Chapter 6
RIVER
It’s fuckingOmega blood in the batches of O.
Of fucking course.
It’s been two weeks since Skylar disappeared, and since then, two more Omegas have gone missing in adjacent counties.
I’m losing my fucking mind.
It’s made national news now—and Omegas are terrified.
It makes me sick.
Landon handles it one way—going between our office and other departments, conducting interviews and collecting information—while I go a different route.
I knock on the door to Ben’s apartment, and he answers, confused.
“Uh—hey,” he says uncomfortably when he sees my face. “What’s up?”
To his credit, he looks like he hasn’t been sleeping well either. Everyone has been working overtime to try to figure out what the fuck is going on.
But I’m sporting two black eyes and a busted lip.
I catch a flash of blonde hair behind him, and Ben steps aside.
“Hi, River,” Devyn says politely, her face wary. A stab of jealousy pierces me as I realize Ben still has his Omega while mine is gone.
It’s irrational. I’m thankful Devyn is safe, but it still makes me want to snarl at Ben.
Is Skylar my Omega anymore?
Was she ever?
My fingers tremble, and I shove my hands into my pockets. “Do you still have that friend at forensics?” I ask.
Ben nods, motioning for me to step inside.
I don’t.
“Good,” I say. “Give them these.”
My hands shake as I fish the three plastic baggies out of my coat pocket.
Ben’s eyes widen as I hold them out. “River, what the fuck?”
“Just shut the fuck up and do it,” I snap. “Have them checked for blood, then see if there are any DNA matches.”
“Is that why your face looks like that?” Ben asks. “What did you do?”
I shrug. “It doesn’t matter. Just test them.”
“We have undercover officers for a reason. You didn’t have to?—”
I walk away before he can continue.
Should I have done it a different way? Probably. But it’s so easy for me to blend in, to go into the seedy parts of different cities.
And if I get into one or two fights along the way, so be it.
I miss Skylar, and any sort of distraction is welcome, even if it means I end up bloody and bruised.
O is taking over and it’s made from trafficked Omegas.
I have no sympathy for any of those pricks that make or deal it.
Kicking the shit out of them is the least I can do.
I visitSkylar’s house again.
I use the keys that were left on her counter—if no one noticed they were missing, that’s not my problem.
I just want to be near her in any way possible.
And I can’t fucking sleep.
The nightmares are back again—almost as bad as they were three years ago.
Only this time, it’s Skylar’s face that’s haunting me.
It’s Skylar that we were too late to find, lying in the dirt, her body sickly grey and covered in leaves?—
Nausea churns in my gut.
My vision is fucked, I can barely drive, and I need to find somewhere to rest.
Maybe her couch will suffice.
I’m sure it’s pretty fucking creepy to sleep at her place when she’s not here, but I know I’d crash my car if I tried to drive the two hours back to my own apartment.
But as I unlock her front door, I catch a familiar scent.
Motherfucker.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I snap at Landon, who looks just as shocked to see me. He’s sitting on her couch with his laptop open, a document on the screen.
His shocked expression quickly turns to annoyance. “I could ask you the same thing,” he mutters, but his voice doesn’t carry his usual bite. He looks just as exhausted as I feel, with dark circles under his eyes and his mouth pulled into a thin line.
“You look like shit,” I counter, placing my duffel bag on the kitchen counter. Landon glances at the bag then back at me, scrutinizing my face.
“Better than you,” he grumbles, running a hand through his hair. “What are you doing here? It’s one in the morning. And you look like you haven’t slept in a year.” He glances at my hands, which are shaking again.
Fuck.
I put them in my pockets and scowl. “I’m here to work,” I lie.
He scoffs. “Well, so am I.”
I narrow my eyes and lean back against the counter. “How did you even get in? You don’t have a key.”
He turns his attention back to his laptop. “I found a spare the other night,” he says quietly.
That gets my attention. “That’s a violation of her privacy,” I snap, knowing how hypocritical I sound. “You would lose your shit if I did that.”
He shakes his head and chuckles humorlessly. “Well, you did the same thing, didn’t you?” he retorts, his eyes flicking to the keys on the counter next to my bag.
I sigh.
I’m not leaving. The place still smells like Skylar, even though it’s faint and muted. Her scent, delicate and inviting, reminds me why I’m doing this.
Of why she means so much to me.
I have no energy. And frankly, I don’t give a fuck anymore if Landon knows.
We have to work together to find her.
I still don’t like him…but our truce never technically ended.
“I don’t want a repeat,” I say finally. “Of what happened three years ago.”
Landon stops typing.
The room is silent, and I wait for him to tell me off or to say something condescending and make me feel worse.
“Me neither,” he says, still staring at his screen. “I don’t want it to happen to any of them.”
I swallow. This is the most we’ve ever talked about what happened that day.
“It would kill Vincent,” I murmur, even though part of me hopes that fucker would die, anyway.
Landon nods and turns to me. “If we work together, we have a better chance of finding her,” he says solemnly. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but?—”
“Ben is testing different batches of O,” I interrupt and point to my face. “That’s how I got these.”
Landon furrows his brow and opens his mouth to say something but stops himself. He sighs instead and shakes his head. “Okay. No more vigilante stuff. You’re not a fucking cop; you can’t pull shit then expect to not be arrested. We work together from now on. We communicate.”
“For Skylar,” I mumble.
Fuck, I’m tired.
Landon rubs at his eyes and exhales. “Yes. For Skylar,” he says slowly. He shuts his laptop and moves to stand up. “Just get some sleep,” he says. “And you can go with me tomorrow.”
“Go where?” I ask.
“To talk to her ex.”
My inner Alpha roars. “Fuck, yes. Let’s go right now.”
I’d love to tear the head off the fucker that made Skylar think she wasn’t good enough.
The asshole that made her insecure and unsure that we would want her.
Landon rolls his eyes. “Sleep first. I don’t want to have to rip you off of him.”
“Do you think he’s involved?” I ask. “Do you have anything else on him since we last checked?”
Landon shakes his head. “No, not at all. But it doesn’t hurt to cover our bases.” He heads to the front door and glances at me. “There’s so much to do,” he says quietly. “I’ve never seen so many disappearances.”
“Yeah,” I mumble. “It’s fucked up.”
As much as Ben annoys me, I’m glad he’s the buffer between us and the police. Usually, they’ll find a reason to not include us, but with Ben having our backs, it makes working with them much easier.
I suppose I owe him my thanks.
Maybe one day.
“I’ll call you in the morning,” Landon says. “Get some sleep.”
The door closes behind him, and I’m left alone in Skylar’s house.
I replay everything in my head, every bit of knowledge I have so far, but I’m stuck.
When I finally allow myself to lie down on her couch, guilt gnaws at me.
I could do more. I could be out right now, questioning more people.
Demanding more information from dealers.
Getting more samples of O.
I’ve never liked waiting on fucking test results.
What if her blood is in those batches?
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself, my hands starting to shake again. A migraine forms behind my eyes, and panic sets in.
You failed her. You didn’t protect her.
Wherever she is, she probably doesn’t have access to suppressants.
If an Alpha took her….
I don’t want to think about it.
I force myself to take in deep, slow breaths, allowing her muted scent to wash over me.
But I still can’t sleep.
All I can think about is Skylar, and how she’s out there in need of help.
Sweat beads down my forehead as I exhale shakily, willing myself to calm down.
“Fuck,” I hiss, clenching my teeth. I lie on my back and stare up at the ceiling, feeling anything but relaxed.
My Omega’s out there without me.
“Fuck, Skylar, I’m sorry,” I whisper into the air. “Just hold on for me.”
Finally, after a good hour of my heart racing and struggling to get comfortable, I move off the couch and head down the hallway.
Fuck it. I need to be closer to her.
When I open her bedroom door, I’m bowled over by the scent of Omega.
Would she think it’s creepy, knowing that I’m pushing back the covers of her bed to crawl into it?
Probably.
But fuck it.
Her bed brings back memories—memories of how she tasted under my tongue and felt under my hands.
How she fucking smiled at me and the sound of her laughter.
I grab her pillow and put it over my face, inhaling.
Yes. I’m definitely fucking creepy.
But it’s the closest I can get to her.
Mine.
And as I breathe deeply, allowing her sweet scent to wash over me, my heartbeat finally slows.
My head stops hurting.
I’ll find you, I think. I’ll find you, and I’ll slowly kill the person that took you.
My hands stop shaking and I allow my body to relax. I move the pillow until it’s wrapped in my arms.
I pretend it’s Skylar.
Finally, I drift into a dreamless sleep, allowing myself to find a moment of peace.