“What does my flower find so amusing?” A masculine voice breaks through my thoughts.
I look around but don’t see anything. ‘My flower’that’swhat he calls me. No, I imagined that. The panic is starting to rise but who am I kidding? It’s here already.
Trying to breathe so it doesn’t get worse, I look around frantically. Duke starts growling in one direction, his black fur standing on end. I look that way, seeing a man step out from behind a tree. He’s holding something but I can’t make it out. He’s keeping that side of his body, angled away from me.
I cannot pass out, so I need to calm the fuck down. So many thoughts and questions are running through my head but I can’t give any of them an inch. I need to focus on the threat in front of me. Duke is pulling on the leash a little. At least he’s here with me. As the man steps closer, it just confirms it’s him—Mark Henderson, my stalker, the monster who killed Connor. His smile to anyone else would likely be handsome, but it’s all teeth and makes my skin crawl.
I take an instinctive step back the closer he gets. “Tsk, tsk. You don’t want to do that. Run and I’ll have no choice but to chase you like my prey. Though it seems you may enjoy that, so I’ve heard.” Red-hot rage flows through me. Did he see me and Micah that time after my heat? I want to claw his eyes out if he did. His right hand raises and I finally see what he’s holding—a gun. It looks odd but it’s a weapon, nonetheless.
He aims it at me and with his focus on me, my grip on the leash loosens without realizing. Duke seems to be the onlyreason he’s kept any kind of distance. Before the leash fully falls away from my hand, he’s moving the gun, aiming it at Duke. Horror fills me.No, no, no!
I’m moving before I can think, trying to grab the leash or Duke to pull him back and away out of sight. It happens so quickly, a shot, not loud like I would have thought. Then Duke flops over, a dart sticking out of his chest near his neck. I kneel at where his prone form is, pulling it out of him and making sure he’s breathing. Thank the Gods he is.
“Don’t cry, flower. He’s going to be fine, just a little nap. Just like you.” His voice is now close behind me. Much too close. I don’t get the chance to move or react as he puts something over my nose and mouth. The chemical scent is immediate and the intensity makes my eyes water even more than they already were. Before the darkness at the edge of my vision claims me, I push down every ounce of love and apology I can down the bonds. I hope they felt it.
33
BEN
Overwhelming panic is flooding the bond along with fear. It’s so intense it actually makes me feel lightheaded for a second. I’m moving before I can think out of my office at the lodge and storming into Micah’s, whose startled and confused face greets me from behind his desk. “Thea. Something’s happened, we have to go,” I say, as though it’s a fight to get the words out.
He doesn’t say anything, just meets me at the door and by the time we get to his car, the bond is singing with her fear and anguish. What is happening to her? Micah is moving me around like a zombie, trying to get me in the car. He races to the house. It doesn’t matter because by the time we get there, the bond is silent. She’s alive but there’s nothing coming through. The last thing I felt was her love and regret.
The scene we walk into in the sitting room just off the entrance is a sight. Taz has Keelan pinned face down on the floor. Shock at seeing someone able to do that to Keelan briefly overrides everything else. Parker has silent tears running down his face and Eli is shouting at Harrison. They had to have feltit too. Unsurprisingly, it’s Ren, their pack’s beta, who gets us to refocus. Ren lets out a sharp whistle, shutting everyone up.
“One at a time, explain. Keelan came storming into the security office asking where Thea was and picked a fight with Taz. We all can see how that went. Now someone explain why you’re all panicked. We can’t read your minds,” Ren explains, crossing his arms and waiting for one of us to say something.
“Something happened to her, panic and fear rushed the bond and not long after it went silent…” I break off, belatedly thinking that’s happened before, when she had a panic attack after her date with Liam. But this was different. I just know it. “…before it cut off, she pushed her love down the bond. Something happened to her.”
After I say that, Harrison, Ren, and Taz all straighten, looking like they know something. There’s a hesitancy in their expression. Before I can question it a loud bang rings out behind us, the front door?
Jake storms in—no, that is too calm a word for this. He’s actually in an alpha rage. Holy shit. “Where is my omega?” he says in a deathly low calm voice, not the loud angry one I expected and it somehow makes it scarier. Keelan is still fighting hard to get free. Gods, we can’t handle him going into a rage too.
“Let me up so I can help him,” Keelan says to Taz. Taz seems to consider this before letting him go. Just as he does and Keelan gets on his feet, something snaps in Jake. Maybe we took too long to respond but he lunges for Harrison. Keelan grabs him in time and wraps his arms around Jake, holding him still.
Jake lets out a growl of frustration and fights fruitlessly against Keelan. “You all need to answer his question,” Micah snaps and the glare he’s aiming at them promises pain for someone.
“Some of the cameras on the north side of the property went out this morning. Then once we got them back the ones on thesouth side went out. This happened to coincide with us getting word from the guy we hired to tail Henderson in Florida that he had not seen him for a full day,” Harrison explains regretfully.
“I ran through what I could and found he booked a flight under a false name. We’ve been trying to track him down all day while also fixing the cameras,” a voice says from a phone Ren is now holding up. It must be their other pack mate, River. I’m not sure when he got on the phone but I don’t care right now.
“That doesn’t answer the question—where is she?” Eli asks, sounding almost as hollow as I feel without her there in the bond.
“When Keelan stormed in, we found that she left the house with Duke but once she got to the tree line on the south side, the cameras lost sight of her thanks to them being taken out,” Harrison answers.
“He got her. We promised to protect her and he still got her,” Parker says, heartbreak evident in every word.
Liam is the only one not here. Gods, I can’t imagine him at his office in town and trying to get back here after feeling that in the bond. Hopefully he’ll be here soon. Jake starts trying to break Keelan’s hold again. We need to get him under control first.
“I’m going to head out to where she went and see what I can find.” Ren makes his way out of the room.
“I’m going with him,” Eli says, quickly following Ren out.
Harrison moves to stand in front of Jake, a bold move considering he was the one Jake was about to attack. He smacks Jake’s face. “Pull it together, Carter. Your omega is in trouble and needs you to find her. You gonna rage like a poor little alpha or are you going to do something about it?” Harrison nearly barks at Jake.
It seems to help clear his deep blue eyes that seemed pitch black, now returning to normal, but Keelan doesn’t release him.After some deep breaths, Jake says in a normal voice this time. “Thank you. Let’s get to work.”
Harrison nods his head at that, satisfied, but Keelan doesn’t seem convinced. Jake looks up at him as best he can while he’s being held. “I’m good, I promise. Thank you for making sure I didn’t do something I would regret.” After some consideration, Keelan releases his hold on Jake and collapses back onto the love seat next to Parker.
