I tap the place on Ricky’s hip where his bond mark sits. “He’s feeling everything you’re feeling, and it’s too much. It happened before too, when you fought at the prison. He’s not strong enough for that.”
Zack snarls at me, and a trickle of fear runs down my spine. “Wrong! Ri-ckon powerful! Magic!”
I groan inwardly. “Yes, he’s powerful in his heart, but his body is small.” I transfer my hand to Rickon’s chest, twisting to the limits of my seatbelt. “Your rage is the size of your body, so it won’t all fit inside Rickon. You need to calm down. Look, he can hardly breathe.”
Zack studies Rickon and sets his hand on his bond mate’s chest, feeling him struggle for every breath. When he looks up, the pain in his gaze is unmistakable. “Can’t calm,” he mutters. “How, when Red gone?”
I reach over Rickon’s head to grasp Zack’s shoulder. “She’s not gone. You can still feel her inside, right?”
He nods in misery.
“As long as you can still feel that, she’s alive.” My voice breaks. What if the emotions from Red’s bond stop? I can’t bear to think about it. And I won’t. She’s a survivor, so she’ll hold out for us. Clearing my throat, I tell Zack, “If it’s hard for Ricky to breathe, then it’s hard for Red. She might need to run or talk, so please try.”
I can’t say what possesses me, but a faint memory of how Red reacted to Zack’s arrest flits through me and I start to purr. Zack jerks in shock, but a moment later Rickon sucks in a deep breath.
“This is Jordan Avenue, sir,” Lewis says as we turn onto a road.
I lean forward and point toward the parked OCB car. “Pull up next to them.” When we stop, I order Zack to stay in the car. He snarls at me, but thankfully it seems more like an instinctive response than disobedience because he remains with Rickon.
“I’m the missing omega’s alpha,” I declare when the agents look at me sideways. “What did you find?”
The female agent holds up an evidence bag with a crushed phone inside.
“Fuck,” I mutter, turning back to the car. The rear window rolls down, and Rickon’s green eyes beg me for an answer. My soul dies a little as I shake my head.
I dial Josef and thumb open my maps while the phone rings, scanning the surrounding streets. “Your old house is in the opposite direction,” I mutter to Ricky. “Can you think of anywhere you went as a kid out west?”
“No,” he grinds out. At least he has enough breath for that much.
Zack sits silent beside him, one hand on Rickon’s knee and the other tensed into a fist, but it seems he’s getting himself under control.
“We never really went anywhere together,” Rickon muses, pressing his belly.
My heart squeezes. We can’t lose Red now. “No workplace, shopping, friends to visit, camps—?”
Ricky’s eyes widen. “We went camping once, out at Rhiteson National Park.”
“Let’s try there.” I sling myself into the front seat, and the driver takes off, plugging the park into his navigator as he zips down the street.
The system shows a ninety-minute drive, and I growl under my breath. It could take us so far out of Red’s path that we miss her, or it could lead us right to her. I twist to look over my shoulder, and Rickon nods to me.
“We can’t sit and do nothing,” he whispers.
Yeah, that’s not an option. Not when Red’s relying on us.
“And,” Rickon continues, resting his palm over his breast. “The bond will tell us if we’re getting closer.”
I nod. “Let’s go.”
No one should underestimate the power of the bond between my pack and our omega.
Chapter fifty-eight
Red
It’s dark by the time Clarrisa pulls up in front of a small white building—the kind that gets shipped on the back of a truck and set down at a building site. I snatch my purse from the floor and tuck it under my arm, so the bulky part sits at my back. In the shadows, Clarissa might not notice.
“I need to pee,” I demand as she opens the door and waves me out.
