Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ahearn
“What do you mean he’sgone?” I roared at the hapless woman sitting behind the nurses’ desk. I’d accepted Petroh’s suggestion that we leave early that morning and allow Bari to rest, but when I returned to find him gone, furious didn’t begin to describe my state.
Far from appearing intimidated by my aggression, she simply seemed annoyed. “Exactly what I said,” she huffed back. “The father and babes were released two hours ago.”
“That can’t be right,” I snarled, stomping past the information desk to check the rooms for myself. “They weren’t even carried to term!”
“You can’t go back there,” she snapped, reaching for the telephone and asking the person on the other end to send the security force.
I ignored her. Even if they’d been standing beside me, there were precious few beings capable of stopping me by force. One by one, I wrenched open the doors lining the hallway. Some were empty, some were inhabited by other Omegas in varying stages of labor. None held the Omega that I searched for. Bari was nowhere to be found. Stomping back to the information desk, I leaned forward and glared.
“Where is he?” I hissed.
“I don’t know!” she spat back at me. “We don’t require forwarding addresses for patients!” She looked past me and smirked. “Now, I think you’ll want to be leaving.”
Following her eyes, I growled in irritation at the sight of the security force advancing, a large electrified stun pole in the hand of the lead guard. Ignoring her, I pushed my way through them, sending bodies flying like bowling pins as I strode to the elevator.
Back at the manor, I checked the room that Bari had occupied. Surely he would be returning, if only to reclaim the rest of his belongings. Scanning the empty room, his words from when I’d offered to get his bag came back to me.I need to put a few last-minute items in, anyway.My Omega had never intended to return to me when he left the hospital. And could I really blame him after the things I’d said? After I’d tried to forcibly remove him from my life without a second thought? My heart knew the answer, but still held out hope that I could woo my Omega, myhusbandback if only I could find him.
A task that would prove easier said than done as I had no idea where he would have gone. Although, it did seem logical that he would have been loathe to leave the children he’d just delivered, didn’t it?
Heading for my rarely used computer, I opened a search window and entered in the namePetroh Byrne.Mere seconds later, I had an address in the southern most part of Teren de Dragoni -the ancestral homeland of all dragons, including myself.
The flight would be long, a full day or possibly longer, but with no other, more logical place to start, I set about preparing the specialized travel bag that would carry my necessities as I flew. Then, stripping nude, I positioned the harness and relaxed into my shift, freeing the beast who would carry on the search for my mate.
The flight was arduous and unpleasant, the cooler weather making it hard for me to maintain optimal body temperature the further north I flew. When I reached the Canadian border, night was falling and with it, the temperature dropped, forcing me to land and warm up on the concrete roof of a steam powered energy plant before continuing on. When I finally arrived at Byrne Hall, Petroh’s estate, I was disgruntled to find that it was locked up tight without even servants present to allow me into rest. Grateful for the forethought to pack warm clothing, I shifted back to my human form to dress. Then, collecting a small pile of brush from the nearby woods, I sent a flame licking to light the fire and settled in to wait.
“Ahearn?” I startled awake, staring up into the confused face of Petroh Byrne. “Whatever are you doing here?” He looked around in confusion. “And why are you burning a fire on my front lawn?”
I stifled a yawn and climbed stiffly to my feet. “No one was home and I was cold.”
Petroh cocked his head. “But why are you here?”
I snorted in annoyance. “You truly believed that I would simply allow him to walk away from me?”
Petroh shook his head. “You’re not making sense, son.” He stepped past me to turn a key in the lock, waiting as two women walked inside, each holding a baby in her arms. “Go in and settle yourself,” he suggested. “I need to retrieve a few things from the car and then I’ll be in.”
I felt my brow furrowing as I strained to see the interior of the car in the dark. “Where is he?”
“Who, Ahearn?”
“Bari,” I said impatiently.
Petroh shook his head slowly. “He’s not with me, Ahearn. He’d already left the hospital when I picked the babies up to fly home. I assumed he was with you.”
My annoyance turned to dread. “No.”
Petroh sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. “It’s late. You must be tired and hungry. Why don’t you pass the night here and we’ll see if we can locate him?”
I forced back my instinctive refusal. He was correct that I needed rest and food, but more importantly, if Bari wasn’t with Petroh, I had no idea where he would have gone. “Thank you,” I finally said, accepting his offer. “I appreciate your offer of assistance.”
