As my eyes slide closed, all I can hear is screaming in my head, but I can’t tell if it’s mine or someone else’s. Everything is jumbled and too hard to pay attention to.
Somehow, my father won.
* * *
NICO
My heart speeds away in a moment, and everything crashes around me as I run to the space where Rosa just was.
Lyle, Silas, and Easton stand nearby with shock and horror on their faces, but Ciro doesn’t think. His feet are moving first, and then he’s punching Lyle in the face.
“Woah!” Easton barks out.
“What…why did Rosalia just call me a traitor? Why are you hitting me? I’m assuming you think I’m the goddamned problem, and I need to know why so I can fix it,” Lyle says, eyes wide.
“Rosa got a text,” Verona rasps at my side, tears sliding down her face as she picks up Rosa’s gun. “It was from your phone, Lyle. You said you wanted to see her.”
“No. It wasn’t me,” Lyle says, shaking his head. “I couldn’t find my phone after court today. It ended up being left at the lost and found, but that would have been enough time to clone my number. Fuck. I do need to speak with her, I have just been waiting because I know she went into heat. It would have kept for a few days. Fuck, it wasn’t me!”
“I’m going to make the police do some work for us,” Easton grunts, twisting around and running forward to catch the license plate of the van before it disappears around the corner. “It’s probably under a fake name or stolen, but it’s something.”
My soul feels as if it’s being ripped out of my body as Rosa disappears, and the bond reacts violently. I’m beginning to wonder if bond sickness happens to alphas who don’t take well enough care of their omegas. Is this the universe’s way of punishing us?
I deserve this. I deserve to be punished for not protecting Rosa well enough. Bubble wrap simply isn’t a good solution for my wild wife.
My brain begins to come online as I shudder, gasping as I struggle to breathe. Rosa’s screams are the only thing I can focus on until it cuts out all of a sudden. My brothers, Verona, and I shudder as it stops, and I have no idea if she’s alive or not.
“She’s not screaming anymore,” Verona wails, her fingers touching her temple. “What does that mean?”
“You mean through the bond?” Silas asks, his eyes laser focused as he walks closer.
We all growl in anger and he raises his hands.
“Yes. Somehow, this is our fault,” he admits. “Let us help. We’ll bring in other help. Maybe Shiloh can follow them through the license plate.”
Pablo’s shoes scrape across the sidewalk as he runs toward us, pulling up his pants since he was in the middle of changing when the gunshots began going off. It feels as if everything is moving at both the speed of light and slower than molasses.
It’s a surreal experience.
“Hello, this is Dispatcher Easton Mayor,” Easton says, stepping away with his finger in his ear to listen to the call. “I’d like to call in a kidnapping I just witnessed.”
Pablo’s eyes are stricken as he begins to breathe hard, trying to process what we saw happen with our own eyes.
It takes way too long for me to remember important things as my body feels as if it’s being torn apart. I need to keep it together for my pack for as long as possible. I can feel my baser instincts threatening to take over, and I can’t allow myself to go feral.
“Shiloh… Shit. Pablo, the ring! Go track her,” I rasp, my voice grinding like glass and stone as I toss my phone at him. “There’s an app on my phone. See how far you can follow her.”
“Oh… Fuck, Nico. You put a tracking device in her ring,” Pablo mumbles, realization hitting him as he unlocks my phone. The PIN number is his birthday, and it has been since the day I met him. While his fingers tremble, having something to do is helping to center him. “Of course you fucking did, you amazing, possessive son of a bitch! Verona, come with me. There’s nothing we can do here.”
“We should have had her listen to her instincts,” Verona whispers, taking his hand as he walks away from her.
God, she’s gone through so much with Rosa, and now our omega has been taken from us.
“If you’ll allow me to, I’ll get the delivery movers out of your house,” Lyle murmurs, his hands carefully at his sides.
Turning, I see the men are staring at us, and I sigh heavily. Fucking rubber neckers.
“Thank you,” I say.
