Still, with the break-in at Eva's... I was uneasy.
I took my gloves off, pausing the music and lifting the phone with a stroke upwards of my thumb to bring up the alerts I'd missed while I was on do not disturb. My heart fell out of my ass. I flung my phone onto the workbench, racing for the door.
"Eva?" I shouted as she screamed again, my skin feeling cold. "I'm coming! fight tesoro! fight!"
The handle of the door turned, but the door didn't budge; the pins of the lock jammed from the other side.
Panic and anger gripped me in equal parts as I wheeled, looking for another exit. The window was too small to force my shoulders through, and this was the only door. Something that, until now, I'd never considered as a problem.
Unluckily for whoever thought that they were going to pull a fast one over on me, I kept this shed immaculately organized—and I didn't give a fuck about how I got out.
Sheds could be replaced.
Omegas couldn't.
Especially not an omega carrying our fucking baby.
I yanked down Marcus' box of camping equipment labelled 'firewood and accessories', displacing a couple of silverfish in the process.
Bastards.
Luckily, what I was looking for was just under the lid. I flipped the axe over in my hand, bashing the blade into thedoor handle. And, when that didn't immediately yield the result I wanted, I hacked at the door until the opening was big enough for me to use the axe's handle to knock off the doorknob from the other side.
Tires squealed on the pavement, the following silence echoing in my ears like the final notes of an aria.
I slammed my shoulder into the ruined door, it coming loose without the doorknob to hold it in place, giving way so fast I stumbled a couple of paces into the snow piles around the door, unfamiliar boot tracks clear alongside mine as they headed towards the door.
"Eva!" I shouted, taking the back steps two at a time, tracking mud and wet onto the floor as I ran inside, through the kitchen, to find the front door ajar.
Rage filled me. Whoever the fuck thought they could touch what belonged to me, could take what was mine, was about to wake to a world of pain so hideous, they'd wish that they'd never so much as looked at my omega.
Standing alone in the entry, I screamed with anger, slamming the door so hard that the ornate glass panel embedded inside cracked. "Eva!"
My foot tappedthe floor the whole way home. I never stopped trying Eva’s phone. Every unanswered ring feeling more deafening than the last.
After what felt like an eternity, we made it home. Everyone leaped from the car. I started up the drive first, but Marcus and Indi both made a point of stepping in front of me, acting as a barrier between me and whatever was going on.
Marcus creaked the door open slowly. Looking at it, it was obvious someone had been trying to pick the lock, and they managed it sort of. But did a lot of damage to the door, like they weren’t very skilled.
The house was quiet, extremely quiet, Cameo sat on the sofa in the sitting room with splinters of wood decorating his clothes. His head turned as we came in, eyes distant and angry, rimmed with red like he’d been crying.
“She’s gone,” the alpha said by way of greeting.
I could see him fraying at the edges. For a man who was always the picture of control, it was… unbearable. But somehow,it wasn’t as dire as the words that followed, cutting over Marcus and Indigo’s half baked questions.
“And I don’t know who took her.”
An eerie silence fell over the room, everyone trying to figure out what to do now.
My eyes flicked to Indigo as they took my hip, instinctually pulling me closer.
“Do we have any leads on who broke into the apartment?” Marcus asked. “It has to be the same person, right?”
Cameo shook his head. “I’ve been trying to figure it out… I needed more time. All I got is this.” He pulled a small plastic baggie from his pocket with a piece of frayed fabric inside. “I found it by her windowsill when I went back last night.”
“Wow, detective Cameo is on the case,” Indigo said with a nervous laugh, trying to lighten the mood.
“Where was she?” Marcus asked, shooting Indigo a scowl.
