Chapter Thirty-Four
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
WE’VE BEEN HUNTING Doctor Harrison for a month and we have nothing to show for it. Not a trace of the escaped madman has been discovered.
I’m done with this shit. Especially after feeling the pain my omega was in over the weekend. I know she was in heat, a perfectly natural experience, but I. Wasn’t. There. Instead, I’m thousands of miles away chasing the trail of someone who has clearly disappeared.
Feeling her pain and knowing what was happening nearly made me feral with the need to go to her. Lex had to knock me out before I destroyed our van and all the FCDA equipment in it.
A punch I am still sporting a bruise from.
“I’m going home,” I declare when Lex opens the hotel door. He pauses mid-step, staring at me, before he sighs and walks inside.
“You’re going to abandon our search, knowing Bea is in danger?”
“At least if I’m by her side, I can keep her safe. Being here isn’t accomplishing anything except straining the bond I’ve spent the past three months growing. He’s gone, Lex.” I throw my arms out wide, gesturing to the map of locations we’ve already searched. “Staying here is going to drive us both mad. It’s time to throw in the towel.”
Lex shakes his head, running a hand through his blonde hair. It has grown out over the past month, hanging down over his brows now. “If you want out, that is your choice. I’m staying here and tracking this bastard down before he can get to Bea or Omen.”
How can he not see how obstinate he is being? If we were going to find Doctor Harrison, we would have caught some hint of him by now! All he is doing by staying is punishing himself and our omega.
Our secure work cell rings with an incoming call. I groan, throwing myself backwards on the bed while he answers it.
“Have you assholes killed each other yet?” Jericho asks. This dick got to go home to his omega. I don’t see why it’s such a big fucking deal that I want the chance to do the same.
“To the point, Jericho,” Lex grunts, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at me as if he can read my mind.
“Yeah, yeah. Listen, we got a hit. A new drug hit the streets of Silverstone, Alabama over the weekend. Turns alpha’s feral while it is in their system. Our team at the FCDA believes it is the work of Doctor Harrison. We want you to head down there and investigate.”
Of course they have a new lead for us to follow as soon as I try to leave. I’m leaving the DAU after this job is over. Bea’s job at Soulbound is more enough to support the two of us, even better if she can convince Shiloh to join our pack.
“We’ll pack up here and head there tomorrow. Send us what you have on the drug.”
Lex hangs up and tosses the phone into our bag. He turns back to me expectantly.
“Fuck! Fine! We’ll go to Silverstone. But I swear to Fate, Lex, if this doesn’t pan out, that’s it. I’m done.”
He nods, jaw tight. I know he doesn’t agree. He has every right to choose to continue chasing Doctor Harrison. I’m not him; I don’t need to keep running from the Fate matched mate waiting for me at home.
“Get some sleep. We’re leaving at first light.”
Flipping Lex off, I head into the hotel bathroom. I need a shower, and maybe to get myself off. Pulling my personal phone from my pocket and open my picture folder.
A week after we left Starburgh, I turned on my phone to check in with Bea and my parents. When my messages had come in, I found a string of naughty pictures from my mate. She looks so fucking stunning in the baby blue lingeries set, sprawled out among the soft pink blankets in her nest.
Smirking, I switch to my text messages and send the best three to Lex’s phone. I wait at the door until I hear it ding and him swearing. My asshole best friend may try to deny his desire to bond with Bea, but his reactions give him away. Enjoy our girl’s beauty while you jerk off like the alpha you are.
Once the water is semi-warm, I step beneath the spray and let it soak my skin. The tension I’ve felt since we learned of the attempted break in at Bea and Omen’s apartment is at a low simmer. Logically, I know she is safe at Shiloh’s apartment. His complex is one of the safest in Starburgh. Convincing my instincts of that is an impossible task. I need to see her with my own eyes and feel her in my arms.
Closing my eyes, I let my mind drift back to the day we were at the beach in Norfolk, when we had snuck back to the bus alone. My hand drifts to my semi-hard cock, stroking myself slowly as I remember the soft swell of her breasts pressed against my chest. The tight clench of her walls as she fell apart on my cock, screaming my name.
Fates, I miss my fucking omega.
My head thuds against the plastic surrounding of the shower, eyes brimming with tears as I spray the wall with my cum. I can’t live like this for much longer.
We arrive in Silverstone at midday. The city is busy with lunchtime traffic, causing our ten-minute drive to a new hotel to last half an hour. I watch the streets as we crawl along the main strip. Eyeing the alleys, hoping for a clue about the gang peddling the ferality drug. No one would be dumb enough to distribute drugs this close to downtown in the middle of the day, though.
I follow behind Lex as he checks us in and drops our bags off in our room. He’s as surly as ever. Ready to fight someone, so he has an excuse to keep running from Fate. If I’m getting sick of his shit, how does Bea feel?
Our phones chime with a city wide alert. A warning about a feral alpha on the loose two blocks away.
“Let’s go,” Lex barks as he barrels past me toward the elevator. I jog after him. Why the fuck is there a feral alpha raging downtown in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday?!
Police are on every corner, blocking crowds of onlookers from entering the area. Lex flashes the FCDA badges we borrowed for the trip, granting us access. What looks like a small food market has been demolished by this alpha’s rampage. Tents and tables destroyed. Products strewn across the sidewalks.
Worst of all is the group of paramedics treating injured civilians in the lobby of a nearby bank. Some are pressing gauze pieces against head and arm wounds. Others seem dazed, clinging to their limbs with a tenderness that tells me they have sprained or broken something during the scuffle.
Blood smears the concrete at the far end of the area. A white sheet covers a body, doing little to hide how gruesome this person’s death was. I’ve seen the aftermath of an alpha going feral—truly feral, not this drug induced mimicry—and it guts me every time. To slowly fall apart, losing pieces of yourself as your instincts take over, forcing you to turn on everyone around you.
This is why alphas need packs. Even in packs without bonds between pack members, the connection an alpha feels to their pack mates can help prevent ferality. All of the states denying pack rights are putting every single citizen who resides there at risk. And for what? Dated beliefs that polyamory is a sin?
If Fate meant for us to only have one partner, we wouldn’t have Fated connections with more than one person.
Turning my back on the devastation, I study the nearby crowds, memorizing faces and watching for anyone out of place. If the gang testing this new drug wanted their street movers to report back about its effects, they would stay nearby. A man with a round face, dull brown hair, and a thin line of facial hair along his jaw approaches us. The pins beneath his round badge tell me he is a high-ranking officer in Silverstone’s force.
“Gentlemen. Joseph Orelta, Chief of Police. What brings the FCDA to Silverstone?”
“This.” One day Lex will have to learn to communicate with strangers beyond grunts and single syllable responses.
“Ridley Hale, and this grump is Lex Ferguson. We have reason to believe our current operation overlaps with your new drug problem.” I offer the older alpha my hand, still eyeing the crowd as he shakes it. They’re worried and shocked. Normal reactions to seeing the aftereffects of a feral alpha attack. No one seems overly interested in the outcome of this tragedy.
“If there is anything specific I can help you with, let me know,” Orelta says. He too is watching the crowd, but he seems jumpy. Like he’s waiting for another alpha to go berserk.
“Has the feral alpha been detained?”
Orelta gives me a grim look and motions to a spot several feet to our right, around the corner of the nearest building. “Officers attempting to bring him into custody killed him. Our medical examiner is on the way. They will run a full panel blood test to determine if he has the same drug in his system as the last two.”
I nod. Something feels off about the situation, but I keep my mouth shut. I’ll wait and bring it up to Lex when we get back to our hotel.
“We would appreciate an update about those results,” I tell him, handing over a business card with our burner phone number on it. He gives me a sharp nod and excuses himself to speak with his officers.
“This is a fucking mess.”
I raise a brow in Lex’s direction, following his gaze to the covered body. Today’s attack only claimed one victim, while the previous two totaled six. That is seven lives taken by this ridiculous new drug. Who the hell would even risk taking a drug that makes alphas feral?
We walk around the square, cataloging everything we see to break it down later. My stomach riots at the sight of tear-streaked faces as the victims from the bank are finally released. Being here, seeing this mayhem, only drives my desire to go back to New York higher.
“Why choose weekdays? If you wanted to cause chaos by unleashing a drugged, feral alpha into a crowd, wouldn’t you choose the weekend when a market like this would be busier?”
I consider Lex’s question as we walk back to the hotel. The other incidents were also during the week when there weren’t as many people around. “Without knowing their motive, it’s difficult to understand why they’ve chosen those times.”
As we turn the corner, fliers hanging in the sheltered bus stop across the street catch my attention. I jog across when the street is clear. Photos of missing teens and young adults cover the left side. Ten in total. Scanning the dates, I swear under my breath.
Of course, this has to turn out to be an actual lead and not just another dead end.
Snapping a picture of each one, I cross back over to join Lex. He’s leaning against the wall outside of our hotel, arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. Everyone walking by leaves a large berth between them. His ability to clear a sidewalk never ceases to amaze me.
“I’ve got something,” is all I tell him as I head inside. Only when we are in our hotel room, and he’s made sure no one has entered since we arrived this morning, do I show him the fliers. “Almost half of them line up with the feral alpha outbreaks across the city.”
He grabs a laptop and powers it on. After half an hour of scouring social media posts, he sits back and stares at the wall above the desk. “If we follow the ferality drug, we find the breeding ring.”
“This whole set up is sus, right? If Silverstone PD could have over a dozen uniformed officers on the scene in under ten minutes, how were they unable to apprehend that alpha without killing him? We know from all the information Jericho sent us that this drug only copies the symptoms of ferality. It isn’t nearly as intense or long lasting as a true feral rage.”
My feet carry me across the room, pacing back and forth as I try to work out the off feeling I felt when we were talking to Chief Orelta. We’re missing something.
“If they have had this many people go missing in a single week, all lining up with the alpha attacks, why isn’t there an ongoing investigation in these disappearances?”
Lex grunts and pulls out our work phone. I flop onto one of the twin beds and listen as he updates our team lead at the FCDA. They’ll be able to gain access to the police servers here to see if they are looking into these missing persons’ reports. If they are brushing this off… There is a chance their police force may be involved in either the breeding ring or the drug running. Neither of which would be good for our investigation.
It looks like I will be staying on the case after all. I send up a silent apology to my omega, hoping she’ll forgive me after this is all over.