Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Nikolai
She was gone. Aries was gone.
The only sign that she’d been here was her shattered phone scattered in pieces on the pavement, like someone crushed it.
The same phone I’d given her.
There were no footsteps to follow, no clues. She’d been here one moment, and the next she vanished.
David thought I’d already picked her up, and she had slipped out quietly.
When the police arrived, they barely made a show of looking for her. They did a half-ass sweep, asked a few questions, then turned to give me that sympathetic look that meant they were about to blow smoke up my ass instead of actually searching properly for my missing omega.
“She just turned eighteen. According to her mother, she also just designated. You sure she didn’t run off with a more… established alpha?” It was said in a condescending voice that made anger burn through my chest and fists curl at my side.
“No,” I said. “She’s my omega. We were leaving tonight. Her mom beat the shit out of her, the same mom you refused to protect her from.”
“I don’t need your hostility,” the chief said, crossing his arms and glaring at me. “We’ll look for your girl, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s an omega on the run. She’s old enough to take care of herself.”
“She’s fucking missing,” I growled. “Someone took her.”
“Look, sometimes omegas just don’t like to be kept. Maybe you weren’t as close to her as you thought. Maybe an alpha came along with a better offer.” The smirk he gave me was disgusting. Like omegas just threw themselves, legs open, at any douche bag with money.
Fuck alphas like him.
He didn’t know her. My Aries would never do the things he was suggesting.
“Fuck you,” I growled, anger coursing through me. Someone had taken her. She was a wreck this morning, I held her as she broke. There was no reality where she left me behind.
He started to spout more bullshit but I turned away, not willing to stand around while she was out there somewhere. He muttered something about wasting his time.
I knew David would tear him a new one, and I was grateful for it, because right now that chief was lucky I didn’t kill him with my bare hands.
I didn’t stop moving until I reached her trailer, not bothering to knock as I wrenched open the door. Her pathetic mom was passed out on the couch, an assortment of pills and booze spread out in front of her. I’d be lucky to get a single answer.
“What the fuck did you do?”
“What are you talking about?” she slurred.
“Where is Aries?” There was a spark of recognition in her face, a loopy smile taking over.
“My omega daughter,” she sang out, her words running together. “Seems you’re not the only one sniffing around that fresh piece of ass.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I growled. “Did you sell your daughter?”
I knew if I beat the shit out of this woman, I’d get no answers, but I was so fucking close.
“No,” she said. A lie. Her eyes drifted to the pills on the table, and I knew she had at least told someone where Aries was so she could get high.
“Tell me where she is,” I repeated, my voice slow and careful, enunciating each word.
She smirked but didn’t answer.
I moved, gripping her by the shirt collar and lifting her off the couch. She tried to protest, swatting at my hands, but unlike her daughter, I was big enough to fight back.
Her nails tore into my hands, but her eyes were wide. I shook her, screaming in her face, but she let out a wheezing, hollow laugh. One that didn’t hold a single hint of amusement.
“You’ll never see that little whore again,” she rasped. “Count yourself lucky. She would have only ruined your life.”
“If I find out that you sold her, I will kill you. No remorse, no regrets.” I promised, throwing her to the ground. “One day, you’ll pay for this.”
She sputtered bitter words, but I was already out the door, heading straight for the police station downtown. I was desperate, my alpha raging inside me, but I didn’t know where else to go.
I had no leads, there were no cameras outside the businesses around here, and not one witness to be found.
“Someone needs to get down to Aries’s place,” I snapped after slamming the front door open.
The clerk behind the desk jolted to his feet, hand drifting to his gun but not drawing it yet.
“Her mom admitted to me that she sold her for drugs. They’re sitting all over her living room right now.
Somebody better get their ass down there and bust her.
” I rattled off the address, daring them to ignore me.
“I’m on it,” one of the cops said, standing up a little too quickly for my liking.
It was yet another sign that this police force was useless and corrupt. Aries and I had tried for years to get them to help her, and they'd never done a fucking thing. Now they were about to brush it under the rug again.
I meant what I’d said. The moment I found out the truth, her mother would die by my hands.
I’d spill her blood with a fucking smile on my face.
Knowing there was nothing else I could do there, I climbed into the car I’d bought that day. It was the kind that would get me around, but not much else.
I drove in circles through town, desperate to find her. Girls didn’t just go missing, never to be seen again. Someone was always behind it.
It was late into the night before I finally had to stop. It was too dark to see anything, and I was no closer to answers.
Aries was gone.