Chapter 10: An Act of Disappearance

‘Take the time to really research your enemies before you go after them, otherwise you’ll end up with another sob story like me.’ The statement seemed to follow Thea into the next week, she kept tossing and turning, trying to dig up more information about Ash’s life when he was young. But mostly, she had come up empty, and she wasn’t about to ask him. The last time she had brought up anything from his past, it had gone wrong and ended on a much worse note than what she had wanted it to.

“Seriously, what is your deal? You’ve been off for the last week! Ever since you had gone to confront that guy, you’ve been quiet about the whole thing.” Lily had huffed as she walked beside Thea, the pair of them heading towards Thea’s current job and the group's current target.

“It’s not that important Lily. It’s just… I don’t know, I feel bad for the guy.” She felt a lot worse than that and her wolf made sure to point it out every chance she got. “Maybe he’s not all that bad after all…”

“You’re going to say that after he’s taken down multiple corporations that were actually doing something good for the world? Really? It’s because of people like him that the world is such a sh*t place.” Lily huffed in annoyance as she stopped outside the doors to the building. “Just because he’s had a bad start to life doesn’t mean that he gets a free pass to do whatever he wants now that he’s older and wealthy.”

The wolf inside her growled at the notion of her alpha making the world worse than what it was. Though she blinked at Lily for a moment as she was staring at her with a look of shock. “What?” She finally snapped.

“You just friggin’ snarled at me!” Lily growled as Thea shrunk in on herself. “What, is he like, your fated mate or something? Is that why you’ve been acting so off lately? Cause that would be really bad if he was…”

Thea couldn’t help but hang her head in shame, a low growl came from the other omega standing in front of her. “I can't lie, otherwise my wolf would correct me and I really don’t want her coming out…” Thea admitted with a defeated sigh as Lily groaned in annoyance.

“Really, your wolf couldn’t have picked someone else out… I don’t know, have gone after them?” Lily questioned as Thea merely rolled her eyes in response to the question.

“No. You know it doesn’t work like that, the moon goddess or whoever is above… Pick out our fated mates before we’re even born… We’re lucky to find them in this lifetime. A lot of wolves go through their entire lives without ever truly knowing who their fated is in this day and age… They just settle.” Thea huffed softly in response to the question.

“Yeah, yeah whatever you say Thea. At least I’m not the one who’s fallen for the enemy… Ugh, I guess we can talk about this after your shift at work.” Lily snorted.

“We most definitely will and it won’t be a good conversation if you keep up that attitude.” Thea warned, causing Lily to tense as another huff came from her. Without so much as a goodbye, the other omega had turned and began to walk away. Cursing, Thea had rushed inside, the conversation with Lily had taken up more time than what she would have liked.

Getting ready for the day, she had a different plan in mind for after she finished her half day at work. She’d… Attempt to apologize to Ash in a way, but she wasn’t quite sure how. She had put a temporary hold on trying to take him down, simply so she could learn more about him without needing to dig too much. With that new thought in mind, she finally stepped out from the break room and got to work.

***

6 HOURS LATER

After hanging up her jacket for the day and another round of praise coming from her new manager, Thea had grabbed her belongings from her locker. She had grabbed something small for Ash that she thought he would appreciate and perhaps convince him to open up a bit more about his past. Lost in thought, she made her way out the door and back towards that familiar office building.

Strolling in through the lobby doors, a long sigh came from Martha. “Do I have to call security again? I really don’t want to…” The elderly lady grumbled behind the desk as she typed at the computer. “You caused me enough trouble with having to fill out those reports and everything else…”

“No, I’m not here to cause trouble this time, I brought Ash a gift hoping to apologize for… Well… Everything I guess.” Thea responded, Martha eyed her warily for a few moments before she picked up the front desk phone and rang up to Ash’s office. Her brows bunched together after a few moments before she hung up the phone.

“That’s odd… Usually he always answers the phone.” Martha murmured. “Well Thea, I don’t know what to tell you but it looks like he isn’t in his office right now. Maybe he’s in the break room, you can check, but if you so much as step a toe out of line and you will be thrown out missy.” Martha warned as Thea was already beginning to make her way towards the elevator.

“Thanks!” Thea called out right as the doors had shut, she knew he had to be up in his office, though something felt… Wrong. Even her wolf had felt that something was wrong before they stepped into the elevator.

When the doors opened and she made her way to his office, she was horrified to find out that her intuition was correct, something was wrong… Judging by the claw marks on the door. She rushed inside, glancing around before noting the scattered papers and some clear signs of struggle, drops of blood were scattered throughout the room, no doubt Ash’s since he looked to have been outnumbered.

Panic began to set in when she realized that he was taken, and with no way of knowing who, she knew she had to do one thing that she hated doing most. Get help from those that Ash worked with outside of his ‘regular’ job.

She had to talk to the other alphas.