10. Hendrix
Chapter 10
Hendrix
T he whole pack was on a fucking mission. I couldn’t quite decide if having a mystery bonded pregnant omega I had no memory of floating out in the world without me was better or worse than worrying I was dying. Beckett had immediately done a deep dive into bonding sickness, and sure enough, it matched the very particular hell I’d been living in since we’d left Seattle.
How had I managed to forget her? That was a brain betrayal of the highest order, and I knew the guys were probably hardcore judging me. Hell, I was judging myself. We had to find her. There was no way I could let my omega and my baby keep living their lives without me, even if I didn’t know a damn thing about her.
I flipped through the document that had all of our staff and their contact information, searching for someone who would be able to connect me with the security team at our Seattle venue. I started with our venue coordinator, Maxine.
“Hey, Maxi, what are the odds of me getting the security footage from outside the VIP room in Seattle?”
“Good morning to you, too, Hendrix. Odds are pretty high if you give me a reason.”
“We’re looking for someone I met that night, but I lost their contact info.” A lie, but she didn’t need to know that. “Trying to reverse engineer a little bit.”
“I’ll look into it. Do you want one of my team to go through the footage, or do you want me to forward it to you?”
“Forward to me, please. I ducked out of VIP early.” Or so the guys had told me. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find the right timestamps.”
“All right. I’ll be in touch.”
“You’re the best. Buy yourself a spa package and send me the invoice.”
I flopped facefirst onto the tour bus couch after the call ended, feeling a little less directionless, but still steeped in fucking misery with the bonding sickness. This was bullshit.
“I see you’re working hard to find the omega.” Phin swept up the bus stairs and parked himself next to me.
I spared enough energy to flip him off. “Fuck off. I did a task.”
“I talked to the makeup artists who were with us in Seattle.”
Perking up at that, I lifted my head to look over at him. “Any luck?”
“Carly said she remembered seeing you sitting with a brunette while she was packing up. At least that narrows down hair color.”
A brunette omega? I usually aimed for blondes, and now I was even more curious what it was about her that had drawn me in to begin with.
Phin huffed. “I wish we’d figured shit out earlier. We could’ve caught her on the bus cam.”
That would’ve been way too helpful. The exterior cam only kept footage for about a week for insurance, in case we got into an accident or someone tried to break in. I was desperate to see her face, even if it was in grainy security footage.
“I guess she wouldn’t be in any of the pictures from that night,” Phin said with a sigh. “I still don’t understand why she would’ve gotten a VIP ticket and not used it to see us.”
Half-formed memories poked my brain like a pin. “I don’t think she likes us.”
“What the fuck do you mean she doesn’t like us? She bought a VIP ticket.”
I rubbed my forehead with my fingertips, trying to encourage the memory to surface. Something something friend…Jane Austen…that didn’t make any fucking sense. Um, book? Did we talk about books? Why would I talk about books at our concert? I let out a frustrated growl.
“Hey,” Phin said softly, laying his hand on my shoulder. “We’re going to find her. We’ll convince her to hang around for a while, and you’ll get better. We’ve got a lot of resources, so between the four of us, it’s only a matter of time.”
It had already been months since Seattle. I knew how long it took babies to grow, I knew we had time, but it seemed like every second that passed was a sand grain racing out of the hourglass. If I was feeling like shit, then she had to be feeling worse. I didn’t know what the fuck was going to happen, but doing anything other than finding her immediately and fixing however much I could right this moment would be the ultimate dick move.
“Am I a terrible person?” I asked quietly, already convinced of the answer.
It took Phin a half second too long to say no and something inside me shriveled. I was such a fuckup. I tried so damn hard and just kept screwing everything up. Now I’d involved someone else…and a fucking baby . What the hell was wrong with me?
“I don’t know what to do.”
“One step at a time, Henny. First we find her, and then we figure out what to do next. No sense freaking yourself out before that happens.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve known me since high school. I think we both know that not freaking out is not one of my specialties.”
“Truth.” Phin offered me a smile. “Listen, there are way worse people on this planet. On the scale of shitty humans, I don’t think you’re anywhere near irredeemable. You don’t actively try to hurt anyone, right?”
“Right.” I swallowed hard.
“Then you’re miles above the worst of humanity. Your priorities are just a little fucked up.”
“How do I fix that?”
Phin shrugged. “I don’t think I’m in any position to give you advice about that. Besides, you’re getting ahead of yourself again. Right now, we’re only worried about finding the omega and making sure neither of you keels over from your little fuck-and-run.”
“And if she’s pregnant like the doctor thinks?”
Phin looked at me for a long moment. “I assumed you wouldn’t be interested in that part.”
I wasn’t. Was I? A kid was an even bigger wrench in my plans than a mate.
“The look on your face is giving panic vibes. Once again, we have to find her first. Do I need to get you some edibles to chill out?”
It probably wasn’t a bad idea. I was going to stress myself into a whole fucking collapse at this rate. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
Phin pulled one package from the fridge, where he stashed them so they wouldn’t melt, and passed me a rock-hard gummy. I gnawed it into submission and stretched out to wait for the magic effects.
“It’s all going to be okay, Hen,” Phin assured me.
It sure didn’t feel like it.