The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 336

Chapter 336

Something flickered in his expression-not surprise. Acceptance.

“I know,” Kael said. “And that’s exactly why I stayed away from her,” he continued, his voice steady but edged with something raw. “I stayed away the moment she told me you were her mate. I stayed away even when you didn’t F**king deserve her.”

The beast bristled at that, but Kael didn’t back down.

“I didn’t touch her,” he said. “Didn’t claim her. Didn’t even look at her the way my instincts were screaming at me to.” His jaw clenched. “You

have no idea what that takes.”

Silence fell between us, thick and suffocating.

“I watched you hurt her,” he went on, quieter now. “Push her away. Scare her. And I did nothing-because she chose you. Because the bond

chose you.”

His gaze hardened, sharp and unwavering.

“So don’t stand here accusing me of taking her. If she’s gone, Zayn, it’s no because of me.”

“Does she know?” I asked, my voice rough.

“Yes.”

The word hit harder than I expected.

F**k.

And she’d kept quiet about it? About something like that? My chest tightened, thoughts spiraling too fast to catch hold of any one of them.

Aurora-my Aurora-silent about something this important. Why?

To protect me?

Or because she felt it too?

The possibility slid under my skin, cold and sharp.

“How long?” I asked.

Kael hesitated just a fraction before answering. “A while.”

That did it. I took a step back, putting distance between us before I did something I couldn’t take back. The beast was pacing now, restless, unsettled, sensing the fracture where certainty used to be.

“I’m going to find her,” I said, my voice low, deadly calm. “And if I find out you had anything to do with her disappearing-if you so much as knew and kept it from me

I met his eyes, letting the threat settle there, heavy and unmistakable.

Chapter 336

“I won’t just kill you,” I finished quietly. “I’ll make sure there’s nothing left of you for the Moon to recognize.”

Kael didn’t flinch. Didn’t rise to it.

That almost made it worse.

Without waiting for a response, I turned and walked out, the door slamming behind me hard enough to rattle the walls.

I didn’t slow down.

Not for the hour, not for the rules, not even for the guards who shouted afler me when I tore through the corridors like a madman.

None of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was the growing silence where Aurora should have been.

I searched the entire hotel.

Every floor. Every stairwell. Every common room and empty lounge. I shoved doors open without knocking, ignoring the startled faces that stared back at me, the whispers that followed in my wake. I called her name until my throat burned, until it sounded wrong in my own ears.

Nothing.

I stopped in the middle of a deserted hallway, breath coming too fast, my chest tight. Closing my eyes, I reached inward-past the panic, past

the fury-toward the bond that tied us together.

Aurora.

The bond had always been there. A constant pull. A quiet warmth. A presence I could feel even when she was angry with me.

But now-

There was nothing.

No warmth. No pull. No sense of direction. Just an empty, hollow void where she should have been.

My stomach dropped.

That kind of silence meant only one thing.

Either she was unconscious… or she was dead.

Fear unlike anything I’d ever known crawled up my spine. The beast stirred restlessly, confused and frantic, sensing the same absence I did.

“No,” I muttered, shaking my head as if denial alone could change reality.No.”

I forced myself to keep moving.

When the search inside led nowhere, I pushed through the front doors and stepped outside the hotel. The cold mountain air hit me instantly, sharp and biting, the snow crunching beneath my boots. The grounds were eerily quiet, bathed in soft light from the lamps lining the path.

That’s when I saw it.

2/3

Chapter 330

At first, I thought it was just a shadow.

Then my eyes adjusted.

Red.

Dark and ugly against the white snow.

Blood.

My heart slammed violently against my ribs as I took a slow step closer, dread pooling heavy in my chest. The color was unmistakable.

And deep down, before my mind could catch up, I already knew whose it was.