Chapter 10
I fucked up. We fucked up.
We should never have left Bea behind. If I had been at her side, where I belong, I could have prevented this. But I wasn’t. Instead, I’ve been following half-assed leads throughout the Southern states. Leads that got us nowhere.
“Call Shiloh and let him know what we discovered,” Lex says as he pulls off the highway, heading toward the city.
Frowning, I dig my phone out. I don’t want to call Bea’s jerk of a boss. He is the one who was supposed to monitor her while we were away. If he didn’t have his head shoved so far up his own ass-
“It isn’t his fault.” Lex gives me a hard look, somehow reading the direction of my thoughts. “She was doing her job, just as much as he was.”
“Not good enough,” I growl. “He is her mate too-”
“You cannot force him into a decision he obviously isn’t ready to make,” Lex cuts me off, his tone a little too sharp. Apparently, we aren’t just talking about Shiloh.
“Whatever,” I huff.
The phone rings once before Shiloh answers. “Yes?”
“We have a lead.”
“Where is she?”
Reigning in my annoyance, I fill him in on what we learned from the dickhead leading the Wexern group. “We’re going to meet up with a raid team now. I’ll let you know if we find her.”
“ When you find her,” he corrects. “Because you will find her, Mr. Hale. No matter how long it takes.” He hangs up before I can curse him out, so I toss my phone into the back seat and cross my arms over my chest.
“He’s right,” Lex says. I scowl at my roommate and best friend. Of course, Shiloh is right. Nothing will stop me from finding Bea. I just don’t want to hear shit from an Alpha who pushes her away at every turn.
If he doesn’t want her, he should mind his fucking business and let me focus on rescuing my Omega.
The abandoned mine Voight sent us to has four buildings on the property, all clustered at the center. Overgrowth and a large patch of forest sit between them and the main road, making it easy for our teams to stealthily enter.
We wait for nightfall, watching from our positions to monitor their guard rotations.
Porter’s team had gotten thermal imaging of the property from a drone.
The largest building—a two-story rectangle made of faded brown brick—is the only one currently occupied.
With the body count inside, that should be where my Omega is.
Either that, or the Eternals have a hell of a lot more men hiding here than we originally thought.
Night falls, and we strike. My feet move quietly across the packed dirt lot as we approach the front doors.
I press my back to the brick when we get close enough, waiting for the signal from the other teams to proceed.
When the call goes up, Catalco motions to one of the other agents, who pulls a door ram from his side and aims below the rusted knob.
Every entrance except the south-facing side still has the original doors, making it easy to access the building from those points.
Porter’s team is waiting there, ready to use a small brick of C4 to take out the only door they replaced.
If we open the other doors and find they’ve heavily fortified the interior, we will have to reconvene there.
Catalco steps inside and swears, confirming our concerns.
He briefly shines a flashlight inside, showing us all the concrete wall blocking our path inside.
Motioning us toward the south, he sends up a call to alert Porter’s team to what we found.
It echoes on the other side of the building as well, leaving us with one way in.
Hopefully, that also means there is only one way out.
We reach the southern corner and wait for the team taking point to complete their breach. As soon as the boom whips through the air, we move in. It’s chaos inside as Eternal members take cover and return fire. With so many of our agents pinned down, there is little room to progress forward.
Lobbing a smoke bomb through the air, Catalco ducks back around the wall we’re crouched behind and motions for me. “Go find your girl. And Ridley? Don’t get yourself killed.”
With a sharp nod, I slip a mask over my face and dodge into the smoke-filled room.
A gang member stumbles in front of me, eyes widening when he sees me.
I slam the butt of my assault rifle into his forehead and watch him crumble to the floor.
Stepping over his body, I continue my journey toward the next room.
Movement to my left has me swinging my weapon, but the familiar FCDA uniform stops me.
Lex steps to my side, a mask covering his face.
Together, we breach the next room. A long hallway awaits us, with doors on either side spread along its length.
From the original blueprints and the drone footage, we’re estimating that the victims are being held in what used to be the dining hall.
It’s the largest room in the building, and it sits to the northwest of our current position.
Meaning we have a lot of room to cover.
Ripping my mask off, I hang it back on my belt. “I’ll take the left. You go right.”
Lex grunts, removing his mask before he stalks down the hall. With a glance behind me, I follow. The rest of the teams will catch up with us soon.
The first room I breach is an empty bunk room. A side door leads to a secondary adjoining bunk room. Two men cower behind the door leading back to the hallway. I catch them off guard, landing shots on both men before they can turn their weapons my way.
A small part of me recoils at the violence and bloodshed surrounding me, but remembering the pain I felt through my Fated connection to Bea turns any empathy I could muster to dust. These assholes hurt my Omega.
They deserve every ounce of this pain. Even death isn’t enough to make up for all the damage they’ve caused.
Back in the hallway, I continue to the next room. This storage room has two other entrances, leading me away from the main hall. Taking the door at the back, I work room by room toward where my girl should be.
In a secondary hallway, I stumble upon a group of Eternals. They duck into doorways and fire my way, but their shots go wide. Blowing out a slow breath, I wait for their shots to slow and lean around the corner. My shots don’t miss. One by one, they fall.
As I take the last of them out, a door opens further down, and a familiar face steps out. Fucking Marcus Brown. Creed’s brother. He watches his men fall, then looks at me. Before I can react, he turns on his heel and runs back into the room he left. I swear and follow him.
No way in hell am I letting this piece of shit escape. Not after what he put Creed and my Omega through.
The room he entered houses their security feeds, but he’s damaged the equipment. It’s sizzling, and all the screens are dark. Of course, this asshole had to make things harder for me!
Running through the open doorway at the back, I skid to a stop and frown. It’s empty. No windows, no doors. No Marcus, either.
“Motherfucker!”
Noise behind me has me swinging around, but it’s just Catalco and the rest of his team joining me. “Dead end?”
“No,” I grunt. “That asshole Marcus ran in here and disappeared. There has to be a way out of this room.”
Jerking his head, he puts one of his men on guard duty at the door, and has the other two help search. We tear the room apart, moving shelves and furniture. Seeing nothing obvious, we beat on the walls.
“Looks like there’s a door here,” Catalco calls.
Turning to where he’s at, I cross the room and feel the barely noticeable crack he’s referring to.
There isn’t an obvious switch nearby, just a few wall outlets.
I crouch and examine the closest one, not noticing anything unusual.
Catalco follows my lead and checks the next one over.
His head tilts, and he grabs the outlet cover.
It swings upward, revealing the switch to the hidden doorway.
We follow the path through an underground tunnel before we find a ladder upward.
Catalco takes point. When he heaves the hatch at the top open, I can see stars shimmering in the sky above us.
Without stepping outside, I know Marcus is long gone.
That coward wouldn’t have stuck around to see how the rest of the raid went.
Hauling myself out of the underground exit, I scan the parking lot. It’s still and quiet, with only the sounds of the occasional gunfire from inside disturbing the silence. “Marco and Everett will sweep the lot, just in case. Let’s head back inside and-”
Catalco’s words fade to a buzz when I spy movement from the corner of my eye. Turning my head, I watch as none other than Doctor Harrison tries to dart between one of the empty buildings and the row of vehicles parked outside. My feet are moving before I can tell the others what I see.
Instinct takes over, sending fury pounding through my veins.
Red covers my vision as I round a van and come face-to-face with the man who hurt my mate.
He screams, turning on his heel to run away, but I’m faster than this weak, pudgy Beta.
My body slams into his, sending us both crashing into the dirt.
“You sick bastard,” I roar, pulling my fist back and slamming it into his face.
His nose breaks with an audible crunch, blood flowing freely down his face.
Blow after blow, I unleash all of my anger on this madman.
Hands grab at my shoulder and arm, trying to stop me, but I shake them off.
I’m not backing down until he’s in as much pain as my Omega was when he stole her scent glands.
“Ridley!” The other Alpha’s bark echoes in my mind, but it isn’t strong enough to stop me, not when I’m on a rampage.
A body slams into mine, knocking me away from Harrison’s blood-soaked body.
I growl, fighting against their hold. More bodies join the first, piling on top of me until I can no longer move.
An arm presses against my throat, cutting off my oxygen.
They hold me like that until I come back to my senses.
Tapping Catalco’s arm three times, he eases his weight off my neck and watches me with narrowed eyes. “I’m good,” I croak.
“You’d better be. Lex found your girl.”
Jumping to my feet, I take off toward the passageway we exited through.
I don’t spare Harrison a second glance on my way past. Content with the damage I’ve already done.
If he’s lucky, he’ll live and get thrown in prison for the rest of his life.
If not… His death won’t taint my soul. Not after the atrocities he’s committed.
Weaving through hallways and empty rooms, lingering agents direct me to where Lex is.
I crash through an open doorway and turn to look down yet another hallway.
My pulse races when I see my roommate push his way through a crowd of agents.
In his arms is my Omega. She’s limp and way too pale to be safe.
Bile crawls up my throat seeing her in person. The wounds on her body and the blood covering her legs. Lex’s shirt is thrown over her torso, providing her with some small piece of privacy.
“Sunshine.” I gently trail a finger down her cheek, but she doesn’t react. “She needs a doctor.”
Lex grunts, shifting to move past me. “Porter called a medivac for her. They’re going to land outside near the entrance to the mine.”
“I can carry her,” I offer, but he growls at me. Fucker.
She’s here, and she’s safe, for now. I can wait to hold her until after she’s received medical treatment.