Page 74 of Claiming the Pack’s Omega (Riverwell Omegaverse #2)

“What’s your name, by the way?” The bailiff asks. “My name’s Seth.”

“Milo,” I answer.

“Good to meet you, Milo. Wish it were under better circumstances.”

“Me too,” I sigh.

Seth stops in front of a nondescript door.

“Here’s the security room.”

There isn't anything special about the room. It's a little small, but it’s very organized, with multiple monitors against the main wall displaying live feeds from around the courthouse.

Two officers stationed in the room spin around in their chairs and nod at the two of us.

"Hey, I've got a member of the Graylock Pack who wants to check out the security feeds. His pack's omega is missing."

"Damn, is that why it's chaos out there?" One of them asks, shifting his chair to the side so I can have space at the desk.

"No, it's chaos because there's a dead man out back," I mutter under my breath as I take a seat.

"What! No way!" The second officer says, jumping up onto his feet. "I heard shots fired on the radio but I didn't know someone was shot right outside!"

His disbelief surprises me right away. After a minute of figuring out their system, I navigate to the cameras with views of the back of the courthouse.

"Fuck," I mutter under my breath.

None of them are showing anything unusual. Even though I know for a fact that there's a whole swarm of cop cars out back, probably putting up a bunch of yellow tape, designating the entire area as a crime scene.

I stare at the three monitors in front of me, watching them intently.

"These cameras have been looped," I say. "Look at that bird. It's flown from the solar panels you have above the parking lot twice."

Seth and the other two security guards lean in beside me to get a better look at the screen.

"There," I say, pointing to the small bird that darts across the top corner of one of the screens. "They're looped in 30-second intervals. This is the same footage over and over again. If I had to guess, based on the trajectory of the shadows, it was looped about two hours ago."

"Damn, man, you're good," Seth says, pulling out his radio. "I'll make some calls."

His gaze darts to the two security guards sitting beside me.

"Hey, it wasn't us, bro!" The first one who made space for me at the table says, raising his hands up like he's surrendering.

"But then who could it have been?" Seth asks, resting his clenched fists against his hips. "Did you guys leave your posts?"

"No, we swear! We haven't even had our lunch break yet!"

"This could have been done remotely," I say, tapping my fingers against the table.

"Really?" Seth asks, his brows drawing down. "But our systems are secure. How could that have happened?"

Their systems are secure. But they're not on lockdown. There are ways someone could've done this remotely. I could've done this remotely.

Which means that there's someone out there with a lot of skill and a lot of money backing them. Could a Southside crime family afford that? Just to take a single omega?

But Reyna isn't just a normal omega.

Her being our mate aside, her role in this case was an important one.

"I need to talk to my pack," I say, standing from the desk. "But someone has obviously hacked into your systems. It's possible, I promise."

"Well, shit," Seth sighs. "This just became a huge clusterfuck."

It was a clusterfuck when Reyna was taken, but I can see how a single missing omega wouldn't land as high on the priority list as something as big as the court's tech systems being infiltrated.

The door to the security room is wrenched open, and Theo appears in the doorway. His tie is loose around his neck like he tugged at it because he couldn't stand its presence around his neck anymore.

"Thank God, you're okay," he says, appearing by my side almost instantly and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "The whole courtroom freaked the fuck out when we heard the gunshot."

"I'm okay," I say, patting his back awkwardly. "I'll probably need time to scrub the image of that guy's body out of my brain, but that'll come with time."

"Better than being the one who's shot, in my opinion," Theo sighs.

Stone, Killian, and a couple of other police officers, come into the room. The room feels a lot smaller, now that more than half a dozen alphas are all cramming themselves in here.

Seth nods at me before he starts debriefing the other officers on the compromised systems.

"What's going on?" Stone asks, his brows drawing down in concern as his gaze darts to the monitors behind me.

"Someone hacked into the system and looped the feeds. I'd say it happened around two hours ago. But that means no footage of the kidnapping was captured," I say, flexing my hands before I start drumming up a nervous rhythm against my thighs.

"So there's no way to see who took her? And who shot Maximus's buddy?" Theo asks, his eyes wild with panic.

"I didn't say that," I say, pitching my voice low. "But we shouldn't talk about the other ideas I have inside a courthouse."

Stone's eyes light up as he nods. He gets what I mean.

They all do.

I normally get permission to use my skills for things that would normally be illegal. But there's no time to jump through those bureaucratic hoops right now, not when Reyna is missing.

"I need some of my equipment from back home," I say. "I was unprepared for this today."

"I think we were all unprepared for this shitshow," Killian growls. "Let's go. Anything that can get us closer to finding Reyna right now is our priority."

Stone takes a second to let the other officers know that we're heading out.

We're in an empty hallway when I feel it. We all feel it.

I stagger, my hand coming up to grip my bondmark. Another wave of terror.

"Fuck," Theo hisses. "What in the world are they doing to her?”

"I don't know, but when we fucking find out, they're dead ," Killian growls.

And then, the worst thing possible happens.

Reyna's presence? It disappears.