2. Rian

Chapter two

Rian

I am alive… Save me…

Once again, I follow the sound of her voice, and I feel it with every step and beat of my heart.

Belle is mine , and I am going to get her back.

I shouldn't be hearing her thoughts like this.

Only bonded mates can communicate without words, and it looks as if what Belle and I shared goes beyond logic.

I can only hope that she can sense my thoughts in return.

I will find you…

She doesn't reply, but I still smell her caramel.

It's like she's still beside me, so I let her guide me through the woods, tracking her down all night.

I never stopped once. Even when the sun came up, I searched every rock and tree.

Every corner and hollow.

No matter what, Belle will be back in my arms again.

Yet as the hours go by, it becomes painfully obvious…

Belle was taken.

But I hold on to hope.

Jeremy stayed with me every step of the way, and together, we will find her.

After all, searching for lost Omegas is our forte.

We're skilled in this area.

Leo and Troy split off to search another section of the woods.

But I just needed an excuse to get away from Troy.

It's for the best he stays away.

After all, I can't vouch for his life if he remained in my presence.

I hate him. Right now, he is my worst enemy, and it may take me a while to forgive him for letting her slip away.

I'm not sure if I ever will.

He isn't out of the woods just yet.

Belle is still missing.

The only reason he is still alive is because Belle is.

If she were dead, I would know.

I don't have a gaping chasm in my chest.

Troy may be my mate, but so is Belle.

Life still pumps where she resides in my heart, and so long as she is still breathing, I am going to find her.

I finally track her scent to a clearing, halting my steps.

Jeremy stops behind me. "Rian…?"

I close my eyes, breathing the air.

All the typical forest smells fill my nose, like mud, moss, and rain, but she was here.

Maybe just shy of two hours ago.

When I open my eyes again, I spy the signs.

The tracks on the ground, the signs of a struggle...

A couple of snapped branches here and there as I tear one from a nearby bush, gripping it tightly in my hand.

Jeremy is silent, too afraid to speak or make a sound as I stare at the branch as if I could burn it to ash.

She was taken, and now I roar like an Alpha, snapping the branch in my hand.

Jeremy flinches, and I never thought I'd see the day an Alpha recoiled from an Omega.

But we've both learned now that Omegas are not the sweet, helpless things that the world perceives them to be after all.

They are capable of so much horror.

But isn't anyone?

I drop the branches, and now Jeremy and I stand in silence.

He doesn't speak. Because there is nothing to say.

We lost.

The government sent their special forces, and now they have taken her into custody.

I knew I recognized those boot tracks…

After what Jeremy's team found, they had to take extra precautions, employing only the best special ops squad.

Omegas are turning rogue, and they will stop at nothing until every rogue Omega is found.

They will treat them like wild animals, and now my body shakes as I think about all the awful things they will do to her.

If they hurt her, I will go rogue myself.

No one hurts my mate.

"Rian, we will get her back…"

I whirl around. "How?"

The Alpha falters, and I spy the swirling thunderstorm in his gray eyes.

There's hope there, but it's clouded by doubt.

The one thing we've tried so hard to avoid since the day we found her has finally come to pass.

Belle is now in the hands of the government.

She is their property, and it will take a miracle to get her back.

Jeremy doesn't get the chance to speak.

His eyes fall behind me, and then I hear footsteps.

I turn to find Leo and Troy.

It looks like her scent has led us all here.

There's no missing the anguish in Leo's brown eyes.

He spies all the signs of struggle, the unmistakable boot tracks in the soil, and finally, he drops to his knees, the weight of the night wearing heavy on his shoulders.

Troy hovers like a ghost behind him, his face completely ashen, and look, he's finally sobered up…

A night searching endlessly through the woods can have that effect.

He barely even sees me, his once electric blue eyes devoid of life as he spots the tracks in the mud, and I descend on him.

"You…"

I storm closer, pushing him to a tree, and my Alpha doesn't even fight me.

"This is all your fault!"

Troy shuts his eyes, and his body trembles with the sheer weight of his guilt.

I don't give a shit. He needs to hear it.

From the beginning, he treated Belle like a threat.

He never liked her, and he wanted her out of the picture from the minute she arrived at the house.

Well, it looks like he got what he wanted.

"You happy now? She's gone!"

Troy squeezes his eyes, suppressing a groan, but I go on.

"Prick!"

I swing my fist, punching him in the jaw, and he just lets me.

Tears leak from my eyes as I throw jabs at his perfect, handsome face, but it's not like any of it will bring her back.

"You are dead to me!"

Troy shivers, slumping down the tree once I'm finished with him.

I have cuts and grazes on my knuckles, but it was worth it.

None of the others even stepped in to stop me, and it just proves how much we all despise him right now.

He may be pack, but he has a fuck ton to make up for.

I hover over my Alpha, panting for breath.

Jeremy gives me a moment to compose myself. Then he says, "Rian… we can get her back."

I turn, meeting his gray eyes. "How?"

The Alpha gazes pointedly into my eyes. Then he glances at Leo on his knees, and then Troy bleeding on the ground.

"Barret knows Gryphon Hart."

It takes a while for the names to register, and once they do, I feel my hope rising again.

How could I forget?

Jeremy's first cousin is a part of Governor Gryphon's pack.

Troy and Leo finally perk up, and I spot similar looks of hope in their own eyes.

I stumble toward Jeremy. "Do you think he can help us get her back?"

Jeremy closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. "He can at least try. After all, Barret and his pack owe me a great debt. So, they may be willing to help us out."

I know exactly what debt he's talking about. That was around the time The Beta Trials began.

Around the time I joined the pack and fell hard for Troy—the Alpha who currently bleeds on the ground at my feet.

I nod. "Of course. I knew Mila at the Academy."

Mila is their pack's second Omega. But she wasn't always an Omega…

She once trained as a Beta soldier with me.

For the first time in hours, Jeremy smiles. "Then what are we waiting for? Time to give my cousin a call."

I manage a smile myself.

Just maybe we can get her back.