Behind The Luna's Mask

Haunting her back.

07

DORIAN

I stood right in the middle of my office, every muscle in my body drawn tight like a damn bowstring. My fists were clenched at my sides with the map of the territory spread out across the table in front of me reminding me of how careless I was.

I slammed my hand against the wood, rattling the glasses of water and making a few of my men jump.

It's been weeks and she's nowhere to be found. My men couldn't find Liora anywhere. Neither did I hear any helpful information about her.

“No more delays,” I growled, for the umpteenth time since she was said to have escaped. “Spread out. Use every resource we’ve got. I don’t care if you have to turn every town, city, or hole-in-the-ground upside down; you have to find her.”

“Yes, Alpha,” they chorused, almost in unison, and they didn’t waste a second more before scattering like smoke in the wind.

The room emptied quickly, leaving just me with the sound of my own thoughts. This was another batch of armed men I gathered to search for Liora. I knew they weren't comfortable with my persistence in finding her, but they knew better than to go against me.

Already, a few of them were made scapegoats after Liora’s escape —those I pronounced unworthy of being guards because they didn't guard her prison cell well.

I paced about the room, helpless and furious. Liora had vanished without a trace. If I didn't find her, I'll have to suck up to her uncle, Alaric, for the rest of my life. That way, I'll have given him a reason to look down on me. He'll deem me incapable and unworthy of his support. Then, I might lose all I just achieved; power and authority.

Alaric had ordered me to find her no matter what. He claimed her being alive was as dangerous as a stray bullet. One can never tell where or whom it'll strike.

Thinking of it, I didn't think it deeply before banishing her instead of ending her once and for all, as Alaric said. Perhaps, my heart took over my sense of reason; the part of me that didn't want her dead.

“Alpha,” Devon, the team leader for the first batch of search men I sent after her called out, crossing the threshold into my office, his face carved with worry. “We’ve searched the outskirts, the old crossing at Eldwyne, and the southern passes. We got nothing. Not even her scent. It’s like she vanished into the mist.”

I rubbed a hand over my face, exhaling sharply. That was the same thing I've been told every day for weeks now.

“Keep checking. Double your tracks if you have to. She couldn’t have disappeared like that unless someone helped her. And whoever it is…” I locked my jaw. “They’ll regret it.”

Devon wanted to speak, trying to tell me it was a lost cause, but I wasn't going to give up. A glare from me shut him up as he left, discontented about the situation.

One by one, my men filtered back in hours later, each bearing the same damn story—no trace, no clue, no progress.

I was barely holding myself together at that point. My patience was splintering. There was no time to act slowly anymore. I had very few hours left before Alaric summoned me, and there was no way I would give him flimsy excuses.

My door creaked open again, and this time, Marcus, my best guy, strode in, his face taut with an urgency that made me sit up. He was holding his phone, and he didn’t even wait for permission to speak.

“Dorian,” he said breathlessly, “we just got a tip from the tech surveillance team. There's been a sighting. A black SUV was seen about thirty miles from the eastern city. It matches the description of the one we suspected Liora could have taken when she escaped.”

My heart stopped in my chest, but my face remained stoic and frozen. “Where exactly?”

Marcus hesitated, and that pause told me everything before he even said it. “Around the border of Alpha Drayton’s pack.”

Everything went still in that moment. My mind blanked for half a second before the rage came crashing in like a tidal wave.

“Drayton?” I repeated, my voice hoarse. “Alpha Drayton? Are you sure?”

Marcus nodded slowly. “We triple-checked it. License plate partial match, same vehicle make and model. Surveillance footage’s grainy, but it looked like it could’ve been her.”

I stared at him, my entire body going cold. My throat dried up instantly.

“She’s… with him?” I didn’t even know how to process that Liora was with the one man I couldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Drayton wasn’t just any Alpha. He was calculated, ancient, and dangerous in the kind of way that didn’t scream with claws or howls. He was all silence and mad-ass strategy.

I stepped back, trying to calm the storm inside me. “How the hell did she even get there?” I whispered, not even to anyone in particular. “She would’ve had to pass through three guarded routes. Nobody saw her? Nobody stopped her?”

Marcus looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “We can't be so sure she's actually there. We still have to find out to see if she really ended up there or not.”

I turned to him with a stare that could’ve shattered bone. “No. Thinking about it now, that's why we haven't caught sight of her in weeks. There's no way she'll completely cover her tracks without the help of someone powerful enough. She is a very smart one, but she's equally emotional.”

I knew Liora to that extent. Having studied her over the days, I had observed one of her weak points to be her emotions. Whenever her emotions overwhelm her, she tends to get disoriented, her steps faltering in the process. There was no way she wouldn't have made a mistake if she were alone. Thus, we would have found her.

Marcus breathed out loud, nodding. “Understood. Should we proceed with cross-checking if she really is in Alpha Drayton’s pack?”

I inhaled deeply, shaking off the heat crawling up my spine.

“Call off every planned search operation. No raids, no ambushes. I want zero engagement with Drayton’s pack. Do you understand me?”

“But Dorian,” he made to speak, “we’ve got movement scheduled at his borders tomorrow night. If she's hiding there, shouldn’t we...”

“No!” I snapped, my voice thunderous. “That man is not someone you poke with a stick unless you’re ready to bury the consequences in blood. Drayton’s not the kind of Alpha who bluffs. If she's there in his pack, he probably knows about her presence already. We can't just charge in there or make our presence known to him.”

“So, we'll just give up after the amount of manpower and resources we put in?” Marcus queried.

“No, we won't,” I answered, already trying to figure out what my next best efficient move should be. “I have to get her back to strengthen the hold of my position in this pack.”

Heavy, suffocating silence hung in the air.

“Pull everyone back from his pack borders immediately,” I added more calmly. “But keep your eyes on them. I want updates on every damn leaf that moves in that vicinity. If Liora’s there, she’ll surface soon enough.”

My heart still beat like a drum in my chest at the possibility of not being able to get close to her.

Later on, I sat at the edge of the leather seat in my study, the fire before me dancing low and hot in the hearth, but it did nothing to warm the cold thoughts crawling through my head.

Liora. Her name alone was enough to set my peace ablaze. If I wanted my peace back, I would have to take the necessary steps.

What should I do?

I knew better than to just go charging into Drayton's pack or snooping around his territory like some haunted maniac chasing ghosts. That man wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter me where I stood, and not just me, but every one of my men too, and he’d do it with a smirk on his face, without even breaking a sweat.

I thought more deeply till an idea struck me.

“Good. I think I know what to do.”

Liora valued her reputation as well as her family’s. I might as well just draw her out with that.