Chapter 7

Dante’s POV

She was gone.

A princess waltzed into my life, igniting the dormant feelings I thought had long since died. And then, without a trace, she vanished.

Not a single damn trace.

I could still smell her. Her vanilla and something sweet scent clung to my sheets. 

A scent so intoxicating, it was almost like I could taste it and as if it was burned into my soul.

But it wasn’t just her scent.

Her blood stained the sheets, too.

I marked her with my teeth. Her soft, delicate skin was now marred with my canines. 

The bite was still fresh in my mind as the pulse of her heartbeat under my teeth echoed in my head.

 No hallucination could feel so real.

"Alpha, we have searched every CCTV, every bus and train station, and there is no trace of a woman in a blue gown with red hair," Killian’s voice broke through the haze of anger clouding my mind. His words and the doubt they carried were like poison twisting in my gut. He thought I was losing my mind. They all did. I know it would not be the first time I would be losing my mind. 

But I knew what I felt. I knew what I held. She was real. She had been there.

"Did you ask the guards stationed last night if they saw a short, thin woman with red hair in a sparkly blue gown?" I asked once again. 

"There were hundreds, Alpha. Hundreds of women in blue gowns with red hair. We are trying to track every woman, but—"

His voice trailed off, but I could hear the hesitation. The pity in his tone. They thought I was losing it again. 

But I knew. I felt her warmth.

I could taste her. She wasn’t a figment of my shattered mind.

If I was not a schizophrenic bastard, I would have proven my point with my words without the use of force. 

"Did you speak to the guards?” I growled a low guttural sound that left my throat like a warning. “Find her."

"Alpha..." Killian’s voice faltered, uncertainty creeping into his words. "We have checked everywhere. The stations, the airports, and even the bus depots. There is no sign of her."

I felt a laugh bubble up, but it was hollow. Dark. It twisted inside my chest like an animal scraping at the walls of my ribcage. Anger, frustration. They clawed at me and tore me from the inside out. And I knew something wasn’t right.

I couldn’t let it go. Not yet.

Just as I was about to speak, a new voice broke. 

"Alpha, I have news."

I turned to find Vespera, her dark eyes flickering with something I couldn’t place. She was a Gamma. A female werewolf with the blood of warriors running in her veins. A strategist, sharper than most. If Killian weren’t the loyal Beta he was, she would have long since replaced him.

“What is it?” I barked, impatience dense in my voice.

"Darkwood pack is planning an attack on us in three nights. Moon Lord pack is backing them up." Her voice was cold and calculating. But it wasn’t the attack that caught my attention. It was the mention of the Moon Lord pack.

They were too conservative. Too weak to pick a fight with us.

“Moon Lord?” I growled. "They have never dared this before."

"Alpha Juno's ambition is rising," Killian added, his tone heavy with disdain. "Now he is backing Darkwood? He is seeking death."

Vespera’s voice cut through again, and it was more urgent this time. “I have another lead. The mission you entrusted to me it has brought me to the Moon Lord pack. The person you have been searching for for fifteen years... his trail leads there.”

I froze. Her words sliced through me like ice.

"Who?" I asked. Now, I completely forgot about her. I forgot about the woman whose worn-out panties  I was carrying in my pocket. Like Cinderella, she came into my life. When the clock struck twelve, she left. Instead of glass slippers, she left her worn-out panties there. And just like that, I knew she was not a princess draped in silk and satin but a Cinderella who was waiting for someone like me to pull her out of misery. 

Right now, my attention was on the bastard who stole me of every joy, every feeling, a potential happy life. The bastard who ruined my world. A bastard who killed my mate brutally. A bastard who ruined my happy family. My parents. My child. 

Vespera's face darkened. “Hector. Alpha Juno’s brother.”

She added. “It was him.” 

I could taste the bile rising in my throat. "Hector..." I growled the name like it was poison. 

"Two days from now, he is marrying the Beta’s daughter, Scarlett Rosetti. There is a rumor that she is the princess of the Rosetti family. But there is another rumor… After their wedding, Alpha Juno plans to marry her older sister, Alyssia Rosetti." Vespera’s voice carried a quiet disdain.

I let out a dark laugh that was cruel and low, dripping with contempt. "So, the Rosetti princess becomes a pawn in their game."

I turned my gaze back to Killian. “You know what to do.”

Killian’s eyes glinted with a vicious promise. "Murder Scarlett Rosetti in cold blood."

"No," Vespera interrupted. "She is innocent.” 

I looked her dead in the eye and said, “Anyone tied to Hector will pay. Anyone who dares to cross me will meet the same fate. Destroy her. Bring Hector to me. And burn that damn pack to the ground.”

Vespera hesitated, her gaze flickering with doubt, but she said nothing and nodded her head in the end.

I clenched my fists as blood thrummed in my veins.

I had waited too long. Lost too much. Now it was time for them to feel the same pain I had. Hector would pay. And anyone standing in my way would bleed.

And it would begin with Scarlett Rossetti.