At First Blush

Chapter 37

"The number you have dialed is not available. Please hang up or press 1 for more options."

"Fuck!" Julian hissed, throwing his phone across the car, not caring where it landed. It didn't matter. It was the same damn thing.

Car horns blared as he went through an intersection that had just turned red, switching lanes like he was auditioning for a cop movie. He had probably nearly wreaked the car a few times, but fuck, until he did, he wouldn't care over much.

Please. Help us.

Those three words were on loop in his brain, the raw edge of pain and exhaustion in them. The scream in the background, faint, but enough to have made him vomit in Quinn's potted plant before he'd managed to formulate words. He didn't know the voice, didn't know anything, except that Ollie had been unaccounted for for several hours, no longer had access to his phone, and was somewhere where there was screaming.

Julian had never known how he'd react when faced with an emergency. He'd always hoped that he'd be logical and in command. But that's what everyone hoped for. The only thing he was logical about was that he needed to find Ollie. The only thing he was in command over was his gag reflex, which had been threatening him the last six sharp turns.

He exhaled slowly, relaxing his grip on the wheel marginally. He had a plan. Or rather, Quinn had had a plan, and Julian was doing his part of it. Part one, that had been calling the police. Part two, when the police had hung up because suspected missing persons weren't a thing for 24 hours, Quinn's Alpha, Floris, had quietly gotten his gun out of a safe. Part three, Adam and Les, Floris and Quinn, had gone in separate cars to start mapping out the last things Julian remembered Ollie saying about where he was. Part four, Julian's part: go get Rebecca St. Cloud.

He pulled into the driveway of the sweet little house, hitting someone's trashcan on the way. He barely had put the car in park before he was stumbling out of the car, engine idling, car door open as he stumbled across the lawn to the front stoop. He paused before knocking. One of these days, he thought bitterly, he'd show up at Rebecca's house with a bottle of wine and all the time in the world.

He started banging on the door, not bothering to even search for the door bell. "Rebecca? Rebecca! It's Julian, Ollie, someone took Ollie, please-"

The door was ripped open so fast that Julian staggered over the threshold and into the burly arms of James, Ollie's older brother. His face was creased with concern, his grip a little too tight on Julian's arms.

"What? Ollie? Who? When?" He demanded, setting Julian back on his feet before moving away to the house phone attached to the wall. Julian sagged back against the doorjamb, his exhausted gaze landing on the wide, shocked gazes of three of Ollie's friends. He couldn't remember their names, he just knew two of them, the brunet and the blond were Omegas. The blond one hopped over the edge of the couch, beelining to Julian, gripping his arm tightly.

"Ollie was taken?" He demanded, and after manhandling Julian with a surprisingly strong grip, got the door shut.

"Yes. I had plans for us to meet at a house party a friend was holding. He didn't show, and I got worried, so I called him, and someone not him answered, said "help us please" and someone screamed."

The silence that fell after was thick with shock and fear, as the other Omegas' eyes got huge, and the blue haired Alpha's gaze got dark with rage. Julian got hit with a powerful wave of the Scent of terrified Omega. James whirled around from where he'd been talking quietly into the phone, his eyes going wide as his nostrils flared as he Scented the air. Then his gaze shot to Julian's.

"I called Mom, she's coming. What steps have you already taken?" He demanded sharply, hanging the phone up.

"The people I was with, one was in security. They've already called police, but they said that we need to wait 24 hours before reporting Ollie missing." Julian closed his eyes as the rage bubbled up again, making him shake.