Chapter 85 NOWHERE TO FIND HER
DEREK’S POV
I woke up the next morning to find Amber missing. My heart skipped many beats even as I wondered where she was. I rose to my feet, walking towards tha main courtyard. My eyes scanned the area looking for her but she was nowhere to be found. Now, I knew she was gone, there was no sight of her anywhere.
“What the hell?” I barked.
The maids around jumped in fright at my outburst but I didn’t care because everything happening to me right now was something I couldn’t believe. I didn’t know Amber would be serious about leaving but right now, I knew that she had been planning this all the time and now, she had done this, shocking me even.
“Where is she?” Damien asked.
“Fuck me if I know.” I said.
My body shook with anger as I wondered where she might be but the same thing kept ringing in my head, and it was the fact that she had gone to her pack, that was the only thing that kept coming to my mind.
“Its that letter… its that damn letter.” I said.
“What? The letter she recieved a few days ago?” he asked, confusion written all over his face.
“Yes, you remember the time when she got that letter right? The one you gave to me, something was written in that letter that prompted her to leave but still, I can’t prove it,” I said.
“Amber?” I called, my voice rough with sleep and fear.
There was no answer even as my heart rate spiked up because I had no idea where she was. It was one thing to know where exactly she was and another thing to rescue her if she was in danger but right now, there was nothing that could tell me where exactly she was which made everything worse.
I swung my legs down and crossed the room in long strides, pulling open the door, checking the washroom, the small sitting area, even the corner where she liked to stand and watch the morning light. There was nothing.
“Amber,” I said again, louder now. “This isn’t funny.” The words echoed back at me, hollow and useless.
I noticed it then…her cloak was gone. The brown one she wore when she planned not to come back quickly. My chest tightened like a fist closing.
“No,” I muttered. “You didn’t.”
I took the stairs two at a time, boots half-laced, nearly slipping as I burst into the main hall. The servants looked up, startled.
“Where is she?” I demanded. “Did any of you see Amber leave?”
One of the older maids hesitated. “In the morning, sir,” she said quietly. “She asked for a carriage and said she had business.”
“Which road?” I snapped.
“The east road, I think.”
I didn’t wait to hear more. I was already turning, already shouting for my coat. “Prepare the horses!” I barked. “Now!”
Outside, the stable yard was chaotic as I mounted the carriage, my hands shaking as I grabbed the reins.
“Move!” I shouted, cracking the leather hard. The horses surged forward, wheels groaning as we took the road at full speed. The wind tore at my face, but I barely felt it. All I could see was her walking away, her back straight, her head high, the way she always looked when she had already decided to leave me behind.
“Damn you,” I said under my breath. “Damn me.”
I stopped at every crossing, every small village along the road, leaning from the carriage to shout questions.
“A young woman,” I said again and again. “Dark hair, wearing a brown cloak. Did you see her?”
Some shook their heads. Some pointed east. One man at a roadside inn frowned and said, “She hired a carriage not long ago. Paid well. Looked like she didn’t want company.”
“Which way?” I asked, my voice tight.
“Toward the old forest.”
My heart dropped. The forest was dangerous this time of year, filled with bandits and worse. I whipped the reins again, pushing the horses harder.
“Faster,” I urged. “Please, faster.”
As we neared the forest edge, I spotted tracks in the dirt…fresh wheels, light and narrow. “That’s her,” I said aloud, like saying it would make it true. I jumped down when the path narrowed too much for the carriage, tying the horses quickly.
“Amber!” I shouted, not caring who heard me. “Amber!”
The driver glanced back at me. “Looking for someone?”
“My Unwanted Mate.” I said, the word catching in my throat. “She left before morning.”
He shook his head. “Many did and the market day in the next town.”
My chest tightened, she knew it would make her harder to trace.
“Faster,” I said.
We stopped at every crossing, every post road, and each time I jumped down, asking questions, describing her until my mouth went dry.
“A woman alone?” one farmer said. “Saw a carriage pass early, headed toward the river road.”
Another shook his head. “No, Alpha, I haven’t seen her.”
At a small trading post, I grabbed a stable boy. “Did a woman pass through here this morning?”
He thought hard. “She was quiet,” he said finally. “Didn’t look back.”
Didn’t look back? It was showing progress but yet again, I knew that this was only a long shot towards finding her.
Those words stayed with me as we pushed on, hour after hour, the sun climbing higher while my hope sank lower. I replayed our last conversation over and over, every sharp word, every moment I chose pride over sense.
“You should have listened,” I muttered to myself as the carriage jolted forward. “You should have seen this coming.”
By midday, the road split into three. I stood there, hands clenched, realizing I had no idea which path she’d taken. I questioned travelers, merchants, and guards at the gate of the next town.
“Was she frightened?” one woman asked me gently.
“No,” I said, and the truth of it hurt. “She was determined.”
The search dragged on into the afternoon. My legs ached, my throat burned from calling her name. Each place I checked felt emptier than the last, like I was chasing a shadow that had already slipped too far ahead.
As the sun began to fall, something cold settled in my chest. A knowing I didn’t want, didn’t dare to name.
She hadn’t just gone somewhere.
She had left.
I stood by the roadside as the sky turned gold, then red, then dark, and for the first time since I’d started searching, I stopped. Not because I wanted to, but because there was nothing left to follow. No tracks. No whispers. No signs.
“She planned this,” I said softly to the empty road. “You planned it.”
The more I searched, the clearer it became. Every mile, every unanswered question stripped away the last of my denial. This wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t fear.
It was goodbye.
I lowered myself onto a stone by the road, staring at the horizon where she had vanished, my hands shaking as the truth finally took hold.
Amber was gone and no matter how far I chased the past, she
was already beyond my reach, gone for good.
THE FATAL PRICE