The Abduction (Omegas of Hunter's Point Book 2)

Chapter 13

A light that was far too bright seared all the way to the back of his eyeballs.

"He's coming around," someone said.

Damian's mouth felt gritty, his tongue too big and too heavy. "What-?"

A stranger came into focus. Two strangers, both in paramedic's uniforms. The one holding the pen light asked, "Do you know where you are, Mr. Ambrose?"

"Yeah," he pushed out. "Work."

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"I was walking Rosalie to the elevators, and..." The adrenaline. Attacked. Someone was attacked. The call down the bond. "Von!" He sat bolt upright, but immediately thought better of it as his stomach lurched and his head throbbed in time with his heart. He struggled to rise.

"Mr. Ambrose, I think you should go with us to the hospital," the other of the paramedics said.

"Something's happened to my mate. I have to get to her." Coltish legs once again beneath him, he staggered for the elevator.

"You're in no condition to drive, Damian," Rosalie said, appearing at his side.

He opened his mouth to defend his need to find Von when she said, "I'll drive. You just tell me where we're going."

The closer they got to the warehouse, the worse Damian's sense of foreboding became.

The flashing red lights of emergency vehicles limned the night. Smoke curled from a structure that looked as if it had been blasted apart from the inside. Firefighters in their distinctive black and fluorescent yellow gear swarmed the area knocking down the last of the flames with hose trucks. Several ambulances sat within the established perimeter, their rear doors open. Policing officers keeping the crowd of onlookers a safe distance back.

"My gods," Rosalie breathed. "You don't suppose Von is in there, do you?"

He tried to comfort himself with the fact that while he'd felt Von's fear and determination and experience the violence done to her through the bond, the bond hadn't failed. Her end of it was not responding. A tug on the bond was like yanking on a rope that had been cemented into a cinderblock wall, but it was still there. And if the bond was still there, Von was alive. "Not anymore."

Damian exited the vehicle, crossing to the yellow caution tape and calling to the officers as he went. "What happened?"

A uniformed female strode to meet him. "I am not permitted to comment on an active investigating, sir."

"My mate was supposed to be here."

"What's her name?" the officer asked.

"Ambrose. Siobhan Ambrose." Damian held a hand up just past his shoulder. "She's about this tall, brown hair, curvy. In her mid-thirties." The love of his life, and the anchor point of his soul.

From the back of an ambulance, Damian heard, "Mr. Ambrose?"

It was the security head he'd met last night. He wracked his brain for the swarthy alpha's name. "Garnet!"

Garnet waved at the officer to let Damian through.

"What the hells happened, Garnet?" Damian asked. "Where's Von?"

Garnet interrupted the paramedic who was bandaging a bullet wound to his shoulder. "Gone."

Damian was going to be sick. "Gone? What do you mean gone? Gone where?"

Garnet shrugged back into his shirt, wincing as he did so. "I mean she's been taken. All the omegas were, including the gal you two brought over last night."