Chapter 3 Gone Without A Trace

Ronan

I stood in the guest lodgings, the air stale with the smell of last night’s party. My boots sounded hollow on the wooden floor of the vacated rooms, where Sienna’s pack had been. She was gone. No checkout, no note. I had told her to go, but she hadn’t said anything, had slipped out of my fingers without a word.

My beta, Liam, was standing next to the doorframe, and his phone was in his hand as he went over the guest registry. “She didn’t check out, Ronan,” he said, his voice steady but holding an edge I did not care for. 

“No one saw her leave. Her pack’s van is parked, but she’s not among them. She’s just… gone.” I spun, my jaw tight, my hands clenched into fists. 

“Gone?” I snapped. 

“How does an omega disappear from a locked down land. Someone saw something. Find them.” Liam squinted at me, but he nodded and sent instructions to the security team. 

“Her Alpha, Derek, told me she’s not picking up there. He is saying that she's blowing him off. You absolutely sure you didn’t see her come out of that cabin?” My wolf snarled, the noise slipping through my bared teeth before I could suppress it. 

“I told her to go,” I said, my voice low, sharp. “She left. That’s all you need to know.” Liam arched an eyebrow, the look saying more than words ever could. 

“You release her as if she were nothing,” he said, deliberately. “Are you sure that’s what you want?

I snarled and stalked out the door, slamming it shut behind me.  I made my way to my SUV, the gravel on the estate crunching beneath my boots, and the city skyline twinkled in the late morning sunlight. A hint of her—wildflowers—still crowded my mind, refusing to leave, sneering at me. I’d done what I had to. She was an omega, nobody from a weak pack. She was not of my world. But my wolf didn’t give a damn, pacing furiously inside me, restless, and furious.

A week went by, then another, and every day was heavier than the last. I buried myself in pack business, in meetings in the downtown office. Contracts, land fights, alliances — none of it could quiet her memory. Late at night in my penthouse, I’d poured myself a whiskey, and it would burn my throat without numbing the aching sense of loss. I thought of her — and I could always see her. Her wide hazel eyes, lips splitting apart in a gasp as she said my name. My wolf growled–hurrying me on–where was she, but I pushed it down, clenching the cup until it broke.

“Anything on the omega?” I demanded of Liam during a 2 a.m. phone call, pacing my office, my voice even edgier.  He let out a sigh, on the other end of the phone. 

“Nothing, Ronan. We searched her pack’s territory, local bars, even the fucking bus stations. No scent, no trace. It’s like she doesn’t exist.” I gripped the phone, my wolf snarling. 

“She exists,” I growled. “Send trackers. Now.” Liam hesitated and then said, “You sure you wanna do this? You pushed her out. Why do you care where she is?” I put down the receiver and smashed my fist on the desk, papers flying. I didn’t owe him answers. I didn’t owe anyone.

The trackers came back empty handed. I met them in a warehouse on the outskirts of the city, the atmosphere metallic, oily and rusty. 

“No scent trail,” one of them, a wiry wolf named Jace, muttered, looking everywhere but at me. 

“We called motels, shelters, and even hospitals. Nothing. According to her pack, she had no family, no friends other than their group.” My wolf screamed in my head, claws itching to slide out. 

“And you’re going to tell me an omega just went missing?” I snapped, walking towards him, my voice quiet and violent. 

“You’re trackers. Track her.” Jace flinched but nodded.

“We’ll keep looking, Alpha.” I shuddered, unable to forget her smell, even after she was already gone.

Another month went by the days being a constant struggle to keep my wolf in line. I bit their heads off and I yelled at Liam and at the trackers and even at the pack elders during a boardroom meeting.

“Stop being careless about the alliance, Ronan,” one of the elders pointed out as we sat around the gleaming table, screens lit up with territory maps. I rose and my chair scraped and I leaned toward her, my hands pressed flat into the wood of the table. 

“I am concentrating,” I snarled, my wolf’s growl raking my vowels.

“Do your job, and I have mine.” For a moment they were silent, eyes lowered, but I could feel their judgment, their questions. I didn’t care. My wolf was a caged animal, pacing, scratching, and begging for her.

I found myself sitting in front of my phone one afternoon, scrolling through the guest log from that night and her name—Sienna Hart—staring right back at me. I hurled the phone across the room, its screen shattering against the wall. 

I tried to forget her, tried to drown her in work, in whiskey, in the city cacophony. But she was in every silent second, her scent seared into my skin, her groans reverberating in my head. 

I’d wake up in my penthouse, mouth dry, hands fisted in the sheets, eyes dusted by dreams of what she would feel like, smell like, taste like. My wolf howled, struggling to be released, out there to track her down, but I kept it at bay, my control ripping loose.

I was in the pack’s training yard one evening, my fists raw from sparring with younger wolves. They had scattered, nursing bruises, after I had thrown one too hard against the mat. Liam stood back, arms crossed, and watched. “You’re out it, Ronan,” he said in a low voice as he drew nearer. 

“Snapping at everyone, breaking things. This about her?” My wolf stirred at him, and I whirled back around to face him, speaking in a growl.  “Don’t say her name.” He held my gaze, unafraid.

“You can’t keep this up. Either you find her or let her go.” I pushed my way past him, hitting the ground with my boots and with my wolf raging in me.

I was alone that night in my penthouse, standing beside my bed, the sheets thrown from another sleepless night. Her scent hung there, weak but unassailable, holding onto my skin despite all the weeks, the months. 

My fist grabbed onto the material, my wolf howling now, attempting to shred the reins I had on it. I was haunted by those bright eyes, that sweet voice, the way she had moaned my name.  I snarled from my throat. "You wanted to leave, little omega? Fine. Don’t think I won’t make sure you remember who you belong to.”