The eighth month began with silence.
Not the peaceful kind—but the heavy, enforced kind. The kind that settled after something broke and everyone pretended it hadn't.
Cassian Drakov stopped the search.
Not because he wanted to.
Because it was taken from his hands by his own father.
The near accident came first.
Three nights without proper sleep. Back-to-back meetings. A boardroom confrontation that lasted hours longer than it should have. Cassian had left the building past midnight, shoulders tight, mind sharper than glass and just as brittle. The car swerved on a rain-slicked road when his vision blurred for half a second too long.
Half a second.
Enough to graze disaster.
Enough to terrify everyone who heard about it.
Rick showed up at his office the next morning without an appointment. Mason followed an hour later. Wren arrived silently and didn't leave. They were worried about his condition of his mental state.Even his parents called—once, then twice, then showed up in person when Cassian ignored the calls.
"You're stopping," his father said flatly, arms crossed. "This—whatever you're doing—it ends."
Cassian didn't argue. Not out loud.
Elena stood behind them all, eyes shadowed with worry. She had already scaled back her efforts, quietly, reluctantly. Not because she didn't want to find the omega—but because she was afraid of what would happen if they did.
Or if they didn't.
The official explanation was stressWorkload. Pressure...about halting the looking for omega.
The real reason sat heavier.
Avery.
It had happened at Rick's club—another gathering, smaller this time only these friends not with their wives. Too small for tension to hide.
Cassian had been unusually sharp that night. Not loud. Not explosive. Just coiled. Watching doors. Watching shadows. Watching nothing.
Avery noticed immediately.
"You're crossing a line," Avery said calmly, standing near the window, arms folded. "And you know it."
Cassian didn't look at him. "I'm handling it."
"No," Avery replied. "You're obsessing."
That got his attention.
Cassian turned slowly, eyes dark. "Careful of your words."
Avery didn't back down. "He doesn't want to be found. If an omega erases himself that thoroughly, there's a reason. Prying into his life like this—digging through records, forcing trails—it's dangerous."
"For him?" Cassian asked coldly.
"For you," Avery corrected. "And for him."
Cassian laughed once, sharp and humorless. "You think I'd hurt him?"
"I think," Avery said evenly, "that you don't care what breaks as long as you get what you want."
The room went still.
Rick straightened. Mason frowned. Wren's gaze sharpened.
Cassian stepped closer. His presence shifted—possessive, territorial, unrestrained. "You don't get to judge me."
Avery met him without flinching. "Someone has to."
Cassian's jaw tightened. "You think I don't know the risks?"
"I think," Avery said quietly, "that you don't care anymore."
That was when Cassian lost control.
Not physically.
Worse.
"He's mine, he will be mine," Cassian said, voice low, dangerous. "Whether he knows it or not."
The words hit like a blade.
Rick stood up immediately. "Cassian—"
Avery's expression changed—not anger, not fear.
Disappointment.
"That," Avery said softly, "is exactly the problem."
Cassian realized too late what he had revealed.
Avery stepped back, shaking his head once. "Do you really think," he asked, voice steady but cutting, "that with this attitude, someone would want to stay with you?"
Silence swallowed the room.
Avery didn't wait for an answer.
He turned and walked out.
The door closed behind him with finality.
No one spoke for a long moment.
Rick rubbed his face. Mason exhaled slowly. Wren stared at the door Avery had left through, brows drawn.
Mason spoke to lighten the mood " bro don't think about that omega there are many you know from the day people got to know your preferences they change their style and colour. Whenever you go on banquets don't you see many omegas with blonde hairs hahaha and think about the possibility of the omega already married __ this line made the temperature of room down by 2 degrees. Cassian with his dark gaze stood up and went for doorand wave to them goodbye.
Wren and Rick gave mason hard glare and sigh. Mason awkwardly laughed and said " am I doomed now?". Both of them consoled him.
At cassian house
Cassian stood on his balcony, chest rising and falling, the echo of Avery's words lodged somewhere deep and sharp. And mason's casual remark.
That night marked the end.
The search was halted—formally, forcibly, unanimously.
Elena archived files. Contacts were frozen. Orders were rescinded. Kane was left alone.
Cassian returned to his routine.
Work. Meetings. Control.
But something was missing.
The fire didn't burn anymore.
It hollowed.
And sometimes—late at night, when the mansion was too quiet—Cassian wondered if Avery had been right. No Avery is wrong I'll prove him wrong.
A week later, mason came to his office " cassian how you doing your complexion looks good than before". Cassian looked at him " why are you here". Mason said " brother don't be angry, it was just a slip of tongue". Cassian glanced at him and resume his work "for what work you're here".ason said " don't you remember the investment in my brother in law's company 3 months ago I told you to do, they wanted to thank you would you come with me there, sister Anna wants to thank you". Cassian said " some other time right now I'm busy with some projects". Mason told him "there are many beauties but stop midway. Cassian gave him glare. Mason coughed and said " sister Anna strictly gave you the order that you have to come on their royal banquet in their country which is four months from now." And left cassian told Elena to write that in schedule.
Elena nodded and went to make coffe for him. When she came cassian said " come with there , it's a faraway country from ours and prepare some presents by the date for sister Anna. She's like my own sister. Elena said " sir this country is not democratic and ruled by the king right so why did you invest there". Cassian smirked " their princes are regular customers of my inherited business from my father".