CHAPTER 4—THE EMPTY SPACE BESIDE HIM

Alpha King Dominic woke with a smile on his face.

For the first few seconds, he simply lay there, staring up at the canopy above him. Sunlight filtered through the branches, mixing with the fading silver glow of the full moon. The cool morning air carried the scent of pine and damp earth, and for a moment everything felt strangely peaceful.

Then he reached toward the space beside him.

His hand touched empty grass.

The smile vanished.

Dominic sat up so quickly that the world seemed to tilt around him. His eyes immediately searched the clearing, moving from the pool to the surrounding trees before returning to the spot where Lyra had been sleeping only hours ago.

She was gone.

He got to his feet and turned in a slow circle.

"Where are you?"

"Good morning to you, too."

The familiar voice came from behind him.

Dominic spun around and found Adrian, his beta and childhood best friend, standing several feet away with his arms folded across his chest. Judging by his expression, he had been watching for a while.

Dominic barely noticed.

"Where is she?" he asked again.

Adrian frowned. "Who?"

"My mate." He responded without thinking.

For a moment, Adrian simply stared at him, then he laughed. Dominic's expression remained unchanged. Gradually, Adrian's laughter faded.

"Wait," he said. "You're serious."

"I am."

Adrian looked around the clearing. Then he looked at Dominic. 

"Dominic, when I found you this morning, you were sleeping here alone. What mate are you talking about?"

"No," Dominic repeated. "She was here."

His gaze swept over the clearing again as if Lyra might suddenly step out from behind one of the trees. Something still pulsed faintly inside him. He could feel it, she existed. What happened last night had been real. There was no possibility that he had imagined it.

Adrian rubbed the back of his neck.

"You've spent years rejecting every woman the council introduced to you. Now I find you sleeping in the forest and suddenly you have a mate?"

Dominic ignored the sarcasm as started moving. The clearing wasn't large, yet he searched every part as though he expected to uncover a hidden answer.

His wolf was restless, pacing inside him with growing agitation. The feeling only intensified as Dominic searched the clearing and realized something else was wrong.

There was no scent.

He stopped walking and frowned.

Every wolf left a scent behind. A marked mate should have left one strong enough for him to follow without effort, yet the clearing carried nothing. The grass, the trees, and even the place where they had spent the night revealed no trace of her.

Adrian noticed the change in his expression.

"What is it?"

Dominic slowly shook his head.

"I can't smell her or link my mind to her."

Adrian scratched his head. "Look, man, I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but are sure you're not imagining things? It's understandable considering what you're about to face in Ashbourne."

"She is real." A low growl escaped Alpha King Dominic before he turned to face Adrian.

For the first time, Adrian's amusement faded.

"Okay, I believe you." He responded with both hands lifted in the air. "I'll help you look."

Dominic's gaze swept over the clearing once more. Every instinct told him his mate had been there. The bond between them was undeniable. He could still feel it. Yet somehow the forest seemed determined to hide every trace of her existence.

Then something white caught his eye near the base of a tree.

Without another word, he walked toward it.

Adrian followed close behind.

Dominic bent down and picked up a torn piece of underwear. His heartbeat quickened immediately. He recognized it at once.

Several feet away lay another piece of the dress he had ripped. Adrian stared at the fabric before looking back at Dominic.

"Well," Dominic held up the cloth. "What were you saying about me imagining things?"

Adrian rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll admit it. There was definitely a woman."

The discovery should have made Dominic feel better. In a way, it did. The fabric didn't tell him who she was or where she had gone, but it proved that the night had been real. She had been here. His mate existed. Now he just had to find her.

"Help me find her."

Adrian let out a long sigh.

For the next hour, they searched every trail surrounding the clearing. They checked the stream, followed animal paths through the woods, and examined every route leading away from the pool.

The farther they searched, the more frustrated Dominic became. There were no footprints, no scent, and no clues. It was as though she had simply vanished.

Eventually, Adrian stopped walking and turned toward him.

"We need to go."

Dominic continued forward.

"No."

"Alpha Dominic," this time Adrian was not speaking as his friend but as his beta.

"I said no."

Adrian caught up with him and stepped into his path.

"The council expects us back at camp."

That finally made Dominic stop. This reminder irritated him to his core.

The council had spent years trying to find him his special mate. A special wolf, about whom the ancient prophecy spoke, who would change Dominic's cursed fate and that of his kingdom forever, the one who carried the moon goddess's blood. 

Possible intel had led them to believe that there was an unmated she-wolf in Ashbourne who could be the one. They were on their way to Ashbourne to meet her during the mating ball and had pitched their tents here for the night when he met his mate.

"The Ashbourne mating ball starts tonight," Adrian said. "The council still believes you'll meet your future Luna there."

"Fucking terrible timing." He scoffed. Meeting his true mate, the same day the council expected him to bring home another wolf as his mate seemed like the goddess playing a sick joke on him.

"I have already met my mate."

Adrian's expression grew serious.

"You know this changes nothing if we end up finding the Moon Goddess heir, right? The council will not let that happen."

Dominic looked down at the torn fabric still clutched in his hand.

"Right. I need her to save the fucking kingdom." He muttered.

He hated admitting it, but Adrian was right. But that didn't mean he was about to give up on his true mate.

"I'll go to the fucking ball on only one condition, I'll take the moon goddess heir as the council expects, but I'm not marking her. We will only be together until her powers activate, purely non - sexual, after that, I'll be taking in my true mate as the Luna."

Adrian stepped beside him. "The council can work with that."

Some of the tension inside Dominic eased.

"Send some scouts out. Tell them to search every trail between here and Ashbourne for any wolf with a fresh mate bond mark. It'll take some days for the mark to heal. We can find her before then."

"Yes, Alpha," Adrian responded, then started walking. "Come on, let's get prepared before we are late for the ball."

Dominic's gaze drifted toward the forest one last time before trolling behind Adrian.