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“No,” I replied grimly, my heart racing. “Let me look into this, Hailey, and I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you,” she said, but before I hung up the phone, she said, “Oh, Mr. Bousset?”
“Yes,” I replied, impatient and though I was grateful for her call, I only wanted to get her off the line now, so I could go find him.
“Jax will probably kill me for telling you, but did you know he’s—well, he’s pregnant? He got a test on Monday before he left the shop, and it was positive so that’s why he was on his way home to call you.”
Thank the gods I was standing next to my desk, or I might have hit the floor instead of my chair when my knees gave out beneath me. I took a few deep breaths before I could respond. “I didn’t know. Thank you, Hailey, but I have to go find him.”
“Yeah, but—one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“I was just thinking. It’s not long until Jax’s birthday. You don’t think his father came for him, do you?”
“His father?”I roared, my mind instantly filling with rage at the idea the man would dare touch what was mine.
I looked up then as Ashworth and Kyle came in, looking concerned at all the yelling. I filled them in as quickly as I could, and Ashworth, as usual, was the voice of reason. He plucked the cell phone from my hand and told Hailey someone would call her later. Then he turned to me to try and calm me down.
“Take a deep breath and then go over and check inside his home. See if you can find any clues as to where he might be. If his father did take him, then at least we know where to look.”
“If that son of a bitch hurts him in any way…” I raged, gripping the desk so hard I heard the wood creak as my Dragon tried to make an appearance.
“Don’t borrow trouble, sir. I’ll start looking for his father’s address while you go to his house. His father’s name should be on record as his Alpha. All omegas are required to name their Alpha on their official papers.
It was unfortunately true. Omega Dragons still had to register with the Dragon Council when they moved to a new town or changed “custodians.” Presumably, Jax’s grandmother had registered for him when she moved him to Valleywood to live with her. No wonder Jax hated his omega status and had been trying to change it. The way most omegas were treated was abhorrent, but in this case, at least, it might actually be helpful in my search for him. I left Ashworth to his search through the records and rushed with Kyle to Jax’s little house.
When we arrived, I saw his car in the driveway like Hailey had said, but unlike her, I had no problem kicking the door in. I was still afraid I’d find his body on the floor inside, my mind going to the worst possible scenario, but there was no sign of a struggle or anything out of place. Kyle called out to me from the bedroom, “Dominic, you might want to see this.”
He was standing in Jax’s bedroom, in front of his empty closet. All his clothes had been cleaned out and when Kyle checked his dresser drawers, he found it equally empty. What the hell had happened here? If it had been his father, why had he felt the need to clear out all of Jax’s belongings?
Unless, of course, he had no plans of ever bringing him back home. The phone rang as I was standing there wondering about it and Ashworth confirmed my suspicions.
“Jax’s father has him, sir. I traced him through the records to a town about a hundred miles from Valleywood. I have his address, but I don’t think Jax is still with him.”
“Not with him? What the hell do you mean?”
“Try to be calm, sir, but I believe he may have already sold Jax to another Alpha. And that man took possession immediately.”
****
I don’t remember much after that. Ashworth had kept talking for a few more minutes. I believe he texted Kyle the address, and Kyle fed it into his GPS. But the reasoning portion of my mind had turned off, blazed away in a red haze of frustration and fury. To think of another Alpha with his hands on Jax—on my pregnant mate. It was simply too much. I couldn’t even form a coherent thought at that point. If I could have, it would have been a thoroughly unpleasant stew of fire and mayhem and murder. I didn’t even try to put what I was feeling into words. I just stormed out of the house and got back in the car, yelling something at Kyle that was meant to convey the fact I had to get to him.
The “him” in question wasn’t even for sure. Jax, of course, but also the unknown Alpha buyer I was on my way to probably kill if I could, along with the father and the brothers thrown in for good measure. Maybe even the entire town—I wasn’t ruling anything out. I knew that I, like other red Dragon Alphas had the power to lay down a line of flames that would incinerate anything they touched and keep on burning for days. Even weeks. Many years ago, entire clans of our enemies had been taken out that way, though, if I ever thought of that history at all, it would have been to wonder how anyone became so filled with rage that he could do such a thing.
I didn’t have to wonder any longer.
The anger burned inside me like a red-hot poker in the center of my chest. The trip to Jax’s hometown was mostly a blur, as I sat beside Dominic in the front seat, trying to tell myself that killing Jax’s father when I first laid eyes on him probably wasn’t a good idea. He had information I needed first. I couldn’t stop wondering if Jax had been “mistreated” in the three days since I’d seen him last. I couldn’t bring myself to use the word I was really thinking. Three days—anything could have happened in that amount of time. Had that bastard father of his hurt him? Or even worse, had the Alpha who had apparently purchased him done something despicable to him?
If Jax had turned that smart mouth on him like he’d done me, it was a good bet that he had. Many Dragon Alphas wouldn’t have stood for it coming from anyone except maybe their true mate, and they maybe wouldn’t have even accepted it from them. I may not have myself, though I would never have stooped to any kind of abuse. An omega couldn’t defend himself against an Alpha, so bullying or hurting them only proved how big an asshole the Alpha was and not another damn thing.
I was a little surprised at how emotional I felt about this whole thing, and how full of rage at the idea of Jax with anyone else. It wasn’t love. It was surely far too soon to call this overwhelming emotion I was feeling actuallove. I knew he was my true mate, but I didn’t think of him as such yet—not exactly.
I’d only met him a couple of weeks ago and nobody fell in love that quickly. It just wasn’t possible, no matter what the songs and the poets said, and no matter that he was my true mate either. Being my true mate just added to the compulsion tohavehim, to make him mine. It didn’t make me love him.
It was true that he was gorgeous, but he was also mouthy and irritating, and we couldn’t seem to be in the same room together for more than an hour or so before we were fighting. So love? No. No way. Love had little to do with the way I felt about him.
I don’t know why in the hell the word kept leaking out of me like water out of an old bucket.
