Chapter 1
one
Sam
“Have you seen Jo anywhere?” My pulse is thrumming with unease as I walk into my best friend’s living quarters.
“Um, knock much?” West gives an indignant huff as he looks down at himself, only a towel around his waist. He has a protein shake in one hand, and it looks like he was walking from the kitchen back to his bedroom.
I just roll my eyes. “Dude. I’ve seen you naked so many times since we were kids.” West shakes his head at me and keeps walking, disappearing into his room. He leaves the door open, so I call out, “Jo went with Leslie a few hours ago, but I haven’t seen her since.”
Leslie had entered the cafeteria and gone straight to the little troublemaker, which should have been my first red flag. Typically, Sundays are off days for doctors and admin.
West comes back out of his room, his towel gone, replaced with a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt. He frowns. “What did Leslie want?”
“I didn’t catch all of what she said, but I guess Brooks wanted to check out Jo after the fights last night.” I rub the back of my neck. It had made my skin itch at the time, but I had chalked it up to my alpha’s claim on Jo, or nerves about last night.
Last night…when we tortured and murdered that piece of shit Arthur Banesworth.
Now that I think about it though, there was something…off about Leslie’s usually bubbly personality. She seemed like she really didn’t want to be there.
West crosses his arms, that little crease appearing between his eyebrows as he thinks. “Have you asked Hayden or Kole?”
“They’re both still sleeping.” We hadn’t gotten back to our respective rooms until close to five in the morning, and while I’m used to pulling all-nighters, the two younger members of our quintet are not yet acclimated to it.
At one point, Kole might have been, but he’s been locked up in here for three years now.
He grabs his laptop and perches on the couch.
“I’ll check her schedule. Maybe they added on more labor for beating the alpha last night.
” I mean, that’s definitely a possibility.
Both Brooks and Whitmore had been pissed beyond belief when Jo took down four betas, one after the other, and still managed to knock out an alpha. “Have you checked her room?”
I open my mouth to say, of course I have, but then I realize…no. I haven’t. I checked the courtyard, the cafeteria, the arts and crafts room, but not…her room. Idiot. “Come with me to check there, then. There’s something off, I can tell.”
West frowns before closing his computer and putting it on the couch. “There’s no change to her schedule. Let me put on my scrubs, and then I’ll join you.”
There’s no way they know about Banesworth.
I’ve heard so much gossip this morning, nobody can deny the fact that he quit.
I scrambled the security feed from last night and made it look like a technical error.
I made sure his car got picked up and taken to my scrap guy.
West sent the resignation from the fucker’s personal email.
We’re in the clear as far as the murder of Arthur Banesworth goes.
Now, we just need to make sure our omega is okay.
West and I stand in front of Jo’s door twenty minutes later, and if it weren’t for the fact I already scrambled the feeds once, I’d do it again.
As it is, if they ask why West and I came to Jo’s door together at eleven in the morning on a Sunday, we can just say that West was doing his duty as her psychologist to see how she’s holding up after the fights last night.
And I’m…here in case she…stabs him. Or something.
I raise my keycard to swipe it, but West knocks my hand away, giving me a look like I’m crazy. “Knock, Sam,” he chides, and raises his own hand to knock on the door. Immediately, we can hear shuffling inside the room, but no answer.
“Jo?” I call out, knocking again. “Is that you?”
I swear I hear a sigh of relief, and then the door swings open.
“It’s just you guys.” Hayden stands in Jo’s doorway with his jumpsuit half on.
His blond hair is sleep-rumpled and there’s an imprint of pillow-case wrinkles on his cheek.
“What’s up?” Immediately my eyes are drawn to the silvery bond mark on his pec.
Seeing it for the first time in the light, I find myself thrumming with jealousy.
Not jealousy that Hayden got to bond with her, but at the fact I’m not sporting a matching one.
Sure, I was fighting the pull towards Jo until two days ago, but now I want nothing more than to be claimed by her.
The fact that we could scent each other with her on the instinct inhibitor, even if it was the barest whiff, tells me we’re at least scent-sympathetic, if not a full on true scent match.
My gaze snaps back to Hayden’s confused expression when I realize that if I can see it, there’s a possibility the cameras can too.
“Get the fuck back inside before someone sees that,” I hiss, pushing him into the room and dragging West behind me. Shit. How the hell are we going to explain this if someone happens to be watching the cameras at this exact moment?
West makes sure the door latches shut behind him, but my eyes are scanning Jo’s room. “She’s not here?” I ask, something twisting in my gut.
Hayden blinks, looking over at the analog alarm clock next to the bed. “Shit. No, I just woke up. You haven’t seen her this morning?”
“Leslie took her somewhere at breakfast,” I bite out, my heart starting to race. Something isn’t right. “What about your bond? Can you feel anything from her?”
The pyromaniac frowns, grabbing his annoying little lighter from his pocket and flicking it open. There are no flames of course, because what kind of place would give an officially diagnosed pyro unlimited access to fire, but the motion helps him, apparently.
“Nothing. But…she was working on shutting down the bond. She didn’t want to distract me with her emotions.”
“Nothing? According to bond studies, even if she were intentionally blocking her emotions, or even sleeping, you should still be able to sense…well, her presence, so to speak.” West takes a step closer, observing the bondmark like it might start talking to him.
“Usually, unless she was forced into unconsciousness, you should be able to feel something.”
I stifle a growl at that thought, turning to Hayden. “Well?”
Hayden’s hand lands on his mark as he screws his eyes shut tight. “She’s…she’s there, but…it’s almost…muted, somehow.” His eyes open, and he frowns, looking down at his mark.
“We need to pay Leslie a visit,” I growl, grabbing West by the arm and leading him back to the door.
Turning my head back to Hayden, I pause at the sight of his lost expression.
Sighing, I do my best to try to make him feel a little better.
“We’ll let you know when we find something.
And…don’t say anything to Kole unless he asks. We don’t need him going on a rampage.”
“Wait for me!” The blonde alpha tries to get the rest of his jumpsuit on, but I shake my head.
“No. You stay here. It’ll give us away if you come.”
Hayden looks like he wants to argue, but changes his mind at the last minute and nods, sitting down on the bed like a petulant toddler.
West and I make our way to Leslie’s office, and when I burst in without knocking, the beta scrambles out of her desk chair, yelping in surprise. Her eyes are rimmed red, a look of intense guilt on her face.
“Leslie,” I growl, taking a step forward, “where did you take Jo this morning?”
Leslie’s eyes widen and she swallows, looking between West and me. “I…”
West shakes his head, and I know it’s because I’m acting like a complete caveman.
“His instincts make him protective of all omegas, Les,” West says smoothly.
“He’s one of the good ones. She didn’t show up for her psych meeting with me.
” If Leslie realizes that Jo wouldn’t have a psych appointment on a Sunday, she doesn’t say anything.
“You won’t see her again.” Leslie’s words have my blood turning to ice, a lead weight settling in my gut as West stiffens next to me.
“What…” I try to keep the growl out of my voice. She can’t be serious. She can’t be right about this. “What…do…you mean?”
“She…” Leslie chokes, tears welling in her eyes.
“I took her to Brooks and Whitmore. They told me I had to…they were so mad. She drugged the alpha from the fight last night. They realized when they ran his blood and found all the compounds for the tranq serum. Then they checked their inventory, and saw that Nurse Helaena was missing one. Jo was her only patient of the day.”
This can’t be happening. My fists are clenched so tight I’m sure they’re white.
“I tried to talk them out of it, but…” She chokes on a sob, and I’m this close to losing my shit.
“Spit it out, Leslie!” West snaps, his expression contorted in uncharacteristic panic.
“They took her to the Cathedral. They’re done with her.”