Page 5 of Bound By Pain
Things slam in the background on his end, accompanied by the muffled complaints of whoever he’s with.
“I am headed to Portland now and should be there within three hours. I’ll let you know what I find when I arrive.” Without waiting for his response, I hang up.
Dealing with the depressed, spiraling Alpha beside me is hard enough without adding Ridley’s misplaced anger onto my plate. If he can get control of himself long enough to contact the DAU and request their help, that would be more helpful to Bea than blaming me for her disappearance.
“The pain stopped,” Orion whispers, his head pressed to the window and eyes squeezed shut. “Do you think-”
“Without a bond connecting us to her, we won’t feel her unless she is hurting.” I cut him off, unwilling to entertain his worst-case scenarios. Until I have tangible proof that Bea is no longer in this world, I will not allow myself to believe she is gone. Not even for a moment.
CHAPTER 4
Agony.Pure agony, so familiar it has bile rising to coat the inside of my mouth. My vision wavers, teary eyes twisting the world around me in a kaleidoscope of memory and reality.
One blink and I’m slumped in Shiloh’s office, staring down at the hardwood floors. Next, I’m on my knees, a mic abandoned beside me and the worn floor of the stage waiting to greet me.
This pain… It’s unbearable. I can’t survive losing another mate. My life with Bea has barely started. A single date and a handful of calls are all I have to show for the connection between us. Her throat doesn’t bear my mark, nor is her scent on my skin.
If I lose her now…
I’ll fracture.
Each breath brings fresh waves of pain, pulverizing the jagged pieces of my broken heart. To feel another mateexperience such horrendous suffering, while I am hundreds of miles away and unable to help…
Fate is a wretched beast, laying waste to hearts around the world with every agonizing second of our existence. Dangling happy futures in our faces, only to rip them away.
CHAPTER 5
Heavy eyelids threaten toslip closed, but I blink away my exhaustion and refocus on the documents spread on the table before me. Other agents move around the room, whispering to each other as they work. There has to be some link we are missing. An avenue the agency hasn’t explored yet.
My task would be easier if Ridley hadn’t abandoned our mission. I’m not pissed at him for listening to his Alpha needs, not really. No, I’m fucking jealous. I want to drop everything and go back to New York to see my Omega with my own eyes, to smell her pineapple coconut scent floating on the breeze, but I can’t. Partially because I believe Doctor Harrison poses a legitimate threat to her safety, and because my trauma is still too heavy a weight for her to share.
The nightmares of my past have grown in intensity over the past few weeks, returning almost every night. If I were to slip and bond Bea, she would feel the aftermath of every one of them. I am used to functioning on barely any sleep and running my body until exhaustion every morning; she doesn’t deserve to be saddled with the same side effects.
“You should get some rest,” Porter comments from the other end of the table.
Like the asshole I am, I ignore him. Unless he is ordering me to step away, I’ll decide when to take a break. Even if it means overworking myself.
“I’m serious, Ferguson.”
Glancing up, I hiss out a breath when pain pops through the tendon in my ankle. Furrowing my brow, it takes my fatigued mind several seconds to understand where it is coming from. Bea. Growling, I grip the table and fight back the urge to dig out my personal phone and call her. The injury doesn’t feel life-threatening, and she isn’t alone in New York. Shiloh and her parents can-
Piercing pain along my neck has my spine snapping straight, my muscles tense enough that I know I will feel the ache of the strain later. When it moves from one side to the next, I lose control. My aura explodes out of me, sending growls rippling through the room as red descends, consuming my vision.
I stare up at the ceiling of an empty room, head groggy and thoughts too scattered to remember how I got here. A key turns in the lock to the room, furthering my confusion. When my temporary partner from the FCDA, Catalco, peeks through thecrack, I raise a brow in question. He’s cautious as he steps into the room, keeping one hand on the door frame like he’s afraid I will attack him.
Given the bruise blooming on his jaw and my muddled thoughts, I may already have.
“Okay, good. You’re conscious. I’m assuming that since you haven’t tried to beat the door down yet, you don’t remember what happened?”
“Correct.” I sit up, noting the increased throb through my skull and dismissing it immediately. Minor injuries and illnesses have never stopped me before, and they won’t now.
Catalco’s jaw twitches, his eyes flickering down the hallway before settling back on me. He sighs, the sound carrying the weight of a pain I rarely see from the level-headed Alpha.
“I’m just going to rapid-fire update you. Try not to blow your top, okay? I don’t want to knock your ass out again.”
Again?
“Two and a half hours ago, your Fated connection sparked to life, allowing you to feel Bea’s pain.”
