Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Dimitri’s POV
Something in me had gone quiet.
In the last three months since Isabella’s disappearance, my wolf had gone still. Not dead, not gone…just absent. Like he’d turned his back on me and walked into some dark corner of my mind I couldn’t reach.
“Congratulations, son! Cheers to many more billion-dollar deals!”
My mother’s voice cut through my haze. Glasses clinked around the room, and laughter filled the air.
I raised my own glass automatically, a muscle memory of celebration, though I couldn’t remember what exactly we were celebrating anymore.
The new merger? The new acquisition? It all blurred together.
I downed my glass of whiskey, welcoming the burn.
For weeks now, I’d been running on instinct—wake, work, sign, seal, deliver. The perfect Alpha. The world applauded, investors smiled, my mother hosted endless parties to “celebrate our pack’s progress”.
And through it all, my wolf stayed silent.
At first, I thought it was grief. Then I thought it was punishment.
Now, I wasn’t sure what it was.
I’d tried to call to him, to that deep place where he usually stirred, but every attempt was met with silence. No answering growl. No surge of power under my skin. Just emptiness.
I moved to the minibar in the living room and refilled my glass with vodka. I closed the cabinet, and turned around.
That’s when I saw him.
Leonard Capper stood near the doorway, his gray eyes scanning the room before landing on me. To everyone else in this room—my mother, Selene, even Edmund—he was just another business associate, a security consultant I’d hired to audit Ravencrest Global’s corporate protections.
Only I knew the truth.
Edmund had brought Leonard Capper on board after his own searches for Isabella came up empty.
If anyone in Garnia could uncover her, it would be Edmund—meticulous, relentless, the best at due diligence.
Yet even he had hit a dead end. That was how impossible this had become.
And that was why he’d hired Leonard Capper, ex-CIA, twenty years in intelligence, now the finest private investigator the East Coast could buy.
I led Leonard to my study, the one place in this mansion I was certain wasn’t being monitored. I hadn’t set foot in here since the Alpha ceremony three months ago.
The moment I opened the door, her scent hit me.
Since that night—the night we’d made love on the chaise, the night she’d trusted me with her virginity, the night I’d promised to protect her—her scent had clung to this room like an indelible mark.
I stood frozen in the doorway, my hand pressed against the frame, unable to force myself to step inside.
I closed my eyes and let her scent overwhelm my senses. Just that, just breathing in the fading traces of her, did more than any amount of whiskey or vodka had managed in three months.
Without thinking, my fingers slipped into my pocket, brushing against the thin band of her hair tie. It was worn smooth from how often I’d touched it. My only tether to Isabella.
“Is everything all right, Alpha Dimitri?”
Leonard’s voice cut through my spiral. My eyes snapped open, and I forced my expression from whatever raw, miserable state it had collapsed into back to neutral control.
“What’s the update?” I asked, turning to him.
Leonard pulled a thin folder from his briefcase—noticeably thinner than previous weeks. That alone told me everything I needed to know before he even opened his mouth.
“Nothing concrete, I’m afraid.” His tone was professionally apologetic.
“Ms. Garrett has effectively vanished. No credit card activity under her name. No bank withdrawals. No employment records, rental agreements, or utility bills. She’s not registered at any hospital, university, or government office in Virginia or any surrounding state. ”
My hands fisted at my sides. “What about her phone?”
“Deactivated the night of your Alpha ceremony. The last ping was from a cell tower near the mansion, then nothing. If she got a new phone, it’s not under her name or social security number.”
My wolf howled, a sound of pure anguish that I barely managed to keep internal.
“Keep looking,” I said, my voice rougher than intended. “Expand the search. National databases, international airports, anything.”
“Alpha Dimitri, with all due respect—” Leonard closed the folder carefully. “If someone wants to disappear this completely, especially someone with no significant digital footprint to begin with, it’s nearly impossible to track them without—”
“I don’t care.” The words came out harshly. “I don’t care how impossible it is. Find her.”
Leonard studied me for a long moment. Then he nodded once, sharp and professional. “I’ll keep trying.“
There was a knock on the door. Then, without waiting for permission, the door swung open, and Selene appeared.
Leonard was already moving, pulling his hat low over his eyes as he gathered his briefcase.
“I’ll take my leave now, Alpha Dimitri.” His voice was perfectly professional, giving nothing away. “I’ll inform you once I have any updates regarding…the situation.”
I gave him a curt nod, watching as he tipped his hat politely to Selene before slipping past her into the hallway.
The door clicked shut, leaving me alone with her. And her perfume was already trying to smother Isabella’s fading scent from the room.
“Next time,” I said, my voice cold, “wait for my permission before entering my study. I don’t appreciate you interrupting my meetings.”
Selene’s red painted lips formed a pout. “I’m sorry, Dimitri.” Her voice had taken on that breathy, slurred quality that grated on my nerves. “It’s just—I noticed you’d left the gathering, and I wanted to come check on you.”
Her gaze dropped to my lips, lingering there with obvious intention.
My stomach twisted in revulsion. I took a long drink of vodka to avoid responding, using the burn to ground myself.
“As you can see, I’m fine.” I set the glass down. “You can go back to the party.”
The dismissal was clear in my voice. Yet she didn’t move.
“Or…” Selene’s voice dropped to what she probably thought was seductive. “We could engage in other activities. More…interesting activities.”
I raised an eyebrow in irritation. She was now only a few inches away from me. And for the first time, I really looked at what she was wearing.
The yellow dress she’d had on at the party had been modest earlier. But now, the neckline had been pulled down until her cleavage was prominently displayed.
She reached out, and despite the clear warning in my eyes, her hand made contact with my chest.
My wolf recoiled violently. This was how it always was with Selene.
Every time she stood too close, every time I had to link hands for a photograph, every time we were forced into physical proximity—my entire being revolted.
I had to actively force myself not to pull away, to remember that this was the choice I’d made.
But here, in the confines of my study, the space where Isabella and I had consummated our Mate bond, I couldn’t pretend.
Selene’s hand started sliding lower, from my chest to my stomach, then to my waist. When her fingers grazed my belt, I caught her wrist.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snarled.
Selene’s hand froze. Her face went pale, eyes widening.
“I-I…” She stumbled over her words. “You looked stressed. And with how hard you’ve been working lately, I thought…I wanted to help take your stress away. Make you feel good.”
“And who told you I wanted that?” I said through gritted teeth, releasing her wrist. The tone of my voice made her stumble backward as if I’d physically shoved her.
“Dimitri,” she whined, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout that probably worked on other men. “You haven’t so much as kissed me on the cheek since we announced our engagement. You don’t touch me. You barely look at me.” Her voice took on a wounded quality. “Don’t I appeal to you at all?”
No. You repulse me. Every cell in my body rejects you because you’re not her.
I grabbed the vodka glass and drained it in one swallow, then set it down on the desk with more force than necessary.
“Tell my mother I’ve turned in for the night,” I said, moving past Selene toward the door. “I have early meetings tomorrow.”
If the days were torture, the nights were infinitely worse.
My eyes snapped open for the fifth night in a row. I was drenched in sweat. The sheets beneath me were soaked.
I’d been dreaming about her again.
I knew falling back to sleep again would be an impossible task, so I sat up and went to the one place that offered me some sort of comfort. Isabella’s room.
The room was completely empty, the curtains gone, even her bookshelves cleared. My mother had made sure she stripped the room bare of anything Isabella-related.
Except for the bed.
The sheets were fresh, but the frame was the same one she’d slept in. I lowered myself onto it, clutching her hair tie as I let my eyes flutter closed and allowed my memories to take me back to that night in my study when she’d given herself to me.
The vibration of my phone snapped me back to the present, and I opened my eyes to read the notification from Edmund.
Edmund: Need to see you. Urgent.
I glanced at the time. It was 5:04 a.m. Edmund never texted this early unless it was serious.
By the time I reached the office, the sun was a faint smear over the city. Edmund was already in my office waiting for me. He didn’t speak until I settled into my chair.
He scanned my face for a moment. I’d informed him about Capper’s latest findings, which were nothing, just the night before when he’d asked.
“I’m sorry about Isabella,” he said quietly. “Not just because I’d promised your father I’d protect her, but I could see how much she meant to you, how much you both loved each other even when you tried to hide it.”
I passed Edmund a tight smile but said nothing.
“But that’s not why I came.” Then he pulled out a file from his briefcase and passed it to me.