Serena reached for the bag, but Alpha Kaidan pulled it back instinctively before she could touch it.
"It’s, uh, it’s for Naomi," he said quietly. "Her trial gift."
"Oh." Her smile faded into something disappointed for half a second before she caught herself and recovered, smiling warmly again.
"Well, can I come home with you, then?" she asked, eyes soft with hope.
He studied her. It wasn’t that he minded, exactly. But Naomi hadn’t exactly warmed to her, not after last time. What if things turned ugly again?
"Come on, it’s been so long since I’ve been to your house," she said when he didn’t answer fast enough.
He gave a small smile and nodded. "Fine."
They got into the car and the driver pulled off right away. The road blurred past the window, and for a while neither of them said much, the silence sitting comfortably between them the way it always used to. He should have found that comforting. Instead his mind kept drifting back three days, to a pair of eyes he hadn’t been able to shake since.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the pack house. As always, he expected Naomi to be the first face he saw. This time, she wasn’t.
It was Grace, the housekeeper.
"Welcome home, Alpha," she greeted, polite as ever, then turned to greet Serena too.
He looked past her, expecting Naomi to appear from somewhere. His eyes swept the living room, the staircase, the quiet hallway leading toward the kitchen.
No one came. She wasn’t there.
He frowned.
What was wrong with her? Why hadn’t she come to greet him? That had never happened before, not once. She was always the first one waiting when he came home, always the first sound he heard.
He sighed and stepped into the living room. Everything sat neat and orderly, same as always, the afternoon light falling in long stripes across the floor, but something about the stillness felt off, like the room itself was holding its breath. The remote was still exactly where he’d left it the night before.
He remembered coming in to catch some pack news updates, setting it down after switching channels.
Still there and untouched. And he couldn’t shake the thought that she hadn’t even turned the screen on. Didn’t she usually watch something here in the evenings, curled into the corner of the couch with her feet tucked under her?
"Lunch is ready, Alpha," Grace said, cutting through his thoughts. "I’ll set the table now."
Lunch. Who was thinking about food right now? Naomi was usually the one who had his meal waiting on the table before he even walked through the door, the smell of it reaching him before she did.
But everything about today felt wrong.
"If there’s anything else you..." Grace continued, but he barely registered it.
"Where’s Naomi?" he cut in.
"Madam is..."
"I was wondering the same thing," Serena jumped in, frowning. "Why she didn’t come greet you, letting the staff handle your meal instead. Is something wrong with her?"
"She’s fine, Alpha. She’s just..." Grace tried again.
"Is she always this distant, Alpha Kaidan?" Serena cut in again, turning to him with a look of surprise. "I’m not trying to judge, but only a mate who’s checked out of the bond entirely would act like this."
He didn’t wait to hear the rest. He was already moving past both of them toward the stairs, something tightening low in his chest that he didn’t have a name for yet.
"Alpha Kaidan!" Serena called after him. He didn’t stop.
His grip tightened around the gift bag as he climbed, his heart pounding for reasons he couldn’t quite explain, each step somehow louder than the last in the too-quiet house.
Was she still angry over their fight? One of her moods? This felt different, though. Heavier. Quieter in a way that unsettled him more than shouting ever could have.
Or maybe he was overthinking everything because of what she’d said, that word she’d thrown at him, still burning somewhere in his chest even now. He’d buried it under anger at the time. Deep down, though, he knew it had shaken something loose in him that he hated admitting to, something he still hadn’t found the words for.
When he reached the bedroom, he pushed the door open without knocking. He paused the second he stepped inside, brows pulling together.
She wasn’t there. He’d been so sure she would be.
"Naomi?" he called, moving toward the bathroom.
He knocked briefly, pushed it open. Empty. Not there either.
He stepped back, scanning the room, noting how untouched and perfectly arranged everything looked, the bed made with hospital-corner precision, nothing out of place, nothing to suggest she’d even slept there. Had Grace already been through to tidy it?
This didn’t look like a room someone had just stepped out of. She hadn’t mentioned going anywhere today. If she wasn’t home, where was she? Unless...
"Grace!" he shouted, already storming out of the bedroom. "Grace!"
"Yes, Alpha!" she answered, hurrying toward him.
"Where is Naomi?" he demanded, fighting to keep the panic out of his voice.
"Madam?" Grace asked, confused.
"Where did she go?"
He needed to hear that she’d at least told someone where she was. He couldn’t stomach the thought that she might have gone to find that man from the other night, the one whose face he still hadn’t been able to shake either.
Grace looked at him like he’d lost his mind. "She’s in the garden, Alpha."
A slow breath of relief left him the second he heard it, his shoulders dropping in a way he hadn’t realized they’d tensed.
"She’s watering the flowers," Grace added, still visibly confused by his outburst.
He swallowed, smoothed his expression back into something calmer, and nodded before walking past her toward the stairs.
She shouldn’t even be out there. Her ankle hadn’t fully healed. The pack healer who’d checked on her days ago had been clear, no strain on it, not yet, and she’d nodded along like she was actually listening.
His fingers tightened around the bag as he headed for the garden, the gift suddenly feeling heavier in his hand than it had all day.
"Naomi?" he called out, keeping his voice level.