Chapter Four
Odin had tried to encourage him from the room a handful of times already but Jay had decided that he wasn’t budging. They were sitting off to the side and he had a tablet and a set of earphones but he couldn’t focus on what was on the screen for very long. He could see Byron from where he sat but still felt the need to constantly check the Alpha was there. Byron’s business associates had given Jay a wide berth when they came in. Jay was used to that, but he thought it a little unfair. There hadn’t been an incident in months.
He also thought it unfair that a breakfast meeting didn’t have any actual breakfast.
Odin took a seat on the couch next to him, speaking in quiet undertones.
“What’s gotten into you today? Normally we’d have to tie you down to keep you still this long.”
Jay’s dream from the night before came back to him, a sense of dread washing over him. He curled up tighter and shook his head. There weren’t words. Or, if there were, he didn’t have them.
Odin didn’t press him. That was one of the things Jay liked about him. He knew when to talk, when to listen and, most importantly, when to eat. Jay never went hungry when Odin was around. Byron wouldn’t let him go hungry either, but the Alpha sometimes forgot to eat and Jay wouldn’t eat until he did. He saw it as loyalty; Byron was his Alpha. Odin just thought he was silly.
He passed the tablet over to Odin, watching as the man flicked through news sites lightning fast. Jay didn’t know what was so fascinating about all those headlines about places and people he didn’t know. Why did people care so much?
Byron’s phone rang and the Alpha glanced at the screen. His expression had Jay sitting up. It was someone important.
“Odin, will you get this?” Byron called and a second later the phone sailed through the air towards them. Odin caught it neatly, answering it as he sprang to his feet and stepped out into the hall.
Byron watched the door after he left, an uneasy expression on his face, and it was enough to have Jay on alert.
Seconds later, the door opened again.
“Byron, you need to take this.”
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” his Alpha said politely, getting to his feet, and crossing the room unhurriedly. Jay got up and met him at the door, stepping outside right behind him. Odin shut the door firmly and they moved a little ways down the corridor while Byron talked.
Jay picked up bits and pieces from the one side he could hear clearly and the muffled tones coming from the phone. It was Sebastian. Something bad had happened. They were asking for help. Then Byron was assuring them they’d do everything they could.
“It’s Adam and Ben,” he said as he ended the call, his face a mask of concern.
Jay had met them when they’d visited Ro and Seb’s baby. “Their house was attacked last night; their son Noah has been taken.”
“Who’d want to take a kid?” Odin asked at the same moment Jay asked, “What about Xander?”
“Xander is safe. It seems they may have taken Noah because he’s an Omega.”
Odin was surprised, but Jay wasn’t. “An Omega?”
“Yes,” Byron replied. “I had no idea either. They were keeping it under wraps. Only a handful of people knew.”
“I knew,” Jay said, earning him raised eyebrows from the two men.
“How?” Byron said.
Jay shrugged. “He’s like me.” He didn’t know how else to explain it. There was a familiarity he felt around Noah the same as with Ro and the other Omegas he’d met.
“Who took him?” Odin asked.
“They have no idea. They’re asking for help. As many people as we can spare, as many ears to the ground as we can manage.”
“I’ll get the word out,” Odin said, pulling out his phone. “We’ve been listening out for any news about Omegas since the trade talks. I’ll see if there have been any grumblings recently.”
“Good, I’ll go speak with my uncle, see which teams we can free up.”
Byron stepped back in to finish up with the businessmen. They left a few minutes later, looking disgruntled at the abrupt ending of their meeting.
They were back in the car before Jay thought to ask the question he couldn’t think of an answer to.
“Noah’s just a baby. He won’t be ready to mate for years and years. So why would they take him?”
Byron glanced over at him, his expression grim.
“I don’t know, Jay. Maybe they thought it would be easier to take him while he’s small than when he’s bigger. He’s easier to control at this age. Easier to train.”
Jay shuddered at the word train. That was what those traffickers had tried to do to him. And it was a word used by a business associate of Byron’s when he’d said something Jay didn’t like and put his hand on Byron’s elbow. Jay had growled at him. He’d said Jay needed training. “A few days with a whip and a leash and you’d have that mongrel under control.”
Odin had escorted the associate out and Raventree hadn’t done business with him again. But Jay couldn’t stop the words from playing on his mind.
His reaction hadn’t gone unnoticed by Byron, who took off his seatbelt and slid across so they were sitting side by side, pressed close together.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find Noah and get him home to his parents. Glenoak have a lot of friends. We’ll do everything we can to bring Adam and Ben’s son back to them.”
Jay turned his head towards Byron, nodding against his chest.
He felt the oddest pang of sadness at the words. Noah, a little Omega boy, was missing, and all these people would come out searching for him and that was a really good thing. But if that was good, if that was right, then why had things been so different for Jay? If Omega were precious and important, why had he been left alone, abandoned in a forest? And why had no one ever come back for him?