Remy cocks his head to the side, raising his brows in question.
“He’s my fated mate,” I say.
“How far into the process—”
I shoot him a glare. “How far do you think? The bond is there, I can feel it, but not strong enough for me to track him with it.”
“Shit,” says Dante.
“Exactly.”
“This isn’t good,” says Remy. “If you don’t find him before the mating frenzy starts…”
“Believe me, I know.” I shake my head. Fated mates aren’t common, but everyone knows what happens if they don’t finalize the bond. Well, everyone except for…Shit.“And Keir will have no idea what’s going on. I don’t know how or why he was kept so ignorant.”
“I might have an answer on that one.” Remy holds up Dante’s phone and wiggles it back and forth. “I did a little digging. There are only a couple packs near Tuscaloosa where Keir said he was from. None of them have a record of any omegas, male or otherwise. But… if what I’m thinking is correct, they probably wouldn’t have kept a record of him. Some of the older, more traditional packs can be rather inflexible about sexuality. And a male omega? To them, that’s the ultimate abomination.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying Keir has a reason to be scared if that’s the kind of pack he grew up in,” says Remy. “From what I’ve heard, he’s lucky they didn’t kill him.”
“But that doesn’t explain why he ran from me,” I say. “I could tell he was feeling the bond even if he didn’t know what it was.”
Remy rolls his eyes. “So, he was feeling something he didn’t understand while in the company of an Alpha he doesn’t know and being taken to an area where there are even more Alphas…”
“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m an idiot. Do you have any ideas or not?”
Remy glances over his shoulder. “Hey Dante, you brought back Keir’s bag, right?”
“Yup.” Dante walks to the corner of the room and holds a ragged looking backpack up by one strap.
Remy makes a grabby motion and Dante hands the backpack to my brother, who sets it on the coffee table. He opens the pack and starts pulling things out, laying the items inside on the table. Remy’s still removing the contents when a knock sounds at the door.
I motion for Dante to open it. Dante complies, revealing a hotel employee in the hallway holding a bottle of what looks like champagne.
“We didn’t order anything,” says Dante. He glances pointedly at his watch. “And it’s barely ten AM.”
The employee smiles. “Mr. Rossi asked us to send this along as a gift for your guest.”
Brody curses under his breath.
“Thanks.” I force a smile and take the bottle. “I’ll be sure he gets it.”
I shut the door, and turn around, the bridge of my nose pinched between my fingers. “This is one of Rossi’s hotels. How did I forget that?”
“And he’s bound to have people watching,” says Dante. “It won’t be long before he knows Keir didn’t arrive back here with you. If he doesn’t already.”
“Which means we definitely need to find Keir first,” says Remy.
“Chicago is Rossi’s city,” I say, my stomach twisting with fear.What if he gets to Keir before I do?
“True,” says Dante. “Rossi knows the area and he has an entire pack worth of resources to help him track Keir down.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re out of luck,” says Remy. “Keir has stayed under Rossi’s radar this long, which means he knows how to avoid being detected by other shifters. Rossi also won’t think outside the box. He’ll depend on his underlings to report back to him and they don’t do a lot of thinking for themselves. Rossi’s guys will be searching the entire city. We can narrow it down.”
“And how do we do that?” asks Brody.
“This is likely Keir’s version of a go bag,” says Remy as he gestures to the items from the backpack. “And he doesn’t have it with him.The clothes might not be vital, but the money definitely is if he hopes to get out of the city. His phone is also here, so he won’t be able to call anyone for help. That is, if he even has anyone to call. I doubt he’d go back to his apartment so he’ll need to go somewhere he believes that one, will have cash, and two, will give it to him.” Remy points at the stack of cash sitting on the table next to Keir’s bag. “More than half those bills have glitter on them, meaning most, if not all, of that money came from tips at the club. I highly doubt he has a second job or any other sources of income, so I’m fairly certain Heaven & Hell is the only place he’d think to go to get some more cash.”
