Page 57

FORTY-SEVEN

Playing: I Will Follow You into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie

We haven’t heard from Stacia. All of our texts have gone unanswered and it’s been hours since the dinner with her parents.

Our instincts are riding us hard, but Atlas stays firm.

“We have to give her space to come to us,” he reminds us for the ten-millionth time. “This is still a lot for her.”

Ciro puts his phone back down after checking it yet again. “I just wish I knew she was safe. And happy.”

“We would if we were bonded,” I mutter, more to myself than them, but when I look up, they’re all staring at me.

Atlas gives me that prime alpha sternness. “That is the opposite of patient.”

“I don’t feel very fucking patient. I feel like my omega needs me,” I spit at them, feeling my anger pivot exponentially.

“We all know something is wrong. It’s just that the 1 percent chance that she’s okay is screwing with you.

They’re called instincts for a reason, and we need to fucking follow them. ”

More than her needing me, I need her . I need to see her, remind her of her worth, hold her securely in my arms.

“We’re all just tense because we know how she feels about her parents,” Kendall says diplomatically. He’s playing with the string of his hoodie, the compulsive motion helping keep his brain occupied.

His mention of Stacia’s parents causes my teeth to grind. From everything she’s told us about them, they are the last people I’d ever want around my omega. She deserves the absolute world, and they don’t deserve to be a part of it.

My body is shaking with anger. I’m trying my hardest to rein in my alpha, but he’s out for blood.

Specifically from a couple of prejudiced beta-parents.

“Uri.” Atlas’ voice disguises itself as calm, but I see the fury in his eyes. He forgets that I know we’re cut from the same cloth.

I’m the scary intimidating alpha, just not to those that know me.

He’s the calm studious alpha, but only us closest to him know of the misfit underneath. The devious nature residing in him is from a vulnerable place, reserved for pack only.

And I see the darkness he wants to unleash. Which makes me even angrier.

“ You cut the shit,” I hiss at him, which makes his eyes harden. “You look me in the eyes and swear to me that you don’t feel this urgency. Go ahead. Fucking lie to me.”

My response sets off a chain reaction. Atlas steps up to me, prompting Kendall and Ciro to immediately try to find their way between us. They’re trying to calm us as we yell at each other. Half of the words don’t even land because of the wrath coursing through me.

My alpha is nearly screaming. The intensity is almost too much to bear.

The shouting ceases as my phone begins to ring. The air gets sucked out of the room as we all look at it in silence.

Nobody ever calls me.

When I look at the caller ID, my heart sinks and I answer frantically, “Rory?”

The tension rises even more

I hear a few deep breaths, almost like our mate’s friend has been crying. It makes my stomach ache.

“Put it on fucking speaker,” Ciro hisses in his most powerful beta bark.

I put it on and angle the phone between us. “Rory, what’s wrong?” I ask as gently as I can. My panic is normally occupied by anger, but my mate’s favorite person in the world doesn’t deserve that right now.

“Uriah, I’m so sorry,” she finally speaks, huffing heavily between her words. “Where are you? Are you with the others? Oh god?—”

We all hear her descent back into her tears. Uncontrollable sobs pierce through the speaker as we’re all frozen with fear.

“What’s happening?” Atlas cuts in, his voice only partially betraying the anguish within it.

“Stacia… she was out for so long. I tried to text and call her, but she wouldn’t answer…

I had a bad feeling. I always have a bad feeling when it comes to her parents, they’re the fucking worst.” A growl seeps into her words when speaking about Stacia’s parents, but then she sniffles.

“Her location is still shared with me, so I checked it. I traced it and she was so far away…” She’s talking slowly, trying to get out the words amongst her distress but then she starts screaming.

“I found her in a fucking bush! She overdosed! We’re on the way to the hospital right now… ”

Rory keeps yelling, but all I hear is ringing. My body locks up, and I’m falling into a pit.

The phone is taken out of my hand. I look up and see my prime speaking into it, a serious look on his face. His words are blurred as my body tries to overcome the anxiety.

There’s a few moments where I’m suspended outside my body.

I feel my heart pounding, but I’m not grounded.

Everything else is pushing me out, willing me to turn off, but then I feel a hand on my shoulder.

It’s heavy, giving me a significant squeeze.

I can’t move at first, my body paralyzed with fear.

Then, I look up into my prime’s eyes and they are soft in contrast to his grip that’s holding me firm and steady.

“ You were right.” He speaks just above a whisper as his forehead finds mine. “I am sorry . I am so sorry.”

I feel his anguish. His pain. The feeling hits me in the gut, and it leaves me breathless that we’re connected this deep despite there not being a bond between us.

I cradle the back of his head and give him an affectionate squeeze.

I should be angry. My alpha should be angry. But I know he’s beating himself up way more than I ever could, so the moment is already gone and forgiven.

Atlas lets go and takes one final breath before settling. I can see the moment his alpha decides to take the reins, proving once and for all why he’s the prime we chose.

“Kendall, go get my keys. Ciro, get something that has all of our scents on it. Then, we need to go. Immediately.”

We all disperse and then congregate by the front door. We step out in silence, but it’s not uncomfortable. This is how a pack works, and this is the first real test we’ve had as one. When one of us starts to fall, there’s another to lift us up.

And right now, we all need to be prepared to lift up our omega. Together .