Page 73 of Waiting for Fate
“We’ll pack up here and head there tomorrow. Send us what you have on the drug.”
Lex hangs up and tosses the phone into our bag. He turns back to me expectantly.
“Fuck! Fine! We’ll go to Silverstone. But I swear to Fate, Lex, if this doesn’t pan out, that’s it. I’m done.”
He nods, jaw tight. I know he doesn’t agree. He has every right to choose to continue chasing Doctor Harrison. I’m not him; I don’t need to keep running from the Fate matched mate waiting for me at home.
“Get some sleep. We’re leaving at first light.”
Flipping Lex off, I head into the hotel bathroom. I need a shower, and maybe to get myself off. Pulling my personal phone from my pocket and open my picture folder.
A week after we left Starburgh, I turned on my phone to check in with Bea and my parents. When my messages had come in, I found a string of naughty pictures from my mate. She looks so fucking stunning in the baby blue lingeries set, sprawled out among the soft pink blankets in her nest.
Smirking, I switch to my text messages and send the best three to Lex’s phone. I wait at the door until I hear it ding and him swearing. My asshole best friend may try to deny his desire to bond with Bea, but his reactions give him away. Enjoy our girl’s beauty while you jerk off like the alpha you are.
Once the water is semi-warm, I step beneath the spray and let it soak my skin. The tension I’ve felt since we learned of the attempted break in at Bea and Omen’s apartment is at a low simmer. Logically, I know she is safe at Shiloh’s apartment. His complex is one of the safest in Starburgh. Convincing my instincts of that is an impossible task. I need to see her with my own eyes and feel her in my arms.
Closing my eyes, I let my mind drift back to the day we were at the beach in Norfolk, when we had snuck back to the bus alone. My hand drifts to my semi-hard cock, stroking myself slowly as I remember the soft swell of her breasts pressed against my chest. The tight clench of her walls as she fell apart on my cock, screaming my name.
Fates, I miss my fucking omega.
My head thuds against the plastic surrounding of the shower, eyes brimming with tears as I spray the wall with my cum. I can’t live like this for much longer.
We arrive in Silverstone at midday. The city is busy with lunchtime traffic, causing our ten-minute drive to a new hotel to last half an hour. I watch the streets as we crawl along the main strip. Eyeing the alleys, hoping for a clue about the gang peddling the ferality drug. No one would be dumb enough to distribute drugs this close to downtown in the middle of the day, though.
I follow behind Lex as he checks us in and drops our bags off in our room. He’s as surly as ever. Ready to fight someone, so he has an excuse to keep running from Fate. If I’m getting sick of his shit, how does Bea feel?
Our phones chime with a city wide alert. A warning about a feral alpha on the loose two blocks away.
“Let’s go,” Lex barks as he barrels past me toward the elevator. I jog after him. Why the fuck is there a feral alpha raging downtown in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday?!
Police are on every corner, blocking crowds of onlookers from entering the area. Lex flashes the FCDA badges we borrowed for the trip, granting us access. What looks like a small food market has been demolished by this alpha’s rampage. Tents and tables destroyed. Products strewn across the sidewalks.
Worst of all is the group of paramedics treating injured civilians in the lobby of a nearby bank. Some are pressing gauze pieces against head and arm wounds. Others seem dazed, clinging to their limbs with a tenderness that tells me they have sprained or broken something during the scuffle.
Blood smears the concrete at the far end of the area. A white sheet covers a body, doing little to hide how gruesome this person’s death was. I’ve seen the aftermath of an alpha going feral—truly feral, not this drug induced mimicry—and it guts me every time. To slowly fall apart, losing pieces of yourself as your instincts take over, forcing you to turn on everyone around you.
This is why alphas need packs. Even in packs without bonds between pack members, the connection an alpha feels to their pack mates can help prevent ferality. All of the states denying pack rights are putting every single citizen who resides there at risk. And for what? Dated beliefs that polyamory is a sin?
If Fate meant for us to only have one partner, we wouldn’t have Fated connections with more than one person.
Turning my back on the devastation, I study the nearby crowds, memorizing faces and watching for anyone out of place. If the gang testing this new drug wanted their street movers to report back about its effects, they would stay nearby. A man with a round face, dull brown hair, and a thin line of facial hair along his jaw approaches us. The pins beneath his round badge tell me he is a high-ranking officer in Silverstone’s force.
“Gentlemen. Joseph Orelta, Chief of Police. What brings the FCDA to Silverstone?”
“This.” One day Lex will have to learn to communicate with strangers beyond grunts and single syllable responses.
“Ridley Hale, and this grump is Lex Ferguson. We have reason to believe our current operation overlaps with your new drug problem.” I offer the older alpha my hand, still eyeing the crowd as he shakes it. They’re worried and shocked. Normal reactions to seeing the aftereffects of a feral alpha attack. No one seems overly interested in the outcome of this tragedy.
“If there is anything specific I can help you with, let me know,” Orelta says. He too is watching the crowd, but he seems jumpy. Like he’s waiting for another alpha to go berserk.
“Has the feral alpha been detained?”
Orelta gives me a grim look and motions to a spot several feet to our right, around the corner of the nearest building. “Officers attempting to bring him into custody killed him. Our medical examiner is on the way. They will run a full panel blood test to determine if he has the same drug in his system as the last two.”
I nod. Something feels off about the situation, but I keep my mouth shut. I’ll wait and bring it up to Lex when we get back to our hotel.
“We would appreciate an update about those results,” I tell him, handing over a business card with our burner phone number on it. He gives me a sharp nod and excuses himself to speak with his officers.
