Chapter 5

Serena's father, Nathaniel, was worried sick. He was in the living room, pacing back and forth as his towering frame tore through the carpeted floor, thinking about his beloved daughter. It had been over a day and she hadn't come home like she was supposed to. He thought maybe she stayed at her best friend, Conrad, house for a sleepover,, but when he called to ask him, Conrad said she was not with him. Although when he mentioned that Serena left school all of a sudden and never attended the rest of her classes, that made his worries triple to the highest heavens.

Where on Earth could she be?

As Nathaniel continued to pace about in the spacious living room, the scent of his oldest son, Sean, entered his nostrils. He had asked him to search for her around the entire territory since her disappearance and hopefully he would bear good news.

"Dad?" a deep yet husky voice that belonged to his son brought his pacing to a stop.

Nathaniel halted his pacing and faced Sean.

"Any luck, son?" he asked with hope in his tone.

Sean frowned then shook his head as his wavy dark brown strands fell over his eye, covering his cinnamon colored orbs that he inherited from his old man.

"I don't understand," Sean said, the frown still apparent on his face. "I used our sibling bond to track her down, but it felt too weak... very weak, in fact. It's like she cut herself off from us."

Nathaniel's forehead creased as he took in the information. He didn't know how to react with his son's words nor would not think horrendous scenarios that he hoped would never happen to her.

"What about her scent?" he asked.

Sean's frown deepened. While he was tracking, her sister's scent was barely there, but due to his dad's beta lineage, he was able to catch a whiff of it even though the rain had subdued its full essence. What bothered him was the scent of the Alpha's son, Travis, mixing with his sister's scent in the woods. Most importantly, their scents grew a bit concentrated at the territory's border.

"It's weird," Sean said in contemplation. "Though her scent is almost non-existent due to the downpour, I caught Travis' scent along the way too..." he paused, assessing his next words. "...it was as though he was chasing her and their scent got slightly thicker at the border."

Nathaniel's eyebrow quirked. "Trenton's son?" he asked. "Why would he chase her? That's strange..."

Sean couldn't agree more, so he nodded his head. "You got that right," he said.

"I'll confront Travis about this," he mused. "Maybe he can shed some light to our predicament."

Indeed, Nathaniel was going to. He would do whatever it took to find his sweet daughter Serena, and even if it meant scouring for her to the ends of the Earth, he would do so without question. Just as long as that she is safe and sound in the comforts of his care and away from those twisted hunters.

God, the hunters... He only hoped that she was safe wherever she may be.

"Why are you two still not dressed for the party?" a familiar soft voice asked, irritation leaking from it, and Nathaniel turned his head to that voice.

It was his wife, Delayna, standing outside the living room entrance in all her majestic beauty.

She was wearing a strapless black gown with rhinestones adorning the chest area. Her blond hair was in an intricate french twist and her make-up made her look flawless, especially her eyes. It had a smokey effect that made her crystal blue eyes intensify their color. All in all, she looked radiant and utterly beautiful.

Nathaniel loved Delayna dearly, but not as much as he loved his dead mate and the mother of Sean and Serena.

Gabriella.

Sometimes, when he was alone, he thought about her with longing and grief. He missed her dark brown eyes that sparkled with happiness, her silky long brown hair that he loved to run his fingers through, and her red, plump delicious lips that he loved to kiss for eternity.

He missed her like the desert missed the rain, and when the day she was killed by the hunters all those years ago, he felt he had died along with her.

He grieved for months on end, wishing he was dead too, but he knew Gabriella didn't want that for him. He needed to be alive for his children, especially Serena, who was just a baby when she died by the hands of those wretched hunters.

And then came Delayna. She was the light of his dark tunnel and a sweet woman who adored him. He met her a few years ago, a year after Gabriella's death. She was new to the pack at that time and was carrying a one year old Carmela. She had come to seek refuge because back in her old pack, her mate betrayed her and left her and her daughter to fend for themselves.

As years went by, he had grown to love her, but he always had a special place for Gabriella. Sean and Serena needed a mother. Obviously, he couldn't do it alone, so he proposed to her and then, a few months later, they got married.

Unfortunately, Serena didn't know that Delayna wasn't her real mother. He didn't know how he would say this to his daughter who thought that she was her real mother. As for Sean, he knew everything, but didn't say anything for it wasn't his place. Truth be told, it perturbed him that after a few years they got married, she slowly changed. She was mean to Serena and Sean and had been critical on their every move. He didn't understand why, so he thought of it as her way of parenting.

'Till now.

"I ask again, why are you both not dressed for the party?" Delayna asked in a hard tone.

As she stood in front of her husband and his step-son, she was irritated that they weren't doing what they were supposed to do. All that Nathaniel had been doing was droning on and on about Serena being missing and she had it up until here if he such uttered one word about that stupid daughter of his.

So what if she's gone? It'll be better now that she is gone for good, so no one can interfere with the plans that she had for her daughter, Carmela. She wasn't that stupid that Travis was Serena mate. She had caught her sneaking out of the house several times and had some patrol wolves of the pack under her husband's command to follow her. She was, after all, the beta's wife and she took advantage of that power.

Nathaniel glared at his wife. "Don't you know that Serena is missing? All you think about is that damn party at the pack house!" he said in disbelief. How could she? Even though she was only her step-daughter, she at least had the decency to care about Serena, but this? This was just plain ridiculous.

Delayna rolled her eyes. "Maybe she went somewhere else or something," she said with a bored tone. "She will turn up soon," and in her mind she added, 'I hope not,' she thought bemusedly.

How could she say that?

"How dare you be so cool when your own step-daughter is missing for over 24 hours?" Nathaniel seethed as he could feel the bitter taste of acid at the tip of his tongue. He was shaking in rage and he could feel his wolf pushing to the front. "How can you be so callous, Delayna?!"

Sean picked up on his dad's anger and he felt him going wolf. That couldn't be good, and he didn't want his father to attack Delayna, even though he didn't care two shits if she got hurt or not, but it was wrong to hurt a female. Without any hesitation, he grabbed for his father's arm and held on tightly for he was in an offensive stance and ready to go on a killing rampage.

"Dad, calm down," Sean soothed his father. "You don't want to hurt Delayna," he turned his father around, stared at him straight in the eye and let his wolf push to the front. "Look at me, dad."

Nathaniel was still raging from the inside. He couldn't contain himself as he wanted to rip Delayna's throat out. Who cared about that stupid party? All he wanted for his baby girl to come home in his arms, safe and sound.

"I said look at me, dad," Sean ordered, and this time, he didn't expect for his words to flow out with authority, like of an Alpha's, or more than that. For as long as he could remember, his mother was just an ordinary wolf and his dad only had beta blood in him.

Strange.

Nathaniel felt that command-filled tone that had his knees buckle, like an unknown pressure pushing his whole being down. As he looked up, a gasp escaped his lips as he stared at his son's used-to-be cinnamon eyes which glowed with the color of aquamarine.

"Dad, calm down," Sean spoke to him softly, yet still held the edge which Nathaniel obeyed without hesitation.

Slowly and surely, Nathaniel relaxed and had his anger at bay as he breathed in and out.

He was subdued by his own son, and it had shocked him to pieces.

Delayna was standing there, utterly shocked that her husband had the audacity to do so. She was beyond appalled that he had shown anger towards her, and to be honest, she was scared shitless. Thankfully, Sean took care of it, but when she heard his voice come out like it had power, much more of an Alpha, questions fleeted across her head.

She knew that Nathaniel had beta blood running through his veins, but so that leaves his dead mate, Gabriella.

Who was she?

Regaining her composure, she straightened herself out and spoke, "Please be ready. You have15 minutes to get dressed. The party starts at 7:30 p.m. and it's now 7:00 p.m." And with that, she turned around and left.

Good riddance.

As Delayna left, Nathaniel let out a big breath and turned to his son. "What was that?" he asked with a frown.

Sean only shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "It just came out of nowhere."

Nathaniel thought this over. As far as he knows, their mother was just an ordinary wolf when he met her all those years ago. He had never met her parents, nor the pack she belonged to, but he didn't bother to ask. This raised a lot of questions, but right now, he had other pressing matters to do.

Like looking for Serena.

"Let's go to that damn party and talk to Travis," Nathaniel said to his son and clapped his back.

Sean nodded. "Okay. I only hope he knows something."

They had to start somewhere if they wanted to find answers.