Chapter One - The Scent of What's Missing

( Kael's POV )

The night was too quiet.

Not the silence of peace, but the silence that came when something was out of place. My wolves prowled the borders, paws whispering over dead leaves, tails flicking with unease. Every sound, every shift of the wind, every heartbeat of the forest pressed sharp against my instincts. Something was wrong.

I stood on the ridge overlooking the valley, the moon spilling silver across the world like spilled blood. My pack patrolled below, moving with discipline, each one tethered to me by the bond of dominance. Their minds hummed against mine, steady, loyal, but beneath it all was a tension I couldn’t shake.

Five months. That was how long it had been since the night she left.

Aria Vale.

Her name still tasted like ash on my tongue. One night, that was all it had taken to brand her into my veins. Her scent, wildflowers and rain, still haunted my every breath. I had let her close, closer than anyone, and she had vanished before dawn. No word. No reason. No trace

Betrayal, my wolves whispered, Weakness, I told myself.

But the truth dug deeper, I hadn’t stopped looking.

I told no one how often my patrols stretched farther than necessary, how often I scanned the crowd during pack gatherings for a flash of chestnut hair, how often I woke with the ghost of her touch burning my skin. My Beta, Jaxon, had noticed the edge to my moods, the way I tore into training drills with a violence that left men staggering. He hadn’t asked. He knew better.

Tonight, though, something tugged at me harder than it had in months. The air carried a thread of scent I almost recognized, something sweet, something warm, buried under smoke and distance. My wolf snarled beneath my skin, restless.

I wanted to rip the night apart until I found it.

Kael. Jaxon’s voice broke the quiet, steady as always. He approached from the trees, blond hair damp with sweat, blue eyes sharp. The hunters on the western flank caught movement. A figure, cloaked. Female.

My head snapped toward him. Human?

Not human. Wolf. Alone.

My jaw clenched. The valley stretched endless before me, shadows spilling like ink. If it was her, if it was Aria, five months had been too long. My wolf surged, claws scraping at my insides, demanding I run, demand I claim.

But Alphas did not run blind into the night for the ghosts of women who had betrayed them.

Bring her in, I ordered, voice cold.

Jaxon hesitated. She was fast. Clever. We lost her trail near the arch ruins.

The arch. Witch territory.

My lips curved into a snarl. Then she wasn’t alone.

I descended into the valley with Jaxon at my side, our wolves close enough to taste the edge of my temper through the bond. They lowered their heads as I passed, instinctively submissive under the weight of my dominance. Good. A pack was strongest when they remembered who led them.

But even their obedience couldn’t quiet the storm inside me.

Every Alpha dreamed of an heir. Blood to carry the line, strength to inherit the throne. The Council had whispered at me for months, choose a mate, claim a Luna, secure your legacy. Selene Hart had been circling like a vulture, her silver hair gleaming every time she positioned herself at my side. I hadn’t touched her. I hadn’t touched anyone since Aria.

An Alpha didn’t need to explain himself. But I had no heir. No Luna. Nothing but the hollow space where she had been.

And tonight, that hollow space bled like an open wound.

By the time we reached the ruins, the night was heavier, the wind sharp with coming frost. The old arch stood jagged against the sky, stone split and overgrown. Witchcraft clung to it like cobwebs. My wolves circled, restless. The scent was stronger here, faint but undeniable, wolf, female, familiar.

My wolf howled inside me.

Aria.

It was her. I knew it with a certainty that split me open.

But beneath her scent was something else, fainter, buried. Sweet and new, like spring earth after rain. My breath locked in my chest. My wolf froze, then roared.

No. Not possible.

Jaxon glanced at me sharply. You catch it too?

I didn’t answer. My jaw was steel, my fists tight. I could not speak the truth aloud. If I did, the night itself would shatter.

She was carrying something. She was carrying mine.

The realization ripped through me, tearing past rage, past betrayal, past every wall I had built. A growl shook my chest, raw and brutal. My wolves stilled, sensing the storm rising.

Jaxon’s eyes widened. Kael…

Find her, I cut in, voice low and lethal. Scour every inch of this forest. Every den, every witch hole. Leave no stone unturned.

He nodded sharply and gave the order. The pack scattered, howls splitting the night.

I stood alone at the arch, staring into the dark where her scent faded. The memory of her body pressed to mine burned like fire. I had claimed her once, but not fully. Not with a mark, not with blood. She had slipped through my fingers like smoke.

But she had not slipped far enough.

The child inside her was mine. I could feel it, the bond whispering across the distance. My blood. My heir.

And she thought she could hide it from me.

Foolish. Brave. Deadly.

My chest ached with something savage and twisted, a mix of fury and hunger and a pull I couldn’t name. She had betrayed me by running. But she had carried my blood. That meant she was still mine.

I tilted my head back to the moon, letting the power of it wash over me. My voice was a vow when it left my lips, low and certain, carried by the night wind.

You can run, Aria. You can hide. But the child is mine. You are mine. And I will claim what belongs to me.

The bond inside me pulsed, as if she heard, as if she trembled somewhere in the dark.

I smiled then, a sharp, dangerous curve of lips.

The hunt had only just begun.