Chapter 20 20

Chapter 20 20
Alpha Kael

Beatrice flinched, shrinking back against the wall.

I pulled out my phone, dialing my Beta's number. Lucas answered on the first ring.

"Lucas. Odette is missing in the city," I barked, marching back toward the elevator. "Mobilize the warriors. Search the streets, the alleys, everywhere. Bring her back to the penthouse."

"Right away, Kael," Lucas said, immediately going into Beta mode.

I hung up the phone and walked out into the rainy night. I stood on the wet pavement outside the high-rise building, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath of the damp city air. 

But beneath it all, my sharp Alpha senses picked up a very faint and sweet scent. Wild jasmine. 

As soon as I caught her scent, my wolf began to whimper in the back of my mind. It was not a sound of anger. It was a sound of pure agony.

Mate is crying, my beast wailed inside my head. Mate is hurting so badly. Her heart is bleeding. Go! Run!

The wave of sorrow crashing through the mate bond was so heavy it almost brought me to my knees. I had never felt anything like it. It wasn't the petty anger of a spoiled girl. It was the crushing despair of someone who had lost everything.

Driven entirely by my beast, I began to run.

I ignored the stares of the pack members on the street. I followed the invisible trail of her scent through the rainy city blocks, past a grand theater, down a dark alleyway, and finally into the park in the center of the territory.

I stopped at the edge of the trees, my chest heaving.

There she was.

Odette was sitting on the wet, muddy grass by the side of the large lake. She was completely soaked. Her thin cotton dress clung to her small body, and her bare feet were covered in dirt and scratches. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, her head resting on her arms, staring blankly at the dark water.

She looked so small. So fragile.

My heart twisted, but my human pride and my anger quickly covered up my worry. I had been terrified that she was hurt or kidnapped, and here she was, throwing a temper tantrum in the mud like a child just to avoid her duties.

I marched over to her, my boots squelching in the wet grass.

"What do you think you are doing?" I yelled, my voice booming over the sound of the falling rain.

Odette did not jump. She did not scream. She slowly lifted her head from her knees and looked up at me.

"You are an irresponsible Luna!" I scolded her, pointing an angry finger down at her soaking wet form. "You are acting like a spoiled and petulant child! Running away barefoot in the rain just because you are angry with me? Do you have any idea how dangerous this city can be for a lone Omega? You embarrassed my guards, you terrified the staff, and you made me hunt you down like a stray dog!"

I waited for her to fire back. I waited for the fierce, wicked girl who had humiliated the elders and threatened to feed my equipment to the rogues to stand up and scream at me.

But she didn't say a single word.

She just looked at me. Her large brown eyes were swollen, bloodshot, and rimmed with deep purple bags. The rain washed over her pale face, but I could smell the salt of her tears. Her eyes were completely dead. The fiery spark that had amused and addicted me was entirely gone.

She looked like a ghost.

"Get up," I ordered roughly, my chest tightening painfully at the sight of her broken expression.

Odette mechanically pushed herself off the wet grass. She didn't complain about her scraped knees or her freezing, bare feet. She just stood there, her arms hanging limply at her sides, waiting for my next command.

"Walk to the car," I growled, pointing to the black SUV that Lucas had just parked by the park entrance.

She walked past me without a sound.

We got into the back seat of the heavy SUV. The heater was blasting, but Odette continued to shiver violently next to me. She stared blankly out the tinted window at the passing city lights. The silence inside the car was suffocating.

I gripped my knees, my frustration simmering over. I hated this silence. I hated that she was ignoring me.

"Are you just going to sit there and be quiet?" I demanded coldly, turning to glare at her side profile. "Are you not going to explain yourself? Are you not going to apologize for your completely reckless behavior?"

She slowly turned her head. Her dead eyes met my furious ones.

"I apologize for my reckless behavior, Alpha Kael," she said.

Her voice was completely flat. There was no sarcasm. There was no hidden anger. It was the robotic and mechanistic tone of a prisoner reciting a line to her warden.