Feeling uncomfortable as I stand in Aurora’s cabin, waiting for her to return from the bathroom, I check the time on my wristwatch, impatiently tapping my foot on a loose floorboard.
I’ve never visited Aurora’s home, but suddenly, a wave of curiosity passes through me, leading me to a bookshelf in the corner. I catch myself, reeling my arm back when I’m about to reach for an unfamiliar book cloaked in leather.
I’ve never been remotely interested in the omega she-wolf, and now that the pack has decided to sacrifice her to the demon, I shouldn’t allow curiosity to take over. There’s no point in becoming attached in any way, especially to a she-wolf who’s way too young to handle the responsibilities that come with being tied to the leader of this pack.
That’s why I rejected her back then…
Shrugging off the thought, I check the time again, realizing that it’s been almost ten minutes since she left, and I’ve been mulling over the past just as long. I huff an impatient breath through puckered lips, shoving my hands into my pockets and turning away from the bookshelf.
Why is she taking so long?
Biting my bottom lip in contemplation, I decide to go down the passage to find her. I knock on the closed door that she’d entered and wait.
“Aurora…?” I call out, rapping on the door again. It’s the second time tonight that she hasn’t heeded my call; the first time, and the alpha in me becomes infuriated, as if she’s choosing to defy me.
It’s that innate sovereignty that has me pushing the door in without thinking about the consequences of finding her in a compromised position. Not that it matters since I walk into the bedroom and find that it’s empty, the wardrobe doors and nightstand drawer thrown open as if in haste.
A gust of wind billows the lace curtain in, drawing my attention to the parted window. I make my way across the room, only to discover that a piece of torn fabric whistles against the wind on the latch.
It’s the same ivory material as the dress Aurora was wearing. I grab the piece and crush it in my fist, realizing that she’s run away.
***
“She must have known about the sacrifice,” Grandfather Silas sighs.
“She was bound to find out,” Alpha Thane comments flatly. “It’s no secret that the demon is around or that we need to sacrifice one of our own to appease its wrath.”
An unnerving shiver courses down my spine, but I ignore my inner wolf’s reflections and pay attention to the meeting. As soon as the elders found out that Aurora Sinclair—the chosen sacrifice for the demon—had gone missing from her cabin, they called up another emergency meeting. We haven’t decided what to do next, but by the concerned looks on the elders’ faces, it’s clear that they’re worried about the safety of the pack.
Charles, Thane’s father, readily agrees with his son. “The pack is already aware that the demon dog is on the loose. I am certain that they found comfort in the fact that Miss Sinclair was to be sacrificed for their protection. Now that she has fled, what will we do?”
My grandfather clears his throat, drawing the boardroom’s attention to the stern look on his face. “We will have to find her.” He turns to me then, sending another wildly unnerving shiver down my spine. “You will have to track her down and bring her back, Elias. It is your duty as the leader of this pack.”
Gulping hard and squaring my gaze at my grandfather, my palm absentmindedly settles on my pocket, where the piece of Aurora’s torn dress is hidden. When I found it, I could have pressed the material to my nose and soaked up her scent, then proceeded to the woods, where I would have easily tracked her.
Perhaps, deep down, I was hoping the Elder Council would choose someone else in her place. It’s an absurd wish since I have no reason to protect Aurora when I have the pack’s safety as a priority.
“Yes, Grandfather,” I concede with a solemn nod. “I will gather the troops and set off for the—”
“No,” Grandfather Silas interjects. “That won’t be necessary. The omega will not have gotten very far. We need to ensure that Girdwood is protected against any unforeseen attacks, and with the leader out hunting, we need to take the proper precautions.”
I nod again, sensing the extent of how worried the pack is about their safety. Of course, I can handle my own and don’t require the assistance of our soldiers to go out in search of an omega.
The only trouble is that when I set off to track Aurora down, I’m left with my lone thoughts, my inner wolf swimming to the surface and ruffling the feathers of thoughts I’ve been putting off for years.
Aurora Sinclair …
She was always the outcast of the Snehvolk Pack because she wasn’t as fit as a werewolf should be and because she had a crazy grandmother who often rambled about things in her native tongue. No one understood her, and I watched Aurora sink deeper and deeper into herself, even preventing her wolf from emerging in its true form on the night of her eighteenth birthday.
I was already a thirty-year-old alpha when she turned eighteen, and I’d been hardened by the loss of both my parents by the time I turned twenty-one. My grandfather took it upon himself to raise me and train me as the leader of this pack, and I couldn’t disappoint him. I had a lot riding on my leadership and couldn’t risk being caught in a web of romance with the outcast of the pack.
Even if it was my inner wolf who’d thought, for a split second, that the she-wolf whose arm he’d touched sent enough electric awareness charging through his fingertips that she might have been his fated mate.
I’ll never forget that night when she turned eighteen. As the leader of Snehvolk, I’d naturally become aware of her absence around the ceremonial bonfire that night, even though it wasn’t a celebration of her birthday but an annual ritual under the gray skies that are annually lit up by the crimson Lunar Moon.
She’d been missing, and it was duty that led me to the mountains to find her and bring her back to the gathering to join the others. She’d been crying—I noticed it from the way her shoulders shook when I approached her. And when I reached out to touch her arm, I felt a paralyzing current rushing through me, almost binding me to her and tying a knot around my wrist like the one that was beginning to form in the pit of my belly.
Luckily for me, she’d turned her doe, tear-stricken brown eyes on me, reminding me that those pitiful depths belonged to the lowest omega in the pack’s ranks. My mind went to war with my inner wolf’s consciousness as it purred and licked its intangible lips as if it was seeing her through the lens of a potentially fated mate.
