Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 383: Missing Luna_Part 2

Matt felt panic rise in his chest because this was not good at all. Sebastian had sounded so calm through the link, but a calm Sebastian who said he would kill an entire pack was the most dangerous version of him that existed.

Matt didn’t want to stop the ceremony yet, just in case it wasn’t something that extreme. He moved quickly and quietly, alerting their men about the missing Luna. If anything happened to her in this territory, there was no doubt everything would point directly at Alpha Daniel, a man who had made no secret of his dislike for their Luna and who now had a daughter sitting in a dungeon because of her.

"I hope we don’t end up at war because of this." Matt muttered under his breath, and he was about to step outside and join the search himself when he noticed Zoe hurrying toward him, a deep frown already carved into her beautiful face.

"Beta Matt, what’s going on?" She asked when she reached him. Zoe hadn’t thought much of her brother searching for Vee at first, but when she noticed his men rushing out of the building with urgent, purposeful strides, a bad feeling had settled in her stomach and she had come out here.

"It’s nothing. You should go back inside." Matt said, reaching out and taking her small hand in his to steer her back in, because the last thing they needed right now was for her to get caught up in this too. They weren’t yet sure whether this was their enemies’ doing, but until they knew, he wasn’t taking chances and having her going outside unprotected.

Zoe planted her feet and yanked her hand back. "I am not a little girl anymore, Beta Matt. I am an adult and I have every right to be wherever I want to be. Tell me what is going on. Where is Vee?" She looked at him with equal parts worry and annoyance, because she hated the way he still treated her like the world was constantly out to get her, something even Sebastian didn’t do to quite this extent.

But right now her concern for her friend was louder than her irritation with Matt.

"I don’t know." He said, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Zoe’s frown deepened. "What do you mean you don’t know? She was sitting in the hall a little while ago." Panic was beginning to climb steadily inside her too. "Has she... gone missing?" She swallowed hard, and when Matt didn’t answer quickly enough, she grabbed his sleeve and gave it a small, urgent shake. "Tell me. Please..."

"I believe so." Matt said, and watched her release his sleeve and step back, her hand flying up to cover her mouth as a devastated look crossed her face. He hadn’t wanted to tell her, had known it would hit her like this, but she would have persisted until he did, and now he regretted it. But she recovered from the shock faster than he expected, straightening herself and saying,

"How is that possible with this many men around? Maybe you haven’t looked in the right places yet. Let’s check the rooms, come with me." She grabbed his hand before he could tell her that Viola was suspected to have gone missing from outside.

He let her pull him along anyway. Maybe she knew somewhere he hadn’t thought to look, and if not, it was far better to keep her searching inside than to have her wandering outside alone, where something could go wrong and she could end up being shot again.

If Matt remembered correctly, the doctor had said that another bullet wound, after the severe injuries she had suffered from the first one that had weakened her wolf, would be nothing short of a death sentence.

---

What had started as a few minutes had stretched into thirty, and Sebastian was still moving through the garden. The sun had dipped behind the horizon, painting the sky shades of pink and yellow, and the day’s heat had given way to a cool evening breeze that stirred his hair and coat as he ran across the grounds like a madman on a hunt, desperately trying to track down her scent lingering in the air.

The ceremony was still going on, with the music blaring in the background, and Sebastian was losing what little patience he possessed right now. Where could she have disappeared to? He had thought that question countless times as he continued following every possible trail and scent he could find.

The only thing he found minutes later was her wedding ring lying in a small puddle of water, the gold catching what little light still reached it and immediately drawing his attention to it. The moment his eyes landed on the familiar ring, his heart lurched violently in his chest, dread washing over him as a thousand terrifying possibilities flooded his mind.

Sebastian bent down and picked it up, examining it closely. His wife never took her wedding ring off except to shower, and the moment she stepped out, she put it right back on. She would never have left it lying in a puddle like this.

Sebastian looked up in the direction from which the ring had been on the ground and found himself facing a maze crafted entirely from dense, towering hedges, tall enough that nothing beyond them was visible, thick enough that nothing could easily pass through them. The Grim pack’s grounds were expansive, and at the back of the main pack house, this hedge maze stretched out in every direction.

He had found her ring here. Which meant she had come this way, or had been brought this way, while she was unconscious.

His fingers closed around the ring. Without wasting another second, he leaped into the air and shifted into his wolf form, not caring in the slightest that an Alpha didn’t take his wolf form in another Alpha’s territory unless he was looking for a fight.

Sebastian became one with Muffin and they tore through the maze, going round and round in circles that kept bringing them back to the same paths. His frustration was building fast alongside his anxiety.

A Luna going missing was not unheard of, Alphas with enemies had faced it before. He had read just a few days ago about a neighboring pack whose Luna had been taken, and it had been her cold, lifeless body they found in the end. He had read it without feeling a single thing.

Now his own wife was missing and he felt like something was being carved out of his insides, like he was about to lose his mind entirely, like he would tear the entire Grim Pack apart with his bare hands before he accepted that outcome.

’Let’s calm down for a moment. I think I can hear movement in the distance.’ Muffin said, taking the lead as his human was being hit by too many things at once.

’I can’t calm down. I can’t fucking calm down! I need to find her right now!’ Sebastian shouted through the link between them.

’If you can’t calm down then step back and let me find our mate. My senses are sharper than yours right now and I can find her faster if you let me work.’ Muffin said firmly, forcing Sebastian back so he could take full control. His human’s panic was making the search harder than it needed to be.

Muffin’s eyes sharpened. He went still and drew in a slow breath through his nose, pulling the air apart scent by scent, and then he caught it. The faintest thread of daisies. He began following it, head low, pace measured, tracking it carefully.

When Muffin pushed out of the twisting entrance of the maze, her scent grew stronger and he picked up his pace, his tail swinging with the restless energy of getting closer to his mate. He swung left and right through the passages, following the trail, and then the maze opened up into the middle ground at its center, and Muffin came to a screeching, skidding stop at what he found there.

Sebastian surged back up immediately at the sight.

Despite the darkness surrounding the space, his vision was sharp enough to see everything clearly, and everything inside him went completely, utterly still.