Kael's POV
I was signing documents when my wolf tried to kill me from the inside.
The bond hit without warning. One second I was reading about timber contracts and border disputes like a normal Alpha, the next second it felt like someone had ripped a leash off something that had been chained for three weeks. Something that was supposed to stay quiet. Something that was supposed to stay dead.
It wasn't dead.
My entire body went rigid. My hands crushed the paper I was holding into dust. The mate bond between me and Sienna didn't just activate. It exploded. It went from a dull ache I'd gotten good at ignoring to a roaring, burning, impossible to ignore force that made my wolf scream so loud I thought my skull would crack.
Hunt. Chase. Find. Claim.
My wolf was losing his mind inside my skin. He wanted to run. He wanted to tear through the compound and find her. He wanted to do things that would probably end with me exiled or executed by the Council.
I stood up so fast my chair flew backward and smashed into the wall.
"Kael?" Raven's voice came from somewhere, but I barely registered it. She'd been sitting across from me going over pack schedules. Now she was standing too, her eyes wide. "What's wrong? What happened?"
I couldn't answer. Couldn't explain. Couldn't do anything except feel the bond pulling me like gravity, like chains, like the most important thing in my entire world had just become desperately, immediately, impossibly important.
Three weeks I hadn't thought about Sienna Graves. Three weeks I'd convinced myself that rejecting her had been the right move. She was weak. Her bloodline was weak. She had no power. No status. No reason to exist in my world except to embarrass me. So I'd rejected her. I'd chosen Raven instead. I'd moved forward like every other Alpha who'd ever rejected a bond that didn't suit them.
Everything should have worked out fine.
But the bond was screaming now, and my wolf refused to accept that anything was fine.
I moved toward the door before I could think about it. Before my brain could catch up and remind me that I was the Alpha. That I made decisions. That my wolf didn't get to just drag me places whenever it felt like it.
"Where are you going?" Raven called out, but I was already moving.
I didn't answer her. I didn't even hear her. All I could feel was the pull. All I could sense was Sienna somewhere north of here, somewhere in the forest, somewhere that wasn't here and that was the only problem in my entire world.
I made it to the door of my office and yanked it open. The guards stationed outside snapped to attention.
"Get a hunting party ready," I ordered. "Now. Full armor. Weapons. Everything."
"Sir?" One of the guards looked confused. "There's no threat. The borders are secure. What are we hunting?"
I didn't answer because I didn't have an answer that made sense. How could I explain that the mate bond I'd rejected three weeks ago was suddenly alive and screaming? How could I tell my pack that I needed to hunt down a girl I'd publicly humiliated and bring her back?
The bond was showing me her location like a compass in my chest. North. Deep north. Into the forest beyond pack territory. She was moving fast. Running. Trying to get away from me.
"Just do it," I said, and walked toward the armory. "Now."
The compound was chaos within minutes. Warriors were gathering weapons. Horses were being saddled. Pack members were running around trying to figure out what was happening. I moved through it all like I was made of stone. Like nothing mattered except finding her.
Raven caught up with me in the armory. She looked furious.
"What is this about?" she demanded. "You can't just mobilize the entire pack without explaining what we're hunting. The Council will demand answers. The other Alphas will demand answers."
I grabbed weapons without looking at her. Sword. Knife. The gear I used for serious hunts. "Personal matter."
"Personal matter?" Raven stepped in front of me. "Kael, you're the Alpha. You don't have personal matters. You have pack duties. You have responsibilities."
She was right. She was completely right. And I didn't care.
The bond was pulling harder now. It was showing me her more clearly. She was with someone else. Another girl. Not a threat. Not important. Just... there. And Sienna was running like her life depended on it.
Which meant something had happened.
Something that made her finally, desperately, impossibly awake in a way that my wolf could feel through every bone in my body.
"Move," I said to Raven.
She didn't move. She stood her ground with her hands on her hips, looking at me like she could will me to stay here through sheer force of personality. "You're losing it over that weak girl from the lower bloodlines. The one you publicly rejected."
"Yes," I said simply.
Raven's face went pale. "You can't be serious. She's nothing. She's beneath you. She's—"
"Move, Raven."
Something in my voice made her step aside. Something in my tone made her understand that if she didn't get out of my way, I would move her myself. And right now, with my wolf screaming and the bond pulling and every instinct inside me demanding that I hunt, I wasn't sure I'd be gentle about it.
I finished arming myself and walked out of the armory. The hunting party was assembled in the courtyard. Twenty warriors. Thirty horses. Weapons and supplies for a serious expedition.
"Where are we going?" Captain Devon asked. He was my lead scout, the best hunter I had.
"North," I said. "Into the deep forest. We're hunting someone specific."
"Who?"
I didn't answer. I mounted my horse and looked toward the direction the bond was pulling me. North. Deep north. Into the wilderness where pack territory ended and the real wild began.
Sienna Graves was out there somewhere. My rejected mate. The girl I'd told was a stain on my bloodline. The girl whose mate bond I'd tried to kill with rejection and cruelty.
And whatever had just happened to her, whatever had changed inside her, my wolf knew we needed to find her before someone else did.
Before she disappeared completely.
I kicked my horse forward and the hunting party followed. As we left the compound and headed into the forest, I felt the bond pulling stronger. I could feel her fear. Could feel her pain. Could feel something ancient and dark awakening inside her like a door that had been sealed for centuries was suddenly slamming open.
The bond was different now. It wasn't the gentle pull of a fated mate. It was something darker. Something more desperate. Something that felt like it was trying to tell me that rejecting Sienna Graves had been the biggest mistake of my life.
And that realization was far more terrifying than any hunt could ever be.