Chapter 04 #2
“You forgot the most important thing,” I murmured as I lowered my head and covered his mouth with mine, one hand still on his face, the other slipping around his shoulders and pulling him towards me.
Instinctively, his mouth opened to me and his hands slipped to my waist. He moaned softly as I plundered his mouth, and his body relaxed into mine.
The hand cupping his face, slid down, and shielded by our bodies, squeezed his package through the denim.
He moaned into my mouth. When I ended the kiss before things went too far, his eyes were closed and a blissful expression graced his face, a smile curling up the corners of his mouth.
His eyes fluttered open and he gazed dazedly up at me.
Then he seemed to remember Johnson was in the room, flicking a glance quickly in his direction, before a delightful pink stained his cheeks, and he hastily took a step back.
“I’ll be in the kitchen,” he said breathlessly, before escaping from the room.
I cleared my throat and adjusted myself before turning around and going to sit at my desk again.
“Now, where were we?” I asked.
Johnson snorted and shook his head, then proceeded to give me a run down on the status of a number of farm issues we’d discussed the previous week. Everything was progressing satisfactorily. Then we moved on to any personal issues within the pack.
“Did Agelius ask you for any extra leave?” Johnson asked. “I haven’t seen him since his RDO, and that was several days ago. I assumed you must have given him leave.”
“No,” I told him. “I haven’t heard from him.”
“That’s really odd. He’s normally very reliable.”
“Did he tell you what he planned to do on his day off?” I asked. Johnson had a lot more contact with Agelius than I did, and I wondered if the topic had come up in conversation.
“Not really. He doesn’t have any family or close friends hereabouts, so I don’t think he does much on his days off. I’m pretty sure he sometimes runs in the forest. He’s a bit of a loner.”
“Maybe he went into the city to visit someone,” I suggested.
“Maybe,” said Johnson, but he didn’t sound convinced. “He’s never mentioned having any friends in the city, though.”
“He’s never done this before, has he? Disappeared or not turned up for work, I mean.”
“No. He’s one of our most conscientious workers. I think he’s still terrified of being thrown out of the pack, to be perfectly honest.”
I snorted. “That’s so not going to happen. He’s a good fit for our pack. I thought giving him leadership tasks would have helped him realize that. Maybe I need to talk to him again and make sure he understands he belongs here. I hope he hasn’t had an accident. Have you tried calling him?”
“He doesn’t have a phone. He was completely broke when he arrived here, remember?”
I did remember - the too thin young alpha in tattered clothes had been so desperate for a pack to call home. He looked quite different now with several months of good food and manual labor behind him and it was easy to forget he’d arrived with nothing.
I was horrified at the omission. I should already have thought of this.
Maybe the whole situation with trying to bond with Isca had distracted me too much from my pack responsibilities.
Or maybe servicing two omegas was taking more out of me than I realized.
I needed to be more on top of my game. And take vitamins.
“When he comes back, get him a phone,” I instructed. “Everyone in the pack should have one in case of emergencies. In the meantime, there’s not much we can do. You could ask around the pack and see if anyone knew where he was going. Let me know what you find out.”
“Will do,” replied Johnson. “That’s all I had to discuss. Unless you have anything…?”
I shook my head. “Not unless I can convince you to take over the admin work…” I suggested hopefully.
Johnson laughed, tossing his shaggy head. “Nope,” he said, “Not a chance. I’ll leave you to it.”
And with that, he rose from his seat, grabbing another cookie before leaving me looking bleakly between my computer and the pile of invoices waiting to be processed.
I spent the rest of the day trying to clear my desk of paperwork.
The trouble was, it seemed like every piece of admin that I had to do involved getting something done by someone outside the pack.
It never seemed to be straightforward. There were always multiple phone calls or emails before I could eventually get the desired result.
I picked up a pen, turning it over and over in my hand while I considered whether to call the local police about Agelius but decided to give him one more day to reappear.
Maybe he’d decided he didn’t want to stay with us after all?
He’d been without a pack when he’d first turned up, and it was possible he’d decided the pack lifestyle didn’t suit him.
Though… I found it hard to believe. He’d fitted in well here and had seemed happy enough, if a little subdued.
And the look on his face when I upgraded him to leadership!
I shook my head, puzzled. Something didn’t add up.
When the digital clock on my desk finally showed 5:00, I sighed. Pushing the pile of papers away, I rested my forehead against the cool timber of the desk, allowing my mind to clear.
Paperwork and administration were not things I enjoyed, but they were part of my responsibility as Pack Alpha, and I liked to get them out of the way early in the week so I could concentrate on actual farming for the rest of the time. But I wasn’t going to work overtime on it.
When I left my office for the day, I was surprised to find Isca at a loose end in the lounge room, idly flicking through movies.
I came up behind him on the couch and ran my hands through his curls, the silky strands deliciously soft over my fingers. When he turned his head to me, I touched my lips to his briefly.
“How was your class?” I asked him, as I straightened.
“Good,” he said, “but tiring. I like it though.”
“I’m glad you’ve found something you enjoy,” I told him, then looking around, “Where’s Irian?”
Isca’s brow wrinkled. “He’s not back from town yet. Did he have something else he had to do, besides the shopping, I mean?”
“Not that he told me,” I replied, frowning. “Have you called him?”
“Yeah, several times. His phone just switches out to voicemail.”
That made me uneasy. It was unusual for Irian to stay away from us so long, unless he had a specific task he needed to do.
But I hadn’t felt anything amiss through our mind-bond during the day.
There’d been a moment where I’d detected some confusion, but as it had been followed by a feeling of relief, I had dismissed it as something minor, and hadn’t worried. Maybe I should have.
Tentatively, I reached out to him through the bond, probing gently.
There was nothing there. Nothing came back to me.
Nothing at all. The bond was quite silent, like a vast empty hall, which was strange.
I nudged again, more firmly. Still no response.
My unease grew. There was nothing specifically wrong, but it didn’t feel right either.
I began pacing the room, Isca’s large brown eyes watching me anxiously. I tried to think of scenarios where Irian mightn’t respond to my call; none of them were reassuring, but in all cases, I was sure I would have been alerted through our bond.
“Did you feel anything through the mate bond?” I asked Isca. He shook his head, teeth macerating his lower lip, eyes wide and frightened.
“No,” he breathed. “Should I have?”
The frown lines creasing his forehead grew deeper.
I shook my head. “Not necessarily. You don’t have as much experience with using the bond, and I didn’t feel anything… well, nothing that I thought was anything at the time.”
Sliding my phone from my back pocket, I checked the time. The shops hadn’t been shut that long…
By 6 o’clock, I was beginning to panic. I went outside, just to check, but Irian’s car still wasn’t there. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I called Johnson.
“Do you know where Irian is?” I asked, without even greeting him.
“Ah, no,” he replied. “He didn’t come back from town?”
“No.”
“The shops are closed now,” he said, a note of concern creeping into his voice.
“I know. His car’s not here, and he’s not answering my call. I… I’m going to call the police,” I swallowed hard, “in case, you know, there’s been an accident.”
A car accident was a genuine worry out here in the country. There had been some terrible ones. The roads were winding, the speed limit high, and the city folk passing through were often unused to the conditions. Locals had died through no fault of their own.
“I’ll ask around in case anyone knows anything,” Johnson said, “but if he had any plans, he would have told you or Isca. It’s not likely anyone else knows anything.”
“Let me know anything you find out,” I told him, stabbing the screen to end the call, and immediately ringing the local police.
All they could do was assure me that there had been no accidents reported on the highway.
They took down some details and promised to call if there was any news, but I knew it was unlikely.
If there’d be an accident between town and our place, someone would have reported it by now. Something else was going on.
And I was going out of my mind.
My sweet Irian. He was my mate. My omega.
And he had disappeared without a trace. As feisty as he could be, he was still an omega, and vulnerable. It was my job to protect him. How could I do that when I didn’t know where he was?
My wolf whined, softly. He was restless. I could feel him pacing in my mind. He wanted to do something about this, and underneath his frustration, I felt a cold ribbon of fear. What if we lost our mate?