Page 22 of Bound By Pain
“If she is, you’ll want to ask her to sit down.”
Voices murmur in the background seconds before I hear a door slick shut. “What’s going on?”
“Bea Powell mentioned Omen is her best friend. She spoke of her often, actually. The rest of your pack, too, but I won’t touch on what she had to say there.”
“Nothing good, I imagine. Not that I can blame her.” He doesn’t sound upset, which is good.
According to my mate, the Graves pack is a bunch of ‘unworthy assholes.’ A title she bestowed upon them after they caused Omen to experience a chemical rejection that nearly killed her. When I first heard the story, I was as irate as Bea. To know a pack had thrown away their Fate-matched Omega after I lost my mate… it didn’t sit right with me.
Like most things in life, though, there is always more to the story. I can’t truly judge them without hearing their reasons. And Omen felt their apologies were enough to forgive them. So they aren’t completely irredeemable.
“Bea is missing.”
He’s silent for several seconds before he lets out a sharp breath. “Shit. Hold on a second.”
I wait as he seems to return to the room he had just left. A woman’s voice fills the background, growing in pitch as he fills her in. The sound of her crying reaches my ears and makes mychest pang with guilt. This shouldn’t be my news to share, but there is no one else I can turn to for help.
“Orion? You’re on speaker with the entire pack now,” Nebula says after a few minutes.
“What happened to Bea?” Omen asks.
“She was kidnapped outside of her hotel in Portland.”
“Fates. Do they know who took her? Are there any leads in finding her? Has anyone called her parents?”
Omen rapid-fires questions as I dig through the bag I brought back from California. I grab the worn hoodie from the bottom and the pillow off my bed, both thick with my scent, and shove them into an old gym bag. It holds just enough of my scent to keep the others fresh until I can stop at a nesting store and buy a scent container.
“Local police alerted the FCDA. They’re looking into things in Portland, but her other mate, Rex?”
“Lex,” Omen corrects.
“Yeah, him. He thinks the breeding ring has captured her. He was following a lead down there.” I hold my phone between my shoulder and ear so I can grab my wallet and keys. “As for her family, I don’t know. I haven’t met them and have no way of contacting them. Shiloh may have, but I doubt he did.”
Closing the door to my apartment, I jog down the stairs. I live only on the second floor, so it’s quicker than waiting for an elevator.
“I’ll call them,” Omen says softly, a sadness in her voice that resonates with the ache in my chest.
“If the FCDA knows, then Donovan knows too, babygirl. He may not have told them for a reason,” Nebula tells her.
“They deserve to know!”
I drown them out, focusing on shoving everything in my car and backing out of my parking spot.
“Listen, I asked Brady to reach out to you because I was hoping you still had your key to Bea’s apartment. She’s going to need some of her blankets and things from her nest when they find her.” I cut in. They can decide what to do about Bea’s parents after we end the call.
“I still have my key,” Omen replies. “We can meet you there in an hour. I might know what she would want.”
Having agreed to the meet time, I drive toward Shiloh’s apartment building, a few blocks away from mine. Security is quick to clear me to go up since I am on Shiloh’s list of approved visitors, and I have a spare key to his place. They mention he isn’t here, meaning he is still at the office, so I let myself inside. The pristine, clinical appearance of his place reminds me too much of the lifelessness of my own. It’s apparent we both can benefit from Bea’s presence, shaking up our worlds.
His bedroom is just as neatly organized and scent-free. Thankfully, there is a small pile of laundry at the bottom of his basket. I grab all of it and toss it in a bag.
An hour later, I’m standing outside of Bea’s apartment when a tall Omega with long black and purple hair walks up the sidewalk. The large Alpha I’d run into when I went to meet with Mia earlier this evening has one arm wrapped around her shoulder. His eyes widen when he sees me.
“Orion?”
“That’s me. You must be Omen.”
“And this is my Alpha, Nebula.”
