Chapter 31 In which I break

“Well, this is a fucking bust,” Swift says, kicking an empty beer can across the abandoned warehouse.

Maddox frowns, not arguing with him, but still peering around. “I don’t understand. The intel was good.”

I snort a laugh. “It obviously wasn’t. This place hasn’t been used by anyone but teenagers getting drunk and making out for months.”

Our prime shakes his head. “No, there were pictures of him coming here, surveillance shots. He was here this fucking morning.”

Ethan looks up from where he’s typing on his phone. “That’s true. I saw the footage myself. Dr. Jason Funkle definitely was here.”

Swift kicks another can. “Well, he’s not fucking here now, so we don’t need to be either.”

He’s not wrong. I look around the space, taking in the makeshift fire pit in the center of the building, the broken bottles, the mattresses, beanbags and sagging couches. Someone has turned it into the ultimate teenage dirtbag hangout pad. When we were kids, we probably would have loved to have a place like this. But it’s not what we’re looking for now.

We thought for sure that we would find the warehouse full of medical equipment, or at the very least, a back room with an exam table meant to do testing on unsuspecting omegas. But there really is nothing.

Which is frustrating as hell, because we drove for an hour to get here and watched the place for fucking two hours to verify that it was where we needed to be and then… well, then we lost patience and decided to just go for it. All of us are eager to get back to Sadie, especially now that Claudia will be gone and we can move our girl into her nest, like we should have fucking done that first night.

I seek my connection with our girl and find her content and calm, more than I’ve ever felt. She’s been antsy in our bond since Claudia showed up, so I can only imagine how good it feels to know that the omega is going to be out of the picture for good. I feel fucking phenomenal about it.

If I have anything to say about it, Sadie will never see the other woman again. None of us will.

Maddox scans the building one more time, like he might find something different this time. I don’t blame him. Sadie wants answers. She needs them. And as her pack, we want to give them to her. It’s programmed into us to make her happy. That we can’t do this one thing for her, that we haven’t been able to find the truth of what was done to her, and who ultimately did it, is hard for all of us to swallow.

Finally, our prime sighs. “Yeah, you’re right. There’s no reason for us to stay here and leave Sadie alone. Let’s roll out.”

I clap a hand on his shoulder as we walk the few blocks to where we parked the car. “Don’t worry about it, Dox. Sadie will understand. She might be disappointed at first, but we’ll just have to make it up to her.”

My tone makes it clear what I mean. We’ll make it up to her with sex. With orgasms. With presents. With the best fucking nest she could ever want.

He flashes me a grin before it falls. “It just doesn’t make sense. He was here.”

I squeeze his shoulder and slide my hand away. “I know. It’s a damn shame that he’s not here now and that we wasted four hours away from Sadie, but…” Maddox’s face morphs from one of discontent to fear mixed with anger. “What?”

“We followed a trail to a dead end and left our omega, the one that they’ve been tried to kidnap, alone.”

All of us pause, the reality of what that could mean hitting hard. But I shake my head. “She’s fine. I can feel her. She’s totally content. There hasn’t been a spike of any fear or anything. She’s okay, Maddox.”

He nods, and the rest of us relax slightly, but we all quicken our pace, making it to the car and getting on the road within seconds.

We’re hurtling down the highway, going far faster than the speed limit, when the first trickling of unease filters through my bond with Sadie. I keep it wide open, letting her emotions in so I can figure out what has her worried. It’s not enough for me to panic, not yet. But I want to pay attention to it, just in case it becomes something for us to worry about.

That’s the problem with the bond. Right now, my omega could be feeling unsettled because of some totally normal omega thing like the blanket she’s using is too itchy, or it could be something like she feels like she’s being watched, like she’s in danger.

“Ethan, babe,” I say, trying to keep my voice as calm as I can. “Can you pull up the security cams in the penthouse and check on Sadie?”

He doesn’t question me, just reaches for his laptop and opens it.

“Everything okay?” Logan asks, sounding like he knows I wouldn’t have asked to get eyes on our girl if everything was fine.

“I don’t know,” I say, still trying to keep my voice calm while focusing on the emotions coming to me from our girl. “She feels-”

I cut off on a gasp. The panic I’m feeling in my chest is almost too much. And it’s made worse because I know it’s not fucking mine. Not all of it.

“Go faster,” I say through gritted teeth, one hand gripping the dashboard, the other clutching at my chest as I try to send waves of reassurances to Sadie, my fucking omega. Something is happening to her right now. Something awful.

Something that has her so terrified she can’t think straight.

“I’m already going thirty over the speed limit,” Maddox grunts at me, but he presses harder on the accelerator, taking us to greater speeds.

“We shouldn’t have left her alone,” Logan mutters from the very back seat.

I glance over at him, and instead my eyes snag on Swift, who is pale as fuck and also holding his chest like he can feel her. He looks up at me, his jaw tight, and gives an almost imperceptible nod.

Holy shit. He’s bonded to Sadie too.

How have I not felt him in the bond?

Why didn’t either of them tell me this happened?

Does it even fucking matter?

Not at the moment, no.

Ethan is frantically typing on his computer, pulling up the security footage from the cameras in the penthouse, trying to see what we’re going to be facing when we get there. “Fuck,” He curses. “Fucking fuck!”

One of his fists bashes into the ceiling hard enough to dent the metal.

“What is it?” Maddox asks, knuckles white on the steering wheel, while Logan leans over the seat and Swift crunches to the side to see the screen.

“Someone got into the penthouse,” he spits out. “Some asshole is in there with her right fucking now.” Ice floods my veins and my alpha roars his protest at the threat to our mate.

“What’s happening?” Maddox demands. “I swear to fuck if you don’t tell me right now, Ethan…” He lets the threat linger.

Ethan explains about how Sadie and Claudia were talking about how Claudia screamed and then someone grabbed Sadie, snuck up behind her, has his hands on her right fucking now.

In the next moment, I’m screaming too. My chest is on fucking fire as the bond between me and Sadie ignites in fucking flames. I taste ash on my tongue and then the bond shudders and fucking dies.

“No,” I shout. “No, No, No, Fucking no!” My fingers dig into the space over my heart, the space where I’ve felt Sadie for weeks, the spot that is her fucking home in my soul, trying like hell to find her again, to keep her with me.

I’m sobbing, tears running down my face. She’s dead. She has to be dead. That’s the only explanation. Bonds don’t just break like that, and sure, we didn’t bond during her heat, but that doesn’t fucking mean anything. Our bond was strong, growing stronger every day. The only reason it would be gone is if she fucking died.

“Luca!” A hand connects with my cheek, a sharp slap that has me snarling and blinking all at the same time. “Focus, baby.” Ethan says, already soothing my stinging skin with his palm. “She’s not dead, Luca. She didn’t fucking die. Okay? Sadie is alive.”

“I can still feel her,” Swift says, rubbing his chest. “She’s still here with me.”

I blink at him, and I have to resist the urge to lunge at him. Why does he still feel her when I don’t? It’s stupid and irrational, but I want to rip him apart for still being bonded with Sadie when I no longer am.

Ethan must see the murderous intent in my eyes, because he leans closer until his face is all I can see. “Deep breath, baby, okay? The alpha bit her over your mark.” A growl rumbles from my chest.

“It’ll temporarily break your bond with her,” Logan says from the back seat. He has Ethan’s computer in his hands, watching the screen. “More like disrupt rather than break.”

Swift is still rubbing at his chest. “No one knew about our bond,” he says quietly. “She didn’t want to do it without you guys, but I wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Maddox says.

“When?” My voice is hoarse with grief, with tears. I clear my throat and try again. “When did you bite her?”

“Last night,” Swift replies. He hesitates and then says. “She had a heat spike. Just a quick one. I helped her get it under control.”

The rest of us swear. “Fuck. She’s going into heat?” The steering wheel groans under Maddox’s hands. “Our fucking omega is going into heat and you didn’t think to tell us?”

Swift shakes his head. “She knew we wouldn’t have gone today. She wants answers, Dox. Needs them. And if any of you heard she had a fucking heat spike last night, you would have stayed home with her. She was gonna tell you tonight when we got back.”

Maddox is fuming. I’m fucking fuming and I want to tear into Swift for keeping this from us, but I know it won’t help anything. It won’t help Sadie.

We’re about five minutes from the penthouse. But I can already tell we’re going to be too late. I think Maddox can sense it too. “Talk to me, Logan,” he demands.

Our doctor keeps his voice level as he says almost clinically, “he injected her with something. Made her pass out. Claudia ran.” I jerk at the reminder of the other omega staying at the penthouse. I hadn’t even thought about her, hadn’t considered that she might be in danger too. “And now… he’s taking Sadie.”

Taking Sadie. Taking Sadie. Taking Sadie.

Of course he is. That’s what he was there for. It’s too much to hope that he just wanted to break in and fuck with us, break my bond with my mate, and then leave. Of course, that’s not what’s happening. He’s taking her to use against us. Or to just kill. Torture first just to fuck with us.

Though if that were the case, I don’t know why they would cut off my bond with her. Wouldn’t they want me to feel it? What better way to torture an alpha than to make him feel his omega’s pain?

The thought makes my chest go tight and I scramble to feel the bond between us, reaching for it again and again, to no avail. No, Luca. If the plan was to kill her, he’d just have done it at the penthouse. Left her body for us to find.

They want her alive.

But for what?