Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by his Brother
Chapter 184: _ Can’t Find Her

Chapter 184: _ Can’t Find Her

My voice came out low and dangerous. "Why?"

The guard swallowed hard. He looked like he was regretting taking the money now. "There was... an incident."

"What kind of incident?"

His gaze flickered downward, as if debating whether he should go on. I took a slow step forward. "Talk."

He sucked in a breath. "She and Señorita Rosa had a fight."

A fight. María José was always getting into these fights with her sisters.

That didn’t surprise me. I had half a mind to believe Rosa started it, because, of course, she would.

But there was something in the way the guard said it, something that made my stomach tighten unpleasantly.

"How bad was it?"

The guard hesitated. Then, with clear reluctance, he answered:

"She lost her beauty."

The words sounded too impossible to even be believed. All I did was gaped without blinking for a minute, trying to process the words.

She lost her beauty.

I stared at him. The words didn’t make sense. María José was beauty. She was delicate in a way that made people notice. She was bruised and weary, yes, but still untouched in her quiet elegance.

I forced the lump down my throat. "Be specific."

The guard shifted on his feet, clearly uncomfortable. "A gash. Across her face. Bad enough that... well... it’s permanent."

I couldn’t breathe. It felt like something inside me had shattered because it had. María José had suffered so much. She was hurt so badly while I was busy doing what?

Frolicking with her sister and Rosario?

For a second, I just stood there, unblinking while the world around me turned into static.

I wasn’t sure what hurt more; the thought of María José getting hurt, or the knowledge that she had suffered this while I was away, blind and useless.

"How?" My voice was hoarse. "How did it happen?"

The guard shook his head. "No one knows exactly. Some say Rosa did it on purpose. Some say it was an accident."

Accident, my ass.

I clenched my jaw so tightly that pain shot through my temple.

Rosa. Of course, it was Rosa.

And Don Diego had disowned María José because of it?

That spineless bastard. That disgusting, pathetic excuse of a father.

I turned on my heel, my hands shaking at my sides. I needed to get out of here before I exploded. Before I turned this estate into rubble.

I would have loved to storm back in and cut Rosa into two if possible, but María José, the woman I loved... she comes first.

Because right now, the only thing ringing through my head was that she was out there, alone, injured, abandoned, and I had no idea where she was.

But I would find her. And when I did, the Moon help anyone who had a hand in her suffering. Because there wouldn’t be enough prayers in the world to save them from me.

"She lost her beauty."

The guard’s words echoed in my skull, gnawing at my insides. What the hell had happened to María José? What did he mean by disfigured?

My mind painted grotesque images. The deep gash that was said to permanently be on her face, the one that had taken away her beauty.

The one that was making my heart ache as thought I bore the scar and not her.

Oh, Dios... I had forgotten that night. How? How the fuck had I forgotten something so important?

Hugo growled at the back of my mind.

"We should go back and burn that place to the ground."

I tightened my fists, nails digging into my palms. Not now, Hugo.

"That bastard Don Diego and his two daughters are still breathing after what they did to her. That’s unacceptable."

"María José comes first." I snapped internally. "Before anything else, she comes first. We make sure she’s safe, make sure she’s comfortable. Revenge can wait."

Hugo snarled. "No, it can’t. Because the moment we find her, she’ll need a home. And this one? This one’s already ash in my eyes because we are burning it down!"

I ignored him because he clearly wasn’t in the right mind for now. More than ever, I needed to only take rational steps now if I was going to be responsible enough for her.

I forced my legs to move faster. The estate was behind me now, but the need to tear something apart remained. My whole body felt like a wound; raw, open, and throbbing with rage and regret.

I needed to find her.

I didn’t have a plan. All I had for now was just a name—her name, and a mission.

"María José," I muttered, tasting the name on my tongue like a prayer.

I reached the outskirts of the pack’s elite area and immediately started asking around.

"Have you seen María José?"

Know what I got? Blank stares. Shaking heads. Furtive glances.

"Anyone? Have you seen María José?"

"No, Señor Axel," a young girl stammered, wide-eyed. "I—I haven’t seen her."

"Me neither."

"I didn’t even know she was missing."

Lies. These bastards were lying. Or maybe they were just that clueless.

Frustration tightened around my rib. My patience was already weaning more than ever, and their useless answers were only making it worse.

"We should start breaking things," Hugo suggested.

"And how does that help?" I gritted out.

"It would make me feel better."

I stalked through the pack, peering into every possible hiding spot. Dark alleyways, abandoned sheds, even behind the butcher’s shop where I knew she used to work.

I found nothing.

My heartbeat quickened. Was she even still here? Of course, unless she wanted to become a rogue.

Panic clawed at my chest.

"If she left, it’s because she had no choice," I reasoned. "She wouldn’t have just disappeared on her own."

Hugo growled. "Or she’s dead."

I stopped in my tracks, my jaw tightening so hard it hurt. No. No, she’s not. She’s not.

But that creeping doubt crawled into my mind, poisoning my thoughts. I shoved it down. Kept moving. Kept searching.

Just then, my elevated sense of smell caught a hold of a scent. It was faint and even Barely there. But hers.

Hope flared in my chest. I turned sharply, and crashed into someone.

Hard.

"What the..."

I barely heard the voice before my hands shot out, grabbing the collar of the idiot I had collided with.

Oh, it was Luis Miguel.