Chapter Twenty-Five
Synamon screamed when she saw Jen, and it took everything I fucking had not to do the same. Shift into a bear and destroy everything I came in contact with until I found out who the hell was after my mate.
“Fuck,” Bellamy growled into my earpiece. “Not sure what’s happening, but stay with us as long as you can.”
“Shut it off,” Synamon pleaded from the other side of the camera. “Make it stop.”
“No.” My voice was low, controlled, because I didn’t want it to pick up on camera. The delusional part of me was still playing along with Synamon’s fantasy that she was in total control of the situation. “We have to let it play out.”
“But,” she countered, her gaze fixed on the screen.
Her shoulders slumped as she watched Jen struggle to free herself from the ropes that tied her hands behind her and her legs to the chair.
Her hair was mussed from the fight. The worst part, the part that made my stomach tie into a knot, was the fact that none of it looked staged.
Jen was really missing. In danger. And her husband had cockblocked us from helping her because he’d blamed Synamon for this.
Trust your instinct, my bear said, his voice the only calm reasoning I could find.
That awful video—I had no idea if it was live or recorded—if Jen was even still alive—felt like it went on for an eternity.
And then, just like it rudely crashed our party, it was gone.
“Damn it.” Bellamy growled. “Not sure that was long enough for me to capture the IP.”
Synamon was once again the star of the show. Her makeup was half wiped away and her eyes were totally wild.
She blinked to regain her composure. But there was no hiding that she was out of character, caught totally off guard.
Whoever did this stole the thing from her that she cherished most—control.
Made her look like a fool. Like they knew control had been the thing that had fueled Ellie’s quiet villain era.
This was no longer about letting her pretend she was queen of her Synamon Honey world. This was about helping her reclaim the thing she craved more than anything.
Synamon’s gaze met mine over the camera.
She wasn’t asking me to save her. My mate needed to know that I would fight by her side, even when the rules change. That was the very thing that I’d prided myself deep in the forest.
I’d been ignoring the part of myself that she desperately needed me to be.
Maybe the answer to her question—why I’d come to work at Sawtooth Security when I had a hard time sticking to a plan—was simple. It was to find my mate and to make our own fucking rules.
I could tell her all that, but instead, I simply nodded.
“Everything okay there?” Bellamy asked. “It’s been radio silent since that video disappeared.”
Synamon’s face lit up and she flicked her gaze back to the camera. Just like that, she was back in character.
“Everything’s great,” I said. “We’re going through with the plan.”
Synamon quirked a brow. “Did you all see that?”
The comment section was already going wild with questions like
Synamon are you okay?
What’s wrong?
Why are you screaming?
Is someone hurting you?
Let me at him. No one hurts our queen
Where are you?
Let us help you.
See what? All we see is you
She chuckled nervously. “Okay, seems like we had another technical hiccup. Where was I?”
“We have a problem.” Bellamy groaned.
Nick had entered the chat.
That was my wife!
Synamon Honey, you’re a fraud!
Tell them who you really are!
No wonder you're hiding—every shifter in this city hates you!
“This is actually what we want,” Bellamy assured me. “He’s cracking. I’m in touch with Only Bears. They’ve agreed to let me access their databases. Might be able to match an IP address to the video. Tell her to keep going.”
There was no telling my mate to do anything.
Synamon let out an exasperated sigh and pulled a makeup wipe from the pack.
It didn’t seem like she’d noticed Nick’s comments.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter where I was.
I’m sick of pretending everything’s okay.
So I’m gonna just tell you what I came on to tell you.
And we’ll figure out where to go from there, how does that sound? ”
More concerned comments, most supportive, some still genuinely concerned. Some of them were aimed at Nick, defending Synamon.
Wait a minute...those comments meant that he saw the video too. But the rest of the viewers said they hadn’t.
Had Nick hacked our feed?
He knew about Ellie’s alter ego. He had an Only Bears account. A growl rumbled through me. I should’ve trusted my instincts when we were at his house. Demanded he let me inside.
But I didn’t. Because something still wasn’t sitting right with me.
“I’m worried it's my fault that Velvet Ransom is dead,” Synamon said as she wiped away more of her makeup, bringing the comment scroll to a sudden stop. “I wasn’t ever gonna tell you this, because you come here to get away from heavy crap like this, but someone is trying to unalive me.”
The comments kicked into a frenzy.
“And it’s time for me to stop making polite excuses, making it look like I’m some bumbling bimbo with big boobs behind the camera.
So here’s what's really going on: The Centerfold Slasher—yeah, that nightmare fuel of a guy—was spotted at The Stepchild. That’s why I disappeared in the middle of my meet and greet.
Then, during strip trivia, some coward broke into my apartment, wearing a bear head.
It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, either, because he showed me a Polaroid of me sleeping.
“He knew who I really was, where I lived. And he threatened to tell the world the truth, like that was the worst thing that could ever happen to me.” She chuckled grimly. Her face was almost clean now. “And at one time, it was. Before Velvet was killed. Now, my best friend is missing.”
She paused at the perfect spot, letting the comments flood in.
“I screamed because some bastard just hacked into our live feed with a video of her being held hostage. Sounds like I’m the only one who saw it.
So I have a message for that one person too, and I want all of you to hear it, so no one gets it twisted.
I have a team of big, bad, gorgeous bears keeping me safe, so no one needs to worry about me.
But I want you to lean in close so you don’t miss a second of what I’m about to do. ”
Another dramatic pause, and her eyes darkened. Her body heat fogged the edges of the camera lens. Her arousal danced in my nostrils, bringing my own bear to life.
“I’m gonna take away their biggest weapon and tell you who I really am.”