Page 125 of Believe it or Knot

There are a million fucking things that could go wrong in an extraction. A million ways for the hostages to get hurt, and I couldn’t focus. Thank god, Gray and Liam were with me because if it had been my job to reveal the dirty shit Apex has been up to, we never would have gotten anywhere.

Gage was about as useful as I was, grunting out answers and tapping his fingers on his knees, glaring at everyone and eyeing the door like he was considering just running for it.

Just about the only thing I got right was when the woman across from us asked if there was anything I wanted to add, and I’d looked right at the camera with my voice cracking and said, “Lo siento, conejita. Lo siento mucho. Ya vamos.”

As soon as the light on the camera turned off, we were moving. No time for pleasantries.

Gage sprinted toward the door, and I was right on his fucking heels.

And then the drive and the police blockades and the vehicles.

Everything is making my alpha furious.

Logically, I know if Sorrel was hurt, or worse—God, please don’t let her be hurt or worse—the Werth or Falcone pack would have called us, would have let us know. So she must be okay, right?

But my alpha is entirely illogical at the moment. I used up all my logic in deciding that the best way to make sure this shit doesn’t happen again is to cut off the head of the snake. Is to support my pack in revealing what exactly Apex has been up to.

So when our car is stopped a-fucking-gain, I snarl, “fuck this,” and hop out of the vehicle, running full speed toward flashing red and blue lights. I dodge around cops who give me startled looks and then call out for me to stop. Maybe I should stop. Maybe I should listen to them, but I fucking can’t. Not until I have Sorrel in my arms. Footsteps thunder behind me, and I risk a glance, only to find my pack right on my ass, arms pumping with determination just like mine are.

We burst from between buildings into the Apex Pharma parking lot to find it swarming with cops, and paramedics, and fucking news vans and cameras.

I scan the crowd, looking for a familiar tumble of dark hair and a flash of aqua eyes, but I can’t find her anywhere. “Where the fuck is she?” Panic threatens to kill me. “Why isn’t she here?”

“Over here,” Gage says, and my heart thunders following behind him, still looking for Sorrel, but he doesn’t lead me to her. Instead, we find Sylvie and her pack.

“Where’s Sorrel?” Gray growls, not in the mood for pleasantries.

Sylvie’s brow furrows as she scans the crowd around her and her pack bristles. “She was right here. I swear…” she looks back at us. “Did you check with the paramedics?”

“The paramedics?” I hear Liam croak, but I’m already spinning toward the ambulances. “Is she okay?”

I barely hear Sylvie’s gentle response of, “she’s fine.”

When I get closer, the scent of lavender reaches my nose, faint and tinged with stress and fear and… heartbreak. Not as strong as it would be if those emotions were coming from my omega instead of my beta, but I can still pick them out, because Sorrel is fucking mine.

I glance at Gage, who has his nose in the air, too. He meets my gaze and we move forward as one, hunting out beta by her scent. Only we don’t fucking find her.

Instead, we find a beta paramedic, stowing his gear at the back of an ambulance.

“Where the fuck is she?” I all but snarl, making the man jerk upright and spin toward us.

“I-I- who?”

“Sorrel Forbes,” Grayson says smoothly, stepping in front of me and Gage. He looks calm and collected, but I know he’s anything but. The pheromones he’s pumping out set my teeth on edge and drive up my own. “You checked her out to make sure she’s okay?”

“Yeah, I did.” The guy nods, runs a hand through his hair and then his eyes snag on Liam. “Holy shit! You’re Liam Cordova. You’re the goddamn Cordova pack!”

Liam, of all people, lunges forward and fists his hand in the paramedic’s uniform and shoves him against the ambulance. “In the fucking flesh. Now tell me where my fucking beta is or I’ll rip you the fuck apart.”

The guy swallows and shakes his head. “I don’t know. I checked her out, and she was fine. A few scrapes and some bruises. But she didn’t require a ride to the hospital, so I let her go. A reporter ambushed her…” He trails off as all of us snarl at him and he holds up his hands. “She handled it. Really ripped into her, but then your girl walked off.”

“Where?” Gage asks, taking one step forward.

He motions to the side of the parking lot that isn’t surrounded by cops and people. “I think there’s like a park or something that way. She seemed like she needed some space.”

Liam shoves him one more time before he releases him and we all hurry in the direction the beta pointed us in. Close. We’re so fucking close to having her with us again. To holding her and never letting her go.

The park isn’t very big, probably something that Apex added to give their employees a place to eat outside so they could pat themselves on the back for being such good fucking employers or something. It’s maybe as big as a city block, with trees planted at intervals, picnic tables and a gazebo in the middle.

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