EPISODE 5
Daniel was in denial.
Looking at the empty house was not enough. He searched around the den, opening the rooms and unlocking the doors, his sharp eyes sweeping over every corner. He did not leave any corner unturned, trying to catch my scent in case I was simply hiding somewhere.
But I was gone.
No matter how much he turned things around, he would never find me here. He refused to believe it.
“She must have gone to her parents,” he told himself.
After all, what could a person who had been deaf for more than twenty years do in the wild? He never imagined that I would have the ability to bypass the territory without reacting too much to the new sounds I would be hearing.
The idea of me leaving him for good never truly crossed his mind. It was easier to believe I had simply run off to complain to my parents, to cry on my mother’s shoulder before inevitably returning. It had always been like that whenever we had a small fight in the past.
The truth, that I might have chosen to walk away, was a thought he was unwilling to accept. That was why he never cared and simply returned to the healer, thinking that he would catch me coming back later.
Helen, always attuned to the shifts in Daniel’s emotions, saw Daniel’s figure walking past the healer’s door. She had heard the healer’s words about me being able to hear, which annoyed her. After all, she had told me what she had been doing to my miscarried babies.
The fact itself was enough to have her executed.
Not waiting for Daniel to voice his thoughts, Helen complained.
“She’s probably devastated after losing the pup again,” she murmured, her tone dripping with feigned sympathy. “Poor thing. She must need to be coddled. Some females just can’t handle hardship.”
Her words were laced with malice, though she spoke them as if she were merely stating a fact. Daniel’s jaw tightened. Something about what she said didn’t sit right with him.
“Maurice isn’t weak,” he muttered, frowning.
“No, of course not,” Helen said smoothly. “But women like her, ones who’ve never had to fight for anything, tend to break easily. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s sulking right now, expecting you to chase after her.”
Daniel remained silent, but a knot formed in his stomach. He wanted to brush off Helen’s words, to tell himself that she was just being her usual conniving self, but the uneasy feeling wouldn’t
go away.
When he returned home that evening, he found someone waiting outside the den–one of my brothers, Adam. His presence alone was unusual. Adam wasn’t one to make unannounced visits unless something was wrong.
“Daniel,” he greeted, his face unreadable. “I heard about Maurice.”
8:43 pm
Daniel tensed. “What about her?”
Adam studied him for a moment before speaking. “We heard she lost the pup.”
His voice was softer now, hesitant.
“We wanted to check on her.”
Daniel’s brows furrowed. “She’s at your parents‘ house, isn’t she?”
Adam blinked, his expression shifting into one of confusion. “No. She never came home.”
The words landed like a punch to Daniel’s gut. He took a step back, his mind racing.
That didn’t make sense.
I should have been there. If I had left him, my first instinct would have been to return to my family. And yet, I hadn’t.
His breath grew shallow, a foreign sense of unease coiling in his chest.
“Are you sure?”
Adam
gave
him a sharp look. “I wouldn’t be standing here if she was.”
A cold dread crept through Daniel’s body. The unease he had been trying to ignore now roared to life, sinking its teeth into him. He had assumed I was somewhere safe, licking my wounds.
But what if I wasn’t?
What if I had left by choice?
His instincts screamed at him, demanding action. Without wasting another second, he turned on his heel and strode into the den. His voice was sharp when he called for his subordinates, his
beta among the first to appear.
‘Find her,” he ordered, his voice leaving no room for argument. “Search the entire territory. I want her scent tracked, every possible trail followed.”
The room fell into immediate action, his wolves dispersing into the night, their movements swift and purposeful. Daniel’s hands clenched into fists as he stared into the dark horizon. For the first time since I had disappeared, he allowed himself to consider the possibility that I might be in danger.
Or maybe I had left him for the best.
