“Sierra…” His voice cracked on her name.
He called again and again, panic rising with each unanswered cry.
An impossible thought took root. Had she…?
No. She wouldn’t leave him. She couldn’t.
“Sierra, this isn’t funny anymore. Come out – we’ll open that gift like we planned.”
His voice grew more desperate. “I’m sorry about this morning. I know I’ve been distant. Please…”
He tore through the house, looking for any sign of her.
That’s when the emptiness hit him. The bare walls where photos had hung. The missing knick–knacks that had
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made their house a home.
Damien felt his world tilting sideways.
Their mating ceremony portrait her favorite was gone.
He stumbled to the garden, his last hope. But even there….
Her beloved Moonlight flower bed was destroyed, fresh dirt covering the devastation.
Pack members were already planting new seedlings, as if erasing her presence.
“Who did this?” His voice shook with rage and fear. “Who touched Sierra’s flowers?”
The pack members exchanged nervous glances.
“Alpha… the Luna ordered them burned three days ago. She said… she said they’d served their purpose.”
“Burned?” The word felt like acid in his mouth.
Damien staggered backwards. The bond in his chest flickered like a candle in the wind.
“When did she leave? Where did she go?”
His voice was barely a whisper now.
They just shook their heads helplessly. “She left this morning with a suitcase. We thought you knew…”
Left? The word echoed in his mind.
But where? Her family had rejected her for being an Omega. She had nowhere else…
He called everyone they knew, growing more frantic with each conversation.
“Have you seen Sierra?”
“Is she with you?”
“Please, I need to find her…”
But no one had seen her. No one knew anything.
Each dead end felt like another knife in his gut.
The despair was overwhelming. He hadn’t felt this lost since before finding her. Sierra was his true mate, literally part of his soul. Losing her was like losing a limb. The bond between them flickered again, weaker now. Distance? Or something worse? “Sierra, please…” His howl of anguish echoed across the territory. “I need you…” His eyes blazed blood–red with pain and fear.
Suddenly he remembered the gift she’d left. Maybe…
–
He raced to his office where the package sat innocently on his desk.
“Open in 15 days,” the note read in her elegant hand.
He clutched it like a drowning man, praying for salvation. “She must have left instructions. A clue where to find her…
475 BONUS
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+25 BORIS
His hands shook as he unwrapped it.
Divorce papers. Her signature still fresh at the bottom.
“No… no, this is impossible…”
He collapsed into his chair, the papers crushed in his grip,
“She loves me. She’d never…” But the evidence was right there.
“Someone must have forced her! Switched the gift!”
He interrogated every pack member, growing more desperate by the minute.
“Who touched this? Who entered my office?”
But they all said the same thing – no one would dare.
The security footage confirmed their innocence.
It showed Sierra calmly entering his office, signing the papers, wrapping the gift.
Reality crashed down like an avalanche..
This was really happening. She was really gone.
The past hour felt like years of torture.
He kept questioning, hoping someone would say it was all a mistake.
But the truth was undeniable.
He watched the footage again and again, torturing himself with her resolved expression.
She’d chosen to leave him.
The bond flickered again, weaker than ever.
Why? The question consumed him.
He replayed every moment of the past months, seeing now what he’d ignored.
The signs had been there – her growing silence, her sad smiles.
She must have discovered his betrayal.
But he’d been so careful! Kept Emily separate from their real life!
How long had Sierra known? How long had she suffered in silence?
His chest ached as the bond grew fainter still.
Tears blurred his vision as another memory surfaced – the day she’d accepted his mark.
Her eyes had been so clear, her voice firm:
“I’ll try my best to be a good mate, but I won’t accept betrayal. If you ever deceive me, I’ll disappear from your life forever.”
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