The look on Nate’s face absolutely broke my heart.

Pain, disbelief, mixed with anger and hope. I almost wished none of the other night’s events had happened, just so I wouldn’t have to see him this way.

“What!?”

His voice was hollow, just a shell of sorrow wrapping him in its cold embrace. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and I sat back on my knees to look at him.

“Tyler,” he said with confusion. “What are you talking about? Does this have something to do with what happened to you? With how you got stabbed?”

I nodded slowly. “Yes. It does. I was in Portsmouth with my father—”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Nate said, shaking his head and rising from the bed. My heart sank as he walked to the bathroom. “I – I need to clean up first.”

I should have waited, I thought. But waiting had felt wrong. This wasn’t news I could keep from him, and I felt guilty, having not told him the moment I saw him. But my desire for him had been too much to bear, and I hadn’t been able to help myself.

I heard the water running from the sink and looked through the door to see him running a washcloth over his body. I slid into my boxers as he came back into the room.

His head was down and his eyes were closed as he leaned against the wall. He was preparing himself.

“Okay,” he said. “Tell me.”

With a deep breath I began the story. “I was in Portsmouth with my dad. He had a business meeting at a hotel and I met a man at the bar. His name was Harvey. He was drunk, and I guess he thought I was…someone I wasn’t. He gave me a card and an address.”

I paused, trying to read Nate’s body language. He looked tired, or like he’d just retreated into some space where I couldn’t follow him.

“I went there, and…,” I slowed as I recalled the grizzly scene: Terrence, the half walls and the dark-suited alphas, buying and selling omegas, children…

“They were selling omegas, Nate,” I told him. “Selling them like they were animals, pieces of meat...it was disgusting.”

“And my son was there…?” It wasn’t so much a question, as an answer to the question he already knew.

“Yes,” I replied slowly. “I – I had him in my hands, Nate! I had him, and I was out the door. But they chased me down. They tackled me in the street and tried to kill me.”

“Your stab wound…”

“Yes,” I replied. The pain I felt when I looked into his eyes was worse than the agony of the blade that had pierced my guts. I stroked his cheeks with my hands, trying to keep him calm, but it was futile.

Scrambling out from beneath me, Nate got to his feet and began to pace the room. I felt terrible. Seeing him like this broke my heart. We’d just shared something so beautiful, and now something evil had its hands around our beautiful bond, tearing and squeezing at the love we shared.

“So my – my son is gone!?” he shouted. I could see the tension in his body, like he wanted to hit someone. “Just like that?”

I had to do something. This wasn’t my fault, and I knew that, but I felt like it was. If only I’d gotten out of there with his son in my arms…if only I’d been faster, stronger…then Nate wouldn’t be going through this now.

“Nate,” I said, standing and approaching him like he was a beast ready to lash out. “It’s not hopeless—”

“Not hopeless!?” he roared, spinning to face me. The look on his face was devastating. His cheeks were crimson and if looks could kill, the entire camp would be dead. “He’s gone now, Tyler!? What in the world can we possibly do!?”

“I have the man's scent,” I told him simply. My words hung in the air as Nate stared at me, trying to make sense of what I’d just said. “Here…”

Leaning down, I found the scrap of the man’s snakeskin suit in my pants and handed it to him. The scent had faded considerably, but there was still enough there. He brought the scrap to his nose and inhaled deeply, and I could see him imprinting the scent in his mind. When he brought his hand down, there was a new determination in his eyes.

“He stinks,” he told me.

“Of course he does,” I replied, approaching my new mate and wrapping my arms around him. “And that’s what’s going to make it easy for me to find him!”

“You?” Nate said skeptically. “What do you mean you?”

I looked back at him, perplexed. What was he saying? But then I realized – I didn’t even have to ask the question, but I did.

“You mean, you’re coming with me?”

“To find my son!?” he replied, swelling his chest as the look of determination on his face solidified, like he was carved out of stone. “You bet your ass I am!”