Cyril’s POV
It had been four days since Ella vanished. Four days of silence, false leads, and sleepless nights. Every search team I sent out returned with the same words: no sign, no scent, no trace.
Each morning, the sound of the manor gates opening for new patrols replaced sleep. Each night, I fell asleep at my desk with the same thought pressing behind my eyes, she was gone because of me.
By the fifth day, the manor felt empty in a way that unsettled everyone.
Eleanor refused to eat. Mary couldn’t calm her. Marcus barely slept.
And I had started to lose patience.
When Marcus knocked that afternoon, I already knew it wasn’t good news.
“Alpha, we found something,” he said as he stepped inside my office.
I looked up immediately. “Where?”
He hesitated. “At the eastern border. A mer
