Jake POV
Jake woke up and Emma was gone.
He felt it immediately through the mate bond. The emptiness hit him like a physical blow. The wrongness crashed into his consciousness like a wave. Like someone had ripped a piece of his soul out of his body and left him bleeding on the inside. His eyes snapped open and he reached for her automatically, but the bed was cold. The sheets were cold. She'd been gone for a while.
His heart was already pounding.
Jake's alpha instincts exploded into overdrive. Where was she? Who was she with? Why would she leave him after everything he'd done to protect her? After everything he'd sacrificed to keep her safe? After everything he'd given up for this mate bond?
The questions were burning through his mind like fire.
Jake didn't bother with clothes. He didn't have time for the rituals of transformation. He shifted into his wolf form immediately in the middle of his quarters, letting the animal take over his consciousness completely. The wolf could track her scent better than his human mind could think. The wolf didn't care about rationality or control. The wolf only cared that his mate was missing. The wolf only cared that she'd left voluntarily.
Jake followed her scent through the dark forest.
His paws barely touched the ground as he moved. The bond was screaming at him. It was a physical pain that radiated through every nerve ending. The bond was telling him that she was in danger. Or worse. So much worse than danger. The bond was screaming that she was choosing to be somewhere else. That she'd left his quarters deliberately. That she'd rejected his protection.
His rage made him move faster.
His wolf form was massive as he burst through the forest. Trees seemed to part in front of him. The night air tasted like her scent. The scent was leading him toward an abandoned cabin at the edge of pack territory.
Jake could smell them both before he even reached the door. Emma's scent. And Ryan's scent mixing with hers. They were inside together. Alone. In the darkness. Without Jake to protect her or know what was happening.
Jake shifted back to human form right outside the door and burst inside without knocking.
Emma was standing there looking at papers. Papers that Ryan had brought. Work that Ryan was showing her. Things that Jake had been keeping from her for her own protection. She was studying the documents with an intensity that took her attention completely away from Jake's arrival.
And she was alive with it in a way that made Jake's chest crack open. Her eyes were bright. Her entire body was animated. Her hands were moving across the papers with purpose. She looked free in a way that Jake realized she'd never been with him. She looked like she was thinking about something other than Jake's needs or Jake's feelings or Jake's control.
Emma looked at Jake and her expression went pale.
Jake looked at Ryan and wanted to destroy him.
"Step away from her," Jake commanded. His voice was low but it carried the weight of alpha authority. His eyes were glowing silver with a rage so intense that he could feel it burning through his skull. His hands were gripping into fists so tight his nails were drawing blood from his own palms. His wolf wanted out. Wanted to fight. Wanted to prove dominance in the most violent way possible.
But Emma stood up between them.
She stood between Jake and Ryan like she was protecting the beta. Like she was choosing someone else over her mate. Like she was saying that Jake was the threat in this situation, not the one who'd stolen her away in the middle of the night.
Something inside Jake's chest broke like glass hitting concrete.
"He's helping me," Emma said. Her voice was shaking. "I needed to get out. I needed to use my mind."
Jake didn't hear her words. He heard her choice. He heard the rejection. He heard her saying that Ryan's help was more important than Jake's protection. That her freedom was more important than their bond.
Jake didn't raise his voice when he responded. That was when he was most dangerous. That was when he was most capable of destruction.
"You lied to me," Jake said quietly. His voice was ice because if he let himself feel anything other than rage, he would completely shatter into pieces. "You snuck out of my quarters in the middle of the night. You went to another male. You chose him over me."
"He's not—" Emma started. She was trying to explain. Trying to make him understand something.
But Jake was already done understanding.
He'd made a decision in that moment. He'd decided that Emma couldn't be trusted. That protection wasn't enough. That he needed complete control.
"Get back to the quarters," Jake said. His voice was cold and controlled. The voice of a leader making commands that would not be questioned. The voice of an alpha who'd decided his mate had made her choice and now she would have to face the consequences. "Now."
Emma wanted to argue. He could feel it through the bond. She wanted to fight him. She wanted him to understand that she was suffocating. But Jake was already turning away from her. Already retreating into the cold place inside himself where he didn't have to feel anything. Where he could make decisions based on logic instead of the fact that his mate had just chosen someone else.
He turned to Ryan and the look in his eyes made the beta take a step backward in fear.
"Marcus Webb wants to negotiate a treaty," Jake said. His voice was flat and emotionless like he was discussing weather instead of something that would change everything. "I'm going to meet him in three days. You're going to help me prepare for that meeting. And you're going to stay away from Emma or I'm going to make sure you regret every breath you take for the rest of your life."
The threat hung in the air between them like a physical thing. Like a promise that Jake was completely willing to keep.
Jake didn't wait for Emma to leave the cabin. Didn't wait for her to walk past him. Didn't wait for any response from Ryan. He shifted back into his wolf form and took off through the forest at full speed.
He needed to be alone.
He needed to not feel this.
He needed to push down the pain and the betrayal and the overwhelming sense that everything he'd built was falling apart.
Because if Jake let himself feel what Emma had just done to him, what she'd chosen, he was afraid of what he would become. He was afraid he would become the kind of alpha that destroyed things. That controlled through fear instead of protection. That turned love into a weapon.
And he was already dangerously close to becoming that already.