“My father has been using leverage against me for the last six years, but recently I noticed that the footage he uses to prove the leverage is unharmed and alive is old. Recycled. I memorize every video, every photo. Then, four months ago, my inside contact ghosted me.” My voice breaks as all the worst things I’ve imagined fill my thoughts once again.
“The inside of what?”
“A facility. On the outside it seems like any other ABO treatment center. It’s not. My father owns and runs it. He has my entire life.” The Alphas share a look between each other, but I don’t stop. “Six years ago my father kidnapped someone. He was the leverage. Maybe he escaped, or maybe he…” I can’t say the words, but I think everyone hears them regardless.
Maybe he’s dead.
I don’t want to believe that, though. Not after everything.
“The leverage your father used against you is a person?” Dream whispers, and I nod as tears fill her sweet hazel eyes. Her empathy is beautiful and so damn rare.
“Yes. And my father needs him alive to control me, but…” My voice cracks, and Dream responds without hesitation, wrapping her arm around my waist, freely offering her comfort, with no expectation of receiving anything from me in return. “I’ve heard rumors about what happens there, and my father has made it clear that he’s willing to do anything to keep his control over me. If he’s gone, my father has nothing left I care about to make me obey him, which means I’m as good as dead. He’ll kill me, or worse. But maybe he’s alive and hiding.”
I fucking hope so. After everything, after I fought so hard to get him free. All the things I let my father force me into, all to protect him… He has to be alive.
“Whitehill?” Declan asks suddenly, tilting his head as he watches me carefully. My eyes go wide as my heart drops into my stomach.How the fuck?Shit, they're going to kill me. They might think my father sent me. I’m dead. It’s over.
“Yes.” I nod, breathless as I watch him. My thoughts spiral, and I can’t focus. I’m shaking, glancing at the different faces around the room, trying to figure out what they’re thinking. I can’t take this. I try to hold my fucking breath to calm myself or at least stop myself from hyperventilating.
“We raided it four months ago,” he says carefully. “Freed the captives. Some are still under our care, while others have moved on.” Declan’s words are measured and calm, but my heart pounds so fucking hard my ears are ringing.
Freed?
Fuck, I prayed they could help me, but this? All those victims…they’re already safe? I can’t catch my breath to say his name, to demand answers. To beg for answers.
“We shut it down, but we couldn’t get to the owner. Someone hit a kill switch when the raid started. All systems were wiped. We had someone on the inside who tipped us off and called for help, but even they couldn't track anything after we got there. We didn’t know who owned it until right now.”
I try not to pass out from breathing so fucking rapidly, but my vision starts to narrow, my head getting tight.
“D-did you find him? Is—is he alive?” I gasp, but try as I might to fight it, the world still shifts with black speckles that flash before my eyes. My limbs are too heavy. I can’t control them. My weight shifts. Everything hurts.
“Hold his legs up, Trev!” I hear Dream bark in her sweet Omega voice, but it's a long moment before everything comes back into focus. An even longer moment before my thoughts start to clear, and I even remember where I am.
“Hey, are you okay, Beau?” Dream asks, pressing her cool fingers to my heated skin. Fuck, that feels like heaven. It’s a fight to resist rubbing my face all over her.
“Yes.” I force myself to sit up. Before I get very far, the large hands holding my legs up in the air stop me. “I’m okay, really. I need to know if he’s okay. I need to know right now, please…” I beg the very big man with tender eyes I’ve never seen on an Alpha. He releases me with a nod, gently resting my legs on the couch.
“Slowly,” Dream murmurs as she helps me sit up. No one else seems to have moved, which is good. I don’t think I’d like it if the others touched me.
“We need a name, kid.” Easton calling me ‘kid’ is odd. I’m pretty sure he’s around my age, and at twenty-two, I’m not a kid anymore.
“Apollo. Apollo Grayheart. He’s an Alpha,” I whisper as I try to mentally prepare myself for the worst outcome.
For the words, ‘he’s gone.’
The vibe in the room shifts. From concern to frigid in a blink of the eye.Shit, what just happened?It grows colder. Icy and cautious. Deadly. I shiver as I glance at the faces of everyone around me once again, not understanding what’s happening.
Dream looks me right in the eye, smiling gently. “It’s okay, Beau. Everything will be okay.”
DREAM
Before anyone can do or say anything, the door to Declan’s office flies open.
“That was locked,” Kodiak grunts.
“Seems he can also pick locks.” Easton murmurs quietly as the wild-eyed Alpha slams inside.
Apollo’s gaze is like a heat-seeking missile as it lands on Beau.
