"Or she's too weak to respond," Jin-ho said quietly from his spot by the window, voicing what we were all thinking but none of us wanted to say. I stared at my phone, at the message that showed as delivered but not read, and felt the rose pink bond in my chest pulse with growing dread.
She'd been so sick.
She'd barely been able to stand.
What if she hadn't made it home?
"I should have walked her back," I said, the guilt crashing over me like a wave. "I should have insisted. She was too weak to be walking alone, and I just left her there because she asked me to, but what if?—"
"You did the right thing," Jae-won interrupted, his voice firm even though his thunderstorm scent betrayed his own worry. "You respected her wishes. That matters."
"It won't matter if she's lying unconscious somewhere because I was too busy respecting her wishes to make sure she got home safe." The words came out sharper than I intended, edged with the fear I couldn't contain anymore.
Jae-won didn't respond. He just stared at his own phone, his jaw tight, his knuckles white where he gripped the device.
The afternoon crawled by in agonizing silence. We tried to distract ourselves — Jin-ho retreated to his studio but left the door open, the absence of music telling us he wasn't actually working. Tae-min turned on his game but kept pausing every few minutes to check his phone. Hwan gave up on distraction entirely and just sat there, staring at the wall, his golden eyes distant and worried.
I couldn't sit still. I paced the length of the living room, then the kitchen, then back again, my body thrumming with restless energy that had nowhere to go. The rose pink bond ached in my chest, pulsing with a need I couldn't satisfy, reaching for a woman who was somewhere out there, maybe hurt, maybe collapsed, maybe?—
Three hours passed. Still nothing.
"That's enough." Jae-won stood abruptly, his thunderstorm scent crackling with sudden decision. "Something's wrong. She would have at least read the messages by now."
"What do we do?" Tae-min was on his feet in an instant, his game controller clattering to the floor, forgotten.
"We go look for her." Jae-won's voice was hard, determined, the pack alpha finally taking control. "Min-jun, where exactly was this restaurant?" I gave him the address, my heart pounding with a mixture of relief and dread. Relief that we were finally doing something. Dread at what we might find.
"We split up," Jae-won continued, already moving toward the door. "Cover more ground. Check every route between the restaurant and her apartment. Every park, every bench, every alley where she might have stopped to rest."
"And if we don't find her?" Hwan asked, his voice small.
"We will." Jae-won's tone brooked no argument. "We have to."
We grabbed jackets, keys, phones. The late afternoon sun was already starting to fade, casting long shadows across thecity streets. The thought of her out there somewhere, alone and sick and possibly unconscious, drove us forward with desperate urgency.
"I'll take the route closest to the restaurant," I said, my voice steadier now that I had something to do. "That's where she was last. If she collapsed, it would probably be?—"
A phone buzzed.
We all froze.
It was Jae-won's phone that had buzzed, and I watched his face go pale as he read the message.
"What is it?" Jin-ho demanded, his quiet voice sharp with fear. Jae-won looked up, his dark eyes meeting mine, and I saw something that made my blood run cold.
"I'm going alone," he said, his voice brooking no argument. "Stay here."
"Hyung—"
"That's an order." The pack alpha command rang through the room, making all of us flinch. But there was something underneath it — something raw and scared that I'd never heard from Jae-won before. "I'll bring her home. I promise. Just... stay here and get the nest ready."
Then he was gone, the door slamming behind him, leaving the four of us standing in stunned silence.
"What the hell was that?" Hwan breathed, his golden eyes wide with confusion. I didn't know. But the rose pink bond in my chest was screaming, pulsing with a warning I couldn't decipher, reaching for a woman who felt suddenly, terrifyingly far away.
Something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong, and all we could do was wait.
