I couldn’t remember the last time someone surprised me.
I remember the way she’d smiled when we’d offered her a ride home after finding her swaying slightly in her heels. The surprised laugh when I’d directed the driver to our building instead. The flush on her cheeks when she’d realized all four of us were coming up with her.
And later, the softness in her eyes when she’d said yes. When she’d offered her throat to each of us in turn.
“She couldn’t have gone far,” I say, more to convince myself than the others. “Not without a car.”
“Unless she called a rideshare,” Tristan counters, shoving his feet into shoes without bothering with socks. “Or a friend.”
“The concierge would have seen her,” Diego says. “Let’s go talk to him.”
We move as one toward the door like a pack on a mission. The elevator ride down to the lobby is tense. I catch Diego’s hand drifting to his chest, pressing over his heart. He lets out a slow, unsteady breath, and I realize I’m doing the same. There’s a hollow pull deep inside my own chest.
Beta-alpha matings aren’t unheard of, but they’re uncommon enough to raise eyebrows. A beta claimed by an entire pack? That’s rare enough to make headlines. But a beta whose presence somehow cured the static? That’s unprecedented.
The doors slide open, and we stride into the lobby with all the subtlety of a SWAT team. The concierge, Sternam, straightens immediately, his eyes widening at the sight of all four Sterlings descending on his desk like avenging angels.
“Mr. Sterling,” he says, addressing me but glancing nervously at the others. “Good morning. How can I?—”
“The woman who left earlier,” I cut him off. “Where did she go?”
To his credit, Sternam doesn’t pretend not to know who I’m talking about. “She declined my offer to call a car, sir. She left on foot, heading east.”
“How long ago?” Dane asks, his quiet voice somehow more intimidating than my bark.
“About twenty-five minutes now,” Sternam says, glancing at his watch. “She seemed... in a hurry.”
I can just imagine. The intensity of last night... For a beta unused to an alpha pack’s focus, the morning after must feel like waking up in the heart of a supernova. She wanted this. She wanted us. I’m certain of it. But wanting something in the heat of the moment and living with it in the cold light of day are two very different things.
“Was she upset?” Diego asks, concern evident in his voice. “Did she seem... okay?”
Sternam hesitates, clearly trying to find a diplomatic way to answer. “She seemed... determined, sir.”
“Determined,” Tristan repeats with a snort. “That’s one way to put it. Another would be ‘fleeing the scene of a multiple claiming like her ass was on fire.’“
I shoot him a warning look. “Did she say anything?” I ask Sternam. “Give any indication where she might be headed?”
“No, sir. She didn’t speak at all, actually.”
Great. So our mate is out there somewhere, alone, probably freaking out, and we have no idea where she’s gone or how to find her. The protective alpha in me is raging for action, for movement, forsomething.
“Thank you, Sternam,” I say, already turning toward the door. “If she returns, call me immediately.”
“Of course, Mr. Sterling.”
Outside, the morning air is crisp, the sidewalk already filling with early commuters. I scan the street, hoping against hope to see a familiar figure in a little black dress, but there’s no sign of Zoe.
“She went east,” Dane says, already moving in that direction. The rest of us follow.
“This is insane,” Tristan mutters beside me. “We’re actually stalking a woman we collectively claimed last night. This is how horror movies start, you know that, right?”
“We’re notstalkingher,” I growl. “We’re... making sure she’s safe.”
“Right. Because nothing says ‘safe’ like four alphas hunting you down on a public street.”
He has a point, but I’m not about to admit it. “She’s our mate now,” I say instead. “We have a responsibility to her.”
“A responsibility she clearly doesn’t want, given the whole ‘sneaking out before dawn’ thing,” Tristan counters.
