Page 142 of Pack Choice

I think I hear her scream my name and I run, but the noise fades and I’m lost too, drowning in a sea of people. My daughter nowhere to be seen.

39

Molly

There are people everywhere.It’s dizzying. The scents. The noise. The crush.

I call Harper’s name, pushing through people, twisting my head this way and that, scrabbling around for any sight of her.

I reach the ice cream truck, scanning the line and squeezing my way to the front. I ask the man serving cones if he’s seen her. But he only shakes his head in incomprehension, pointing sternly to the back of the line. I move along to a sweet stall and one selling giant teddies.

“Harper!” I yell with all the breath in my lungs. “Harper!”

I can’t see her. And the panic makes me want to vomit.

Fingertips hit my shoulder and I nearly jump straight out of my skin.

“Are you looking for a little girl?” a woman asks me in an American accent, a large straw-hat flopping over her face, large sunglasses covering her eyes.

“Yes,” I say, nodding my head vigorously. “Yes, a little girl. Five years old, dark hair.”

“There was a little girl wandering around sobbing, one of the stewards took her back there.” She points to a tent behind all the food stalls.

“Over there?” I say, already pushing my way through.

“Yes, let me show you.” The woman beckons to me and I follow her, hat bobbing above the crowd, as we squeeze through people and duck under a security barrier and behind the ice cream truck.

There are no people here and we walk away from the crowd and around the side of the tent, its shadow making the air so dark, I flip off my sunglasses.

“Where did they take her?” I ask, struggling to keep up with the woman. Out here away from the hordes of people, I can smell she has a muted omega scent.

“Just around here,” the woman says, disappearing around a corner. I follow her as best I can, halting when I come face to face with the woman, a tall muscular alpha now flanking her side, a scar slicing down his cheek.

“Where’s Harper?” I ask, my tone less certain now, an eerie sensation spinning in my gut.

The woman shrugs, flipping off her hat and letting auburn hair tumble around her face. “No idea, darling.”

“What?” I say in confusion, my skin now creeping with that sensation too. “But you said–”

“I did, didn’t I. Whoops, silly me, I must have been confused.” She slides her shades up into her hair and her face comes into view. Recognition creeps into my mind.

“Dr. Hannah,” I gasp, spinning on my toes and finding my path blocked by another muscular alpha. A dark ink spills out from the collar of his shirt, up his neck and across his jaw.

“Going so soon?” he growls, “After it’s taken so long for us to track you down.”

“Where’s Harper?” I snap, hoping the fear in my bones doesn’t register in my voice. I don’t want these fuckers to know I’m scared. I don’t want to give them that gift.

“Like, Hannah said. No idea.” He grins.

“I imagine,” Hannah adds, and I twist back around to scowl at her, “that some lovely, rather friendly lady helped her off that ride and took her to buy an ice cream. I expect she’s sitting with her right now, enjoying chocolate ice cream with sprinkles. It is really amazing what people will do when you’re a poor mother in distress who just needs some help.” Dr. Hannah adopts a fake expression of distress, clasping her hands to her chest, and the alpha next to her chuckles.

“If you hurt her,” I say, my hands crunching into fists.

“It’s not her we’re interested in hurting. Like we told you, we don’t know where she is,” the alpha behind me says, his hands landing on my shoulders, and his head lowering until his nose skims over the back of my neck. “Such an unusual scent.”

Dr. Hannah frowns. “Yes, I remember your mom brought you in to see me when you first presented. No one could understand what was causing such a spicy scent.”

“Smells almost good enough to eat,” the alpha behind me says, his fingers tightening on my shoulder. “Such a shame we’re going to have to kill you instead.”