The Ghost We Hunted

ZAYNE: :

The scent of copper and burnt cedar was so thick it coated the back of my throat. I tore my jaws from the neck of the last rogue, letting the lifeless body hit the dirt with a dull thud. My chest heaved, my claws dripping with dark, viscous blood as the high voltage rush of the shift slowly retreated.

Beside me, Kyle shifted back to his human form, wiping a streak of crimson from his cheek with a careless laugh. “Not bad for a Tuesday night,” he muttered, tossing his hair back.

I didn’t laugh. My wolf was still pacing on a tight leash, claws digging into the dirt, drawn toward the Beta’s cottage by an agonizing, invisible tether.

“Sara,” I grunted, my voice raw from roaring.

I didn’t wait for him. I took the porch stairs in a single leap, shoving past the splintered front door. Beta Thomas was already in his human form, kneeling beside his wife, both of them covered in soot and minor cuts. But my eyes didn’t stop on them. My gaze locked onto the shattered bedroom window upstairs, the empty doorway, the absolute absence of her sweet, faint scent.

“Where is she?” My voice echoed with enough Alpha authority to make the floorboards vibrate.

“Zayne, she was right behind me,” her mother sobbed, her hands shaking violently. “She went toward the stairs… ”

We searched for days.

We turned the Bloodmoon territory upside down. Thomas tore through the northern borders until his feet bled; his wife practically scrubbed the forest floor looking for a trace, a broken twig, a drop of blood. Nothing. No body, no trail, no closure. Sara, our Beta’s half-human daughter, the quiet girl who used to watch us from the edges of the training grounds with those big, hesitant eyes, had vanished into thin air.

For three years, her absence was an open wound in the pack. And for three years, my wolf raged at the empty space where she should have been.

(Present Day)

The heavy oak doors of the Alpha’s private chambers creaked open. The sharp, sterile smell of medicine failed to drown out the rot of dying Alpha blood.

Father lay in the center of the massive canopy bed, his skin pale, his powerful frame withered down to bone. The sickness had taken his wolf first; now, it was taking his life.

Kyle and I stood at the foot of the bed. My twin had his hands shoved into his pockets, his posture relaxed, but I could feel the cold, calculating shift in his aura. The crown was sitting on the nightstand, waiting.

“Zayne... Kyle...” Father’s voice was a wet rasp, barely audible over the slow monitor beside him. He opened his milky eyes, looking between us. “My time... is measured in days now.”

“Save your strength, Father,” I said tightly, stepping forward.

“No,” he growled faintly, a shadow of his old authority flaring up. “A Pack Alpha does not die in secret. Every officer, every bloodline must be present at my funeral to witness the passing of the crown. I will not leave a broken pack behind.” He turned his clouded eyes toward me. “She must be brought home.”

“Sara?” Kyle asked, a sudden, sharp glint flashing in his eyes. “Father, she’s been gone three years. She’s probably dead in a ditch… ”

“She is alive,” Father interrupted, coughing violently until the monitors beeped erratically. When he settled, he gestured toward a folded piece of paper on the table. “A rogue scout passing through the human city... traded information for sanctuary. He smelled her. Faint, masked, but unmistakable.”

I snatched the paper off the table. An address. A human café downtown.

My heart slammed against my ribs with the force of a battering ram. My wolf reared up behind my chest, roaring so loud it made my vision blur.

Alive. She was alive. She hadn’t been slaughtered. She had left.

“Bring her back,” Father whispered, his eyes closing in exhaustion. “Bring the Beta’s daughter home... so this pack can be whole when I pass.”

I turned on my heel, heading straight for the door.

“Well, well,” Kyle murmured, catching up to me in the grand hallway, his easy, charming smirk returning to his lips. “The little runaway was hiding among the sheep all along. How original.”

“We take the SUV,” I said, my tone cold enough to freeze water. “We find her. And we bring her back.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Kyle drawled, a dark, unreadable edge cutting through his playful tone as he adjusted his jacket. “I just want to ask her one question when we corner her.”

I paused, looking sideways at my twin. “What?”

Kyle smiled, though the heat didn’t reach his eyes. “How the hell a half-human girl managed to fool two Alpha wolves and disappear without leaving a single trace.”