Bravemont

Nikolai’s POV

I adjusted the plain cloak around my shoulders, keeping my head down while I moved through the crowd. The morning sun was scorching a bit higher than it should be for a morning sun.

This had been something I’d started doing a few months back. Disguising myself as a trader or merchant and slipping into these border towns unannounced. It gave me a perspective I couldn’t get from pack reports and official channels. I could see how our commerce actually functioned, what traders said when they didn’t know the Alpha was listening, and where the weaknesses in our trade routes were.

That day, I had joined a caravan of leather merchants heading to Bravemont. The traders thought I was just another handler hired to help transport goods. They talked freely around me, complaining about road conditions and tariffs, while gossiping about other packs.

“You coming or what?” one of the traders had called back to me. I nodded and followed them toward the main market square where they were setting up their stalls.

Bravemont was a bustling trade town, neutral territory where wolves from different packs came to buy and sell. It sat at a crossroads between three territories, making it perfect for commerce but also a haven for those who wanted to disappear.

“Good crowd today,” one of the merchants commented. “Should make a decent coin.”

I grunted in agreement, stacking leather rolls onto the display table. My hands moved automatically, until my attention caught something else. I froze. The leather roll slipped from my hands and hit the ground. Yet what mattered to me was the figure I had seen across the square, maybe thirty feet away, standing in front of a fabric stall. That was Celia. And no matter how she appeared, I couldn’t mistake that look.

My heart raced speedily as I stared in her direction. For a second, I thought I was hallucinating. That five months of searching had finally driven me insane and I was seeing things that weren’t there. Yes, five months!

It had been five fucking months since that omega had disappeared. And despite every resource I had thrown at finding her, it went futile. Like she had vanished into the air itself.

My trackers had searched for weeks. They had followed every possible trail, questioned every omega in the pack, checked every neighboring territory. Yet they found nothing. It had been like she had never existed at all.

Marcus had suggested we give up after the first month.

“She’s just an omega, Alpha. Surely there are more important matters—”

I had nearly taken his head off for that comment. Because it wasn’t about her being important. It was about the principle of the thing. No one defied me. No one walked away from an Alpha without permission. The fact that she’d attempted it, that she’d somehow slipped through every guard and tracker, made me look weak. At least that was what I told myself.

I refused to examine the other feelings too closely. The way my wolf had been agitated ever since she left. The way I still pictured her face when I was with Leah. The hollow sensation in my chest that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times I told myself she meant nothing.

The first week after she had disappeared, I had barely slept. I’d convinced myself it was just anger. That it was nothing more than a wounded pride. But my wolf had paced restlessly every night, whining in a way I’d never experienced before.

“She’s nothing,” I had told myself over and over. “Just an omega who got lucky enough to slip away.” But if she was nothing, why couldn’t I stop thinking about her?

The second month had been worse. Leah had noticed my distraction and asked what was wrong. I’d lied and said it was pack business. Political tensions with neighboring territories. Anything but the truth.

Because how could I explain that I was obsessed with finding an omega I’d called worthless? That every night I lay awake remembering the way she had looked at me, with hope at first, and then with devastation. That I kept hearing her voice saying I’d regret it. And without giving up, we had continued our endless search until I had to find her in the one place I never thought of.

She was looking at some cloth, running her fingers over it absently while the vendor talked with her. After five months of nothing but dead ends, false leads, and frustration, there she fucking was. Standing there like she hadn’t turned my entire world upside down.

My hands clenched into fists. The rage that had simmered for five months started boiling to the surface. Did she have any idea what she had put me through? The resources wasted? The sleepless nights? The way my wolf had been losing its mind?

She turned slightly, reaching for something on the vendor’s table, and that was when I saw it. Her rounded protruded belly. And at the sight of that, everything inside me went still initially. And the next second, my insides exploded! She was fucking pregnant the whole time!

The rage that tore through me was red hot and all-consuming. My vision blurred and my claws extended, cutting into my palms. She had been gone for five months, while carrying my child? The math was undeniable. She said no one had looked at her that way. So I might have been her first or been her first after a very long time. And the one night I had been with her, she had gotten pregnant.

So she hadn’t just defied me. She had stolen something that belonged to me. She had taken my seed, my heir, and disappeared without a word. My breathing turned ragged as every instinct screamed at me to cross that square, grab her, drag her back where she belonged. But I forced myself to stay still, watch and strategize.

She had no idea I was there. She was relaxed as she conversed calmly with the vendor, one hand resting protectively on her stomach.

“Hey, you alright?” one of the merchants asked, touching my shoulder. I jerked away, forcing my claws to retract. “Fine.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

More like a thief. But I knew better and so I smiled and took his hands off me. My jaw clenched so hard I heard my teeth grind. But I couldn’t cause a scene. Revealing myself in the middle of a neutral market would cause diplomatic issues I didn’t need. This required strategy.

I watched as Celia finished her conversation with the vendor and carefully placed her purchase into a small bag. I watched as she turned and started walking toward the far end of the square. My eyes tracked her every step. The careful way she walked, one hand near her belly. The way she kept her head down, trying not to draw attention. I scoffed. Too late for that.

Now it was my turn.

I was going to drag her back to Silverpine. I was going to make her understand exactly what happened when you stole from an Alpha. I was going to make sure she never thought about running from me again. She was going to learn. One way or another, Celia Hartwood was going to learn you didn’t walk away from Nikolai Rydor. And you sure as hell didn’t run off with his heir.

The merchant was saying something, but I didn’t hear it. All I could see was Celia disappearing into the crowd.