Chapter 5: Our lost one

Chapter 5

Ryker’s POV 

The scent of her still clung to the inside of my nose like smoke after a wildfire—sweet wild honey, soft vanilla, and that faint trace of defiance that had always driven me insane. Six years, and one accidental collision in a school hallway had ripped open every scar I’d tried to bury.

I stood at the floor-to-ceiling window of the Alpha Suite in Silverveil’s finest hotel, staring out at the rain-lashed forest. My brothers were behind me. The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on.

“She has a kid,” I said, voice low and rough. My fingers tightened around the crystal glass of whiskey until I heard the glass creak. “A boy. Roughly six years old.”

Ronan paced near the marble fireplace, running a hand through his tousled hair. “Don’t need to be a genius to do the math, brother. He smelled like us. Faint, but there. Like diluted storm and cedar.” His usual playful tone was gone, replaced by something sharp and restless.

Rafe sat motionless in the leather armchair, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor. He hadn’t spoken more than three words since the hallway. Typical. When something truly mattered, Rafe went silent and lethal.

I turned away from the rain and faced them. The mate bond that we had brutally severed six years ago was pulsing again, weak but insistent, like a heartbeat under bruised skin. Seeing Elara had been a punch to the gut. She looked… stronger. More beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with the innocent girl we’d ruined. Her eyes held new steel, and the way she had shielded that boy with her body—

Mine.  

Ours.

The primal thought roared through me before I could stop it.

A sharp knock sounded on the door. Our beta assistant, Elias, entered with a tablet in hand, looking wary. He knew better than to interrupt when we were like this.

“Alphas. Alpha Victor Kane is expecting us for dinner in twenty minutes to discuss the alliance with his daughter. Your father also sent a message—reminding you that the chosen heir must secure this union.”

I growled low in my throat. The marriage alliance. The reason we were even in Silverveil territory. Nightshade needed the southern trade routes and the mining rights Kane controlled. In return, one of us would marry Vivian Kane and inherit the combined packs. Father’s orders. Always Father’s orders.

“Tell him we’re on our way,” I said curtly. Elias nodded and left quickly.

Ronan stopped pacing. “We’re really going to sit through dinner pretending we didn’t just see our rejected mate with what is almost certainly our son?”

Rafe finally lifted his head. His dark eyes burned. “We investigate first. Quietly. No mistakes this time.”

I nodded. The memory of that night six years ago still haunted me in the darkest hours. We had been young, arrogant, stupid. Playboys who didn’t want a wolfless omega tying us down when every female in the pack threw themselves at us. We had used her, rejected her cruelly, thinking we could break the bond and move on.

We were wrong.

The first year after she disappeared had been hell. The incomplete rejection left us volatile, aggressive, and aching. Father had noticed. Instead of letting us search for her, he had shipped us off to the brutal Shadow Ridge training camps for three years—forced isolation, combat drills until we bled, and constant reminders of our duty to the pack. By the time we returned, he had lined up new arranged matches and buried any trace of Elara Voss.

But we had looked. Secretly. For years.

And now fate had dropped her right in front of us.

*****************

The dinner at the Kane estate was suffocating.

The long mahogany table gleamed under crystal chandeliers. Silverware clinked against fine china. Alpha Victor sat at the head like a king, his daughter Vivian to his right, blushing every time one of us glanced her way. She was beautiful in the conventional sense—long auburn hair, bright green eyes, curves wrapped in an expensive red dress. Any other alpha would have been pleased.

We weren’t.

“Ryker, Ronan, Rafe,” Victor boomed, raising his wine glass. “I’m glad the alliance talks are progressing smoothly. Vivian has been looking forward to this union for months. Whichever of you she chooses will make a fine successor.”

Vivian’s cheeks flushed deeper. She smiled shyly, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. “All three of you are… very impressive,” she said softly, her voice sweet and practiced. “I’d be honored to stand beside any of you as Luna.”

Ronan offered her one of his signature charming smiles, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re too kind, Vivian.”

Under the table, my fists clenched. Every time she spoke, I kept seeing Elara’s tear-streaked face from six years ago. The way her voice had broken when we delivered the rejection. The way she had run from us afterward.

I forced myself to respond. “The alliance benefits both packs. That’s what matters.”

Victor didn’t seem to notice our lack of enthusiasm. He launched into talk of territory borders, mining profits, and joint training exercises. Vivian kept stealing glances at us, clearly trying to gauge which brother she preferred. She laughed at Ronan’s occasional polite remarks, blushed when Rafe met her eyes, and tried to engage me in conversation about leadership.

I barely heard any of it.

My mind kept drifting back to the school hallway. To the boy’s hazel eyes. The way Elara’s scent had wrapped around me like a chain I had once tried to break. She was working at a clinic here. Raising our child alone. The thought made something dark and possessive uncoil in my chest.

She should have been with us. Protected. Cherished.

Instead, we had thrown her away.

Dinner dragged on. Vivian grew bolder, touching Ronan’s arm lightly while asking about Nightshade’s traditions. Ronan played along, but I caught the tension in his jaw. Rafe ate in silence, his gaze distant. I knew exactly where his thoughts were—on the boy. On Elara.

By the time we finally escaped the estate and returned to the hotel, the rain had eased into a misty drizzle.

The moment the suite door closed behind us, Ronan dropped the charming act. He yanked off his tie and threw it across the room. “I couldn’t breathe in there. Every time she touched me, I wanted to snarl.”

Rafe poured himself a drink but didn’t touch it. “She’s not our mate.”

I sank onto the couch, loosening my collar. “No. She isn’t.”

A knock. Elias again. This time his expression was alert.

“Alphas. We have the preliminary report on Elara Voss.”

I sat up straight. “Speak.”

Elias cleared his throat. “She arrived in Silverveil six years ago with her mother, Mira. They moved into an old cottage on the eastern edge of the territory. Elara works as a healer’s assistant at the local clinic. Quiet life. No romantic partners on record until recently—a doctor named Marcus Reed has been pursuing her. They had a date this past weekend.”

Ronan growled audibly. The sound echoed my own rising fury.

“And the boy?” I asked, voice dangerously calm.

“Landon Voss. Six years old. Born seven months after she left Nightshade. No father listed. He carries strong alpha blood—yours, clearly. The school incident today was him defending himself against bullying about being fatherless.”

The room fell into heavy silence.

Rafe stood slowly, power rippling off him. “She hid him from us.”

“She ran because we destroyed her,” I corrected, though the words tasted like ash. Regret—something I had rarely allowed myself to feel—clawed at my throat. “We rejected her in the worst way possible. Used her, humiliated her, then tossed her aside. Of course she ran.”

Ronan stopped in front of the window, staring into the night. “What now? We’re trapped in this alliance bullshit. Father will lose his mind if we jeopardize it. Vivian is supposed to pick one of us by the end of the week.”

I rose and joined him at the window. My reflection stared back—older, harder, but the same bastard who had broken our mate.

“We investigate more. Deeply,” I said. “We find out everything about her life here. And we decide how to approach her. Because whether the bond is broken or not…” I exhaled slowly. “She’s still ours. And that boy is our heir.”

Rafe moved to stand beside us, a silent wall of muscle and intensity. “She won’t forgive easily.”

“No,” I agreed. “She won’t. But we’re not the same reckless boys we were six years ago. And this time, we’re not letting her disappear again.”

The mate bond pulsed stronger now, as if agreeing. Somewhere out in the rainy night, Elara was probably holding her son, our son, close, terrified of the past walking back into her life.

I tightened my resolve.

We had destroyed her once.

Now we would do whatever it took to win her back.

Even if it meant tearing apart alliances, defying our father, and proving to the woman we had rejected that we were worth a second chance.

Gods help anyone who stood in our way.