The Ghost of What Was Lost

Ronan's POV

The scent of her was gone.

I had expected it to fade over time, to become nothing more than a whisper in the wind, but instead, it had vanished overnight—as if she had never existed at all.

It unsettled me more than it should have.

I had marked Celeste once. Even if I had rejected her, even if I had chosen another, a part of me should have been able to track her. To feel the lingering bond between us.

But there was nothing.

It was as though she had been erased from my world entirely.

I clenched my jaw, pacing the length of my chamber. The fire crackled in the hearth, casting long shadows across the stone walls, but it did nothing to warm the cold pit in my stomach.

This wasn't normal.

She was supposed to remain beneath my shadow, caught in the remnants of what we had been. She was supposed to grieve, to stay broken, to remain—reachable.

Instead, she had disappeared.

Gone without a trace.

I exhaled sharply, trying to push the irritation from my mind, but it gnawed at me like a festering wound.

She shouldn't have been able to walk away so easily.

Celeste had always been weak. A fragile thing, too soft, too easily swayed by emotion. That was why I had rejected her. Why I had chosen another instead who was powerful, cunning and worthy.

And yet, despite all that, I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that I had miscalculated.

I had expected Celeste to beg. To cry. To stay.

Instead, she had disappeared into the night like a ghost.

I ran a hand through my hair, irritation bleeding into something sharper, something colder.

Where had she gone?

Had she run to another pack? No. She wouldn't have been accepted so quickly, and I would have heard about it.

Had rogues gotten to her?

The thought sent an unexpected surge of anger through me.

She was mine.

Or at least, she had been.

I had cast her aside, but that didn't mean she was free to belong to someone else.

A knock sounded at my chamber door.

"Enter."

The door swung open, and a warrior stepped inside, his expression tight. "Alpha, we've found something."

I turned sharply. "Where?"

"The eastern border. There was an… incident."

Something in his tone made my hackles rise. "Explain."

The warrior hesitated. "It's better if you see for yourself."

My patience snapped. "Tell me now."

He exhaled, clearly choosing his words carefully. "There was a rogue attack. But it wasn't our pack they targeted."

I frowned. "Then what's the issue?"

The warrior's eyes flickered with uncertainty. "There were bodies, Alpha. A lot of them. And in the middle of it…" He swallowed. "She was there."

Everything inside me stilled.

Celeste.

Alive.

And somehow, standing in the middle of a massacre.

I pushed past him without another word.

---

The scent of blood was thick in the air when I arrived.

My wolves had already cleaned up most of the scene, but the damage was undeniable.

The rogues had been torn apart.

Some of the bodies were shredded beyond recognition, others had burn marks—as if their insides had been seared from within.

I stepped closer, my eyes narrowing.

This wasn't normal.

The Celeste I had known couldn't have done this.

She couldn't even kill a rabbit without flinching.

And yet, something had happened here.

Something unnatural.

I inhaled deeply, searching for her scent—but there was nothing.

No trace of her at all.

Frustration burned in my veins. "Where did she go?"

The warrior beside me hesitated. "She left with someone."

A muscle in my jaw ticked. "Who?"

The warrior's face paled slightly. "The Rogue King."

Silence slammed into me.

For a moment, I thought I had misheard him. "Say that again."

The warrior swallowed. "Celeste left with the Rogue King, Alpha. Willingly."

Something sharp and ugly curled inside my chest.

I had spent my entire life hearing whispers of the Rogue King. He was a myth, a shadow that haunted the edges of civilization. No one knew his true origins, only that he ruled the lawless lands with an iron fist.

And now, Celeste was with him.

A slow, simmering rage built inside me.

Had she been taken? Forced? No—if that were the case, there would have been signs of a struggle.

She had chosen to leave with him.

The realization hit me harder than it should have.

Celeste, the weak little wolf who had barely been able to lift her head after I rejected her, had not only survived a rogue attack—she had walked away with the most feared Alpha in existence.

I clenched my fists, my nails biting into my palms.

This wasn't over.

She was mine.

Even if I had cast her aside.

Even if I had chosen another.

Even if she had walked away.

She was mine.

And I would make sure she never forgot it.