“You are missing the best part of the story,” Kara said, as though breaking the arm of a man wasn’t the most interesting bit. “The man’s friend got all upset. I think they were planning on double-teaming the girl or something, the perverts.” A snort of laughter from a few of the others—given that theyallshared women—said what they thought about that statement. “So he gets in Alison’s face, and he is huge. I mean, he makes Trent here look tiny, and Alison is just standing there, doing that blank face she does, letting him go off. He throws a punch but the idiot is already pretty drunk, so she dodges it, and when he’s off balance, she’s able to slam his face down into the table. I think there might have been teeth on the floor. No oneevergrabbed Anne’s ass again.”
The name caught his attention. “Anne? The omega who’s missing?”
That sucked the humor from the story out of the room, the reminder that while the get-together might be fun, reality wasn’t so forgiving.
Claire answered, nodding. “Yeah. I met her a few times, and she was—”
“Is,” Tracy said firmly, as if the belief were enough for it to be true.
Claire seemed less convinced but took the correction anyway. “Is very sweet. She’s only in her early twenties, never calls any of us for anything. Any omega going missing is hard, but her? She’s just the sort of person you think the world should leave alone. Like, there are those ones who are just too fragile, too good, who shouldn’t have to deal with the bullshit of the world. That’s Anne.”
Trent again cast his gaze up, toward the house, pieces fitting together a bit more about Alison’s dedication to the case, about how quickly she’d been willing to leap into something most people would take a minute or two to consider.
Worse, he thought about what would happen if they were too late…
He didn’t think Alison would ever forgive herself if something happened to her friend, but he hadn’t found the world to be an overly kind place.
* * * *
Daniel had pressed his lips together when Alison hadn’t come down for dinner.
He wished she was storming around, throwing a fit, because he knew exactly how to handlethat.
Hell, he enjoyed dealing with her temper tantrums.
Instead, she’d been quiet when they’d returned from the party. In fact, she hadn’t really recovered after going to the bathroom. She’d assured him she wasn’t sick, but she’d never engaged with anyone else. She would sit off to the side, close enough that no one felt she was left out, but far enough to not be part of the conversations.
Then again, was it that different from the start of the party? Alison didn’t seem like she fitted, or at least like she wanted to fit.
She watched over the omegas, always tense when they were curled up with an alpha, as if she were waiting to need to jump in and save someone.
The best way to describe her was a lifeguard, there on duty, sitting above everything else but not a part of it.
Which seemed silly, since he’d never met a group of people who seemed happier or more content with their mates and their lives.
Still, she had watched.
When they got back to the house, after achangeover at the hospital and collection of new medical documents to prove the visit, should anyone havetailed them and asked, she’d gone to her room for a shower.
That had been two hours before and she hadn’t left yet.
“She might be getting herself pretty,” Kyle said, a grin on his lips. “You know women have to do all that shaving to get ready.”
Daniel gave him a glare in return. “I don’t think that takes two hours.”
“Maybe she’s relaxing, or taking a nap?” Trent, ever the optimist, said.
Maybe.
“Whatever it is, dinner is almost here. I guess I’ll go let her know.”
Trent pointed a finger at him. “Be nice. If you scare her, she might not come down at all.”
“I am always nice.”
“You fucked her ass until she cried.”
Daniel spread his lips into a wide grin. “Oh, yeah, trust me, thatwasnice.”
