Just hours earlier…
After escorting Emily home, she clung to him like a second skin, her scent clouding his judgment.
“Stay a while, Damien.” Her fingers traced hypnotic circles on his palm. “You’re already here…”
An inexplicable anxiety squeezed his chest. Something felt wrong.
“I should get back to Sierra,” he muttered. “I promised to spend tonight with her.”
He tried pulling away from Emily’s touch, Sierra’s disappointed face haunting him.
It had been so long since he’d properly been with his mate. The guilt gnawed at him. The thought of Sierra waiting brought a fond, guilty smile to his lips.
Emily wasn’t deterred. She pressed herself against him, arms snaking around his waist.
“But don’t you want to see what I’m wearing under this?” Her voice dripped honey. “I bought it just for you… but if you don’t want to see it…”
Her hands slipped under his shirt, nails grazing his skin.
Damien’s expression hardened even as desire stirred. “No. I promised Sierra.”
But Emily knew exactly how to touch him, where to press. Soon his resolve crumbled like sand.
Hours later, he meticulously straightened his clothes, checking that not a single wrinkle would betray his infidelity.
The drive home felt longer than usual, dread building with each mile.
“Sierra, I’m back. Sorry I was…” Late. The words died in his throat.
Something was terribly wrong.
The pack house stood silent as a tomb. Sierra’s scent was hours old.
Moonlight flowers – her favorites – sat untouched in their vase, already beginning to wilt.
His heart lurched painfully as he searched room after empty room.
Any moment now, she’d appear, She had to.
“Sierra…” His voice cracked on her name.
He called again and again, panic rising with each unanswered cry.
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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 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…”
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But no one had seen her. No one knew anything.
