The next few days did not bring Kidd any peace.
If anything, they only made the restlessness worse.
From the outside nothing seemed unusual. The pack moved through the last week of the year with its usual rhythm—work during the day, patrols in the evenings, constant conversations about the upcoming New Year's camping trip that had become something of a tradition over the years. Levi handled the logistics like he always did, Zane and the younger wolves argued about hunting routes and whose tent would collapse first in the snow, and Byra tried unsuccessfully to convince everyone to pack more food than "just meat and beer."
Everything looked normal.
Only Kidd knew it wasn't.
Sleep had become difficult. Some nights he barely managed a few hours before waking up with the uneasy sensation that something inside him refused to settle. Other nights he didn't sleep at all, lying awake with Adrahil pacing restlessly beneath his skin.
He tried to ignore it. Tried to bury himself in work, patrol routes, anything that kept his mind occupied. It worked—until it didn't.
Because every now and then, without warning, the memory returned.
The taste of jasmine.
The sudden heat that had shot through him the moment their mouths touched.
The strange, disorienting reaction that had followed.
And every single time Adrahil stirred again.
That was what unsettled Kidd the most - he had no explanation for it so he did the only thing that made sense.
He stayed away.
He didn't go near Ithilien's house again. He did not cross the street where Marco parked his car outside the hospital, did not pass by the small yard where the scent of jasmine lingered faintly on the winter air.
It should have been easy - he had avoided people before.
But this was different. The absence itself felt… wrong.
By the fourth day even Levi had started watching him more closely.
"Something eating you?" Levi asked one afternoon while they were checking equipment for the camping trip.
"No."
Levi raised an eyebrow.
"U-huh," he said calmly. "Because you look like a man who wants to punch a tree for no particular reason."
Kidd didn't answer. Instead he finished tightening the straps on one of the packs and walked away before Levi could ask anything else.
By the time the day before the trip arrived, the tension inside him had become impossible to ignore.
He told himself it was just a quick drive through town. Nothing more.
The winter night had already settled over Eugene when he finally found himself turning onto the quiet street where Marco and Ithilien lived.
He hadn't planned it.
At least that was what he told himself.
The house stood silent when he arrived. No lights in the windows. No car in the driveway.
Kidd sat in the truck for a moment, staring at the dark shape of the building as the engine ticked softly beneath the hood.
Adrahil stirred again.
Not restless this time.
Alert.
He stepped out of the truck slowly.
The cold air bit into his lungs, sharp and clean, yet it did nothing to quiet the strange unease that had settled deep in his chest.
Something about the place felt… empty. He moved closer to the house, his senses automatically reaching outward the way a wolf's instincts always did.
Marco's scent lingered faintly near the door.
Old.
Several hours at least.
And Ithilien—
Kidd stopped and frowned slightly.
There was no fresh trace of her at all.
The realization made the uneasiness twist tighter in his stomach.
He didn't know what exactly he had expected to find when he came here but standing in front of that quiet house, with the winter wind whispering through the trees and no sign of her anywhere, Kidd suddenly understood something he hadn't allowed himself to admit before.
He needed to see her.
And now that she wasn't there, the restless pressure inside him only grew worse.
After a few more minutes standing in the cold, staring at the dark windows of the house, he turned away without knocking. There was no reason to linger. Whatever he had come looking for—an explanation, perhaps, or simply proof that she was still there—was not waiting for him tonight.
He drove home with the radio off and the heater running too high, the road sliding beneath the headlights in a long ribbon of quiet asphalt. By the time the pack house came into view between the trees, his mood had settled into something colder and more controlled.
Fine.
If she wasn't there, she wasn't there.
He wasn't about to start pacing around town like a restless idiot because one silver wolf had decided to disappear for a few days. Ithilien Greenan was not his responsibility. She had made that perfectly clear more than once, and he had no intention of arguing with the fact.
Whatever she was doing, wherever she had gone, it had nothing to do with him.
Why the hell does that sound like a fucking de ja vu?
By the time he stepped inside the house, his face had already returned to its usual unreadable calm.
The next morning the pack gathered early. The sky was still pale with winter dawn when the vehicles rolled out one after another, loaded with backpacks, tents, and far more supplies than any of them would probably admit to needing.
The mood inside the trucks was lively.
Camping trips had always been one of the few times when the whole pack relaxed without thinking too much about territory, patrols, or the endless small responsibilities of everyday life. Even Kidd could feel the shift in energy—lighter, louder, almost boyish in the way the younger wolves argued over who would reach the hunting grounds first.
Zeke leaned forward from the back seat of Levi's truck, his curiosity apparently impossible to contain for more than fifteen minutes at a time.
"Hey," he said suddenly, glancing between the others. "Anyone tried inviting the silver wolf?"
Carter, who had been half-listening while scrolling through something on his phone, let out a short laugh.
"I did."
That immediately caught Zeke's attention.
"Oh? Didn't know you two were on such friendly terms."
Carter shrugged, clearly pleased with himself.
"Yeah, well. I got her number the other day. Figured I'd try my luck."
"And?" Zeke asked eagerly.
"She's not around," Carter said. "Went somewhere. Uh… Mount Hood, I think."
Zeke blinked.
"Mount Hood?"
"Yeah."
Carter grinned and leaned back in his seat, completely unbothered.
"I'll give it some time," he added casually. "No rush."
Zeke laughed.
"Look at you, playing the long game."
"Always," Carter said.
From the driver's seat Levi glanced briefly toward Kidd.
It was quick and subtle enough that no one else in the truck noticed.
Kidd's expression had not changed at all. His gaze remained fixed on the road ahead, one hand steady on the steering wheel, the other resting loosely against the door.
No tension. No reaction.
If Carter's little announcement had bothered him, there was absolutely no sign of it.
Levi watched him for another second, then he looked forward again but somewhere in the back of his mind, a small question remained.
Because if there was one thing Levi had learned about Kidd over the years, it was this:
The moments when he looked the calmest were usually the ones when something beneath the surface was moving very, very slowly.