24. Leo
Leo
It’s been six hours since Lily was taken, and every second feels like an eternity.
I can’t let myself consider the alternative; never seeing her smile again, hearing her laugh, feeling her skin against mine.
I shake my head hard enough to hurt, trying to dislodge the thought.
We’ll find her. We have to.
But even as I cling to that desperate hope, the doubts creep in.
Growing up, I was always the odd one out. The sensitive one. The nice one. The boy who preferred baking cookies with his mom over playing football, who cried at sad movies and brought home every stray cat he found.
“You’re like a girl,” the other kids would sneer. “Weak. Soft.”
Every jab, every snicker, chipped away at something inside me. Made me question my worth.
When I presented as an Alpha, it felt like the universe had played some cosmic joke. As my body changed – growing taller, packing on muscle – the same people who once mocked me suddenly looked at me with respect, as if my biology had somehow erased everything else about who I was.
But inside, I still felt the same. I still struggled with that constant flickering doubt of not quite measuring up.
I’ve worked hard to quiet those voices, to build myself into someone I could be proud of.
But now, with Lily gone…
I tell myself that maybe those kids were right all along. Maybe I am weak. What kind of Alpha lets his Omega get snatched from right under his nose?
I’m doing everything I can think of. I’m calling every business within a 50-mile radius, begging for security footage, searching for any scrap of information that might lead us to her. But it feels like trying to hold back the tide with a broom.
And a small part of me wonders if maybe… maybe Lily left of her own accord. Maybe the threat of losing the Haven was too much. Maybe she and Mari decided to run.
“No, it doesn’t make sense.” I say aloud, trying to shake myself from those spiraling thoughts. Lily’s things are still in her room. And there’s no footage of her leaving.
Speaking of, how did she disappear without leaving a trace? Mari couldn’t have known where all our cameras were. They’re too subtle to notice.
What if Savannah helped him? She would know this information. The thought hits me like a punch to the gut.
No, this can’t be it. Why would she stick around afterward, taking the risk we’d eventually suspect her?
I exhale, slightly relieved. I’ve known her since I got hired by Raph’s dad four years ago. Her betraying us… I don’t think I could handle that, not on top of everything else.
No, this had to be Damian’s doing. Him and a team of professionals, no doubt. But how the hell did they know exactly where the garden’s blind spots were?
A glimmer of hope sparks to life.
The hack.
We assumed they had only accessed Lily’s file, but what if that was just a smokescreen? What if they actually accessed our entire security layout and then tried to cover their tracks?
Maybe the hack is the key to finding Lily.
If they accessed our security layout and tried so hard to hide it from us… then maybe, it means they couldn’t do it without leaving a trail. Some digital breadcrumbs leading back to the hacker.
And if we find them, they might just lead us back to Lily.
I reach for my phone, my fingers trembling as I dial Raph’s number.
His investigator has contacts. If anyone knows the right person to pick up the scent, it’s him.
But I know it’s a long shot…