Barefoot, I padded across the icy hardwood floor, my steps silent. My dress was a crumpled heap of fabric near the fireplace, my heels discarded beside it. I snatched them up, my fingers clumsy.
I risked a glance back at the bed.
He was a landscape of muscle and shadow, his profile sharp and unforgiving even in sleep. A lock of dark hair fell across his forehead, the only soft thing about him. Even unconscious, he radiated a suffocating pressure, a sense of absolute control.
Bile rose in my throat.
This was my husband. The man the Beaumonts had sold me to, a political pawn to seal an alliance. They called me wolfless-defective-and let them keep believing it. They'd assured me it was a formality. They'd whispered that his inner wolf had been dormant for three years, that he was a walking corpse, an Alpha in name only.
Last night, that "corpse" had awakened. I had come to dissolve the bond-the rejection papers were in my bag downstairs. I never got the chance to pull them out. I remembered the reception-the clink of glasses, the low hum of Pack elders exchanging pleasantries. Then someone pressed a glass into his hand. I'd watched him drink. I'd watched his eyes change, the cold silver bleeding into molten gold. Then I saw him stagger out of the ballroom on his own-barely upright, one hand braced against the wall, his body already burning from the inside out. I went after him-I still needed his signature. I didn't know the drug was already consuming him. I didn't know I was walking into a storm I couldn't escape.
Fueled by whatever had been in that drink, he had lost control. He hadn't been a man; he had been a force of nature, a storm of pure possession. And my body, traitor that it was, had responded to the damnable pull of a Fated Mate.
The thought sent a fresh wave of panic through me. I had to get out. Now.
My hands shook as I pulled the dress over my head. The zipper snagged-caught on the thin chain around my neck, yanking it taut. I fought back a sob of frustration, jerked the zipper free, and pulled it upward with a rough tug. I didn't bother with a bra. There was no time.
A low groan came from the bed.
My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. Alexander's brow furrowed. He was waking up.
Clutching my heels in one hand, I didn't dare look back again. I crept toward the massive oak door, each step a prayer. My bare feet made no sound on the plush oriental rug.
My hand closed around the cold, ornate brass handle. I pulled the heavy door open just enough to slip through. As I squeezed through the narrow gap, the chain-already weakened-caught on the doorframe and snapped.
A sharp, metallic sound. In my terror, I barely registered it. I closed the door behind me with a nearly silent click.
The hallway was a long, dark tunnel of portraits and shadows. I didn't look at the ancestral Sterlings staring down from their frames. I didn't dare to breathe.
Holding my shoes, I ran.
My bare feet flew across the cold marble of the grand staircase, down into the cavernous foyer. I dodged the path of a lone security guard making his rounds, melting into the shadows behind a towering vase of lilies. Their funereal scent filled my lungs.
I was a ghost in this golden prison.
Finally, I reached a side door, one I'd scouted earlier. It was unlocked. Freedom was a breath of cool, damp night air on my face.
I didn't stop running until I reached my beat-up Honda, parked three blocks away, a deliberate distance. I fumbled with the keys, my whole body trembling.
The engine sputtered to life, a loud, vulgar sound in the sleeping, wealthy neighborhood. I slammed the car into drive and sped away, the tires squealing in protest.
Only when the lights of the Sterling manor disappeared in my rearview mirror did I allow myself to breathe. I sucked in a ragged gasp of air, my knuckles white on the steering wheel, and vanished into the sprawling, indifferent darkness of New York City.
Alexander POV:
The moment the side door of the manor clicked shut, my eyes snapped open.
My wolf was already awake.
For three years, he had been silent. A dead, still thing entombed in my chest. The doctors called it severed. The Elders called it a curse. I called it my reality-a hollow quiet I had learned to live with.
Now he was screaming.
Mine.
The voice tore through me like a blade through stagnant water.
Mine. Mate. Find her.
A scent lingered in the air. Faint, already fading, but unmistakable.
Freesia. Fresh rain on grass.
It clung to the sheets, the pillows, the very air she had breathed moments ago. A ghost of her presence, slipping away with every passing second. Unfamiliar, yet it was the thing that had stirred the dead water. The thing that had brought him roaring back to life.
The surge of power was dizzying. It flooded my veins, a forgotten fire reignited. Certainty, violent and absolute, slammed into me-it was her. The woman who had just been here. She had woken him.
Sitting up, silk sheets pooling at my waist, a primal wave of possession crashed over me. She was gone. My mate was gone. The thought was intolerable.
My legs swung over the side of the bed, and I rose to my feet. Something small and hard pressed against my bare sole on the rug near the door. A pale sliver of stone, catching the first gray light of dawn.
I knelt and picked it up.
A pendant. A simple, teardrop-shaped piece of moonstone. The morning light filtering through the window gave it a dull, milky sheen. On the back, barely visible-a crescent moon cradling a single star.
It was still warm from her skin.
Her scent clung to it, that intoxicating mix of flowers and rain. My wolf howled again, a possessive, furious sound. Fist tightening around the stone, its edges bit into my palm. It was like holding her heart.
A few strides brought me to the nightstand. I picked up my phone, thumb already swiping across the screen to my Beta's contact.
It rang four times before he picked up. His voice was rough with sleep, but it sharpened the moment he recognized my number. "Alpha? It's barely even morning."
My own voice came out gravelly, colder than I'd heard it in years. A command. "Find her."
There was a long silence. "Alpha... find who?"
My grip tightened on the moonstone. "The woman who was in my room last night. The one who just left."
Another pause. Through the static, I could almost hear him trying to piece it together through the fog of interrupted sleep. "I-yes, Alpha. A woman. In your room. Last night." A beat. "Do you... do you know who she is?"
The command left my lips like ground glass. "Use everything. Every camera, every guard's report, every license plate within a five-mile radius. I want to know who she is."
The pendant rose to my nose. Her scent flooded my senses again, stoking the fire in my blood until it raged.
"You have twenty-four hours."
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