Chapter 8

Jaxson's POV

Rain lashed against the tall arched windows of my private office, sending cold silver streaks down the glass. Outside, thunder rolled across the valley in low, continuous rumbles, but inside the room, the silence was suffocating.

I sat behind my carved mahogany desk, my hands flat against the dark wood, staring at the small stone basin in the corner of the room. On the edge of the washstand sat the ceramic mug I had retrieved from the lower corridor an hour ago.

It was completely empty.

Not a single drop of the dark, bitter Moon-tea remained inside. I stared at the faint reddish stain at the bottom of the clay, my jaw locked so tight my back teeth ached. It was done. The brew had been consumed. Every potential tie, every microscopic thread that could have bound my bloodline to an unranked Omega had been severed and scrubbed clean.

This was what was necessary. This was what leadership demanded.

I picked up my pen, dipping the steel nib into dark ink, and forced my eyes back down to the northern border treaty laid out across my desk. The parchment detailed troop placements, trading tax exemptions, and the formal terms of an alliance with Alpha Vane.

With Valerie’s father backing our northern flank, no rogue faction would dare cross our rivers. The pack would be secure. My ascension would be remembered as the moment Bloodmoon became unassailable.

So why did my chest feel like a hollowed-out tomb?

She’s gone from the house, my wolf suddenly growled, pacing back and forth behind my ribs, his fur bristling with a dark, restless fury that had been building since noon. You drove her into the storm.

"Shut up," I muttered under my breath, pressing the pen down onto the paper with enough force to split the steel tip. A dark blot of ink bloomed across the clean parchment, ruining the third clause of the treaty.

I swore under my breath, tossing the broken pen onto the desk and leaning back into my leather chair. I dragged both hands down my face, my calloused fingers digging into my stubble.

My skin still burned.

Every time I closed my eyes, the ghost of her touch flared across my chest. I could still feel her small, delicate fingers gripping the fabric of my vest in that shadow-draped alcove. I could still hear the soft, broken moans that had spilled from her lips when I drove deep inside her on my bed, her body arching into mine as if we had been forged from the exact same flame.

And then I saw her face in the grand hall.

I saw the way her dark brown eyes had widened when I delivered the rejection before the elders. I saw the blood drain from her pale cheeks, the subtle, agonizing sway of her body as the physical bond snapped between us. She hadn't screamed. She hadn't begged. She had simply stood there, taking the crushing weight of my decree, holding her head high while the pack sneered at her feet.

A sharp, violent pain flared right behind my sternum—a phantom ache from the severed bond that no amount of pride could dull.

"Alpha Jaxson."

The heavy double doors of my office clicked open, and Caleb stepped inside. My Beta’s hair was damp from the storm, his dark leather cloak dripping rainwater onto the stone floor near the threshold. He carried a leather-bound ledger under his arm, his face drawn into a tight, solemn line that I didn't like.

"The northern scouts have settled into the eastern barracks," Caleb reported, stepping up to the desk. "Alpha Vane’s commander requested an extra supply of grain for their horses, which I’ve authorized."

"Good," I grunted, taking a fresh pen from the wooden tray and dipping it into the inkwell. "Did you review the watch rotas for the southern perimeter?"

"I did," Caleb said. He didn't hand over the ledger. Instead, he stood there, watching me with a quiet, heavy scrutiny that made my instinct prickle. "I also conducted the evening check on the lower servant quarters, as you instructed."

My hand froze for a fraction of a second over the parchment. I forced my posture to remain relaxed, leaning back in my chair and folding my arms across my broad chest.

"And?" I asked, keeping my voice clipped and indifferent. "Did she clear her things?"

Caleb looked at me for a long, uncomfortable moment. "Her room is completely empty, Jaxson. The iron bed is bare, the washbasin is dry, and her servant’s tunic was folded neat on the chair."

A strange, tight knot formed in the pit of my stomach. "She went to the eastern boundary posts, then? Elder Thomas said there was an opening in the laundry station near the river."

"She isn't at the eastern boundary," Caleb replied softly, his voice dropping an octave. "I checked with the post commander twenty minutes ago. No one has seen her."

My golden eyes snapped up to meet his. "What do you mean no one has seen her? The storm started hours ago."

"I mean she left the pack grounds entirely, Jaxson," Caleb said, setting the ledger down on the desk with a heavy thud. "One of the gate guards found a rusted iron bar bent open at the base of the eastern culvert. There were fresh tracks in the mud outside the perimeter wall—a single pair of light boots leading straight into the northern forest."

The room seemed to drop ten degrees in an instant.

I stood up so fast my heavy leather chair slammed into the wall behind me. "She went into the northern forest? In this storm?"

"Her scent was washed out by the downpour almost instantly," Caleb continued, watching my reaction closely. "She took a single bag and her cloak. She’s out there alone, Jaxson. The temperature is dropping, the river is flooding, and the northern woods are crawling with rogue scouts."

"Why the hell didn't the gate guards spot her?" I roared, my Alpha command slamming into the space between us, making the glass in the windows vibrate. "What are we paying them for if an Omega can crawl through a drainage pipe under their nose?"

"She crawled through that pipe because you publicly humiliated her and ordered her out of your sight before nightfall!" Caleb snapped back, refusing to bow his head to my aura. He took a step closer to the desk, his jaw set in rare, open defiance. "What did you expect her to do, Jaxson? Stay here and sweep the floors while Valerie wears the Luna ring? She has pride! You stripped her of her dignity in front of thirty elders, handed her a cup of poison, and expected her to sit quietly in a corner?"

"It was Moon-tea!" I snarled, stepping around the massive desk until I was inches from his face, my chest heaving, my golden eyes blazing with raw, unchecked power. "It was a practical measure! She is an Omega! She cannot hold the Luna seat, Caleb! You know the pack laws as well as I do!"

"To hell with the laws!" Caleb yelled back, his fists clenching at his sides. "She was your mate! Your wolf knew it, your soul knew it, and you threw her away because you were terrified of what Alpha Vane and a few decrepit elders would say!"

His words hit me like a physical blow to the face.

I clamped my jaw shut, my throat working against the tight collar of my jacket as the silence stretched thin and dangerous between us. My wolf slammed against my ribs, clawing at my chest, letting out a horrific, mournful howl that echoed through my head until my vision blurred with red.

She is in the dark, my wolf screamed. She is cold. She is bleeding. And it is your fault.

I turned away from Caleb, walking over to the tall arched window. I pressed my palm flat against the cold glass, staring out into the pitch-black night. The rain was pounding down harder now, washing over the dark canopy of the pine trees like a curtain of iron.

Out there, somewhere in the black expanse of those woods, Sienna was walking alone.

She had no guards. She had no pack. She had no mate bond left to warm her blood or guide her home. She was an Omega carrying the raw, open wound of my rejection through a flooded wilderness, exposed to the cold, the mud, and the feral rogues that stalked the borders.

My hand tightened on the glass frame until the wood groaned under my grip.

"Call out a tracking squad," I commanded, my voice dropping into a low, gravelly rasp that sounded like grinding stones. "Quietly. Don't inform Thomas or Valerie."

"And if we find her?" Caleb asked from behind me, his tone guarded. "What will you do, Jaxson? Bring her back in chains to sit in the lower kitchens? Force her to watch you marry Valerie?"

I closed my eyes, the cold stone of the window frame pressing into my forehead. The image of Sienna kneeling on the wet floorboards, her wide brown eyes looking up at me with that shattered, quiet betrayal, burned into the back of my eyelids like a hot iron.

"Just find her," I growled, the words tasting like blood in my mouth. "Find her and make sure she isn't dead."

Caleb hesitated for two seconds, then let out a low, disappointed breath. "Understood, Alpha."

He turned and walked out of the office, closing the heavy oak doors softly behind him.

I stayed by the window, staring out into the black storm for a long, agonizing time. The ceramic mug sat on the washstand behind me, empty and cold, a permanent monument to the choice I had made.

I had secured my borders. I had satisfied my elders. I had proven my strength as an Alpha.

And as I stood in the warmth of my grand office, surrounded by polished timber and authority, a suffocating feeling was growing in my chest area.