Page 71 of Bubblegum Pop

I had to find the darts. I needed to get them out of him.

As I brushed my hand over his chest, there was a clattering behind me, and my head shot up. Lips across my teeth, a low growl rumbled in my chest as I held on to my mate. I didn’t care how many of them there were, I’d fight to the end to protect them both.

Though I was still wheezing, barely able to think, my alpha instincts cooled as Bones and Arrow entered the room. I knew they were okay, they were only here for us. I trusted them more than anyone else we had worked with in the past.

Three other guards emerged from behind them and started a full sweep of the room. Though we’d been working together for years, I had to be alert. It was my responsibility to protect my pack, and I’d abandoned them. I thought we were safe; I let my guard down, and now our omega was gone.

One guard bent to inspect the third person on the floor. Another went to Odin, and I would have snarled at him to back off if Arrow and Bones weren’t standing over me.

“Where is she?” Arrow asked, lowering his gun as Bones and the other alphas searched the room. He was Bones’s mate, and head of the security team at the Club.

They were both big men, but they had nothing on my mates. Ex-army, buzz cuts, their hard gazes a permanent feature. Both were dressed in black, just like the man crumpled on the floor.

I shook my head. I couldn’t speak. The pain was too much, winding its way through my body, tremoring out from my dislocated arm and into my heart. They’d been completely knocked out and I couldn’t feel them in the bond, but my mates were alive.

“We’ve checked the other rooms,” Bones said, his face hard. “Nothing there.”

“Call Michael,” Arrow said bluntly, his attention fixed on Zeus.

“It’s six a.m.”

“I don’t give a fuck.” He turned to Bones. “He’s either going to be pissed it’s early or pissed we didn’t call him.”

There was a silent standoff between them, their auras vibrating, and I wanted to shout that it wasn’t time for macho alpha games. We needed to find Candy.

Bones clicked his tongue as he glared at his mate. “Fine. Two minutes.”

Arrow hunched down next to me as Bones strode to the other side of the room, pulling his phone out, and disappearing from my line of sight.

“Alright?” Arrow asked me as he scanned Zeus’s chest, searching for wounds.

“Of course I’m not alright,” I croaked, my left hand still clutching Zeus.

I was amazed how composed I sounded when I was dying inside.

Arrow’s brow creased. “We’ll find her. Just trust in that. You know Michael doesn’t stand for this shit.”

Arrow might appear understanding, but he didn’t have an omega. It was just him, Bones, and their female beta, Amber. I’d never say it to his face, but it wasn’t the same as an alpha losing his omega in heat.

“Can I check him over?” he asked softly, looking at Zeus, his eyes filled with compassion.

I nodded numbly as I released Zeus’s arm, pushing away and forcing myself to rise. My right arm was useless, agony sending black spots into my vision with every movement. So I left it hanging, as if it were just a disposable part of me. It was less important than my mates.

There was one more place they hadn’t checked. One place I hadn’t shared with anyone.

It was the biggest secret I kept from my pack, and one of the many I kept from Candy.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said to Arrow, who didn’t look up as he pulled a dart from Zeus’s chest.

I squeezed my eyes closed at the sight of the small piece of metal in Arrow’s hand. Zeus was breathing, his heart was still beating. Even though I couldn’t feel him because of whatever drug was in the dart, I had to trust he would be okay.

I checked to make sure none of the alphas could see me before I left the bedroom. There were two more guards out in the main corridor, and they both gave me a nod as I turned from them, heading straight to her living room at the very back of her apartment. They’d already done a sweep, and no one was there to catch me heading towards the large hanging drape on the far side of the room.

With a final quick check behind me, I pushed it aside to find the small service door that must have been made when the rooms were first built.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I whispered as I opened the door to her nest.

I hadn’t been inside before. The only reason I knew about it was because there had been a last-minute emergency before a show, and she needed me to pick something up for her. I saw the corner of the drape caught on the small handle, took a peek, and knew straight away from the scent what lay behind the door, but I never went in.