Page 75 of The Librarian and Her Alphas

Please don’t try to look for me. I promise I’m going somewhere safe for the baby and me.

Take care of each other.

Love,

Lena

We finish reading the note,and I realize my worst fears are coming true. This is the second time it’s happened. Another omega leaving us. Lena is gone, and she’s not planning on coming back.

Wordlessly, we gather our things and make our way out of the hotel as quickly as possible. Our next stop is Lena’s apartment building, where I hope we can find answers about her whereabouts.

* * *

I can smellher faintly at the apartment when we arrive, and I chase the scent into her room. Max unlocks the door with the spare keys he had cut, and we head inside. It’s quiet, but there is evidence that she has been there recently.

“She’s been here recently,” Damon says darkly. “Do you think she went back to Zorin?”

“No, she’d rather be alone forever than be with another pack,” I reply.

“This reminds me of…” starts Max, but I cut him off.

“She’s nothing like Zalia,” I say, cringing at the memory of the first omega, leaving us high and dry for another alpha pack. She had seduced every one of us and left during her heat when she wanted a bigger pack. “Lena is innocent, caring, and wants a peaceful life.”

We check each room, looking in all the nooks and crannies where she might be able to hide, all in vain. All of her suitcases are gone, and her scent is still too faint to trace. I slump hopelessly onto her bed, my heart cracking behind my ribs.

I exchange desperate looks with Damon and Max, the pain in my heart reflecting on their faces.

CHAPTER24

Lena

My knuckles turn white as I grip the armrest of my seat in a death grip when the plane takes off. It’s only a two-hour flight to Little Rock, but I already feel like it’s going to be the longest two hours of my life.

Especially sitting next to my ex, who tried to kill me.

The silence between us is suffocating, driving my anxiety higher as I wonder about his intentions. I stare pointedly out the window while my heart thumps like a drum.

Maybe if I act like he’s not there, he’ll leave me alone.

It’s just wishful thinking, though, because when the seatbelt lights are switched off, and we can move through the cabin freely, I hear the click of his belt buckle and feel him lean into me.

Zorin’s breath is hot against the side of my face, the stench of alcohol turning my already sensitive stomach into a writhing mess. I’m pressed against the cabin wall with nowhere else to go, and I hear Zorin chuckle as he presses in even closer.

“What do you want from me?” I ask, fighting back tears and trying to stay strong.

“Oh, Lena,” he whispers menacingly in my ear. “I should have killed you all those years ago when I had the chance, preferably before I threw you out of the car that night. I’m surprised by the hold you seem to have on those other alphas. Do they have something I don’t?”

“Yes, they most certainly do,” I reply in a steely voice, gripping the armrest so tightly I feel it might snap. “They have love and compassion for others—traits you’re severely lacking, Zorin.”

He hums thoughtfully, then dismisses it with a derisive snort. “Either way, it doesn’t matter. You’ve always been a worthless omega—the most pathetic of them all.” He hisses the last part, venom dripping from each word, and I shrink inward, trying to ignore him.

Hot tears stream down my face, and I try to hide them with the scarf around my neck. I don’t want him to see me crying and realize that his words still affect me. Any courage I thought I had gained in the last four years of being away from him seems to have vanished, and I feel like my old self again—the sad, defenseless omega who comes crawling back whenever he speaks to me.

For some reason, his scent is now repulsive to me; it was always alluring in the past.

A small voice in the back of my mind whispers that I should never have left Damon and his pack. I’m starting to regret my decision to leave the safety of the caring alphas I met, but it’s far too late for that now.

“But why are you following me?”

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