39. Pix
Pix
The bond is a taut, humming wire of pure, unadulterated panic. It’s not hard to track. It would be impossible to miss.
Merle and Dove are screaming along the bond.
Without hesitation, I chase that intensity, following it until I think I could scream with them. What is happening? How did he get her? How did it all go wrong? No, none of that matters, what matters is fixing it. Getting her back.
I woke up and searched the house. Everyone was out, and she was gone. It took me three scans of the house to find Sage. I don’t ever want to feel the way I felt in those moments. The floor had dropped out from under me. I was paralyzed. How could I live without her? Or him?
But Sage, his eyes full of hard, cold emotion, has called me, demanding my obedience. The bond snarling and vibrating with his helpless fury.
He stared at me, awake. He’d whispered an address. I just needed the one piece of information, and I knew where to go and what he was asking me to do.
My alpha trusts me to save her.
I’d kissed him hard and run. The others would wake up soon, the drug leaving their system now I’ve opened all the windows and doors. I don’t know how he drugged us, but I think it must have been an incense or a spray that circulated through the house.
Sage had planted himself in the bedroom when he knew what was happening so he could see who we needed to hunt. It’s ingenious and diabolical. While we were falling apart, he was planning the next move.
And he’d told me to go. Knowing that whoever was up first would find him and get this information and start the hunt.
My phone rings, and I press the button on the bike to answer the call.
“Pix?” Roseland growls through the speaker in my ear.
“Yeah?” I say quietly, revving my bike to go faster. “You okay?”
“We’re on the way,” he snarls. “We’re coming, about twenty minutes behind you.”
“Good. Rose, are you okay, really?”
“I’m here,” Roseland growls. “I’m good. Just roughed up a bit. We all are.”
“That whole day was a plan, the arrest, everything. Why didn’t he take her when we were in cuffs?”
“Ego,” Roseland says simply. “It’s more dramatic and painful for all of us if he drugs us and makes us all look like fools.”
Sending us to jail was a very bold move. One that has pissed me off, but ironically, he either forgot about our pack’s connections, didn’t know, or didn’t care. That’s fascinating. Good thing I sent out an SOS call.
Just thinking about him drugging us so blatantly makes my skin itch. The audacity of walking in and taking her out right in front of us.
I’m going to destroy him tonight.
A whole day has passed. According to the camera I had installed, he took her hours ago.
“Do we have a name yet? One confirmed? What am I walking in on?” I snarl, forcing those thoughts away.
“His name is Anthony Preston. He’s sixty-one years old and is the owner of a construction business.
He is nothing special. Never bonded, no kids.
Nothing of note. By all accounts, an average, normal citizen.
” Roseland pauses. “Except, he was on the street that day when Merle freaked out. He’s the one with a bond on his neck.
Official registers don’t have a recording of one.
We assumed a bonded alpha couldn’t hide that he was a killer. ”
“What if she is a killer, too?” I say to him quietly. “What if she’s part of the Legion? Part of the Flock?”
The thought leaves us cold. What are we walking into? How many will we need to destroy?
“He owns a lot of rundown properties, nothing that stands out, just some yards, some old factories. Places with abandoned buildings or warehouses. All disused. That’s where he kept her. Trained her. No one could hear her screams or find her,” Roseland murmurs. “I remember her telling me.”
I grunt, trying to hide my rage.
“However, it looks like he’s got a lot more money than he should have.” Blaze makes a growling sound. “I think he’s an assassin. I think he sells kills and hits. And he forces the kids to do it.”
I bare my teeth, growling and letting out the rage I feel just hearing that.
“Is there a chance he will hurt her?”
There’s a hesitation on the phone.
“There’s a very good chance he might try to get rid of her,” Sage says. “I sent you to the address I memorized when I looked into him. It’s his oldest acquisition, but the one he’s doing work on and has been spending a lot of time at according to his location pings.”
Thank fuck for Sage’s anal need to know and memorize information.
I accelerate hard. “How far are you?”
“We’re close. Maybe a few minutes behind you and gaining,” King says.
“Good. Get in here fast.”
I end the call and turn towards where the bond is screaming.
The outside is full of rusted machinery; there’s a puddle of muddy water that is about five car lengths long.
A couple of shells of trucks and a massive dark building with open doors.
It looks like it’s at least three stories high, and there are a precarious-looking set of stairs on the outside.
I get off the bike I stole, dump the helmet, and pull out a flick knife. If I have to kill everyone in there to get her safe, I will.
I crouch down and run across the space, pausing when my phone vibrates. I look down and see his name. With shaking hands, I press the accept button.
“Mark.”
“I’m almost there.”
I frown. “I didn’t say I needed-”
“You don’t have to say. We’re family. Everyone is coming. You send a call for help, and we come running.”
“I just needed information.”
“Well, too bad. The family is on the way.”
I reach out, grabbing hold of the truck, bracing myself. Help is coming, lots of help. If I fail, there will be others who will get her out.
A flicker of movement ahead of me grabs my attention. I tap the phone speaker five times, the code that says that I’m compromised.
The call ends. I pull the earphone out of my ear and slide through the shadows like they are water. When I get behind the alpha, I catch the scent of lemonade, it makes my teeth itch, but he’s got a gun on his hip and a black vest.
“He’s going to kill her, Remi.”
“I know. I hope we get to watch.”
That’s all I need to know and hear. They continue talking, but I get closer and closer, and before they can speak, I’ve torn open the throat of one and shoved my blade through the eye of the second. They drop in a heap.
I catch a few more of these idiots in bulletproof vests. Killing them as easily as if they were just standing there inviting me to kill them. No challenge.
I can’t go to her until I get rid of them and make it safe, so instead, I move easily around the outside of the building, returning souls to whatever god they believe in.
One after another. Relentlessly, furiously, meticulously.
I take them out.
They are threats to my omega.
My possessive, dangerous side comes out, kill after kill. I fall deeper into this dangerous mindset, ready to bathe the whole place in the blood of the enemies who caused my omega fear.
And inside, the bond keeps screaming.
And then, I can hear her in real life. Dove is crying.
Anthony Preston is going to die tonight, and he has no idea. I look forward to illuminating this fact for him.