10. Find
975 Words
= Mikael =
“Where the hell is she?” I snarled, my voice cutting through the cramped cabin like a blade.
The door flew open. Izza—our pack doctor—burst inside, breathless and pale, with two nurses scrambling behind her. They scattered instantly, tearing through blankets, opening cabinets, checking every corner of the room with frantic hands. Their panic only confirmed what I already felt twisting in my gut.
I had come straight here the moment I finished dealing with the mountain of responsibilities dumped on me today… only to find the bed…damn empty.
Did Amara seriously think she could escape from me?
A humorless laugh slipped out, low and sharp. Did she truly believe she could outrun this territory? Outrun me? And the audacity—the fvcking audacity—to even try?
“She’s not here, A-Alpha…” Izza stammered, stepping forward. Fear carved deep lines across her face. I stared at her, expression flat, cold enough to freeze her in place.
“Then tell me,” I hissed softly, “should I go out there and find that woman myself?”
Her eyes widened. That was enough. She and her nurses scrambled out of the cabin like prey fleeing a predator.
Lorne stepped in behind me, posture tense. “I’ve already sent out some of the men to track her down, Alpha.”
“Good,” I muttered, jaw locked as my anger surged hot and violent. “When you find her, you drag her back here. Immediately.”
My voice left no room for mercy.
Lorne slipped out of the cabin, closing the door behind him, and silence wrapped around the room. For the first time since arriving, I realized how suffocatingly still it was without anyone else inside.
I moved automatically toward the window beside the bed—her window—and braced my palms against the sill. The view opened up to the wide stretch of our territory, forests rolling out like a dark sea under the fading daylight. I scanned every familiar line of it, as if the landscape itself could give me an answer.
Did she actually escape? If she did… why?
The question gnawed at me. The last time I saw her—only days ago—she didn’t say anything but I could vividly remember her expression that she has something to tell me.. Something important. But duty had dragged me away before she could speak: meetings with our neighboring territories, reports of trouble at the southern borders, responsibilities I couldn’t delay. By the time everything was handled, I’d planned to return straight to her.
I exhaled sharply. What’s done is done. There was only one thing that mattered now: finding her.
And when I did… She wouldn’t get away with this. Not after making my people… restless.
The sudden sound of the door swinging open snapped me out of my thoughts. I stiffened. For a second, I assumed it was Lorne, but I didn’t feel his presence—his familiar steady pull as my beta.
This presence—or lack of it—was different. Almost like a void.
I turned.
And froze.
Amara stood in the doorway, stepping inside as if she had simply gone out to gather flowers and not sent half the territory into chaos with her disappearance. Her eyes flew wide the moment she saw me, shock flickering across her face.
“Oh,” she breathed. “You’re back? You’re… free already?”
She asked it so casually.
“Where the hell did you go?!” The words ripped out of me before I could stop them. I stormed toward her, grabbed her by the arm, and hauled her back until she hit the edge of the bed. I didn’t throw her, but it was damn close.
She jerked her arm free, eyes blazing. “What is your problem? If you wanted me to sit, you could’ve said so! You don’t have to drag me like some bag of laundry!”
I let out a dry laugh and planted my hands on my hips.
Wow.
“So you know how to talk back now, huh?” A few days ago, she could barely string two words together—quiet, timid, almost fragile. And now this?
Her shoulders sagged as she looked away, jaw tightening.
“So… you’re healed already, is that it?” I snapped, venom curling in my voice. “Because you sure as hell wouldn’t talk to me like this if you weren’t.”
Silence. She wouldn’t even look in my direction.
“You still haven’t answered me,” I ground out, taking a step closer. “Where did you go? I told you to stay here. Do you have a death wish? Do you actually want to be dragged out and beheaded right now?!”
That finally made her snap her gaze back at me. She glared, brows knitted so tightly I could practically feel the heat of her anger from where I stood.
“I just stepped outside,” she shot back. “I was bored, okay? And since I’m healing, I took a walk. I didn’t go anywhere! I didn’t even step more than ten meters away from this damn cabin!”
I stared at her, confused—no, unsettled.
Because what the actual hell? If she was that close… why didn’t I sense her? Why other’s didn’t…see her?
My eyes dropped instinctively to her left chest—where her mark should be. The place that should have pulsed faintly with her wolf, her identity, her bond to the others.
But there was nothing.
And there was only one explanation for that. When a wolf’s presence fades… it means one of three things:
She’s leaving the pack. She didn’t have a pack. Or—The worst one. She’s already halfway to death.
- Writer
