Chapter Thirty-Three

**Sloan**

Sloan rocked back in his office chair, rubbing his tired eyes. Their weekend activities, coupled with training extra hard and fucking Myra before work, have finally got the better of him. He felt like even his soul was exhausted. He reached up and scratched his beard when a text notification pinged on his phone.

Text message [Angel]: How’s my Wolfman?

Sloan laughed for the first time since the rogues resurfaced. “*She struggled to give me a nickname, and after one wild knotting, I’ve been labelled ‘Wolfman’… God, how did I get so lucky?*”

Text message [Sloan]: Your Wolfman is bone-tired… I think I gave you everything over the weekend.

He smiled, putting the phone down and double-clicked on his emails. The coroner has yet to get back with preliminary reports. They’ve put in a rush for the blood analysis since they had new bodies. He picked up his sixth black coffee for the day and took a sip as his phone pinged.

Text message [Angel]: My honeypot is quite sore… you need to kiss it better.

He spat out his coffee as it went down the wrong way. “*Teasing minx.*”

Text message [Sloan]: Jesus! Woman, warn a man next time. I almost choked on my coffee. Where are you?

He tapped his finger on the desk, waiting for her reply, and he glanced at the time on his monitor. “*Ten past five, she should be on her way home… unfortunately, I have some work to finish up here before heading home too.*”

Text message [Angel]: We are heading to the airport… Leanne’s brother is coming home for the Christmas holidays.”

“*Brainy Brian Marshall?*” Sloan laughed, thinking about the scrawny boy who used to follow Leanne around like a tick. The last time he heard about the boy, he had gotten into MIT. What he lacked in body mass, he made up for it in brains.

Text message [Sloan]: I will be staying late in the office; I need to play catch up with some contracts. Let me know when you get home. Love you.

Just as Sloan was about to start going through some financial reports for a new contract, Declan and Tristan barged into his office. Tristan locked the door behind them as Declan continued towards him.

“When last I checked, that’s my name on that door,” Sloan grumbled, still focusing on the words on his computer’s screen.

“Your name isn’t on that door… it’s plain oak.” Tristan smart-mouthed.

“Maybe I should put it on there so that you guys would know whose office this is.”

“Stop PMSing and forget whatever you are reading… we have a development.” Tristan snapped as Declan dialled a number on his office phone and placed it on speaker.

“Alpha?”

“Dave, do you have the preliminary autopsy?” Sloan question, abandoning his work to listen attentively to the coroner.

“Yes, Alpha, I do. A prelim examination of the bodies from over the weekend provided us with a wealth of information, particularly body number five. That one piqued my interest since it was the freshest kill.” Dave explained, “Initial toxicology results didn’t show anything special, but I was determined… so, I sent the samples back to the labs and had them conduct a more in-depth and complex analysis of the blood samples.”

“And did they find anything?” Sloan shook his head at Declan’s impatience.

“Yes, Beta Declan… patience, I’m getting to the good part,” Dave laughed, sounding very excited about the lab’s discovery. “They found a complex chemical compound in all of the victims’ blood systems. The composition varied across victims because of their species, but one signature element caused the lab tech to take notice.”

Sloan’s frowned and asked, “What kind of chemical compound?”

“That’s the interesting part… it’s a chemical blocker that prevents the animal genes from being activating.” Dave continued, and they all just stared at the phone in shock.

“*A blocker to our animal spirit?? That’s not possible.*” Sloan thought, “Anything else?”

“Lots of broken bones and bruises… and I found similar injection sites on each victim’s jugular. This location enables the serum to quickly move through the bloodstream, quickly incapacitating the victim’s animal spirit.” Dave explained. “I summarize that once they immobilize the spirit with the chemical blocker… the victims were used as punching bags.”

“It’s almost like a one-sided underground fight club situation,” Tristan mumbled.

“They will need a space to run a lab to create the blocker, to house or cage their victims and possibly an arena to fight and kill them,” Sloan added to Tristan’s off-handed comment.

Dave cleared his throat to get their attention. “I still have samples from previous victims, so I’m going to have them run new tests, looking specifically for these chemical markers. I believe all these victims were experiments to test the effects of the blockers.”

“Top priority, Dave.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“Dave, before you go… send me a list of possible equipment needed to synthesize such a serum,” Declan ordered.

“Will do.”

When the call disconnected, they were all lost in their own world, soaking in what the coroner just told them. “This is the break we all needed… we can find the bastards this way.”

“Is that hope I’m sensing?” Tristan laughed, causing them all to laugh too. Sloan’s laughter, however, was cut short when a sudden pain in his chest. He picked up his phone, realizing that Myra hadn’t responded to him. He tapped on her name and listened, but the call went straight to voicemail.

“What is it?” Declan asked, but a sense of dread filled Sloan’s being, and he knew something was seriously wrong. He searched for Leanne’s number and tapped on her name. Like Myra’s phone, the call went straight to voicemail as well.

“Something is wrong.” He muttered, typing in the online GPS website with his username and password. All their vehicles had GPS systems, so he selected the SUV Leanne was using. The vehicle’s highlighted route for the day showed up. It left the school grounds at about twenty-eight minutes past four and drove directly towards the airport.

“Why are the girls heading North?” Tristan’s brow furrowed.

“Brainy Brian’s coming home for the holidays,” Sloan answered offhandedly. There seemed to be traffic on the road as the SUV crawled along the highway. The vehicle then redirected to a different route; he guessed Leanne must have searched for an alternative route because they were moving again. However, the signal just dropped. “That’s not possible.” He double-clicked, refreshing the page, but the signal was gone.

“Oh no,” Tristan whispered, stepping away from Sloan while Declan pulled out his phone.

“Okay, let’s not worry just yet,” Declan calmly stated as he tapped on his phone. “Steven, have you been in contact with the team following the Omega?” He listened, then his eyes shifted to Sloan’s, confirming that something was indeed wrong. “When was the last time you had contact with them?” He nodded to whatever message was being relayed to him. Sloan pulled up the GPS coordinates for the second vehicle. Their signal dropped at the same time as Myra’s. Meanwhile, Tristan pulled out his phone.

“Kenny, stop whatever you’re going… New task, the GPS in the Omega’s SUV stopped recording, hack the system and find her… but do it quietly.” Tristan ordered.

Sloan counted in his head, trying to control his wolf and his anger. He hated to believe that someone took her; he hoped that there was just a glitch in the system, and they were just on their way to the Packhouse. But the uneasy feeling and throbbing pain in his chest told him otherwise.

When he opened his eyes, both Tristan and Declan took a step back, and he knew his eyes were pitch black.

“I want Myra found… and I want her found NOW!” His growl vibrated throughout the room and possibly shook the top floor of the office building. Both Declan and Tristan nodded and started mobilizing their teams.

* * *

As the seconds, minutes and eventually, hours ticked by, Sloan fell deeper and deeper into a sense of hatred and despair. After issuing his demand to have Myra found, he hadn’t spoken to anyone. Memories of their wonderful weekend played over and over in his head. They were like a sick joke, taunting him about his happiness and the love that was snatched away from him.

The girls, their following security detail, and both vehicles had vanished without a trace. His trackers were scouring the route they took to the airport, searching for some clue as to their disappearance. Volunteers from neighbouring clans and packs joined in the search for the missing Omega.

“How dumb can these fuckers be?? They kidnapped an Alpha’s mate.” Someone whispered to his side, but he didn’t have the energy to acknowledge whoever just spoke.

Though Sloan wanted to join in the search himself, protocol dictated that he debriefed the Council. He was now seated in the inner chambers of the Grand Council Meeting Hall, awaiting updates and brainstorming with other leaders. Many sympathized with him and were eager to assist in the safe recovery of his young Omega.

Sloan’s eyes roamed over the gothic, mid-century style of the chamber. This room has been their focal point for centuries which housed strategic planning meetings, trials and swearing-in ceremonies for new Leaders and Elders. The Michelangelo style ceiling depicted various creatures who inhabited the world gazed down at him; their neutral facial expressions were almost taunting his loss. Even the Gargoyles perched on top of the intricate columns in the five corners of the room provoked him.

Over the years, the chamber had updated with modern technological advancements to facilitate the changes in the outside world. One wall had a projected screen split into four sections, and they watched a live stream of team leaders searching through the field. On another wall was a hub of smaller monitors and a large desk with several Council Acolytes operating the control panel and communicating with the different search teams.

Sloan’s fingers drummed on the desk as his eyes shifted to the screened wall, roaming over the different sceneries displayed on the screens. He allowed the buzz of conversation to provide him with a semblance of hope, but it was ill-conceived as dread and hopelessness slowly hardened the walls around his heart.

His emotions were all jumbled. When Myra was first attacked, he received projected images from her; this time, there was nothing. But he was holding onto the slim chance that she was still alive. If she was dead, he will most certainly have known. There have been legends of Alphas, whose mates were taken suddenly from them, experiencing unimaginable pain. A pain so great that the only solution was to commit suicide to alleviate the heartache.

“Come in, Team Six… this is the command centre. What’s your status report?” He heard an acolyte state.

Sloan glanced at the Falcon Shifter, who nodded his head, listening to the disjointed voice coming through on his headset. The young man’s fingers quickly typed on the keyboard, and the projected screen changed.

“We found the SUVs off an embankment about eight hundred miles, south from their last GPS ping, and Alpha, both vehicles are completely mangled.” The team leader’s voice echoed through the chamber, silencing the room. “We are picking up on several creatures’ scents and something else… a forensic crew will have to identify it.”

“Captain… we found blood… a significant amount of it.” Another voice said came through the speakers, though it was distant.

The team leader moved over to his colleague, and they all saw inside the vehicle. Sloan felt his heart stop when he saw the blood bath inside its interior.

“Captain?” Declan spoke up. “What’s the registration number on that SUV?”

“Charlie, Tango, Echo, Six, Foxtrot, Delta, Three.”

“That’s not Myra’s vehicle… check the other one, is there blood as well?” Tristan said, sounding optimistic.

“Umm… oh… the strange smell is stronger in this vehicle… it’s almost chemical-like.” The Captain commented, and the room saw inside the second vehicle. “There are traces of blood on the steering wheel, and both seatbelts were cut.”

“Captain! We have found two bodies.” A different team member called out, and the Captain hurried over to the side of the embankment. At the bottom of the cliff were two bodies lying on the rocky bottom. It looked like they were carelessly tossed over the side. Three team members were scaling down the side of the cliff.

“*Two more have died under my watch.*” Sloan despaired and hung his head in shame.

“Captain… we have dispatched a forensic team to your location... their estimate time of arrival is ten minutes.” The acolyte stated but was interrupted by the live stream.

“We need a medic!! They’re still alive!!” Someone shouted from the rocky bed. For the first time, Sloan felt a glimmer of hope.

“Alpha Sloan, your phone is vibrating.” Nora, a Clan Alpha, who was next to him, interrupted his thoughts. Sloan looked down at the vibrating device on the table, **Unknown Number.**

He ended the call, knowing that it will be a hang-up call. But soon, the phone started vibrating once again. He decided to accept the call, just in case it was Myra, and this hellish nightmare was just a misunderstanding.

However, before he could speak, a gravelly blast from his past croaked in his ear. “Hi, baby.”

Sloan stood up quickly, causing his chair to crash onto the ground.

“Did you miss me?” He only growled his displeasure, and Declan immediately jumped to action, speaking softly to an Acolyte on the control panel.

“*This bitch was in on it.*” He thought in disgust.