“You’re really using magic to hack them, aren’t you? I didn’t even know that was possible.”
It seems there are more mysteries than answers when it comes to magic—including my own.
“They’re using magic to protect their data. Honestly, their firewalls are surprisingly sophisticated, but no match for me.” He types for a moment, squinting down at the screen and then his glasses flash white as the webpage changes.
He shoves his glasses up his nose and frowns as he keys in a string of letters and numbers.
“I’m in,” he says, just like he’s a hacker in a movie, but his expression grows grim seconds later. “Holy shit, Junes… Fuck.”
The pizza in my stomach turns to lead, sinking low and heavy in my belly. “What is it?”
“An omega went missing and her pack thinks Luca could have taken her. Grace Cassidy. She graduated from the academy a few years ago, lives in the city of Fairhaven with her pack…”
I sink and I float all at once. Raw and numb. Feeling everything and nothing all at once. An omega was taken, but Luca… Luca couldn’t have had anything to do with it. “Why would her pack think he took her?”
Simon hesitates, looking over the top of the screen at me. “They claimed that he coveted her. She frequented Quill & Clover, I guess, and he worked on one of the pack’s cars at the garage, but I’m damn sure he didn’t ‘covet’ her. Junie, that alpha has eyes for you and you alone.”
I look away, working my lower lip between my teeth. Is that true? I can hardly tell truth from lies anymore. If only I had one true thing I could anchor onto, something about my time with Luca that I could know, with absolute certainty, was the truth.
“Never mind that he’d never kidnap anyone. There’s no way he could have been anything but friendly toward her.”
“When did she go missing?”
“She was in town with her pack on Sunday afternoon. They reported her missing around 4:30.”
“When I was with him.”
“So, they’ll hold him for a bit and eventually, they’ll have to let him go.”
“Maybe.” Saints, is this what Kel was insinuating? That they’d set Luca up to take the fall for a missing omega? If it is, then they might not know about the mask at all.
Which means they may not have planted it in his trunk.
The cracks in my heart pull apart like ice floes. If Rad and his friends didn’t plant the mask, then it truly was Luca’s.
But if Rad, Jaime, and Kel did set Luca up to take the fall for Grace’s kidnapping, they’re doing it to hurtme.
In fits and starts, I tell Simon what Kel told me, leaving nothing out. Not the horrific insinuations, not the foul slurs.
“Okay, get the cops back here, because I’m going to punch that fucker right in the face,” Simon swears. “How could he—”
I don’t tell Simon that Kel got some of what was coming to him, that I hurt the alpha somehow. “You can’t fight Kelvin Montrose, Simon.”
“I know,” he sighs. “He could make things worse for Luc if I do.”
Luc. It’s the second time he’s called Luca that and it’s so familiar it warms my heart. Whether through their shared Transmogrification class or the nights we’ve all hung together, they’ve become friends.
Fuck. I’m not supposed to find anything about Luca heartwarming. He may not have taken Grace Cassidy, but saints only know what hehasdone, what crimes he may have committed behind that fearsome mask.
I scrub at my face with the heels of my hands. I begged Simon for answers, but as I finally bid him goodnight, as he hugs me close and whispers comforts in my ear, I have more questions than ever.
* * *
I can’t avoidmy fellow Fairhaven omegas forever. Wednesday night comes far too quickly and, with it, Omega Seminar.
Bitsy plunks me down in one of the chairs in the small semi-circle. “All right, Junie. Spill it. What the fuck is going on? Why’d the cops take your alpha?”
“He’s not my alpha anymore,” I mutter, wishing I could flee back to the safety of my cottage, the comfort of my nest.
