The burial ended quickly.
The Alphas filed out in clusters, voices low. Rodrigo stood where he was and let them pass. He had no interest in pleasantries. He had no interest in much of anything at the moment except the fact that she had not come back.
His eyes moved through the thinning crowd.
And Seven was also nowhere to be found.
He remained where he stood, hands clasped behind him, and waited. The grounds were emptying slowly, the last of the mourners peeling away from the graveside in twos and threes.
He was still watching the path when he heard the footsteps behind him.
"Alpha Rodrigo."
He didn't turn immediately. Let one beat pass, then another, before he turned.
Hades came across the grounds unhurried. A small smirk on his lips. The particular smile of a man who had prepared for this conversation long before today and was pleased to finally be having it.
He stopped just slightly too close.
"Thank you for honoring my invitation." His eyes held Rodrigo's with ease. "I'll admit, I wasn't entirely certain you would."
Rodrigo didn't move. His eyes glancing through the crowd, searching.
"I heard there was trouble on the road." His gaze moved over Rodrigo slowly. "Nothing serious, I hope."
"Nothing I couldn't manage," Rodrigo said, still not looking at him.
"No." He chuckled, dryly. "You rarely can't." He tilted his head slightly to one side. "Though I must say — this is twice now that fate has seen fit to make your visits here...eventful." A pause that stretched just past comfortable. "One has to wonder what it means."
Around them, the low murmur of the remaining Alphas had gone quiet.
Every man who hadn't yet left had stopped where he was.
Rodrigo's lips curved. Just slightly. "Do indulge me."
Hades held his gaze for a moment, something moving behind his eyes that didn't reach the rest of his face.
"One might think," he said, his voice dropping just enough to make the words feel close, "that death follows you."
The air went tight.
Rodrigo finally looked at him. His eyes rested lazily on his face.
The last time he'd seen him, he'd been on his knees begging for an alliance to take his brother down.
A slow frown found it's way to Rodrigo's brows.
He let the silence run for a moment. Then he smirked.
"It does," he said.
The color left Hades's face.
"Which is why you'd choose your next words very carefully." Rodrigo's voice didn't rise, yet the temperature dropped to chilly degrees. Rodrigo's eyes held his, unblinking, the grey in them growing darker. His hands still clasped behind him.
For a moment nobody moved.
And then —
"Alpha."
Seven pushed through the crowd and came to a stop a few feet away. His chest heaved as his eyes moved slowly across the scene in front of him. He swallowed whatever he had been about to say and stood there for a half second, catching his breath.
"Speak," Rodrigo said. His eyes didn't move from Hades.
Seven walked closer to him, and whispered, but it was loud enough that everyone heard. "The Luna has gone missing."
The men around them went quiet.
Rodrigo turned to look at Seven, and Seven kept his head down under the weight of it.
"Missing," Rodrigo said.
"I left her at the women's quarters before the burial." Seven's voice held, barely. "Hours passed and she didn't come out. I went in to find her and she wasn't there. The women said they hadn't seen her come through." He stopped. Drew a breath. "I've looked everywhere. She's nowhere."
The quiet that came after that was different from the one before it.
Rodrigo turned back to Hades.
Hades spoke first. "Hades Pack is safe, Alpha Rodrigo." His voice had smoothed itself back out, though his eyes were working fast behind it. "Your Luna is not in harm. My guards will assist in the search." He paused. "You have my word."
Rodrigo held his gaze for a long moment.
"Lead the way," he said.
Seven moved fast down the narrower path that branched away from the burial grounds, and Rodrigo followed a step behind, a dozen of Hades's guards falling in around them.
Too bad then. You should have run away.
Rodrigo's hands tightened a fraction beside him.
For a moment, he wished this was a plan orchestrated by her. That she'd finally decided to be selfish and choose herself.
Seven stopped at the small gate at the far end of the path. "I left her right here," he said, his voice fraying at the edges despite his effort to hold it. "She never came back out."
The gate opened onto a short covered walkway leading to the entrance of the women's quarters. The guard at the door — a woman, middle-aged, her face already drawn tight — shook her head before Rodrigo had even asked.
Nobody had come through.
They checked the interior anyway. She was not in.
Rodrigo came back through the gate and stood.
The path split three ways from where he stood — back toward the burial grounds, down toward the eastern buildings, and left along a narrower track that wound toward the older part of the grounds. The stones on that path were harder to see beneath the growth. Less foot traffic. Less light between the trees that pressed in along its edges.
His eyes moved down it and stayed.
Hades had caught up, his guards behind him, and behind them a few Alphas had followed.
"Spread out. Don't come back until she's found." Hades commanded, and the guards moved quickly. He turned to Rodrigo.
"No one goes missing inside Hades Pack, rest assured, she would be found," Hades said, his voice less composed than he wanted it to sound. He turned to his guards sharply.
"That's fine, because if a hair on her head is harmed," he said, "every living soul in this pack answers for it."
Hades's smile dropped slowly. His jaw tightened as his gaze grew dark.
"We've found her, Alpha."
A guard came at a run from the direction of the older path, breathing hard, his face carrying something that wasn't quite relief.
Rodrigo looked at him for one moment, something going very still in his chest, and then he turned and walked.
The courtyard sat at the end of the old path, behind a rusted gate that had been pushed inward from the outside, the hinges scraping fresh marks into the dirt. Inside, the stone flags had almost disappeared under years of growth, and at the center of it stood a house that was older than everything around it — the stone a darker color, the windows covered with dust, the front doors thrown open, and breeze brushed dried leaves in.
Rodrigo went through first.
The hall was dim, light coming in thin and grey through the dust-covered windows. Every surface held years of undisturbed settling — except the floor near the far wall, where the dust had been disturbed.
She was there.
Curled on her side, one arm tucked beneath her, her chest pulling in short shallow drags that barely moved her. Her skin was pale, her clothes soaked through and clinging, her hair plastered flat against her face and throat.
He crossed the floor instantly and crouched beside her.
He turned her face toward him with one hand. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly parted, her breathing thin and ragged. He pressed the back of his fingers to her cheek.
She was burning.
Rodrigo glanced in front of her, his eyes taking in the scene for the first time.
How did she get here? And what the hell was this place?
He stared at the bloodied chains for a moment, then he reached down and gathered her up.
She was lighter than she looked. Her head fell against his chest limply, and her fingers were cold, despite the heat coming off her skin.
He straightened and turned toward the door.
Hades stood just outside with his men, his face drawn into a tight frown, his eyes going past Rodrigo's shoulder into the hall behind him. The other Alphas had gathered at a distance and none of them were speaking.
Hades looked at her. Then at the open doors. Then at Rodrigo's face, and something moved through his expression that he didn't fully manage to keep down.
"These doors haven't been opened in twenty years," he said. "How did she get in?"
Rodrigo stopped.
His eyes slowly glanced back down at her, and then he looked back at Hades.
''I should ask you the same question.''