Chapter 4
**Kael's POV**
Three days.
Three days of parties, his mother's gala preparations, and Mina's wide-eyed adoration, and Kael hadn't heard from Sera once.
No calls. No texts. Not even a reaction when he posted photos from the gala to their shared pack feed.
Nothing.
He told himself it was fine. Sera was independent. Low-maintenance. That's what he loved about the woman she'd become.
But on the third night, lying in bed with his phone dark and silent, something gnawed at him.
He opened their mind-link. Pushed.
*Silence.*
Not the quiet of someone sleeping or someone busy. True, hollow silence — the kind that meant the link was...
Blocked?
No. *Gone.*
His wolf, Fenris, snapped awake inside him. *"Something's wrong. I can't feel her. I can't feel our mate."*
Kael sat up so fast the sheets tangled around him. He grabbed his phone and called her number.
*The number you are trying to reach is no longer in service.*
His blood went cold.
"Ronan!" He was out of bed, pulling on clothes, his voice a command that rattled through the packhouse walls. "RONAN!"
His Beta appeared in the doorway within seconds, half-dressed, eyes sharp. "Alpha?"
"Sera's phone is disconnected. The mate-link is dead. Something happened."
Ronan blinked. "Maybe she just—"
"The link is GONE." Kael's canines extended, his wolf clawing beneath his skin. "That doesn't happen unless she's dead or—"
He couldn't finish the sentence.
Or she severed it herself.
Twenty minutes later, Kael was on a plane heading south. He called every member of his pack stationed near their apartment. No one had seen Sera in days.
The building's security footage showed her leaving at 2 a.m. the same night he'd left — three days ago. One suitcase. A black SUV with no plates.
And she never came back.
When Kael arrived at the apartment, the door was unlocked. The air inside was stale. Every closet she'd used was empty.
On the kitchen counter, catching the afternoon light, sat her ring.
Just the ring. No note.
Kael picked it up, and his hands were shaking.
Fenris howled inside him — a broken, guttural sound that made Kael's chest cave.
*"She left us,"* Fenris snarled. *"She LEFT us. What did you DO?"*
"She wouldn't." Kael's voice was barely a whisper. "She would never—"
But the empty apartment told a different story. Every trace of Sera was gone, as though she'd never existed.
He closed his fist around the ring and felt something crack inside him.
His wolf threw himself against Kael's ribs, frantic, furious. *"Find her. Find our mate. NOW."*
Kael called Ronan. "Search everything. Every camera within fifty miles. Every car, every flight manifest, every digital trail. I want to know where she went."
A pause. Then: "Alpha... did something happen between you two?"
Kael thought of the night he left. The storm. Her pale face. The way she'd said *please* like it cost her everything.
And how he'd peeled her fingers off him and called her childish.
"Just find her," he said through clenched teeth. "Find her now."
But Sera didn't want to be found.
And Kael had no idea that the woman he'd dismissed as boring, predictable, and tamed — was someone he never truly knew at all.
---
Three days.
Three days of parties, his mother's gala preparations, and Mina's wide-eyed adoration, and Kael hadn't heard from Sera once.
No calls. No texts. Not even a reaction when he posted photos from the gala to their shared pack feed.
Nothing.
He told himself it was fine. Sera was independent. Low-maintenance. That's what he loved about the woman she'd become.
But on the third night, lying in bed with his phone dark and silent, something gnawed at him.
He opened their mind-link. Pushed.
*Silence.*
Not the quiet of someone sleeping or someone busy. True, hollow silence — the kind that meant the link was...
Blocked?
No. *Gone.*
His wolf, Fenris, snapped awake inside him. *"Something's wrong. I can't feel her. I can't feel our mate."*
Kael sat up so fast the sheets tangled around him. He grabbed his phone and called her number.
*The number you are trying to reach is no longer in service.*
His blood went cold.
"Ronan!" He was out of bed, pulling on clothes, his voice a command that rattled through the packhouse walls. "RONAN!"
His Beta appeared in the doorway within seconds, half-dressed, eyes sharp. "Alpha?"
"Sera's phone is disconnected. The mate-link is dead. Something happened."
Ronan blinked. "Maybe she just—"
"The link is GONE." Kael's canines extended, his wolf clawing beneath his skin. "That doesn't happen unless she's dead or—"
He couldn't finish the sentence.
Or she severed it herself.
Twenty minutes later, Kael was on a plane heading south. He called every member of his pack stationed near their apartment. No one had seen Sera in days.
The building's security footage showed her leaving at 2 a.m. the same night he'd left — three days ago. One suitcase. A black SUV with no plates.
And she never came back.
When Kael arrived at the apartment, the door was unlocked. The air inside was stale. Every closet she'd used was empty.
On the kitchen counter, catching the afternoon light, sat her ring.
Just the ring. No note.
Kael picked it up, and his hands were shaking.
Fenris howled inside him — a broken, guttural sound that made Kael's chest cave.
*"She left us,"* Fenris snarled. *"She LEFT us. What did you DO?"*
"She wouldn't." Kael's voice was barely a whisper. "She would never—"
But the empty apartment told a different story. Every trace of Sera was gone, as though she'd never existed.
He closed his fist around the ring and felt something crack inside him.
His wolf threw himself against Kael's ribs, frantic, furious. *"Find her. Find our mate. NOW."*
Kael called Ronan. "Search everything. Every camera within fifty miles. Every car, every flight manifest, every digital trail. I want to know where she went."
A pause. Then: "Alpha... did something happen between you two?"
Kael thought of the night he left. The storm. Her pale face. The way she'd said *please* like it cost her everything.
And how he'd peeled her fingers off him and called her childish.
"Just find her," he said through clenched teeth. "Find her now."
But Sera didn't want to be found.
And Kael had no idea that the woman he'd dismissed as boring, predictable, and tamed — was someone he never truly knew at all.
---