The animal inside him was agitated in ways that had nothing to do with concern for his fiancée and everything to do with a bond he'd thought was buried, dormant, safely suppressed beneath years of neglect and abandonment.
But seeing Dakota tonight had awakened something.
The old mark, his mark, had pulsed with recognition when he'd walked into the great hall.
His wolf had known his mate was near, had wanted to go to her, had been confused and angry when she'd looked at him with hatred rather than love.
And now that mate was missing, and every instinct Ethan possessed was screaming at him to find her, to protect her, to make sure she was safe.
But he couldn't.
Because going after Dakota would mean admitting why he cared, would mean revealing the connection between them, would mean destroying everything he'd built with Maya and exposing secrets that would devastate his fiancée and ruin his carefully constructed life.
