амега (peterick)

vingt-quatre.

I carry Patrick on my back all the way to Reine Loups, just like I carry him every night. He squeals with laughter at every corner, and I run as fast as I can without dropping him so the wind chill doesn't catch up with us. The streets are empty, save for a few stumbling drunks. Nobody disturbs us; either we have a knack for picking out the quieter routes, or everybody else knows to stay out of our way. The night is no different from any other.

We must be making quite the racket when we arrive, because as we bolt down the alleyway, Dallon pokes his head around the side of the open doorway. "Hey," he calls out when he sees us. He quickly waves us out of the cold and into the bar, where Patrick promptly slides himself off of my back. Dallon isn't smiling (which isn't a surprise, really). He seems to be the only one here. "Have you heard from B at all today?" he asks.

"Nope." I frown, looking down at Patrick, who shakes his head mutually. "Not since last night. Why?"

"He called me a few hours ago to let me know he was on his way here, but he never showed."

"That's not like him..." I hum thoughtfully. If Buzz knew he were running late, he would have contacted one of us, or at the very least left a note to say he isn't going to be around. My mind drifts toward last night's news, and the worst case scenario. But he's a Beta. What would anybody want him for? Why would anybody want him? I don't want to think about that right now.

Meanwhile, someone's got to do the job of running his club while he's gone. I huff. "I guess I can cover bar duty until he gets here," I offer up. If he even gets here, that is. "Hopefully he'll be around in a bit." I put a hand on Patrick's shoulder, scratching the back of my neck with the other. "Sweetie, why don't you go get ready?"

He nods solemnly, though he appears completely unaffected by the odd situation. He skips carelessly through the club and disappears into the dressing room. My heart stings. I don't want him to be alone, but I do want him to be out of earshot during the conversation I'm about to have with Dallon. I have to trust that nothing bad will happen to him; we know the Alphas here, and they know us. They can do no harm. They will do no harm.

Dallon slaps his hand against my shoulder. He should work wonders in distracting me from the possibility of impending doom. "Listen, I don't want to panic you." Deem me officially panicked. "You may have already heard it for yourself, but there's been a few instances involving wandering Alphas recently..."

I nod. "We saw the news last night."

"Great, that's good..." Well, it isn't, not really. "Anyway, I don't know the full details, but I've been overhearing rumours about a certain group of Alphas who've been taking explicit interest in vulnerable Omegas. I don't know their names, or how many of them there are, but word has it they're organizing a secret event that will take place during the ball this weekend that may put these Omegas in danger."

"Where did you hear that?"

"It's been floating around the ABO over the last couple of days. They're looking into it as we speak, researching names, opening up missing persons files... They're keeping it quiet for now, otherwise the entire state's just going to go into full blown panic mode." He sighs disgruntledly. "In the meantime, I'll help you keep an eye on Patrick. If anything happens to him, and you're not there, I will be." He shakes my shoulder cordially. He means it.

I manage to relax a little when I see Patrick walk out onto the stage. There are a thousand reasons for him to be faking that smile, only his smile could never be fake. The stage is his second home. Who am I to appraise him? The Alphas don't react any differently; there are no suspicious lurkers, from what I can see, but, bizarrely, I still feel an enduring urge in the back of my mind to shut everything down and get him out of here. We can go home, lock the doors, wait out all of this unforeseen drama until it blows over. The secret event will be infiltrated. The ball will continue on without a hitch. Buzz will reappear unharmed.