Page 16 of Verses and Blooms
“Whatever you did, it worked!” Vance yelled from the other room loud enough we could hear him.
Then we were moving, running back to the office. All I could feel was hope and relief. We were about to see our mate.
Until I saw the tiny, dirty, and glaringly empty, room.
Audrey’s scent was so powerful in the space it nearly knocked me over. A sob escaped me as I looked at the conditions she was left in and the fact she was gone. Rydell had one long growl echoing out of him while Caspian and Kane moved around us as if searching for a clue.
A single door was on the other side, standing open to reveal a tunnel.
“This is where they took her out.”
“When you saw Malik, you didn’t see her, right?” Cooke asked me.
“There were two guards with him, but there was no Audrey. I would’ve felt her. I would have known.”
“No, her scent is strong here, but not as strong as it would be if she had just left twenty minutes ago. Malik might’ve left a different way, but Audrey left here.”
Dread pooled in my stomach, making bile rise. I had to breathe through it before I threw up on the floor.
“Clothes,” Kane said, his voice cracking. “A pile of them, all standard ARC uniforms.”
“So, this was his holding room,” Vance surmised, his voice shaking with fury as he stepped out of the cell and back into the infirmary. I could hear his voice echoing out, likely calling in the cavalry now.
“We were too late,” I said, tears flowing freely down my cheeks now. Caspian pulled me into his arms, but I could feel his own tears dripping onto my shirt.
Our pack was barely holding on by a thread. Rydell was already moving, stomping into the small hallway where her scent had faded into.
He looked back once and gestured for the rest of us. “Come on. We need to stick together.”
Caspian practically dragged me down that hallway. It felt wrong here. The way the cement enclosed us was too tight of a fit. Rydell had to be scraping his arms raw as he ran through here.
The tunnel felt like it dragged on forever. It was colder in here and sloped downward before we were walking at an incline again.
Then we were at the exit, fresh air blowing, stealing the last of Audrey’s scent, and sending a shiver down my spine.
The moment we stepped outside, bright flashlights had us freezing.
“Where the fuck did you guys come from?”
I didn’t expect the Chief to be the one waiting on the other side with his men. I guess they were checking every inch of this place.
“We got in the room. Her scent was strong, but fading. She’s already gone.”
The Chief sighed. “No sign of her out here. No one has passed through and no cars have left.”
Rydell dropped to his knees and I watched the strongest alpha I’d ever known break down into tears.
Chapter Seven
Audrey
Time dragged on as my omega and I waited.
Yet, no one came.
We stayed in the dark, listening to the silence, heart pounding, every second stretching thin. Terror sat heavy on my chest.
It felt like hours dragged by. Each minute that passed only making me feel more helpless and trapped.
