Page 4 of Hunt

I dial Hector as soon as I know the locker room is empty. He answers on the first ring as usual. “Yeah?”

“Is Bella at home?”

He’s quiet a moment before answering. “No. She was gone before I woke up. Why, what’s wrong?”

I sigh and run a hand over my face. I knew he’d know something was up immediately. “She was supposed to be at the gym already, but she’s late. She even missed her session. I thought maybe you weredistractingher or something.”

Something shuffles on the other end of the line, sounding like footsteps on a hardwood floor. Hector’s pacing, and that never means anything good. “Well she’s not here, and Dante and Silas are both upstairs alone.”

Something ugly blooms in my stomach. Something curdling and sour. “Stay there. I’m on my way.” I click the phone off and rush from the room and out to my car.

“I don’t get it.I didn’t even feel her get up this morning,” Hector grumbles, running his hands over his buzzed black hair as he sits on the couch with his elbows on his knees. He looks over at Silas. “Did she say anything to you last night?”

Silas shakes his head. “Not a word. My head is fucking pounding.” He frowns as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “She’s usually loud as fuck in the morning, but I didn’t hear shit.”

Come to think of it, I have a headache too. It’d been there since the moment I woke up, and I thought coffee would help, but it only seemed to make it worse. I scan the alphas, and notice Dante’s bloodshot eyes and the paleness of Hector’s normally tan skin.

Hector grabs his phone and walks to the other end of the room, putting his back to us.

“So we all woke up feeling like we’ve been hit by a truck or something?” I asked.

They shot me various frowns as they processed what I was saying.

“I thought it was just me,” Dante groans. “Where the fuck is she?”

The four of us usually take turns watching over Bella, even though we know she hates it. I know she’s a grown woman and can care for herself as well as the rest of us, but it’s hard to ignore instincts. I might be a beta and not one of the alphas, but even betas could recognize how precious omegas were, and that they need to be protected at all costs. Especially Bella. Always Bella.

Hector hangs up the phone, plopping down on the couch.

“Anything?” I ask hopefully, but he just shakes his head.

“Nope, nothing. The car’s gps was deactivated sometime last night. I don’t fucking get it. Why the fuck would she go out of her way to do that?”

I can’t give him an answer, but I refuse to think the worst.

“Did she seem off last night?” Silas asks the room. All eyes flicker to him in confusion. “I just mean did she seem weird or worried about anything?” He looks to me. “You picked her up from the gym yesterday, did you notice anything?”

I shake my head. “Nothing. She went through her sessions like normal, and then we grabbed some food before coming back.”

The rest of the night had been pretty much a fuck fest. We’d each taken her one at a time until she was completely sated. Her heat cycle was over for the time being, but it didn’t mean she didn’t have cravings. We’d carried her to bed, dead to the world, and that was the last time I saw her.

It’s been three hours since I got home and we searched her bedroom for any clues to where she could have gone. All of her worldly possessions seem to be in place, even her clothes, shoes and jackets are still here save for a pair of runners I know she favors over her others. We sit here now in the living room scratching our heads and we agonize over what to do.

A small sound filters through the silence of the townhome. The hairs on my arms raise, because this particular tune is not recognizable in the slightest. A buzzing noise. So faint it’s almost nothing. We’re on our feet in moments, the four of us rushing to the back of the house—following the strange noise until it leads us straight to Bella’s bedroom.

Hector tears in ahead of me, going straight for the mattress. He flips it up and off the box spring, the sound getting louder. A small black flip phone sits in a hidden spot, vibrating over and over again.

We all stare at the offensive device, at an utter loss for words. The thing starts to ring again.

“Fuck this—” Hector snaps, before snatching the phone and bringing it to his ear. “Hello?” He says nothing for a solid thirty seconds. Clicking it shut with a curse, Hector looks up with a confused glare. “They hung up.”

I gesture for him to hand me the phone, and to my surprise and relief, he does before he has the chance to crush the thing in anger. I flip it open, watching as the screen lights up withtwo previous missed calls. The numbers are private, but our tech guys will have no problem tracing it, but for now I click around until I find the messaging app.

The guys crowd around me, all straining to see what's on the screen. My eyes widen as I struggle to comprehend what I’m seeing.

My heart drops into my stomach with the force of a lead weight. Dread coils inside of me like a fucking snake.

There are texts on this phone dating all the way back to seven months ago. There must be hundreds of them.

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