Page 50 of My Broken Mate (Healing Bonds #1)

Chapter thirty-eight

The Search

*SEAN*

“ A lpha Sean!” The voice belongs to one of my elite warriors, or rather, one of the men who usually accompany Remy. One glimpse tells me that something is seriously off.

“What happened?”

“Remy,” he exclaims. “He disappeared. I apologize deeply, Alpha. It’s my fault—”

“Details!” I interrupt him, my mind instantly starting to race. I will the panic down before I can lash out at the man or do something similarly stupid. “I need details!”

“He wanted to stop on our way to university. There is a bookshop he usually frequents. I waited for him in the car, as usual, but he never returned.”

My head starts spinning. The bodyguards always wait for him outside. It’s something Gabriel and I decided on, so that Remy wouldn’t feel too suffocated.

My emotions have gone overboard without me even uttering a word. The warrior goes down on his knees, baring his neck. “Forgive me, Alpha. I should have watched out for him. I accept any punishment.”

“Get up,” I command. “The rule not to follow Remy anywhere inside is on Gabriel and me, not you.” Again, I am surprised by myself.

I have worked hard to suppress my own feelings, so I would never lash out at my people.

Yet even now, despite my feelings running amok, I don’t find myself acting in any unreasonable way towards this man.

My father would have made him suffer. “Did you check the bookstore he went into?”

“Yes.” He gets up, instantly filling me in on what he knows. The shop was empty. Remy bought a book. The store owner said he was looking at something on his phone. “The rest is blurred. The man said he isn’t sure if Remy was meeting someone or if he just left through the side entrance.”

“Isn’t that staff only?”

“That’s why it’s weird. The guy thinks he might have heard something.”

I frown. Did someone lure Remy outside? My heart sinks to new depths. “Gather some of the warriors and our best trackers,” I say. “We’ll head out in a couple of minutes.”

The man nods, dashing off. Meanwhile, I know I need to call Gabriel. He beats me to it, though, calling me and blurting into my ear the moment I pick up. “Is Remy at home? And Katalina, is she around, too?”

“No.” I hurry to grab my things and head out of the suit. “His bodyguard lost track of him when he was in a store. Going by the shop owner, Remy was on the phone, then he disappeared.”

“He was supposed to meet Katalina,” Gabriel explains, his voice strained. “Ayden just called me. Remy was running late; he texted Katalina and they agreed to meet, but they never showed up to the lecture and their phones are off.”

I halt in my step, my mind racing. My initial thought was that maybe Remy shook off his bodyguard, though he has never done that before.

Well, maybe at the very beginning he did, but ever since then he has always been diligent to the point of almost being overly obedient to all my wishes.

I rub my head. That’s another thing to reflect on, but not now.

Listening to Gabriel raises new worries, though.

If he and Katalina were supposed to meet, what happened at the time they were meeting?

Why is Katalina missing, too? “I am heading out with the warriors.” I wave at the group of men waiting for me, all of them tense and nervous.

“Try to look into this, too. I’ll send Levi to you for help.

We’ll meet up in a couple of hours to exchange information. ”

“Do you think…” His voice trails off. “Goddess, Sean, tell me nothing happened.”

“I don’t know,” I say, forcing my voice to sound calm, but even I can hear how strained I truly sound. “We need to keep an open mind and take everything into account.”

We do have enemies. I don’t say that last part out loud. Even if Remy snuck away, maybe to meet Katalina, there is still the option of someone having tailed him. There is also the option of Katalina having been spied on.

Grabbing my phone tightly, I gesture to my men to get into the cars. We take off immediately. On our way to the bookstore, I decide I have to call Joel. He picks up on the first ring. “I was about to call you,” he blurts out.

“So, you have heard it already?”

“Yes, Eve just came running.” His voice is tight. “They are definitely not in the pack. We have checked everywhere.”

“I am heading out to where Remy was last seen,” I say.

“Eve is on his way to meet Gabriel at the university to trace Kata’s last steps,” he tells me. “I was thinking about…”

His voice trails off. “What?” I urge.

“I was thinking about having Eve contact Alpha Rhodes.”

I blink. “How is he going to help?”

“He isn’t going to be of any help at all, but his beta might be. Remember? He is a friend of Eve. He is also said to be the best tracker in the country. Eve told me a while ago.”

“Have Evander contact him,” I say immediately. “Alpha Rhodes went back to his pack, but Beta Sky is still here for the last business meetings. He was supposed to meet with me later today.”

“We can use that meeting to talk to him,” Joel says. “I will call Eve immediately.”

I take a deep breath. “We will find them,” I say, more to reassure me than him. As far as we know, Remy and Katalina could be sitting in a coffee shop, chatting, and we will feel like idiots later, but my gut feeling tells me otherwise.

Joel rises from his seat when I come to the meeting a couple of hours later. Evander and Gabriel are already with him. “Nothing?” Joel asks.

“Nothing.” I rub my head in exhaustion. “We tried to trace Remy’s last steps. And I talked to the store owner again. He just repeated what we already know. The side entrance leads to a small back alley. From there on, no one has seen him.”

“I checked all the airports with Levi’s help,” Gabriel says. “But no one who fits Remy or Katalina’s description passed any security checks.”

“What about Katalina? Did her friends find anything?”

“Ayden, Lyle and Fiona have looked everywhere. Kata did go in the direction of the coffee shop like she told them she would,” Evander explains. “Then she looked at her phone again and just ran off. She took a cab. An old lady saw her; she claims Kata looked panicked.”

An uncomfortable silence settles around us. My thoughts go in a million directions. “I have enemies,” I say into the silence.

Before anyone can answer, Joel shakes his head. “I have more enemies.” None of us manages to say anything before he stops us. “We know it’s true. Let’s not sugarcoat it.”

The sad part is that he is right: it’s true.

Joel is unconventional, new in his rank and has already made powerful allies.

Not everyone is happy about that. Still, none of this adds up.

Why now? And why was Katalina on her phone when she suddenly panicked?

Who was contacting her when she was supposed to meet Remy anyway?

The meeting room has glass windows. I let my gaze wander outside, noticing Beta Sky. “Here he is.”

“He is an imposing man,” Gabriel says.

“That’s because there is no way he is just a beta,” I say.

Gabriel and Evander look at me in shock; only Joel looks like he understands what I am saying.

“But he is…”

“I know, he has the rank of a beta,” I say. “But it doesn’t mean that this is what he was born as. Levi is a typical beta, but Sky…” I raise my gaze again to look at the approaching man. Buff, tall, with an air of intimidation around him. “If I had to bet, I’d say he was born alpha.”

“What?” Gabriel exclaims.

“No way,” Evander mutters.

Joel nudges his brother. “Did you never bother to ask him where he is from? Aren’t you friends?”

“You know I hate small talk.”

Joel just groans. “Of course you do. Where again did you say you met?” he asks

“I didn’t say anything,” Evander says.

“Well, then say something now!”

“It was around the time when you challenged our uncle,” he says.

“Right before you did it, you sent Kata and me into hiding. I travelled on foot at that time, just with a tent, to keep hidden. I met him while hiking, you could say.” He pauses.

“You think the same as Sean? That he is of alpha blood?”

“Yes, I would bet the same,” Joel agrees. “He is like Sean. You just see and feel it when you look at them. They aren’t just of alpha blood, and they didn’t become alpha like I did; they were born as it.”

I get up to open the door for Sky.

“Alpha Sean,” he greets me, bowing his head politely.

“Beta Sky, thank you for offering your help.”

Sky sits down with us, and for the first time since I met him, I try to study him more closely.

The more I look at him, the more I know my intuition is right.

Joel has a deep frown on his forehead as well, before his facial muscles relax and he has that impish look in his eyes.

“Sky…” he muses, as if he is talking to himself.

“That’s an interesting name. Right, Sean? ”

“Yes, unusual for the rank.”

“No alpha calls his heir Sky,” Joel says, folding his fingers and smiling. He comes off as aloof, silly and fun, but deep down, he is much more capable than he lets on. His smile can be a weapon.

“They usually choose from a list of names,” I agree. “Evan, Liam, Marcus.”

“Or Sean,” Joel continues and winks at me. “Though, isn’t there an Alpha Ben?”

“It’s his second name; his first is Connor.” I tilt my head. “But Sky, not so much.”

Sky looks at us, and for a split second, there is a look of surprise in his eyes. He is a man who looks angry and broody most of the time, but I assume it’s just a front; we all carry our own masks. “You wanted my help. How is this going to help?”

Joel looks at me, letting me take over. He knows I am better at playing mental chess than he is. It was drilled into me.

“I need to trust you first,” I say. “And your secret isn’t helping.”

“Is this why you have been prolonging the negotiations of a contract between our packs?”

I shrug. “Yes.”

“How?” he asks. “How did you know?”

“I just know,” I say shortly. “Does Alpha Rhodes know?”

“Yes.”

“And he doesn’t mind?”

“Not at all.” Sky leans back, looking at me thoughtfully. Momentarily, his mask falls off, and he just looks tired. “Rhodes and I are friends. He supported me in times of need, and I am doing the same now. The alpha rank doesn’t mean anything to me anymore.” He looks at me. “Is that enough?”

“It’s good enough for now,” I say, noticing the relief on his face. “I have no intention of not accepting the deal with Alpha Rhodes.”

Sky goes back to looking broody, but he looks much less angry and cold than before. I assume part of his facade is also a sort of self-protection. It must be exhausting. I know that firsthand. “How can I help?”

I might be the one with the better poker face, but Joel is definitely the smoother, faster talker, so I gesture for him to continue, which he does, filling Sky in on everything we know.

Sky frowns. “Are we sure they didn’t just run off?”

“No, we aren’t. It’s still a possibility,” Gabriel says. “But it’s weird. Katalina’s reaction of panic, particularly.”

“I don’t think I can do anything sitting here,” Sky says. “I need to go to the places they were last seen.”

“I will come with you,” Evander offers.

“Meanwhile, it would be good if someone would go through their private stuff. Maybe we’ll find some hints there,” Sky says.

I frown. I haven’t checked Remy’s room yet. Sky is right, it’s time to do that, no matter how uncomfortable it makes me feel to poke through his private possessions. “Gabriel and I will briefly meet with our beta and then head home to do so.”

Joel gets up. “I will pick up Ayden and go through Kata’s room. I will come to your pack, Sean, once I am done.”

I nod. “See you there.”