldn’t just sit here imagining scenarios that were tearing me apart from the inside out.
At 4:15, I grabbed my phone and called my Beta.
He picked up on the fourth ring, groggy and confused. "Alpha? It’s four in the morning—"
"I don’t care what time it is," I cut him off. "I need you to find Aria’s address. Use whatever resources you have to. Call in favors, hack databases, I don’t give a shit. Just find her."
"Alpha, that might be—"
"Did I stutter?" My voice dropped into Alpha command, the one that made Pack members’ spines straighten reflexively. "Find her. Now. I want the information by sunrise."
"Yes, Alpha."
I hung up and stared at the ceiling, my jaw clenched so tight my teeth ached.
She thought she could hide from me? Thought she could just disappear with some other man and I’d let it go?
No fucking way.
My wolf finally settled slightly, satisfied with the plan.
We’d find her. Confront her. Make her see that this was all a mistake, that we belonged together, that whoever this man was—he didn’t know her like I did.
Didn’t love her like I did.
The thought made me pause. Did I love her? I’d told myself for two years that what Clara and I had was love—the all-consuming, can’t-live-without-you kind.
That’s why I’d marked her, made a son with her, built a life with her even while Aria wore the Luna title.
But now, with Aria slipping through my fingers, my chest felt like it was caving in.
Every breath hurt. The thought of her in someone else’s bed, another man’s mark on her neck where mine should be—
It was unbearable.
Maybe that was love. Real love, not the comfortable familiarity I had with Clara.
Or maybe it was just my wolf’s possessive rage at losing what was meant to be ours.
Either way, I was done playing nice. Done giving her space. Done pretending I could just let her walk away.
By 6 AM, my Beta called back.
"Alpha..." There was a beat of silence before he spoke again, and I already knew it wasn’t good news.
"I’ve got nothing.No paper trail. No scent markers filed with any territory office. My contacts hit a wall every direction they turned."
My pulse kicked up—not with relief, but with fury.
*Someone’s hiding her from us,* my wolf snarled, hackles rising in the back of my mind.*Someone with enough power to erase her like she never existed.*
"Nothing," I repeated, my grip tightening on the phone.
"Keep digging," I said, my voice dropping to something dangerous even I didn’t fully recognize. "I don’t care what it costs or how long it takes. I want that address."
"Understood, Alpha. I’ll try the financial angle next. Someone spending that kind of money to hide her—it has to surface somewhere eventually."
"Do it. And widen it. Talk to every contact we have, even ones outside Silver Creek. Don’t mention any of this to anyone else. Especially not Clara or my parents."
"Understood, Alpha."
I hung up and stared at the address glowing on my screen. My hands were shaking—from rage, from anticipation.
But I had to know. Had to see with my own eyes whether she’d really moved on, or if this was all an elaborate bluff.
Because if she was bluffing, I’d win her back. I’d grovel, apologize, do whatever it took.
And if she wasn’t...
Well. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.