He heard through the grapevine that Mr. Sub—Ruso was Aria’s old neighbor back in Vegas. Not only that, but apparently, they were also childhood friends of some sort.
So Mr. Ruso not only knew Aria but was close to her family too? What kind of unfair advantage was that?
Before he could continue to ruminate over that fact, his phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Adrian, it’s Carmen. Where’s your dad?” Carmen’s voice was rushed which added to his concern.
“He’s taking a nap. Why? What’s going on?” Adrian began to walk over to his parents’s room, and feverishly knocked on their door.
“It’s Mira. She’s gone and Aria’s in the hospital right now.”
Adrian froze as everything else fell into silence around him.
His dad came out of his room, and Adrian barely registered that until he grabbed the phone. Words were exchanged between his dad and Carmen, but Adrian had a hard time understanding any of them.
It felt as if he was submerged underwater, and he was struggling to breathe, but unable to swim to the surface. He didn’t even realize that he was in his dad’s car and were on their way to the hospital until they entered the parking lot.
The white walls of the hospital and the silence of the medical staff killed him on the inside. He was never a fan of hospitals: the needles, the blood, and the smell of sanitation chemicals made his stomach turn.
Gross.
The only part he liked about the building was the staff because they were the real superheroes when the world needed them the most. As they walked through the building, they found Carmen and Alpha Joel right outside the hallway.
Adrian only had one question in mind.
“Is she okay?”
“Are you two alright?” his dad asked the better question, especially considering that they were clearly distraught, but Adrian needed to know if Aria was fine.
As if Carmen could read his mind, she answered him, “She’s okay, she only had a minor concussion, but besides that she’s fine.”
Just a minor concussion. Adrian took in a few deep breaths but continued to silently chant in his head.
Okay. Okay. It’s okay. It’ll be fine—
“What about Mira?” his dad asked softly.
Alpha Joel didn’t respond right away, and Adrian felt sick to his stomach. He then thought about the recent crimes, and couldn’t ignore the fact that Mira was the shifter out of the two. Plus, it wasn’t like Aria’s condition was that bad, considering the position of the car they were in earlier. It was clearly an accident that was only meant to harm and not kill.
The correlations kept adding up and he was starting to feel even worse by the second. Alpha Joel suggested that they talk in a private which was probably a smart idea. Even though he wanted to dash towards Aria’s room to see with his own eyes that she was really okay, he also had to know what was really going on.
After they spoke to one of the staff members, they were able to secure a room that was private enough for them to properly talk about the situation.
Once the door was closed, Carmen was the first to speak, “Think that it’s them?”
Adrian was confused. Who was ‘them’?
“It could be,” his dad responded but not entirely sure.
“She’s part of our pack, and she’s gonna be my beta. Whoever is behind these murder sprees . . .” Carmen’s voice was more pronounced and fueled by emotions. “It has to be them.”
Again with ‘them’.
“Settle down, Carmen.” Alpha Joel was trying to be the voice of reason, and Adrian couldn’t help but silently commend the man’s ability to keep his cool. “But she does have a point. Mira’s a good target. Better than Aria at least.”
His dad looked at him as if he was trying to tell him something.
Oh.
Right.
“Aria could be a high target too. She’s Mira’s best friend and . . . my soul mate.” He felt a little awkward mentioning that bit, but he felt it was necessary.
“But what does that have to do with anything? Aria knows nothing.” Alpha Joel sounded so sure.
Adrian shrugged feeling just a little foolish. “I don’t know, I just thought it might be useful to know.”
“You didn’t tell her anything, right?” Alpha Joel pressed. “We’ve been careful about what we’ve said. Have you?”
“I haven’t told her anything!”
“So can we assume that Aria should be safe?” his dad asked.
“Not entirely, but at least safer.”
That did little to relieve his anxiety. Adrian looked to his dad and Alpha Joel and hoped that they were formulating some sort of plan.
“Anything at the crime scene?” his dad asked.
Alpha Joel replied, “Broken glass, a spilled Frappuccino, and—”
“Blood,” Carmen continued it for him. “It’s not Aria’s because she was clean, save the Frappuccino on her shirt, but it wasn’t all Mira’s either.”
“Is that confirmed?”
“It’s confirmed.” Alpha Joel nodded.
“Anything else?”
“No, the NAHC took the rest. They said they’ll let us know if they find anything. The police are also investigating. Hopefully, they’ll also be able to find something,” Alpha Joel replied.
“How are we going to find Mira?” Carmen was asking all the heavy hitters.
Silence enveloped the room.
Where would they even start?
Alpha Joel spoke, “First, we’ll report this, then we’ll talk to the NAHC. Maybe they’ll have something to say about this and hopefully we can get leads.”
“I think we should also make a curfew. To make ourselves harder to target,” Carmen added.
“But once they figure that out, that’ll make us a bigger target,” his dad replied. “Our schedules will become too predictable and it’s
