Three hours later, the atmosphere in the executive wing of Virel Enterprises was lethal. The air felt thin, pressurized by the Alpha's presence.

Staff members avoided the hallway outside the corner office. They could hear the pacing. It sounded like a heavy, rhythmic thud. The sound of a beast in a suit.

Elias Virel pushed open the heavy oak doors without knocking. He stopped at the threshold.

The office was a disaster.

A designer chair lay overturned in the corner.

Papers were scattered like snow across the Persian rug.

Killian stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, his back to the door.

He had removed his jacket.

The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up, exposing the scarred forearms and the heavy veins throbbing in his wrists.

His shoulders were hunched, a posture of pure aggression.

"You're scaring the interns, Killian," Elias said softly.

He closed the door behind him, clicking the lock.

Killian didn't turn. "Did you get the footage?"

"The building's security cameras caught her leaving at 6:18 AM." Elias walked closer, his eyes scanning his cousin's rigid frame.

Killian finally turned.

Elias flinched.

The Alpha's face was a mask of pale, frozen rage. But it was the eyes that were wrong.

They hadn't shifted back. The amber was brilliant, glowing with a feverish, obsessive light.

"You slept with someone," Elias said carefully, "and now you're acting like a homicidal Victorian husband because she left before breakfast?"

Killian's gaze turned lethal.

Elias held up both hands immediately. "Right. Touchy subject."

Killian's self-control had always bordered on unnatural. Even as children, he'd possessed that terrifying stillness Alpha wolves developed only under extreme discipline. Nothing rattled him. Nothing distracted him.

Elias sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You met her six hours before she left your bed. This isn't like you."

Killian slammed his fist onto the desk. "My wolf is screaming, Elias. It won't shut up."

He felt the instability rolling off him in waves. His wolf wanted to run.

It wanted to hunt through the concrete canyons of Chicago until it tasted her scent again.

"What?"

"I can't breathe," Killian muttered, his hands gripping the edge of the desk. "The air in here. It doesn't smell like her."

Elias stared at him, realization dawning. 

This wasn't just a billionaire's ego being bruised.

This was a biological collapse.

Killian Virel, the man of iron, was spiraling into a mate-bond obsession for a girl he barely knew.

Elias studied his cousin for a long moment before speaking again.

"Do you even know her last name?"

A pause.

Then, coldly:

"No."

Elias let out a disbelieving laugh under his breath.

No name worth tracing.

No number.

Nothing.

The legendary Killian Virel.

"I've put the tech team on it," Elias said, his voice dropping to a professional hum. 

"We're running facial recognition against every university database in the tri-state area."

Killian closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the cool glass of the window.

She had mentioned psychology.

"Search the grad programs," Killian ordered. "Literature. Psychology. Anything with a heavy workload."

"I don't care about the cost. Call every contact. Every favor."

"Killian—"

Killian turned to face the room, his presence expanding until the walls felt too close.

He looked like a man possessed by a beautiful demon.

"If she's in this city, I want her found by sunset."

"And if she doesn't want to be found?" Elias asked. Somewhere deep down, Elias almost felt sorry for her.

Killian walked toward him, his stride predatory and smooth.

He stopped inches from his Beta's face.

The scent of cedar and suppressed violence was overwhelming.

"Then I'll give her a reason to change her mind," Killian said. 

He looked at his reflection in the dark glass.

The predator was fully awake now.