Chapter 3 – The Beta’s Mission
1135 Words
Ethan sat in a worn leather chair, eyes scanning the pages of a manila file. Rain tapped gently against the windows ,not a storm, not yet. Just a whisper.
His wolf was restless, but not from the storm.
It paced beneath his skin, ears pricked, tail flicking with agitation. For years, that part of him had lived with an ache. Not grief. Not quite. Something worse , a bond that never snapped.
They were twins.
Not just siblings, born minutes apart. He remembered the way she used to curl beside him as a child, like two pups,quiet but fierce, always watching him like she could hear the thoughts he didn’t say.
They had the same eyes ...clear and storm-touched. Though hers, in the photo, were dimmed by sedation and years of silence.
Ethan raked a hand through his hair, a mess of rusty iron, unbrushed and damp from the mist outside. A short, scruffy beard framed his jaw, shadowing the tension set deep there. He hadn’t shaved in days, not since the file came in. Maybe longer.
He hadn’t been in the crash that killed their parents...
He’d been staying with his uncle for the weekend. And by the time the authorities tracked him down and informed him of the accident, she was already gone. Swept away into the system like a leaf in a current. No name. No pack. Just a confused little girl with no one to speak for her.
She’d been labeled Jane Doe. And presumed dead for a time.
Everyone accepted this.
Except him.
Because his wolf had never stopped feeling her, his twin, not just his twin, but his wolf's too, double the pain.
It howled for her in his dreams. Whimpered at random. Sat at the edge of his soul, ears tilted toward a call no one else could hear.
Kai’s father, the Alpha before him, had taken Ethan in after the accident, raised him like his own. And when Kai became Alpha, he honored that bond. He gave Ethan the freedom and the funding to keep searching.
It was quiet. Off the record.
A private mission. But Kai knew how important this was to Ethan, his Beta.
They’d even built a small task team just for this , a group of loyal trackers who owed Ethan or the old Alpha favors. And now, finally, something real had surfaced.
The file in his hands wasn’t much. A clipped newspaper article. A medical note. A psychiatric assessment. A single photo — grainy, faded. A girl with dull brown hair and vacant eyes, sitting on a bench in a hospital gown. Her hands folded neatly in her lap.
Jane Doe.
But this time, it wasn’t a dead end.
This time, the file had come from someone inside the state system. Leaked. Bought. It didn’t matter. It had been flagged because of one unusual detail in a nurse’s note:
Talks in her sleep. Mentions wolves. Repeats word “home.”
Ethan’s jaw clenched.
They had labeled her schizophrenic. Drugged her. Locked her away. He slammed his fist against the table.
No one had told her what she was. Shame washed over him.
She had been out there — alone — with a wolf inside her and no idea what it meant. No one to guide her. No one to help her shift. No one to protect her. She probably believed she was mad too.
He growled low in his throat, the sound barely audible over the rain.
The door opened behind him, snapping Ethan out of his brood.
Kai stepped into the room, tall and broad-shouldered, his presence filling the space before he said a word. His damp hair was slicked back from his temples, his coat dripped onto the stone floor, still slick from the evening patrol. Kai never sent his men anywhere he wouldn’t go himself.
"Sorry, I came as soon as you radioed," Kai said, shaking off his wet coat.
He looked like what he was: an Alpha. Calm. Dangerous. Deeply rooted.
But to Ethan, he was also the closest thing to a brother he had.
Kai walked up to the table, glanced at the papers spread across the desk, and then at the storm in Ethan’s eyes.
“Is it her?”
Ethan didn’t answer immediately. Too upset to speak, all he managed to do was slide the photo across the desk.
Kai picked it up. Studied it.
“She’s not a child anymore,” Ethan murmured. “But the eyes… they’re the same.”
Kai’s gaze narrowed. His thumb brushed the corner of the photo. Something flickered in him, hope for his brother ? or something else, perhaps.
“She dreams about wolves,” Ethan added. “Says the word ‘home.’ And she was found… near the coast. Just beyond our line. A few miles out, so close all this time”
Kai didn’t speak for a long moment.
The silence between them was filled with the crackle of the fire.
Then he set the photo down, slowly and deliberate.
“You think your wolf’s been right all along,” Kai said, giving Ethan a long look with his dark eyes.
“I know it.”
Kai nodded once.
“When my father took you in, he said your bond with her was rare. A twin flame. Something stronger than blood.”
Ethan swallowed hard, the pain he felt all these years swelling up.
“It’s been pulling at me for years,” he said. “I just couldn’t… couldn’t find her.”
“And now?”
“She’s in a hospital, Kai" he paused, fighting the lump in his throat, his eyes stinging with the threat of tears. They’ve been drugging her. Caging her. She’s been out there, not even knowing what she is.”
Kai’s expression darkened, his own inner wolf, leader, gave a low growl.
“She’s your sister, she’s one of us,” he said. “We take care of our own.”
Ethan looked up, gratitude burning behind his tired eyes.
Kai’s voice softened just slightly. “I’ll increase your budget. Take Mira with you, she’s discreet. And careful. And bring her here quietly. We’ll keep her off the radar until we know more.”
Ethan stood. His hands were already reaching for his pack.
"Don't speak to anyone else about this yet, given she doesn't even know what she is.This could be ..." Kai fumbled for a word "delicate. "
“Thank you,” he said, voice low.
"I'll give our Gamma a few days off training duty. Let him fill your duties while you are away. " Kai said, giving a rare teasing wink
A quick brotherly hug between them and then pulled apart, so Kai could lay a firm hand on Ethan's shoulder.
“Bring her home.”
- Writer
