Page 136 of Rejected By the Alpha

“I have bad news, Reaper,” Hax, one of the wolves in Braveclaw, said, approaching our property from the east. He fully shifted into his human form and bowed his head. “We were unable to locate Pavel.”

After I had finally gotten Davix to leave with Hazel and a reluctant Lilliana, I had immediately mindlinked with Braveclaw because I needed to figure out what the fuck was going on. Davix had refused to tell me anything.

I glanced up at Ember’s window, making sure it was closed. I didn’t want her overhearing that her brother was missing too. What a fucking way to end her birthday. First a war, then a rejection, then her brother gone?

That didn’t even cover Lilliana’s return.

Ember hadn’t talked to me since they had left, nor had she eaten any of her cake. Instead, she had run to her room and cried. I didn’t blame her either. What I had done was disgusting. I loved Ember—I truly did—but my wolf … he had taken control of me when he saw Lilliana.

She had invited me to return to Davix’s pack for the night, but I … I didn’t know what I wanted. I couldn’t believe why or how she was alive again. It didn’t make any sense. What wasn’t she telling me?

“Where have you looked?” I asked Hax.

“All throughout Black Hollows.”

“Everywhere?” I asked, brows raised.

He had said he was just going to get Ember’s present …

Hax nodded. “Yes. We’ve searched the Hollows several times now.”

I blew out a low breath and scanned the forest, trying to put this all together.

Why had Davix wanted to see Pavel so badly?

Never once had I heard him mention Pavel’s name, not even in passing. Davix had sounded like he knew something that I didn’t about Lilliana, especially how he pushed her away without a care in the world. How he had said that it wasn’t really her …

“And there’s no trace of him?”

“No.”

“Do you think it’s Alaric and the Crimson Order?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “If it was, they don’t leave a trace when they kidnap someone.”

I clenched my jaw and nodded. “I don’t care what it takes. Find Pavel.”

After nodding, he shifted back into his wolf form and sprinted through the woods. I walked back into the house and locked the door behind myself. Moonlight flooded into the house through the windows, and I could feel Ember’s heat radiating through the walls.

I couldn’t leave her alone, but I couldn’t stay here tonight.

I stared up the stairs, my body aching to hold Ember.

While I wanted to respect Ember’s wishes and not talk to her, she needed someone right now. She had just gotten rejected, and I had been thinking long and hard about how we could heal her because Dr. Yoder had been lying.

Ember wasn’t getting any better.

I didn’t want her to die, not now, not in a couple of months, not ever.

I had already gone through hell when Lilliana died. This would be worse. For me.

Maybe not my wolf. But for me.

If I marked her, maybe it would change her fate. Maybe the healing properties we had as wolves would help fix her. Maybe … she’d stay alive, even if it was just for a while longer, just a little bit. That was all I asked for.

Tonight into tomorrow and beyond, Ember would go through heat because she had once been Davix’s mate. It didn’t matter if she was human or not; she had gone through heat before, and she’d go through it again.

This time would be worse because she had been rejected.