Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Lucifer
The car came to a complete stop. Marcus got out and pulled my door open.
"Sir?" His voice was low. When I handled business in secret, he always called me that instead of "Your Majesty.
" I rubbed my temples, exhausted. Lately, besides official duties, I'd been investigating Elena's case.
Something didn't add up. If she could work with the Butcher Squad, why didn't she just kill Liam at that first dinner? Why save him instead?
But the Elder Council was dead set against her. If I didn't drive Elena out, they'd have her executed. And the Grays—they wouldn't mistreat Elena. She was the daughter they'd finally found, after all.
Night air rushed in, heavy with midnight dampness. The moment my feet hit the ground, a faint scent slipped into my nostrils.
Lily and bay leaf.
I froze. My hands started shaking.
The scent was threadbare, barely a trace. I stood motionless, turning my head left and right, breathing in the night wind over and over, confirming again and again.
Suspended in the darkness like an almost invisible thread, stretched between streetlight and shadow.
My wolf surged to its feet.
Every muscle locked tight, like a drawn bowstring, frantically combing the air for that scent. It recognized this smell. Recognized her. Mate, it growled low. She's here!
I didn't hesitate. I followed the scent.
"Sir!" Marcus blocked my path, bowing. "Our partners are all waiting in the private room. They've been—"
"They can wait." I pushed past him.
"Sir! They've already—"
"They can wait!"
I didn't look back. I searched carefully. My wolf was frantic. The mate scent came and went, scattered by the wind then surfacing again, faint but unmistakable. It led me to the restaurant's side entrance. Here, the fragrance was slightly stronger, clinging stubbornly near the door.
Marcus stopped two paces behind, waiting silently. He knew I was forcing down my hunting instincts, reeling in my scattered focus. I pressed my palm against the cold door frame, took a deep breath, shoved down the churning agitation, and turned toward the banquet hall.
"Finalize the contract first. Send people to search the area!"
"Yes, Sir."
I took a deep breath and rubbed my temples. Something occurred to me. "Elena—any news?"
Marcus glanced at me carefully. "No, Sir. The Gray family disowned her."
I said nothing. Marcus followed behind. He didn't know what I meant. Neither did I. Elena—she had ties to the Butcher Squad, she'd hurt Liam. Killing her wouldn't be unreasonable. I'd only banished her. That was generous. But—
Why did I still want to know where she'd gone?
Why did Marcus's words—that her family had disowned her—make my rage deepen? She was banished. Where could she go? She'd have to go back to her old life, working odd jobs—
The moment the private room door opened, the wolves who'd been sitting stood, straightening their cuffs and suits before bowing to me.
"Alpha."
The room's atmosphere wrapped around me—warmth, alcohol, artificial perfume, and—
Lily and bay leaf!
"Who was just here?" My tone wasn't great. I was teetering on the edge.
The room went dead silent. Every motion froze. Lina's fingers tightened around her glass, then she quickly looked up, forcing a casual, relaxed expression.
"Nothing special, just a waitress came in to replace the drinks—"
"WHO WAS HERE?"
I lost my patience. My voice shot up. Alpha pressure flooded the room instantly. The air pressure dropped, suffocating and oppressive. A wolf at the table leaned forward eagerly, desperate to please, his face full of fawning smiles.
"Your Majesty, it was the former Luna, that half-blood—"
Elena!
She's my mate!
In an instant, my breathing stopped. My heartbeat thundered louder and louder. I stepped back instinctively, grabbing a chair. Elena was my mate.
What had I done?
My wolf let out a piercing howl. I thought of Elena's pleading when she was thrown out. She'd told the truth. And me? I told her to stop lying. How desperate had Elena been in that moment?
I was an idiot!
The wolf kept talking. "She was working as a waitress here tonight. We took the opportunity to teach her a lesson. Let her know the price of deceiving the Hale family."
"Teach her a lesson?" My voice was ice. The male wolf didn't sense the danger, pulling out his phone unprompted, swiping the screen and turning the video toward me.
I recognized that familiar figure instantly.
Elena knelt on the floor in a waitress's uniform.
Her hair was soaked with alcohol, plastered to her pale face.
Liquor dripped steadily from her jaw. Someone yanked her hair, jerking her upright.
Someone else lifted a foot, taunting her.
Lina sat in her chair, legs crossed. Elena's face was inches from the tip of her shoe.
The video kept playing. Every second recorded her being humiliated at will. Quiet and brutal.
My knuckles went white, crushing the glass in my grip.
The porcelain wall warped under the pressure.
The cup clinked against the table—a sharp crack in the dead-silent room.
The next second, I grabbed the male wolf by the collar and hurled him.
He flew backward, toppling chairs. Glasses shattered, liquid and shards spraying everywhere.
The others stared, too terrified to speak.
He hit the wall with a muffled grunt. I stepped forward and crushed his phone under my heel.
"How dare you hurt my mate?"
I roared. He looked up in terror. "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I didn't know—"
Crack! I kicked him. He toppled sideways, clutching his face, begging desperately. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
My eyes locked on Lina.
The composure she'd been clinging to shattered completely.
She froze, fingertips still resting on her glass rim.
Real fear finally flooded her eyes. The images looped in my head, unshakable.
Elena kneeling, humble. The humiliation of being pressed close to someone's shoe.
Forced to endure everyone's mockery and abuse.
My chest heaved violently. Regret, pain—it was tearing me apart. What had I done? I'd denied she was my mate in front of the entire pack. I didn't believe her—
In that moment, I could barely stand. My wolf lost all control, rage and grief intertwined, terrified of losing my only mate completely.
And I felt her immense pain too. My heart felt seized by an invisible force, squeezed, pulled.
The metallic taste filled my mouth. I nearly vomited blood but forced it down.
I stepped forward, my shadow swallowing Lina completely. My voice was low, cold, laced with lethal pressure.
"You made her kneel. You made her lick your shoe!"
Total silence. No one dared breathe.
"You watched my mate crawl on the ground. Watched her humiliate herself at your feet. You stood by. You enjoyed it." I grabbed her collar. "How dare you?"
Lina's face went ashen. She shook her head frantically, voice trembling in panic.
"Lucifer, I didn't know it would be like this! She betrayed you, deceived you. She doesn't deserve to be your mate—"
"Shut up!"
I cut off her excuses coldly. No tolerance left in my eyes.
"Whether she deserves it isn't for you to say!"
"How dare you touch what's mine? How dare you humiliate my fated mate?"
Soul-deep pain kept surging. Imagining her enduring everyone's abuse alone while I remained oblivious, detached—my sanity was on the brink.
"Where did she go?"
Lina's lips moved, but no sound came out. She avoided my gaze, hands shaking uncontrollably.
"Where is she?"
Before she could fabricate a lie, I caught that familiar scent again. Lily, bay leaf, mixed with faint lavender, deliberately masked by heavy perfume but still unmistakable.
I turned and left.
Lina shoved her chair back and rushed after me. Her heels hammered the floor, frantic and clumsy.
"Lucifer, the contract is critical. Our partners are still waiting—"
"Get out!"
"Are you insane? For some half-blood—"
"Get out!"
I strode through the corridor. She reached out to grab my arm. I shook her off violently. I glanced back. My cold stare nailed her in place instantly, choking every word in her throat. She didn't dare follow.
I shoved through the side door. Night wind hit my face. Marcus stuck close behind. He shut the door. Floored it.
My heart pounded. Elena, wait for me—
I followed the scent.
Through two blocks, to the right, that barely-there fragrance surfaced again.
This direction.
I chased the broken trail through narrow alleys and dim streets, finally stopping at the harsh white lights of a hospital entrance.
Two nurses looked up. Seeing me, they immediately stood and bowed. "Your Majesty—"
I ignored them. My voice was sharp and urgent.
"A woman just came in. Where?"
The two nurses exchanged glances, hesitating. "May I ask, are you—"
"She's my wife."
My voice was hoarse and raw. The nurse called the on-call doctor. He composed himself and led me respectfully through the corridor, pushing open the patient room door.
The instant the door opened, her scent crashed over me.
The crisp clarity of lily and bay leaf, mixed with sweat and fresh blood. The entire room was saturated with her smell, thick and real, proof she'd been here moments ago.
I stepped into the room. The bed was rumpled and creased—someone had lain there a long time, barely managing to sit up. A tray at the foot of the bed held used gauze. A tuft of pale newborn hair lay on the pillow.
The window was half-open. Night wind lifted the curtains, letting them fall again and again.
The doctor spoke quietly behind me. "The patient escaped through the window. The nurse had just detected the baby is a hybrid. We were about to report it as required—"
The bloodstains on the sheets were mostly dried, congealed into dark brown. Both times she'd given birth, I wasn't there!
My wolf curled up completely, silent. No more raging howls. Just a low, hollow keening that vibrated through bone and marrow.
She'd left.
She didn't want us anymore.
This was what losing your mate felt like. Not brief sadness. It was having your soul gouged out, leaving a permanent void, a permanent incompleteness. A wound that would never heal. Every day for the rest of my life would be wrapped in endless emptiness and torment.
I knelt by the bed, gripping the wrinkled sheets, breathing shallow and burning.
The last time, I couldn't keep her. This time, I'd failed completely again.
Her scent clung to my fingertips, cruelly reminding me of everything I'd lost with my own hands.
I knelt there, helpless, watching that scent—hers alone—fade bit by bit, disappearing completely.
The hospital's white light was blinding and cold, desolate and barren, just like my utterly hollow soul.
This was all my fault.