Chapter 15 - Bigby

After dropping Rosa off at the compound and making sure she was with Byron, I head up to Aris' place, taking the long winding roads slow, trying to relax myself.

I could barely sleep last night. Every ten minutes, my body would wake me up, my hands groping for Rosa, searching for her body, needing it near me. Once, I even got as far as the hallway before coming to my senses and turning around, heading back toward my bedroom, where I locked the bolt and pushed my dresser in front of the door, not wanting to take any chances.

"Hey, man," Aris says, opening the door almost right after I knock. The pig scuttles around his feet, making little sounds and squealing when I reach down to pet it. Aris rolls his eyes and leads me further into the house, up the stairs, and to his study.

Ado is already sitting at the table, his arms crossed. With Byron at the compound, our numbers have dwindled too low. After the fight with Varun, we'd lost Eva and Percy. My heart clenches, like it always does when I think about what happened to Percy and how he had begged Aris to let him put himself out of his misery. The gunshot rang through the trees. How we didn't have time to react, to do anything, to even give him a proper burial.

"Alright," Aris says, coming to the head of the table and clicking on a brand-new projector. "There are a few things to run through. First, Byron sent over the security footage from the night of the security breach. This guy was pretty shrouded, good at staying in the dark."

I watch on the screen as the west side of town comes into view. The guy creeps into the frame wearing all-black, barely visible in the flickering streetlight. He crouches down, doing something on the ground, and then the secret entrance to the compound hidden behind the dumpster opens.

My mouth falls open in shock.

How could someone possibly know about that entrance? Have they been watching us, scoping us out? They would have to be an expert at hacking to get past Byron's security methods. I've looked at them for myself, and they're nearly impenetrable. It doesn't even look like this person has any equipment with them.

We watch the figure disappear into the opening and watch as it shuts behind them. Aris clicks a button, and the image switches to a different entrance on the other side of town, where the figure is emerging again, holding a box in their hands.

"The vials," I say, shaking my head. When I glance at Aris, the alarm is evident on his face. He pauses the video.

"This guy has had the stuff for more than three days now. I've alerted all the nearby packs to be on their guard—that there may be some form of chemical warfare happening without giving specifics. I don't want anyone else getting ideas and developing their own serum. But we've heard nothing. Not a single attack or whiff of the serum showing up anywhere —not even on the underground market."

"You have contacts in the black market?" I ask, raising and eyebrow, to which Aris shifts his eyes to Ado, sitting there with his arms crossed, still staring at the screen.

Oh, makes sense.

Aris chuckles, then immediately sobers, switching to the next screen.

"Unfortunately, finding the intruder and locating the vials isn't even at the top of our list of priorities. We also have the human disappearances to consider."

Lisa's face stares back at me, and I look at Aris in alarm.

"Her best friend reported her missing yesterday. Went into the bakery and noticed it wasn't open yet—which is unlike her. Went to her apartment, and she was nowhere to be seen. Like she just vanished from the face of the earth."

I struggle to swallow, thinking about how I saw her a little more than a week ago. How I'd eaten those honey-pistachio-lemon scones on my way to California. I'd had one for breakfast every morning.

"Shit," I mutter, scrubbing my hands over my face.

"We'll find her," Aris mutters. What he doesn't say is how we'll find her, and that, if it is a shifter abducting humans, they more than likely aren't going to be found alive.

"Could these be connected?" Ado asks, startling both Aris and me. We turn to look at him, then back at the screen. Could the theft of the serum be connected with the disappearances of the humans? Potentially, but it wouldn't make much sense. Why would someone want to use it on a human? It would do nothing to them besides maybe upset their stomach if they ingested it.

"Maybe," Aris finally says, "I think a good place to start will be investigating in Lisa's apartment. See if we can find anything. Bigby, I want you to take the lead on this since you know her. Her best friend has already agreed to give us her apartment key if you're involved. This might be our only chance to find a good lead, with the other humans being paranoid toward us."

I nod and stand.

"I'll head over there straight away, but first, I need to talk to—"

"Aris!" someone says, bursting through the door, and anger boils in me when I see Byron standing there.

"Byron, what the hell?" I say, before he can get a word out edgewise. He looks at me, eyes wide, and then understanding seems to dawn.

"Shit, I'm sorry, man—I'll go straight back over there. I just needed to tell—"

"You did not leave them there, alone!"

"Gerard is there—"

"Gerard is a thousand years old. He probably doesn't even know how to shift anymore." I stand up, moving toward Byron, all the stress and restraint from the past few days simmering in my stomach.

"Bigby," Aris says, and I stop, breathing heavily and staring down at Byron, who has the good sense to look ashamed.

"I wouldn't have come if it wasn't important," Byron says. "I'm sorry, Bigby, I'll go straight back, I swear. When I get there, I'll let you know that they're safe. But I found something this morning—it wasn't a hacker like I thought.

"What the hell? How would someone be able to get into the compound if they're not a hacker?"

"The person who took the vials…their thumbprint is in the system. It's someone we know."

Not again , Aris sends to me, and I can feel the slightest tinge of panic rolling off of him.

When we were taking down Varun, the team faced betrayal and sabotage at every turn, with our commander betraying us by teaming with Varun and Eva, who, turned out to be his sister. I feel the dismay emanating from Aris, and I almost forget about my rage toward Byron for leaving my girls alone, without protection.

"You, get back to the compound," Aris growls, "don't let Rosa or Kaila out of your sight, do you understand?"

Byron nods and turns around, giving me an apologetic look that does nothing to soothe the chaos in my chest. I already felt uneasy leaving them there with Byron—who may be a capable fighter but isn't me . I could take Byron easily in a fight, which is what I want to do now.

"Ado," Aris says, "wait for us in the foyer."

Ado stands immediately, giving us a nod that reads as gladly .

"Dude," Aris says, looking me over. I still have my hands clenched into fists, and I try to relax them. "You need to figure this shit out with Rosa. You're wound too tightly. Fighting Byron? The guy's head is stuck in the cyber-verse, man. You know, he just wasn't thinking."

"Yeah? And if that idiocy results in Rosa or Kaila getting hurt? Then what?"

"Fair," Aris says, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Can you tell me what happened between you and Rosa that she hates you so goddamn much? I don't want to marry you, but I didn't think you were that insufferable. Before, it was just your problem, but now that it's affecting the team, it's my problem, too."

I sigh, clasping my hands together. I don't want to tell Aris the truth about what happened, because I know it makes me look like a coward.

I was a coward.

"You know I went to college out on the West Coast," I say, and Aris nods. "Well, I met Rosa while I was out there. It was more than dating—we were in love. I've never felt for another person what I felt for her. But back then, there was no mating bond. At least, I don't think so. I don't know if we were too young for it to develop or if I just didn't know the difference between that and love."

Aris pulls out a chair and sits down across from me.

"Anyway, Rosa is from there. Her father is the alpha of a huge pack—it spans all the way from Northern California almost down to the bottom of the state. There's a small territory in the south of the state that doesn't belong to him, but last I knew, he was trying to take it. Trying, also, to take stuff even more Southern than that. In Mexico. That would make him the first international alpha on the planet, which obviously comes with a lot of power."

"I've never heard of a pack getting that big," Aris murmurs, shaking his head, "how could he possibly control that big of a pack? Without a target on his back?"

"Oh, there was definitely a target on his back, but he wore it like a badge of honor. Amon is definitely an offense-as-defense kind of guy. That's why he killed his brother—Rosa's uncle. Because there was a rumor that the guy was considering taking over."

Aris sucks in a breath, and I'm sure he's thinking about how his dad used to tell him that one day they would have to duel to the death in order for Aris to take over the pack. It's one of the last ancient traditions still hanging around from centuries ago, and part of it has to do with the natural order of things. There can't be two alphas in a pack, and our blood requires absolute knowledge that our alpha is the strongest leader we have in order to defer to their judgment and guidance.

"Anyway, I only knew about these things when Rosa was willing to share them. Her mom fought tooth and nail for Amon to let Rosa attend college, but her time was running out. She was a semester away from finishing her master's degree. It was just before Christmas break, and Rosa was studying hard for her finals. I would go over to her apartment and clean and cook for her to make things easier."

Aris nods, like this tracks with what he knows about me.

"I was in the parking lot, outside her apartment, when Amon approached me. He said he knew that I was seeing his daughter, and that he would murder everyone she loved if I didn't leave, right there, on the spot. He threatened to kill her mother, Olivia—anyone to make her hurt. I didn't want that to happen, but back then, I didn't think I was strong enough to overpower him. And even if I did—it's not like I wanted to take over the pack. Everything happened so fast. I walked away."

"And she was pregnant."

"I had no idea . If I had known—"

"I know, man. I know you never would have left her. But it makes sense why she hates you like this—have you apologized to her? Explained what happened?"

"I feel like it won't matter. She may just think I'm even more of a coward."

"You won't know until you try. And relationships are built on communication."

We sit there quietly for a moment, then Ado asks, Are you coming?

"Okay," I say, pushing up from the table. "Well, now that we're done sharing our feelings, I'm going to go figure out who the fuck took my baker."