Chapter 4
1343 Words
CHAPTER 4
The Search
Roman's Pov
I stood at the window and watched Elena Monroe's car disappear into traffic. My wolf paced restlessly inside me and he had not stopped since I woke up alone this morning.
I had been searching for more than ten hours.
The memory hit me again like it had every hour since dawn. The masked woman in my arms. Her scent wrapping around me like a drug. Vanilla and rain and something uniquely hers that made my wolf howl with recognition.
My fated mate.
I knew the moment I touched her. The bond snapped into place with such force that it nearly brought me to my knees. We danced and I could barely think past the need to claim her. To mark her. To make sure no one else could ever take her from me.
We went to my suite and I marked her in the heat of passion. On her lower back where the mark would be hidden from everyone but me. The intimate placement felt right.
I had rushed out after she slept without even looking at her face. What was I thinking?
I really screwed up. Big time!
"Alpha?"
I turned from the window. Lucas stood in the doorway with his tablet and his usual professional expression.
"Any updates?" I asked.
"The hotel records show she paid cash and used a fake name. Jennifer Smith." Lucas scrolled through his notes. "The masquerade masks make facial recognition impossible. I have interviewed everyone who attended the party. No one remembers seeing her."
I slammed my hand on the desk. The wood cracked under my palm.
"She cannot just disappear. Someone must have seen her. Someone must know who she is."
"We are doing everything we can, Alpha."
Everything was not enough. I was the most powerful Alpha in the region. I controlled territory that stretched across three states. I had resources that most packs could only dream of.
And I could not find one woman.
My wolf snarled inside me. The mating bond was incomplete. She had not acknowledged it yet. Maybe she did not even know what I was to her. The thought made me want to tear the city apart until I found her.
"Keep searching," I said. "Pull security footage from every camera within ten blocks of the hotel. Check rideshare records. Credit card transactions. I don't care what it takes."
"Yes, Alpha."
Lucas turned to leave but stopped at the door.
"There is one more thing."
Something in his tone made me look up. "What?"
"A woman came forward this morning. She claims she met you at the party." He pulled out his phone and turned it toward me. "She has your mark."
I crossed the room in three strides and took the phone from him.
The photo showed a woman's bare back. And there it was. My mark. The intricate swirling patterns I had traced with my fingers last night.
But the woman in the photo was not her.
I could tell just from looking. Wrong build. Wrong skin tone. Something is fundamentally wrong about the whole thing.
"Who is she?" I demanded.
"Cindy Cross. Twenty-three. Member of the Riverbend Pack." Lucas pulled up her file. "She contacted us an hour ago. Says she has been searching for you since last night."
I stared at the mark in the photo. It was mine. I knew my own mark. But my wolf stayed silent. No recognition. No pull. Nothing.
"Where is she?"
"Waiting downstairs. Should I send her up?"
My wolf should be howling with joy. He should be demanding that I claim my mate immediately. But instead it felt... confused. Uncertain.
"Send her up."
Lucas nodded and left. I paced the office and tried to make sense of this. The mark was right. Everything else was wrong.
Five minutes later, my office door opened.
Cindy Cross walked in with perfect confidence. Beautiful in an obvious way. Long dark hair and curves displayed in a dress clearly chosen to show off the mark on her back. She smiled like she had already won something.
"Alpha King." She crossed the room toward me. "I am so glad you found me. I have been searching for you too."
I studied her carefully. Searched for any flicker of recognition. Any spark of the bond I felt last night.
Nothing.
"Tell me about last night," I said.
"We met at the masquerade party." She sat down without being invited. "We danced. We talked. We went to your suite." She smiled coyly. "It was incredible."
The words were right. The details matched. But her scent was all wrong.
Flowers and spice. Not vanilla and rain.
"You were wearing a mask," I said. "What color?"
She hesitated. Just a fraction of a second. "Silver. With blue feathers."
Wrong.
My mate wore a simple black mask. I remembered it clearly because it made her eyes stand out. It made her seem mysterious and vulnerable at the same time.
But the mark on Cindy's back was mine. I could see it clearly through the low-cut dress. The exact pattern I had left on my mate's skin.
I was torn between physical evidence and every instinct screaming that this was wrong.
Cindy stood and walked closer. "Do you not remember me? The way we connected?" She reached out and touched my arm. "The way it felt between us?"
I felt nothing.
No electricity. No pull. No recognition from my wolf.
When I touched my real mate, it felt like lightning in my veins. Like coming home and falling off a cliff at the same time. Like nothing else in the world mattered except getting closer to her.
This was nothing.
I stepped back and her hand fell away.
"I need time to process this," I said.
Her confident smile faltered. "But I am your mate. The mark proves it."
"The mark is there." My voice came out cold and flat. "But mating bonds are more than marks. I will be in touch."
"Alpha King—"
"Lucas will show you out."
I turned my back on her. A clear dismissal. I heard her sharp intake of breath. The rustle of her dress as she stood.
"This is not over," she said quietly.
"That remains to be seen."
She left with Lucas and I was alone again. I paced the office and tried to make sense of the puzzle pieces that did not fit together.
My phone buzzed. A file from Lucas. The background information I requested on Elena Monroe for the contract marriage proposal.
I opened it absently. Just another piece of business to handle while I figure out this mess.
Then I saw her photo and froze.
Those eyes.
Even in a simple ID photo, something about them made my breath catch. The shape of her face. The curve of her lips. The way she looked at the camera like she was guarding secrets.
Could she have been at the party?
But I met with her today. I sat across from her. My wolf barely stirred. I felt no bond. No pull. Nothing like what I felt with my masked mate.
Unless she was somehow blocking it. Or maybe the bond had not fully formed because she did not have a wolf. I had never heard of a fated mate without a wolf before. But I had also never heard of a mark appearing without mutual recognition.
Nothing about this made sense.
I looked at Elena's photo again. Studied every detail. Then I looked at the photo of Cindy's mark.
One of them was lying. Or something else was happening that I did not understand yet.
I made a decision.
I would marry Elena Monroe as planned. Keep her close. Watch her. Figure out if my instincts were right or if I was grasping at impossible connections.
And meanwhile, I would investigate Cindy's mark. Find out how she got it. Prove whether she was truly my mate or something else entirely.
My wolf growled in agreement.
Find her. She is near.
- Writer
