Damien’s POV
The office space felt smaller with both of us in it, our breaths mingling in the charged air between us. Sera seed nervous, her erald eyes darting away from mine before eting them again with obvious effort. My hand was still wrapped around her wrist like a steel band, my mind racing with images from last night—her in my arms, the way she’d felt beneath , and then ... Adrian.
Those silver-blue eyes. So familiar. So impossible to ignore.
Sera shifted slightly, but I didn’t release her. She couldn’t escape—not yet. Not until I had answers. She lifted her chin to look at , confusion clouding her beautiful features.
"Is there... is there sothing else you needed, Mr. Nightshadow?"
The question that had been burning in my chest all day finally forced its way out. "Have you ever thought about finding him? Adrian’s father?"
Sera’s entire body went rigid, every muscle tensing as if I’d struck her. The blood drained from her face, leaving her pale as moonlight.
"I..." she started, then stopped, swallowing hard. "I tried. Once. But there were no leads." Her voice grew smaller, more vulnerable. "Maybe he was just there for fun that night. I didn’t want to cause problems for anyone."
"He didn’t leave you anything?" I pressed, my voice rougher than intended. "Any way to contact him? A note, a card... anything?"
The golden wolf pendant. I’d left it on her pillow that morning, engraved with my initial.
"Nothing," Sera shook her head, and her voice held the finality of old grief. "When I woke up, he was just... gone. Like he’d never been there at all."
The words hit like a sledgehamr to the chest. Nothing?
My hand slowly released her wrist as the implications crashed over .
"That’s... unfortunate," I managed, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears. Alex was howling in my mind, a sound of pure anguish.
"Is that all?" Sera asked quietly, taking a step backward now that I’d released her. "If there’s nothing else, I should get back to—"
"Yes," I cut her off, perhaps too sharply. "That’s all. Get back to work."
She nodded, confusion still evident in her expression, and moved toward the door. I watched her go, my eyes tracking the graceful line of her spine, the way her hair caught the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the office windows. When the door closed behind her with a soft click, I slumped into my chair and buried my face in my hands.
The uncertainty was torture. I’d left the pendant. I was certain of it. Maybe I was grasping at shadows, seeing connections that didn’t exist because I was so desperate to find the woman who’d haunted my dreams.
For five years, I’d been searching for a ghost, for a woman whose face I could barely rember but whose scent, whose touch, whose very essence had been seared into my soul.
The need consud , urgent and desperate. I reached for my phone with shaking hands and dialed Lucas’s extension, my heart hamring against my ribs as I waited for him to answer.
"What’s up, Alpha?"
I pulled open my desk drawer and withdrew the small wooden box I’d kept there for the past five years. Inside, nestled in black velvet, was half of a golden wolf pendant—the other half of the one I’d left on pillow that long-ago morning. I’d had it specially made, designed so that the two halves would only fit together perfectly, like pieces of a puzzle.
"I need you to do sothing for ," I said, lifting the pendant and watching it catch the light. "I need you to search for sothing."
"Search for what? I can’t see what you’re talking about over the phone."
"Co to my office. Now."
Within minutes, Lucas appeared in my doorway, his sandy hair slightly disheveled and his expression curious. I held out the pendant, watching his eyebrows rise as he took in the intricate craftsmanship.
"It’s beautiful," he said, settling into the chair across from my desk. "But I’m not following. Search for what, exactly?"
"The other half," I said simply. "I need you to find the matching piece."
Lucas studied the pendant more closely, turning it over in his palm. "This looks like custom work. Expensive. One of a kind." He looked up at with growing understanding. "This is about that woman from five years ago, isn’t it?"
I nodded, my jaw tight. "I left the other half with her. I need to know what happened to it."
"Damien." Lucas’s voice carried the patient tone he used when he thought I was being unreasonable. "We already searched for her five years ago. We checked every hotel registry, every guest list, every—"
"I know what we did," I cut him off. "And I know we didn’t find her. But this ti is different."
"Different how?"
I t his gaze steadily. "This ti, I want you to expand the search. Pawn shops, jewelry stores, antique dealers, online auction sites. Anywhere soone might sell or trade a piece like this."
Lucas was quiet for a long mont, studying my face. "You think she’s here, don’t you?"
"I don’t care about the cost," I said. "I just want that pendant found."
Lucas was quiet for another mont, then pocketed the pendant with a nod. "Alright. I’ll start making calls tonight. But Damien... can I ask why this is so important now? After all this ti?"
"Because," I said quietly, "I think I’m closer to finding her than I’ve ever been before."
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