Gray’s POV

The bed was cold on her side.

I woke to the absence before my eyes even opened. My hand reached across the sheets, expecting warm skin, the soft weight of the girl who had taken everything I gave her last night and still trembled so sweetly around me. Instead my fingers met empty fabric.

She was gone.

I sat up slowly, jaw tight, scanning the room. Her clothes were missing. The black card I had pressed into her palm was gone with her. No note. No lingering perfume strong enough to track easily. Just the faint scent of her on the sheets and the memory of how her body had clenched when I drove into her.

My wolf stirred under my skin, restless and angry.

Last night had been dangerous. The beast had clawed at the inside of my chest the entire time, demanding I mark her, claim her, sink my teeth into the curve of her neck and end the years of emptiness. I had held it back by sheer force of will. Every deep thrust had tested that control. Every soft, broken sound she made had pushed me closer to the edge. Somehow I had kept the shift from taking me. Somehow I had fucked her like a man instead of a monster.

That alone made her different.

Most women who ended up in my bed never affected the wolf at all. They were temporary. Forgettable. This one this stubborn little bar worker who had looked me in the eye and asked for protection even while her body welcomed me had quieted something and awakened something else at the same time. She was special. I felt it in my bones.

I reached for my phone.

“Find her,” I said the moment my head bodyguard answered. “The girl from last night. Dark hair. Worked the floor downstairs. She left with my black card. I want a name, an address, and everything else before noon.”

There was a short pause, then a clipped, “Yes, Alpha.”

I ended the call and stood, rolling the stiffness from my shoulders. The private room still smelled like sex and her. My wolf paced inside me, dissatisfied that she had slipped away while I slept. I should have locked the door. I should have kept her here until I decided otherwise.

But she had run.

And for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t willing to let a woman simply disappear.

An hour later my phone rang again.

“Her name is Charlotte,” my bodyguard reported. “No last name on record that matters. She lives with a woman named Margaret and a girl called Mia in a rundown apartment on the east side. The older woman is not her blood mother. There’s talk of an arranged marriage some old human named Black was supposed to buy her. She’s been working at the bar to scrape money together. The card you gave her has already been used once this morning at a small café near her building. She’s still in the city.”

I listened in silence, eyes fixed on the city skyline beyond the window.

Charlotte.

Even her name settled differently under my skin.

“Keep eyes on her,” I ordered. “Do not approach. I want to know every move she makes. And clear my schedule for this evening. I’ll be meeting her soon.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

I ended the call and exhaled slowly.

My wolf finally stopped pacing, settling into a low, possessive hum. The girl thought she could take the card, disappear into the city, and outrun whatever this was. She was wrong. I had spent years being called heirless, broken, incomplete. Last night something in me had recognized her. I was not going to ignore it.

I looked at the empty bed one last time.

“You can run for now, Charlotte,” I murmured. “But I’ll find you.”

Charlotte’s POV

I woke up to the sound of my phone vibrating nonstop against the nightstand.

Margaret.

Mia.

Margaret again.

Mia.

Margaret.

I stared at the screen for a long moment, then slowly smiled.

Every single day it was the same. Missed calls. Angry texts. Demands to know where I was. Threats. Bargaining. I unlocked the phone just long enough to watch the notifications pile up, then locked it again.

Your plan is not going to work.

The thought made something warm and sharp settle in my chest. They had sold me. They had treated me like a piece of furniture they could trade for a banquet ticket and a future with the Gray family. Now I was gone, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Then a new message from Margaret came through.

Don’t think you can run away from me. I will find you.

The words wiped the smile off my face.

My stomach twisted. For a second the old fear crawled back under my skin the same fear I used to feel every time she raised her hand or looked at me like I was nothing. I quickly turned the phone off completely and tossed it onto the bed.

This woman is so evil.

But I cared less than I used to. At least I was out of her sight. At least I was no longer sleeping under the same roof as the people who had tried to sell me.

I sat up and looked around the small apartment I had rented two days ago with the black card. It wasn’t fancy, but it was clean. It was mine. The bed was soft. The door locked from the inside. No one could walk in and slap me or scream at me or tell me I was worthless. For the first time in years, the silence felt safe.

Still, I needed a few things food, basic toiletries, maybe a cheap change of clothes so I wouldn’t keep wearing the same bar uniform. I pulled on a hoodie, tied my hair back, and slipped the black card into my pocket before stepping outside.

The afternoon sun felt too bright after days of hiding. I kept my head down and walked quickly toward the small supermarket a few blocks away. My mind was already calculating how long the card’s balance might last and how soon I needed to disappear to another city.

I never saw him until it was almost too late.

A black car was parked across the street. The back door opened. A tall figure stepped out, and even from a distance I recognized the broad shoulders, the dark hair, the controlled way he moved.

Gray.

Alpha Garcia Gray.

My heart stopped.

“Oh no.”

I spun around so fast I almost tripped and ducked behind a parked van, pressing my back against the cold metal. My pulse roared in my ears. I peeked carefully around the edge.

It was definitely him. He was speaking to a man in a dark suit probably one of his bodyguards while scanning the street with those sharp, unreadable eyes.

I can’t let him find me.

Embarrassment burned hot across my face and down my neck. The memory of that night slammed into me without mercy the way I had tilted my head for him, the way I had moaned, the way I had let a complete stranger fuck me because he handed me a black card. I had sold myself just as easily as Margaret had tried to sell me. The only difference was that I had done it willingly for a chance to escape.

Shame made my stomach turn.

I stayed hidden behind the van, barely breathing, until I heard car doors close and the engine pull away. Only then did I dare to move, walking fast in the opposite direction with my head down and my heart still racing.

I had escaped Margaret.

I had escaped Mia.

I had escaped Mr. Black.

But Alpha Gray was something else entirely.

And I wasn’t ready for him to find me.