“Damn it,” Tyler swore.

It had been hours. I was starting to think of all the possibilities, all the bad things that could have happened to James, running through nightmare after another in my head. I was on my feet in seconds, and I went to peer at his computer hopefully, even though I didn’t understand what I saw there.

“What?” I asked.

“His cell phone. It’s here at the house.”

“It’s--what? I…” My heart sank. “Fuck. His clothes. I didn’t even check…”

I ran into the bathroom and shook his jacket out, feeling the weight of the phone slip from his pocket to my hand.

“Fuck,” I growled again, and threw the thing against the wall.

So much time wasted, for so little. If I’d just thought to check, I could have had Tyler working on something more useful, we could have let Julia stay at home.

Just then, she spoke up.

“Uh, guys? I’ve got something.”

She turned the volume on her laptop as high as she could get it and then managed to blow up the audio even more. It was James, and I could hear Cal’s voice, too. I growled low in my throat, unable to hear it. Stefan came over too, and we all stared at the black video, listening intently.

“C’mon, James,” I murmured softly. “Show us what we need.”

There it was. Just a brief flash, but he showed us the door number.

“I’m coming with you,” Stefan demanded, as I went to get my gun, and my coat. He was already pulling on his shoes, so I nodded and gave him a gun of his own.

Julia stood up and tried to block the door.

“Are you sure you two should be doing this? That building is going to have security. You might not help James at all. He’s taking Cal down. If you get arrested, or killed...”

My eyes narrowed. I loved Julia, the way you loved someone you couldn’t be with, not ever again. I didn’t wish her any harm. But she couldn’t understand the way I felt about James.

“He’s pregnant. I’m not leaving him alone with that bastard.”

Already voices were raised on the livestream. I pointed to her laptop, staring her in the eyes.

“I’m not waiting for that to get worse.”

Tyler, I noticed, didn’t even try to stop us. He just kissed Stefan and whispered something to him tenderly. Stefan nodded, cupping his cheek and kissing him once more, passionately, before he pulled away.

“Let’s go,” he said, holding the apartment door open, “We have to try to hail a cab.”

I pushed past Julia and led him out the door.

“If we don’t get there in time…”

“We’ll get there,” Stefan promised. “James can hold him off until we get there.”

We were halfway down the hall when Julia came running after us, holding up her keys.

“Take my car, it’s in the parking lot.”

I stared at her, stunned, as I took the keys. She growled.

“Go!”

It was snowing on the drive over, but I still drove like nothing else mattered. When we got to the building, it immediately became obvious how difficult it was going to be to get in. The front of the building was lined with reporters, and there were two armed security guards at the door.

“Go around the back,” Stefan suggested, “They’ll have a door for the set-up crew to come in through.”

I pulled around the block and parked near the back. I got out of the car, watching thoughtfully. There was a white caterer’s truck, and two men unloading it. One of the men, a small, pretty omega, was watching something on his phone instead of working very much.

“C’mon, Alex, you gonna help or what?”

“Yeah, just one sec,” he said distractedly, still staring at his phone.

The other caterer rolled his eyes and took a box into the building, and I signaled to Stefan. It was our chance.

We both casually ducked behind the truck and tried to walk into the building.

“Hey, what are you two doing?” Alex demanded, finally looking up for his phone.

I winced. Fuck.

“We have to get in. Please,” I said suddenly. I didn’t have time to lie. “My omega is in there, the love of my life, he’s pregnant with my child and I think he’s in danger. Please.”

Alex’s eyes widened, and he held up his phone, which held a blank screen, but I could clearly hear James’ voice, snarling and panicked. In pain.

I was horrified, and it must have showed on my face.

“That’s him! That’s James, please,” I begged.

“Go,” the omega said, terror in his eyes. “Save him. Here,” he tossed me his access pass. “For the elevator. They’re on the third floor. GO!”

I couldn’t waste time thanking him, and Stefan was dragging me by the arm, anyway, but I would forever be grateful to that omega. The elevator ride was hell. I paced, checking my gun was loaded with silver rounds, slamming my thick finger into the third floor button over and over again even though it did nothing.

As we stepped out onto the third floor, a bullet whizzed past my head that I only barely dodged, rolling to the side. Stefan fired a shot back.

“Security. You go, I’ll take care of them.”

From the ground, I looked up at Stefan with uncertainty. I didn’t want to leave my best friend, who only had one good leg, to get shot. Tyler would kill me if anything happened to him. But Stefan was also an incredibly capable soldier, and we had split up on missions before.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said, ducking into a doorway for cover from the bullets he was exchanging with the guards. He gave me a little grin. “It’s just like old times, yeah? Go!”

So I ran, around the corner, down the hall to the door I’d seen in the video. I didn’t hear anything, and I was praying that James was still alive, that they were even still in the same room. I didn’t wait to knock. I slammed my boot into the door hard, knocking it off its hinges. It fell to the ground.

James stood, soaked in blood, his hazel eyes shining green with rage, above a prone wolf, equally soaked in blood. His jaw was tight, his teeth were bared, and for a moment, he seemed lost in that primal rage. Then his eyes came into focus, he saw me, and everything softened. His shoulders fell from that angry posture, his balled fists relaxed, and all the anger left his face.

He fell to his knees, and a tear washed a clean trail out of the blood that covered his beautiful face.

“James,” I breathed, shocked. Whatever horrible scenario I had imagined, it hadn’t been this.

I walked over to him and knelt across from him, Cal’s body between us.

“He’s dead?” I asked softly.

He nodded numbly, silently.

I reached over and touched his cheek, wiping away the tears, the blood.

“It’s going to be okay,” I promised. “We’ll get you out of here.”