Chapter 26 – Seth
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SETH
There are so many people here.
It’s not surprising, nowhere can keep her books on the shelves — but seeing the sheer amount of readers who want to line up and meet my June is staggering.
“Our event time is almost over, could one of you please go get her?” The head bookseller, Zoe, looks over at our small group — sans Theo. He’s been at the snack table for ten minutes fawning over cookies decorated like June’s covers.
“I’ll grab her.” I pull away from Bennett just as a weird flare jolts through my chest. Pausing, I exchange a look with Bennett as Arin touches his sternum.
“Maybe it’s nerves” — Bennett stops himself before he moves with me toward the back hallway — “I’m coming too.”
Something is undeniably wrong as I nudge the bond between June and I. It’s not a wall — like what she does when she blocks us out when she’s overwhelmed — there’s an absence. Where June was, there’s nothing.
Pushing through the crowd with Bennett hot on my heels, panic sets in the second I shove the door open to the room she’s been using to take a break in. It’s empty, a single water bottle sitting on the table. I dart around the small space before I grab the water and unscrew the top, lifting it and sucking in a breath when I see the white powder at the bottom.
It’s familiar. It’s not the first time I’ve seen someone spike water to temporarily render a mark unconscious — flashes of memories assault me. Sitting at bars as an unassuming beta. My cousin’s voice in my ear , “Seth, just enough to knock them out, not to kill.”
“Fuck, fuck —” I whirl, finding Bennett in the doorway. My mind goes feral for a moment, blind panic hitting my bloodstream as I chuck the bottle back onto the table and dart out into the hallway, calling out, “June!”
“Seth — wait —” Bennett tries to stop me, but I throw open every fucking office door, finding them all empty, until I get to the emergency exit, where the wind ruffles my hair — tied back with her goddamn scrunchie — the access alleyway deserted.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?”
Arin’s voice carries, but it’s Theo’s frantic shout that breaks me.
“Where is she? Where’s our girl?”
Bennett’s wide eyes meet mine and I just know . We move back down the hallway in sync.
He was with me the day I decided to leave. When I decided to prioritize us and the business we wanted to start together —
Shoving into the deserted office, I suck in a breath, turning to Arin sharply.
“What do you smell?”
Fuck being a beta. If I could have his nose right now, I would.
He gives me a startled look. “It smells like… chemical suppressants. Layers of them.”
Theo paces. “What happened? Did someone take her?”
Arin shakes his head. “We need to start from the top. She just came back here. She got off the stage, walked back here to rest, and said she needed a couple minutes. Maybe the smell is someone else —”
“No, I don’t feel her Arin.” Theo rubs his chest, voicing everything I already know.
Under the fluorescents, Arin looks downright pallid, his voice quieter. “Charles said our security system has been alerting to nothing in the last few weeks. I called the company and they said they were sending someone out because it looked like the signal was interrupted.”
Bennett goes still beside me as Theo chokes out, “And you didn’t think to tell us that?”
Arin flounders. “I thought it was just a glitch — I don’t understand — who would —”
Bennett grabs the water bottle, catching my eyes again.
I fish out my phone silently, unlocking it as I think of her running to me in that little grocery store, smelling of suppressants, rabbit-heart pounding because there was a strange man.
“We need to call the police.”
I shake my head at Arin, voice low. “They won’t be fast enough. I’m about to tell you and Theo something and I need you to listen.” Staring at them both, I swallow my pride and guilt. “When we went back to her place, the first night we were there she said someone bumped into her at the store and he smelled like chemical perfume suppressants. There was also someone at her signing before she emerged.”
Arin snarls. “Where? Can we find someone to get the footage?”
Theo cuts Arin off. “Our pack interview just aired — what about the fucking guy who pretended to be her brother. There was a car outside the townhouse for weeks when we were in London and I just thought it was someone else’s — it was there even during her heat. How long has this —”
I look down at my phone, letting them both puzzle it out as Bennett grabs my elbow.
“Seth. Are you sure?”
My alpha — our alpha, because he’s June’s as much as he is mine — looks stricken as I type in a number by memory alone. I’ll have to smash my phone after tonight and crush the internal chip. No one has this direct number for a reason.
“I’m not taking any chances. He’s local. He’ll be way fucking faster and more discreet than the cops. Someone has June.” Bennett stares at me as I lift my phone to my ear, muttering, “And I’m family — I’m calling in a favor.”