Chapter 63: Mira Sol Is Missing

Mira Sol had survived Moon Crown at age eleven.

She remembered almost nothing about the facility.

Her wolf remembered enough.

According to Evelyn, Mira experienced false mate resonance around powerful Alpha bloodlines.

Not attraction.

Not love.

A neurological response caused by experimental exposure.

She hated it.

She avoided crowded Pack events because strangers sometimes assumed her reaction meant fate.

Now she was missing.

Her apartment showed no struggle.

Her phone remained on the kitchen counter.

Security footage showed her leaving voluntarily with a woman.

Rhea froze the image.

"That's Celine."

I stared.

Celine Ward.

The assistant who leaked Rowan's schedule.

She was supposed to be under investigation.

Not detention.

She had been allowed home.

"Find her."

Celine's apartment was empty.

Her car had crossed into Ironclaw territory.

Alpha Brenner responded immediately.

"I'll close the roads."

"Quietly," Rowan warned.

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

I looked at Rowan.

He muted the call.

"Don't answer."

I laughed despite the situation.

Ironclaw patrols found Celine's abandoned car near an old monastery.

No Mira.

No Celine.

But tire tracks continued north.

We followed.

The trail ended at a private estate registered to the Heritage Council.

Finally.

Something concrete.

Rowan obtained a warrant.

Helena March's lawyers challenged it.

Adrian, now enjoying retirement far too much, called me.

"Need advice?"

"Yes."

"Never argue with lawyers when you can give them paperwork."

"What does that mean?"

"File the emergency survivor protection order."

Rhea already had.

The warrant held.

Council security entered the estate at dusk.

We found Celine first.

Locked in a room.

Crying.

"They took her."

"Who?"

"Victor."

"The investigator?"

She nodded.

"I thought he was helping."

Of course.

Celine had contacted Mira after realizing the leaked schedule endangered survivors.

She wanted to warn her.

Victor intercepted them.

He told Celine Heritage could protect Mira from public exposure.

Instead, he separated them.

"Where is Mira?"

"I don't know."

We searched the estate.

Basement.

Guest houses.

Storage rooms.

No Mira.

Then Cassian found a medical transport receipt.

Destination: Saint Orla Clinic.

Evelyn recognized it.

"Closed reproductive facility."

My stomach turned.

We drove through the night.

The clinic stood beyond the northern border, technically outside Council jurisdiction.

That complicated entry.

I didn't care.

Rowan did.

Not because he wanted delay.

Because violating territorial law could invalidate everything we found.

So he called Orion.

Orion had contacts among independent Packs.

Within thirty minutes, the local Alpha granted emergency access.

Useful man.

We entered.

Mira was strapped to a medical bed.

Alive.

Terrified.

Victor stood beside a doctor.

The doctor held a syringe.

I shifted before anyone finished shouting.

Victor ran.

Cassian pursued.

Rowan restrained the doctor.

I tore through Mira's restraints.

She recoiled from me.

Her wolf reacted to my Alpha blood.

False resonance.

Pain crossed her face.

"Don't touch me."

I stepped back instantly.

"Okay."

Her breathing came fast.

"I'm Nessa."

"I know."

"We're getting you out."

"Don't let him come near me."

She looked at Rowan.

He immediately moved farther away.

"Done."

No offense.

No ego.

Just respect.

Evelyn approached slowly.

Mira recognized her.

"Doctor."

"Yes."

"Is it happening again?"

"No."

Evelyn knelt several feet away.

"Your body is reacting. That's not the same thing as a mate bond."

Mira started crying.

"I hate it."

"I know."

We gave her space.

Victor was captured outside.

The doctor confessed quickly.

Heritage donors had funded a secret program.

Not to recreate Moon Crown.

To identify wolves whose experimental damage might be inherited.

They planned to sterilize them.

I went cold.

"Without consent?"

The doctor looked away.

That was answer enough.

When Helena March was arrested the next morning, she denied authorizing medical procedures.

Victor's messages proved otherwise.

She had written:

We cannot allow corrupted resonance into future Alpha lines.

I read the sentence twice.

Then I remembered being seventeen.

Thinking my body made me defective.

Thinking love had to be earned by changing it.

Different scale.

Same poison.

The belief that another person could decide which bodies were worthy.

Mira survived.

But rescue wasn't the ending.

She would need therapy.

Medical care.

Control over who knew her history.

Evelyn promised all of it would be her choice.

Before we left, Mira asked me one question.

"Are you really Rowan's fated mate?"

"Yes."

"How do you know it's real?"

I thought carefully.

"The bond is real."

Then I added, "But I know the relationship is real because we choose it when the bond isn't making decisions for us."

She nodded.

Maybe that answer helped.

Maybe not yet.

Healing couldn't be rushed into a lesson.

Sometimes survival was enough for one night.

Mira chose to stay at the Seraphina Center temporarily after leaving the clinic. She asked that no Alpha visit without permission, including me. I respected it. Two weeks later, she invited me for tea. We talked about university applications, not trauma, for almost an hour. Before I left, she said her wolf had reacted to three people that week and she had managed not to panic. I didn't tell her I was proud as if I owned her progress. I simply said that sounded difficult and she smiled. Her life was becoming hers again in small pieces.