Page 50 of Bonds and Beasts

"She's gone. No one can find her," Easton says.

"She might be at the manor," I reason, though my heart is pounding in my ears and the need to find her is all-encompassing.

Colt picks something shiny up from the ground. It's a necklace with a rose pendant, the one we bought for her. She's been wearing it every day. The chain is broken.

Adison is gone and so are Larry and Tom. Both were hired by Lumi for us.

Lumi took her.

Adison

Before I even open my eyes I know that I'm in danger. Pain radiates from a knot on the back of my head. My mouth is still full of the chemical taste from the rag that was pushed over my face.

I take stock of myself. I try to move slightly in hopes that no one knows I'm awake yet. I'm lying on my side. The surface below me is cold and smooth and hard. My wrists are tied behind my back with rope. My ankles are tied as well.

"I know you're awake," a disturbingly mechanical voice says. My eyes shoot open from the sheer terror that voice invokes. Nothing about it sounds human. My eyes search around the room, my breath coming in sharp short bursts that sting my lungs.

There's a person-shaped shadow in the corner. I try to focus on it but my vision feels slightly blurry at the edges. The shadow moves and I realize it's not a shadow at all, but someone dressed from head to toe in black. Even the eyes are covered by black sunglasses.

"Good morning," the mechanical voice says. Some kind of electronic voice disguise.

"Who the fuck are you?" I demand, and I'm proud to say that my voice comes out mostly steady.

"That doesn't matter. Do you know what does matter, Adison?" They know my name. They know who I am. "That I’m in charge here.”

Despite my horrible situation I almost roll my eyes. The kidnapper must see the derision in my face because they take two steps toward me, lean down, and backhand me so hard that my ear starts to ring.

"Bitch," they spit, the mechanical overlay whining high with feedback. "You might be able to sit in your grand manor and not worry about such things, but the rest of us need to hustle."

I spit, trying to get the copper taste of blood from my mouth. My teeth must have bitten into my cheek. "You call this a hustle?"

The figure straightens and I hear a mechanical sniff. "Just getting what's owed to me. This isn't how any of this was supposed to go."

"How was it supposed to go?" All I can think about is police procedurals and heist thrillers with negotiators saying to just keep the suspect talking. Just keep them talking, because if they're talking they can't kill you. But they don't keep talking. They simply look at me for a long moment, then turn, open a large metal door, and shut it behind them.

Bello

The living room of the manor looks like the set of a police thriller. There's a laptop set up to trace any calls coming in or out of my pack's cell phones. There's a hostage negotiator prepped to listen and advise. Police arrived at Lumi's office but as expected, she wasn't there. Her assistant confirmed she'd been out of office for ten days.

My phone rings. I answer. "This is Bello Graves."

A mechanical sounding voice comes through the line. "If you want your omega back, then you'll take fifteen million dollars to the docks, put it in the first trash can at the entrance, and leave it there. Do this by tomorrow. If you fail to follow my instructions, I'll kill the omega. Understand?"

The hostage negotiator makes a motion for us to keep talking. "How do we know she's alive?" Dean asks, and I fight the urge to roll my eyes. It's such a movie script thing to say, though it’s a valid question.

It doesn't matter though. The line goes dead.

I curse and throw my phone across the room. It hits the wall with a dull crack. If we were bonded, we would know so much more. Whether she's in pain, or alive, or even some of her thoughts. But we're not. Does she know how much I love her? I haven't said it yet, but somewhere between rutting when I met her and watching her become an extraordinary survivor, I fell madly, deeply in love with my mate.

"What about Lumi's cell phone?" Dean asks.

"What?" I ask, confused.

"Like, I know we can't get a track on her phone without more evidence, but what if we called her and acted clueless? Can you track her phone if we do that?" I stop breathing as I look to the officers. I need this to be a yes. If it's not, I'll hire someone to do it illegally.

"Yes," the person at the computer says. I have never called anyone so fast in my life. Lumi picks up on the third ring.

"Lumi speaking," she says in her falsely pleasant voice. The urge to reach through the phone and strangle her until she tells me where my mate is is overwhelming.