The Alpha’s Forgotten Wife

Hunted

"Elena, wake up." Dominic's voice was low, urgent, nothing like the calm tone he used the night before. "You need to get up right now."

Elena's eyes snapped open, her body still heavy with exhaustion, but the sharp edge in his voice cut through the fog instantly. "What's wrong?"

"Wolves. Pack wolves, moving through the streets a few blocks from here." He was already pulling the curtain back just enough to look outside, his jaw tight with focus. "Three of them. Moving like they're searching for something."

Elena's stomach dropped. "Searching for me."

"I don't know yet." Dominic let the curtain fall back into place and turned to face her fully. "But I'm not willing to bet your safety on assuming otherwise."

She pushed herself upright, her body protesting after a night of very little rest, her mind already racing through the possibilities. If Kian had sent wolves after her, it meant he hadn't simply let her walk away like he wanted everyone to believe. It meant something about her leaving bothered him enough to send trackers into a part of the city that had nothing to do with pack business.

"Maybe they're not looking for me," she said, though she didn't fully believe it herself. "Maybe it's unrelated."

"Maybe," Dominic agreed, though his tone made it clear he wasn't willing to gamble on, maybe. "But you reek of pack rejection, and if any of them catch that scent trailing back here, it won't matter what their original reason was for patrolling this street."

Elena's hands trembled slightly as she swung her legs over the side of the bed, the reality of her situation crashing back over her fully awake now. Just hours ago, she'd been someone's wife, someone's Luna. Now she was hiding from her own former pack, terrified that simply existing in the wrong part of the city could put her in danger.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"We move," Dominic said simply. "Now, before they get any closer."

He crossed the room and pulled a jacket from a hook near the door, tossing it toward her without hesitation. "Put that on. It'll help mask your scent a little, at least enough to buy us time."

Elena caught the jacket and pulled it on over her thin dress, grateful for the warmth despite the fear tightening every muscle in her body. She followed Dominic to the back of the small apartment, where he was already easing open a door she hadn't noticed the night before, leading to a narrow alley behind the building.

"This way," he said quietly. "Stay close, and stay quiet."

They slipped out into the early morning light, the city just beginning to wake around them, delivery trucks rumbling somewhere in the distance, the smell of bread from a bakery mixing strangely with the fear coiling in Elena's stomach. She kept pace with Dominic as best she could, her bare feet aching against the cold pavement, every sound behind them making her flinch.

"How much further?" she whispered.

"Not far. There's a building two streets over. The owner owes me a favor, won't ask questions."

They rounded a corner, and Elena's breath caught as a figure stepped out from the shadows ahead of them, blocking their path entirely. Her whole body went rigid, recognition flooding through her even before the man fully stepped into the light.

She knew this wolf. He used to guard the park hall doors.

"Well," the man said, his eyes sweeping over Elena with something between surprise and calculation. "Didn't expect to find you out here so soon."

"Marcus," Elena said, her voice tight. "Are you here for me?"

Dominic shifted slightly in front of her, his posture shifting into something protective, something ready for a fight if it came to that. Marcus held up both hands slowly, the same gesture Dominic had used in the alley the night before, though Elena wasn't sure yet if it meant the same thing coming from him.

"I'm not here to drag you back," Marcus said. "If that's what you're thinking."

"Then why are you here?" Elena asked, refusing to let her guard down even slightly.

Marcus glanced at Dominic first, seeming to size him up before answering, then looked back at Elena with an expression she couldn't quite read. "Kian doesn't know I'm here," he said. "If he did, he'd have my head for it."

"Then why risk it?"

"Because what happened last night wasn't right," Marcus said, his voice quieter now, almost like he didn't want the words to carry too far. "I've known Kian since we were kids. I've never seen him look the way he looked after you walked out of that hall."

Elena's chest tightened, unwanted hope flickering somewhere she desperately wanted to smother. "He made his choice," she said firmly. "The bond made it for him. That's what he told the whole pack."

"Maybe," Marcus said. "But the bond doesn't explain why he's been standing in his study since midnight, refusing to see anyone, including his new mate."

Dominic's hand found Elena's arm gently, a silent reminder that they didn't have time to stand in the open street discussing Kian's emotional state while pack wolves searched nearby. Elena understood the warning, but something in Marcus's words had planted itself too deep to ignore completely.

"I don't care what he's doing," Elena said, forcing steel back into her voice. "I'm not going back. Not now, not ever."

"I'm not asking you to," Marcus said. "I'm only telling you because I think you deserve to know the truth, whatever you decide to do with it."

He stepped aside then, clearing their path forward, and Elena hesitated only a moment before moving past him with Dominic close beside her. She didn't look back, refusing to let herself search for any sign of sympathy or regret on Marcus's face that might weaken her resolve.

They walked in silence for several more minutes before Dominic finally spoke. "You believe him?"

"I don't know what I believe anymore," Elena admitted. "But it doesn't change anything. I still can't go back."

"No," Dominic agreed. "But if Kian really is falling apart the way Marcus says, it might not stay that simple for long."

Elena didn't answer, her hand drifting instinctively to her stomach as they reached the new building Dominic promised would be safe. She had no room left in her heart for Kian's guilt, not when she had a child to protect and a life to rebuild from nothing.

But as they climbed the narrow staircase toward their next hiding place, she couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that Marcus's warning wasn't the last she would hear about Kian's unraveling.

And somewhere behind them, in a study he refused to leave, Kian was about to make a decision that would put every wolf in Ashcroft back on Elena's trail.