The atmosphere around the long banquet tables was loud and lively. at was being carved, wine was being poured, and the hum of hundreds of voices filled the cool evening air.
Liam sat rigidly, his plate untouched. His mind was back in that small, cramped room, feeling the weight of Scarlett’s arms around his waist.
His eyes kept scanning the lines of servants moving between the tables, but she wasn’t there. A flicker of irritation—or perhaps it was anxiety—twisted in his chest.
Is she still crying?
He pushed the thought away and tried to focus on the pack around him, but his gaze kept drifting back to the empty space where she should have been.
Beside him, Leon was also staring. He wasn’t looking for a servant; he was looking for Scarlett. His own words from the library echoed in his head, sounding more cruel in the silence of his mind than they had in the heat of the mont.
"I don’t want to see you ever again."
He had said it to protect himself, to keep the walls around his heart strong. But now her absence felt wrong—like a sudden drop in pressure that made it difficult to breathe.
He scanned the faces of the girls carrying trays. No brown curls. No downcast eyes. The unease inside his wolf was slowly turning into sothing painful.
Leo noticed her absence and had no intention of waiting in silence. He needed to see her. He needed to make sure she was actually okay and not collapsing sowhere. He caught the eye of a passing maid. "You," he called out. "Go tell Scarlett to bring a bottle of water. Now."
He wasn’t thirsty. He just needed her to stand in front of him so he could confirm she was okay.
A few minutes passed. The maid returned, looking confused. "Alpha Leo... I can’t find her. She’s not in the kitchens."
Liam heard it, and his head snapped up. He realized then what his wolf had been trying to tell him: her scent. It wasn’t just faint; it was fading. The warm, earthy scent of her that usually perated the stone walls of the mansion was almost gone.
"Go to her room," Liam commanded a nearby guard, his voice filled with unease. "Find her and bring her here."
At the sa ti, Leon grabbed the arm of another servant. "Find Scarlett. Now."
The three brothers sat in a tense, vibrating silence until the ssengers returned. The guard looked at Liam, then at his brothers. "She... she isn’t in her room, sir. And I can’t find her anywhere."
"What?" The triplets spoke in a haunting, simultaneous roar.
The sudden outburst silenced the entire courtyard. Conversations died mid-sentence. Hundreds of eyes turned toward the head table.
Alpha Levi and Alpha Lennox exchanged a lightning-fast glance. Lennox looked at his sons, his expression unreadable, while Levi leaned back, swirling the wine in his glass.
"What is the aning of this?" Levi asked calmly, though his brow was furrowed with annoyance.
"Scarlett is missing," Liam said, his chair screeching against the ground as he stood up. "She’s not in the mansion. She’s not in her room."
Levi didn’t blink. "I know. I sent her on an errand for . A guard accompanied her to fetch so herbs from the pack healer. Don’t let a servant’s absence ruin the al, Liam. Sit down."
Liam sat, but his muscles were coiled like a spring. Beside him, Leo’s claws were digging into the wood of the table, and Leon was staring at his father with deep suspicion.
"How long are we going to lie?" Lennox’s voice rang in Levi’s mind through their private link.
"We are buying ti," Levi shot back, his face calm and composed. "If we tell them the truth now, they will shift and hunt her down before she even reaches the border. So we have to delay. By the ti they realize she isn’t coming back, Scarlett will be on that jet, thousands of miles away from this pack. It’s for the best."
Lennox understood and gave a small nod.
The banquet continued, but the triplets never ate. They sat in a row, three powerful n pretending to be calm while their insides were screaming.
An hour passed. The plates were cleared, and the pack began to relax, but Scarlett still hadn’t returned. Every second she was gone, the air around the brothers grew thinner. They didn’t speak to each other about it, but they could all feel it—the unease, the growing tension.
Each of them hid their emotions carefully, unwilling to let the others see the panic rising inside them.
Leon suddenly fixed his attention on Levi. "Father, she is not back yet," he murmured.
Levi raised an eyebrow, his face perfectly calm.
"Is there a problem, Leon?"
He took another sip of wine.
"If you need Scarlett for sothing, you can ask one of the other servants. We have more than fifteen female servants working here."
His tone was casual.
"It doesn’t always have to be Scarlett. Give the poor girl a break. Today is her birthday."
Leon frowned but didn’t say a word. He didn’t want to overreact and pull suspicion to himself; right now, he knew his father and brothers were already suspicious.
For a mont, no one said a thing about Scarlett, but suddenly, a sharp, hot pain slamd into all three of them at the exact sa ti.
It felt like a blade piercing through their chests, right where their hearts beat. It was a cold, soul-crushing agony that only ca from one thing: a mate in extre distress.
Liam gasped, his hand flying to the edge of the table so he could control himself. He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting the urge to howl. Leo doubled over slightly, his breath hitching. His wolf was snarling, clawing at his insides to get out and find the source of the pain. Leon turned pale, his glass slipping from his fingers and shattering on the floor.
Each brother was so lost in his own pain that none of them noticed the others reacting.
But secretly they each knew sothing was terribly wrong with Scarlett. This wasn’t just pain. This was the bond screaming that its other half was in danger.
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