003

The rear left window of the Rolls Royce rolled down soundlessly.My brother, Lucian McAllister's handsome, dark-eyed face peered out, his Alpha scent—different from Darius's but equally commanding—washing over me like a protective blanket.

"Get in, little wolf."

The door lock popped, my cue, and I slipped inside.

I pressed my brow to Lucian's thigh. Laying my head on his lap felt safe, almost like when I returned from a bad run as a pup—scolded, but ultimately sheltered. His hand found my back without hesitation, large, warm, with a stabilizing pressure only my family could deliver.

"There, there."he murmured quietly, stroking me with a patience he seldom showed anyone else,“Let it out,”.

At a nod from Lucian, our pack driver rolled the car into gear. The smooth purr of a well-kept engine vibrated in my bones; I let the tears come, silent and shaking.

Tears hit my lap like broken glass. “I was so stupid,” I rasped. “Blind. Like I’d tied my heart to a cliff edge and jumped.”

"We all chase the wrong moon sometimes, honey. I knew you'd come to your senses eventually." Lucian's voice was warm, lacking the judgment I'd feared.

How long had I craved this—pack, home, family? I cried until my lungs grew raw, until I could taste the salt and shame at the back of my throat. When I finally straightened up, I left damp streaks on the fine wool of his suit.

I wiped my tears on my big brother's tailored trousers, then straightened up, trying to regain some dignity. "Thank you for coming to pick me up. I hope I didn't pull you out of an important meeting with the pack council."

The Blackwood pack had enterprises spanning half the continent, our holdings running deep as the oldest trees in the reserve. It had offices in over twenty cities across seven countries—each a strategic outpost in Blackwood territory.As the oldest son and heir apparent to the Blackwood Pack Alpha position, Lucian was currently serving as president of the family business while our father remained the reigning Alpha.

Lucian glanced sideways at me, black eyes flashing with a love only an eldest sibling could summon. “You texted,” he said. “The world can wait.”

“Anything for my princess, Dolly.” he said smoothly.

"Don't call me that," I protested weakly, my wolf responding to the childhood nickname. "It makes me sound like a three-year-old with a Barbie doll."

He snorted, then ruffled my hair. “You were one, once. Not so long ago, either.”

The warmth of old jokes, the comfort of home pack cracks. It hurt, and it soothed. “That was a lifetime ago.”Lucian just patted my head, his touch leaving comforting pack-scent in my hair as he smiled indulgently at his kid sister. He smiled, watching me carefully, as if weighing if I might bolt again. “I never lost track of you.”

“Thank you for the photo trace,” I said, picking at my sleeve. “It saved me. You have no idea.”

"It just took a couple of calls." With the pad of his thumb, Lucian wiped away the tears on my cheeks, his scent mingling with mine in the familial bonding that Silver Creek had never allowed me to experience. "The moment you mentioned suspicions about Isolde's behavior, I had our enforcers watching."

The weight of my loneliness crashed again. “I missed you,” I whispered, voice breaking.

"As have I, Dolly. We've all missed you. Father howls for you on full moons." The admission carried weight—our Alpha father's ritual acknowledgment of a missing pack member.

I threw myself into my brother's arms again, breathing in the scent of home, of acceptance. "I was such a fool,” I muttered. “You warned me. Dad did. Hell, half the pack warned me. But I ran off anyway. I should've listened when you said Darius would never bond with me properly."

He held me back just as fiercely, his palm heavy on my back. “No one ever thinks the burn will reach them, until it does.”

I sniffled, managing a weak grin as I swiped my nose. “I'm officially done with the Silver Creek pack.” My voice caught. “The divorce papers are on Alpha Silverclaw's desks by now.”

His shoulders eased. “About time you shed that name,” Lucian rumbled. “You're Blackwood again now—and don't forget it, little wolf.”

He pressed his lips to my brow, inspecting my sunken cheeks and puffy eyes with a gentleness I hadn't known I was starving for. “Darius Silverclaw never deserved you.the Sliver Pack never did. Every wolf in Blackwood Pack knew it.”

I barked a laugh—brittle, shaky, but real. “You were right. My arm still aches sometimes. Scar tissue's harder to heal than a broken heart.”

Lucian tapped me on the nose, that old pack gesture. “You've always been the most stubborn in the pack.”

"The blinkers are off now, I promise. No more Stubborn Dolly."

From now onwards, I'm going to be the one who listens to her family and makes smart, informed decisions about pack alliances.

His eyes crinkled. “Does this mean you're coming back? Claiming your place as Blackwood's heir?”

I slouched, pouting just to tease him. “Don't you think an omega deserves at least a couple days of sulking after being used as a blood bag?”

He gave me a sidelong look. “Work's the best medicine for a raw soul. Take it from someone married to the job.”

I shook my head, smiling despite the ache in my chest. Truth was, that kind of steady, Alpha work had always baffled me. “You sound like Dad.”

He chuckled, the sound rumbling through the car. “The Alpha line comes with its quirks.”

Lucian was the workaholic Alpha-in-training in the family.And the worrier.Three years he'd kept his distance—honoring my choice even when it infuriated him. But he'd been keeping tabs on me remotely, as pack brothers were wont to do. The familial bond, though strained by distance, had never fully broken.

I remembered how he'd reacted the day I'd chosen to bind with Darius, how cold his expression had gone. Each warning came not as a command, but with the heavy, disappointed growl of a wolf forced to watch his kin walk into a hunter's trap.

I was the omega who'd run to a rival Alpha, trading the Blackwood crest for the Silver Creek mark all for a doomed fairy tale.The more my family objected, the more I'd dug in my heels, my wolf stubbornly certain she'd found her match.

Until I practically ran away from home and started living under a different name, denying my heritage for a promise that was never kept.Luckily, that rebellious phase had finally passed. My wolf had accepted the painful truth: Darius's wolf had never seen me as more than a convenient resource.

I was supposed to live the life of a pack princess, not a blood donor.

I looked out the tinted window as the car left the hospital.I'd said goodbye to my failed attempt at becoming Luna of Silver Creek.

"You are right," I declared, straightening my shoulders. "Work might actually help my wolf heal."

"But first, a celebration." Lucian handed me a tablet with a smile. "Pick a restaurant in our territory. The pack wants to welcome you home."

"Your treat?"

"My treat. Pack law—the Alpha provides for returning members."

I planted a kiss on my brother's clean-shaven cheek. "Thanks, bro!"

***

Author's POV

Back at Silver Creek, Darius Silverclaw emerged from the Luna's private ward, the burn of stress and confusion in his scent. The council healers swarmed Isolde, already assuring him that she'd simply fainted—no real crisis beyond feigned frailty.

Darius's hand was tight around his phone. He glowered at my last number on the screen, jaw twitching, thumb hovering uncertainly. Then, with uncharacteristic hesitation, he called.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is unavailable. Please try again later.”

He gritted his teeth, nostrils flaring with contained anger. He dialed again, this time calling his Beta Charles.

Fifteen minutes later, Beta Charles Leif tracked him down in the corridor. “No trace of Dorothy Miller in the hospital, Alpha. I've checked every level. She's gone.”

Even the name—Dorothy Miller, not Luna Dorothy, not even his mate—jarred a nerve. He was the one who ordered his pack not to address her as "Luna Silverclaw." He'd never completed the mating bond, never given her his mark—keeping her perpetually in limbo, neither fully accepted nor rejected.

Their bond, never that of true mates, had dissolved as cleanly as any transaction—contract dissolved, resource withdrawn.

The ward door clicked shut behind him. The air hung thick with antiseptic and something else—absence. A scent that should have been there and wasn’t. Why did it agitate him so, this shadow-omega's absence? Why did it matter that she'd vanished out of his pack and life without a backward look? Darius wasn't one to indulge in excessive contemplation. Alpha decisions were made quickly, decisively. All he knew was, he didn't want Dorothy to just disappear on him like that, taking her rare blood—and something else he couldn't name—with her.

So he had to find her. His wolf demanded it.