“That’s what I got told,” Bullet said, still keeping his voice low. “Razor and Blade got told the same thing. You’re not the only one Rapid’s been causing trouble for and apparently he’s developed a bit of a reputation. The team he was transferring to refused to have him. In the meantime, our commander couldn’t get another beta on short notice…”
“It was hardly short notice.” Cord kept his snort to a minimum. “It’s been four months. I told the commander when I went on leave I wouldn’t work with Rapid again. He can’t be trusted.”
“You know that. The whole team knows that.” Bullet stretched his legs. The seating was functional at best.
“He’d just better stay the hell away from me,” Cord muttered, looking down at his hands. “I swear, if he says one thing ortries to touch me for any reason I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
“I know what you mean. Me and the others will try and run interference for you.” Bullet nudged his shoulder with his own. “Hopefully this one will be a quick in and out and we can get our asses home again.”
“It’d better be.” Cord leaned his head back against the metal insides of the plane, and his eyes closed as he tried to imagine what Billy might be doing. It would be getting on for lunch time in Frankton, and Cord hoped Billy had done what he’d said he’d do, and had called his friends to join him for lunch. The idea of his sweet omega being home on his own was already more than his wolf could handle, and it had only been a matter of hours.
/~/~/~/~/
Three days later Cord was ready to tear his hair out. They’d reached the area where the omegas were apparently being held, but there was no local support in terms of vehicles and supplies, which meant they had to spend two nights in a rundown motel that didn’t have any internet connection. Both nights someone had knocked on Cord’s door more than once, and both nights he ignored it because he knew it was fucking Rapid.
But while he could bar the man from his room, he couldn’t stop the constant innuendos, the little digs, the way Rapid was presuming on a relationship that had been over months before. “Oh, I know how Cord takes his coffee, I’ll get it for him.” “Cord, do you remember when we..” Yeah, shit like that Cord didn’t need, especially when he had no way of getting in touch with Billy. His phone was as dead and as useful as a brick.
“It might be a few more days, team,” their team leader Brandon said at breakfast on the third day. “It looks like the intel on the omegas might have been faulty, and no one can give usan exact location, or if there is even a location at all. HQ has told us to hang fire until they can clarify if we actually have a rescue situation.” He looked up from his clipboard. “No point in dragging you back here in a week’s time when you’re already here, so make yourself comfortable, guys.” He sauntered off as Cord growled.
“There’s something going on. We never get held over on a job like this,” he muttered to Bullet. “Tell Razor and Blade to meet me in my room in an hour.” He swigged back the last of his coffee which tasted as if it’d been brewing in the pot for a week, before standing up.
“Where are you off to?” Bullet asked.
“I’m going to shift and see if I can get some mobile coverage in this godforsaken place. There’s got to be some somewhere.”
“Don’t be long,” Bullet warned. “Brandon will have a fit if we have to move out in a hurry and you’re not here.”
“It’s a risk I’m prepared to take. Something’s going on with Billy, I can sense it. My wolf is ready to start heading back to Frankton, and the job be damned.”
“Be back in an hour,” Bullet said, picking up his mug. “I’ll cover for you as best I can.”
“Going to your room, Cord? Do you want some company?” Rapid called out from across the room.
“No, I fucking don’t.” Cord flipped Rapid the bird as he stalked out of the dining room and made his way back to his unit. The moment he got inside, he checked the bars on his phone. Still nothing. Refusing to second guess his decision, Cord stripped off his clothes and shifted, grabbing his phone carefully in his teeth. He flicked his ears, listening to make sure Rapid or anyone else hadn’t followed him, but there was no one outside the door.
With two bounds and an effortless leap, the wolf had jumped out the window, racing as fast as his legs could carry him for the tree line.I have to get to higher ground. There has to be a signal up there.
The wolf could move fast when he wanted to, but it was still twenty minutes before Cord heard his phone ding, indicating an incoming message.Thank fuck, I’ve got a signal.In the cover of the trees, he quickly shifted back into his human form, scowling when he saw there was a message from the Omega Hearts Foundation in Frankton. Opening it, he read the words, although they didn’t make sense…gross dereliction of duty to a mate… causing grievous emotional and mental harm…Billy?
Cord hit Billy’s contact number so fast he almost dented his phone screen. The phone rang, and rang, and rang again. Cord was ready to hang up and try again when Billy finally picked up. “Is that you, Cord?”
“Billy? Billy? What on earth’s the matter?” Billy’s voice sounded completely broken. “Has something happened? Are you all right?” Cord was already looking around – surely he could find some transport to the airport, or he could fucking run.
“Cord? I don’t know why you’re calling me.” Billy hiccupped, and then Cord heard another sob. “I got the messages you told him to send… I didn’t think I’d hear from you again.”
Chapter Thirteen
“What messages are you talking about, babe?” Cord tried to calm himself down. An omega wolf did not deserve to be yelled at. “Babe, what messages? I didn’t tell anyone to send you messages. I wouldn’t do that to you. I’d call you myself if I had news.”
“That’s what I thought.” Billy hiccupped again. “It didn’t make sense. But then the pictures started to come… there were dozens of them… and he said you’d never come back to me… I saw the pictures of you two in a bed together!”
A cold pit of dread started forming in Cord’s stomach and bloomed outward. “Billy, babe,” he said keeping his voice perfectly calm although he felt anything but. “I’m an alpha wolf. You’re my omega. It’s not possible for me to be physically intimate with anyone else but you now that I’ve claimed you, and I would never do that to you anyway.”
“You can’t? You wouldn’t?”
We’ve only been together a week, and he hasn’t been raised by caring parents who’d tell him these things,Cord reminded himself. “Didn’t they tell you that at the Omega Hearts place?”
“No.” Billy’s tears started all over again. “I called them. They said I must’ve been mistaken… I know the person I talked to was a friend of my parents – he’s always been mean to me. But he was so adamant that we couldn’t be mated if you had been with someone else… I told him I went into heat… I told him, and told him, and he didn’t believe me. He said you must’ve drugged me, and I needed to forget I’d ever met you.”
