Chapter 24
Eli
I know this because I'm in the kitchen when he comes through the front door with his laptop open and a look on his face I haven't seen since the night Vee disappeared. Alert. Focused. The pack lead who used to solve problems by the sheer force of deciding they would be solved.
"Fortress Security," he says. "That's Alex's company. Malcolm co-founded it. They have a registered business address."
My stomach drops.
I take a slow drink of my coffee. "And?"
"And if I find the business, I find where they operate. If I find where they operate, I find where they went. If I find where they went—"
"You find a business address," I say. "Not a home or vacation address. Security companies don't run out of living rooms, Ragon."
He looks at me. There's something feverish in his eyes that I've been watching build for weeks. The obsessive focus that replaced the grief once he decided retrieval was the solution.
"It's a start," he says.
It is a start. That's the problem.
I wait until he goes upstairs to shower, then I text Jasper.
He found Fortress Security. Business address. How close is that to the cabin?
Jasper responds in forty seconds. Not close. Different county. The business filings list Alex's last known residential address. If he digs into public records he'll find the house next door.
He already knows where the house is. He lived next to it for years. That won’t help him find Vee.
Right. The cabin isn't connected to Alex's name. Chase made sure of that. As long as Ragon doesn't find someone at Fortress who talks, we're fine.
I stare at the phone. How confident are you about "someone who talks"?
A pause. Longer than I'd like.
I'll handle it. Give me an hour.
I delete the conversation and rinse my mug.
***
The next three days are the worst so far.
Ragon calls the Fortress Security office line. Gets a receptionist and asks to speak with Alex. The receptionist, who has clearly been briefed, tells him Alex is on leave and she can't provide personal contact information.
Ragon calls back twice. Different approach each time. First he's a potential client requesting a consultation with the owner specifically. Then he's an old acquaintance trying to reconnect. The receptionist holds the line.
I know this because Jasper is getting updates from Chase, who is getting them from Finn, who monitors the company's communication logs. The information chain is absurd and fragile and it's the only thing standing between Ragon and a cabin forty minutes away.
Jasper intercepts the next attempt before it happens.
Ragon mentions over dinner that he's thinking about driving to the Fortress offices. Just showing up. Seeing if anyone there knows where Alex lives now.
"That's a bad idea," Jasper says. He's cutting his steak with the measured focus of a man choosing his words.
"If the business has security cameras—and it's a security company, so it definitely does—you'll be on record showing up to harass an alpha's workplace.
The registry will hear about it if you end up on trial. "
Ragon's fork pauses. "I'm not harassing anyone."
"You're looking for an omega the registry thinks is still in your custody. If they find out she's been missing for weeks and you've been searching instead of reporting it, that's obstruction at minimum." Jasper sets his knife down. "You need to let this go through proper channels."
"Proper channels haven't returned my omega."
"Proper channels are the only thing keeping you from getting flagged yourself."
The silence that follows fills the kitchen.
I eat my steak and don't look up.
***
Ragon doesn't go to Fortress the next day, but I find him in his study at midnight with a laptop full of public records searches. Property tax filings, business incorporation documents, vehicle registrations.
He's good at this. He was always methodical. The same precision he brought to running a pack he now brings to hunting for the woman he lost. If I weren't actively working against him, he'd have found her by now.
That thought keeps me up at night.
"He's looking at vehicle registrations," I tell Jasper in the parking lot at work the next morning.
We've started meeting here instead of the house.
Walls have ears when the man you're betraying doesn't sleep anymore.
"If he finds Alex's truck and cross-references it with gas station cameras or toll records—"
"Chase already thought of that. Alex has been using Arden's car since week two."
"And Malcolm? Didn't you say Chase drove his car to the cabin too?"
"His vehicle is registered to the company, not him personally. Ragon would need a court order to access those records."
"What about Finn?"
Jasper pauses. "Finn doesn't drive."
"Right." I rub my face. "I'm going to start forgetting things I actually know if this keeps up."
"You're tired."
"I'm exhausted. I'm still covering some of Drake's shifts, I'm covering my own, and I'm spending every free hour making sure Ragon doesn't follow a paper trail to a cabin he doesn't know exists.
" I lean against my car. "And I'm doing all of it while sitting across from him at dinner pretending nothing has changed. "
Jasper is quiet for a moment. Then he says, "I filed three incident reports this week."
I look at him.
"Three. Different omegas, different packs, same patterns.
Comfort restrictions. Isolation. One of them hadn't been allowed to leave her house in four months.
" He's looking at the hospital entrance, not at me.
"I write them up. I flag them for Chase's desk. I file copies with the OPA. And then I go home and sit across from Ragon and eat dinner, pretending I didn’t stand by and watch the exact same pattern in the house I’m staying in. "
"Jasper—"
"That's my job, Eli. That's what I do. I'm a filing clerk with a conscience.
I don't investigate. I don't have authority.
I don't have Chase's connections or Arden's title.
I take reports that describe exactly what happened to Vee and I put them in the system and I hope someone with more power than me does something about it.
" He sounds firm but there's a rawness underneath that I haven't heard from him before.
"And I was sitting in this house watching it happen in real time and all I did was take notes. "
"You were building a case—"
"I was building a file." The correction is hard.
"Chase was building a case. I was organizing paperwork and telling myself the long game justified it.
" He exhales. "You want to know what's on the reports I file?
The same language every time. Omega presented with signs of emotional neglect.
Omega showed evidence of scent suppression consistent with prolonged distress.
Omega's nesting materials were damaged or removed.
" He looks at me. "I've written those sentences about strangers a hundred times.
I never wrote them about Vee. I should have.
The first week I was in that house I should have filed on Ragon and demanded the OPA intervene with Arden as well.
But I didn't because I was trying to be strategic. "
"Chase asked you to wait."
"Chase asked me to gather evidence. There's a difference between gathering evidence and watching someone drown because you want better footage.
" He shoves his hands in his jacket pockets.
"I had the report template on my laptop.
I could have filed it anonymously. Even a clerk can trigger a welfare check.
But a welfare check would have blown my cover, Chase needed more time and I chose the timeline over her. "
The words sit between us in the cold morning air.
"I see her sometimes," he says. Quieter now.
"In the reports. Not literally, but the details overlap.
An omega who stopped eating regularly. An omega who retreated to a single room.
An omega whose scent went flat." He pauses.
"I used to read those files and think someone should have noticed sooner.
Now I know someone did notice. I noticed. I was right there."
I don't have anything to say to that. Because he's right.
"And I held myself at arm's length from her on purpose.
Not just because of the case. Because I was afraid.
" He says it like he's reporting a finding, clinical, but his hands are fists in his pockets.
"I could see it. How easy it would be. She was always going to end up with Alex's pack.
I could feel it before I had the evidence.
The scent matches, the way Arden was steering things with the shirts, all of it pointing to the same conclusion.
And I knew that if I let myself care about her—really care, not just as a case file—I'd have to watch her leave. "
"With Alex’s pack."
"With Alex’s pack." The name sits differently in his mouth than everything else.
Heavier. "I was afraid that if it came down to choosing—staying close to Vee or staying with Arden—I wouldn't survive the choice.
So I made sure I'd never have to make it.
I kept my distance. I told myself it was professional. But it was cowardice."
This is more than Jasper has ever said to me about anything personal. I'm careful not to move, not to react too much, because I can feel how fragile this is. How close he is to shutting it down.
"She needed me," he says. "Not as a case file. Not as a strategic asset. As a person. And I rationed myself because I was protecting my own heart." His lips thin. "That's the same calculus Ragon made. Different reasons, same result. The omega suffers because the alpha is managing his own feelings."
"That's not fair to yourself."
"It's accurate."
The parking lot is filling up. Morning shift coming in. Normal people going to normal jobs while two men who are betraying their pack lead stand between their cars and try not to fall apart.
"And then there's the other thing," he says.