Her

Chapter Three

Her

Alpha Ash Caden

I woke up to large hands shaking me awake.

"Alpha! Alpha! You've got to wake up." The voice was slightly harsh, but I recognized it instantly. "Goddess, please, why is the Alpha sleeping in the bush instead of his bedchambers?"

"The garden..." I murmured in response as I turned to the other side to hold her, when my hands met with nothing. My eyes snapped open immediately as I sat up.

"Where is she?" I jumped to my feet looking around. "I hope you didn't have her arrested. She's the one I've chosen. She's the one who will be my queen. Where is she?" I looked around, my heart racing as I looked around, trying to see past the early morning fog.

Jordan, my Beta, frowned. "Where is who?"

"The woman." I tried to explain, ignoring the looks I got from them. They thought I was mad or hallucinating, I could see it in their eyes. I just didn't care. I needed her. "She was right here. Beside me."

I looked at the empty space next to me on my coat that I had spread on the ground, and there was nothing. No trace of her as if she had just disappeared into the night, but I remembered everything. The way her skin felt against mine, the way she arched into my body, the way her fingers threaded my hair as she gasped in between moans. The way she has stared at me afterwards and said so many things, unbidden.

The way I knew she was my mate, but she didn't know because she had no wolf.

"There was no woman," Joran said slowly. "We found you alone."

"I wasn't alone when I fell asleep."

My shirt was half-untucked, my boots were somewhere in the grass. I scanned the garden. The bridge. The lake. The hedges. Empty. All of it empty.

"She was real," I said, knowing I couldn't be dreaming of last night. I still perceived her scent on my skin, and I wished to the heavens it would stay stuck to me forever.

Joran exchanged a glance with the others. "Alpha, you need to come inside. The Luna selection ceremony is today. The council is already gathering." Then, he paused to think. "If she stole something from you, then we will find her and retrieve it. For now—"

"Don't you dare..." I was holding a claw at his neck before I could control my actions. "She wasn't a thief! She is my Luna. She is your Queen!" I gritted my teeth before pulling away from them. "I don't care about the ceremony, Jordan. I want her found and brought to me immediately." I gritted my teeth in response.

"You have to care, Alpha. Every Alpha in the region is here and the elders have been preparing for weeks. It seems they've already selected their preferred candidate and are just waiting for a formal review..."

I turned on him, dismissing his statement. "I said search the grounds. Now."

Jordan's mouth tightened. He nodded immediately and gave the orders to the warriors, and they scattered around.

I stood there in the garden with the sun climbing higher and my heart beating and twisting in pain. She had been here. Her hair had been spread across my chest. Her breath had been slow and even. I had memorized the shape of her shoulder in the moonlight. Now, she is gone and I don't even know her name.

*

They searched for three hours but they found nothing. No one matching the description has been seen leaving the estate. No servant recognized the details I gave, and no guest reported a missing attendant. It was like she never existed at all.

"Alpha..." Jordan came, looking slightly uneasy. "Are you sure you don't need to see the pack doctor? We know you've been stressed lately about choosing the right woman, and it's..."

I dragged down my collar and pointed to my neck at the love bites she had given me. The one she said she learned from a book and wanted to try everything out that night. I pointed to the mark. "Look at this? Can't you see? She gave me this last night the same way I gave her all over her neck."

"It could have been an insect, Alpha." Jordan shot back, and it was either he was ragebaiting me or he just wanted to die for calling her an insect. "We've questioned every servant," Joran said. "No one matches."

"She wasn't a servant. She was with one of the visiting families. An attendant. She wore a brown dress that was too long for her."

"Every attendant wears brown."

"She didn't have a wolf."

Jordan paused. "You're certain?"

"I'm certain."

"A wolfless attendant." He shook his head. "That should narrow it. We'll keep looking."

"Bring me an artist."

"Alpha?"

"Someone who can draw. I need a likeness of her face. Something we can show to the families to ask if they've seen her."

*

"Alpha, you need to let her go. Whoever she is..." Jordan was trying to pacify me when the artists that were called drew absolute rubbish. "You've already said she was wolfless, and you know the Alpha council won't accept her at all."

"I will make them accept her!" I slammed my fists on the table. "She's my mate, Jordan!"

His expression dropped into a sad one. "You know you don't have the luxury to have your fated mate as the Luna." He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I hated the fact, for the first time in my life, that I was an Alpha. That I was going to become an Alpha King. Because this was what it meant. Everyone else could live happily with their mates, except me. I had to choose a woman suitable enough to lead beside me and carry my pups.

"Why?" I leaned against the wall before sinking to the ground in despair. "Why do I have to be punished by this fate? We can still find her before the selection. I will prove to them that she is worthy to lead, Jordan. You needed to hear her speak. Do you know that she reads too? How many women in this era reads? And her mind?" I didn't even know the right words to describe how she was full of so many ideas and remedies for things...

Jordan knelt in front of me before. "Alpha... The council members have already chosen, and they want you to come out for a formal introduction."

"Choosen?"

He nodded in response. "The Luna selection. They've chosen Angel Meadows because she fits all the criteria. The only female with a really strong wolf and she's not superficial like the others. She didn't beg for your attention during the presentations."

"I don't remember her presentation."

"You were distracted."

I knew I was. I barely saw the women that had presented themselves to me because my mind was on only one woman.

"The council says she will make an excellent Luna Queen," Jordan continued. "They're asking you to come down and formalize the announcement."

"Of course they are." I pursed my lips.

"Alpha. You knew this was coming."

I knew. I had known since I was eight years old that my life was not my own. That I would marry for politics and not for anything else. I accepted it, well, until I met her... Now, I felt the suffocating weight of what my acceptance really meant.

"Give me an hour," I told him.

Jordan hesitated. "The council won't wait that long."

"They'll wait." I whispered. I didn't care if they did or not, I just wanted more time to myself before I stepped outside and claimed a woman that wasn't her. "And no matter what, Jordan..." I turned to stare at him. "We have to find her before my coronation. I will handle the council members when the time comes."

I was already making plans because I wouldn't stop searching. I would secretly send word to every pack in the region... I would find her. I didn't care how long it took. She was my mate, and she was out there somewhere.

I would find her.