Chapter One Unaccounted For

Bayne POV

“Has anyone heard from Ryker? He missed check-in this morning.” I asked

my brothers, Lynx and Syn.

“Nothing yet. I tried mind-linking but all is quiet.” Lynx responded.

“I left you to deal with that when he went AWOL last night.” Syn added.

“Well, I haven’t heard anything since he walked off with that female bearing a certain look in his eyes, like he had a purpose. He’s not here obviously, and I’ve never known him to spend a whole night with any female by choice. I have a bad feeling about this.” I concluded. The three of us sit around the plain living room, drinking coffee at 7:00am. I am working on the computer while they clean their weapons on the coffee table with the tv on in the background.

I attempted to trace Rykers’ phone again, but no luck. I’m the computer genius out of the four of us. We are brothers, but not by blood. Each once of us has a unique skill that benefits our team. Ryker is the Alpha or leader of our pack whereas I am the tech genius. I deal with anything and everything technical. Linx handles the public relations aspect and is the shoulder to cry on for the families after we have no choice but to give them bad news. I have always suspected he has some empathic abilities he tries to hide. Syn on the other hand is the opposite. Where he lacks empathy, he makes up for in weaponry and muscle. He tends to keep to himself most of the time, always quiet and watching everything. Syn is the one who notices things others usually don’t. He does not let anything ever distract him.

We grew up in multiple orphanages and foster homes mostly separated almost our whole lives back then. We can’t really remember a time before that, though if any of us did we don’t talk about it. Ryker is the oldest of us so he may remember more then any of us do. We have been close since our pack was wiped out and we ended up on the streets fending for ourselves at a very young age. We can’t really recall what life was like before, but it had to be better then instantly becoming rogue over night. The only reason we are not anymore is because Ryker took the mantle as our Alpha, the way it was meant to be, as soon as he hit the age of sixteen. Which is almost unheard of for a male to become alpha so young. Unless, of course the previous Alpha died and left a male heir. We didn’t have to live apart anymore, which we were all grateful for.

As we sit in our temporary home we share, I continue to brainstorm ideas of how to track our leader. There has been times over the years when other Alpha’s would occasionally try to take us over and force us to merge into their much larger pack. They tried to make us submit. But it’s in Ryker’s nature to protect us. His father must have been a true Alpha which would make Ryker one as well. We are all that is left to my knowledge. Now we follow him out of faith and loyalty. As it has always been the four of us, we are now well known as Orion’s Guild, or the OG for short. We are an elite team of Rogue Hunters, rogues of all types and species. We occasionally handle the worst of the worst.

Suddenly, the front door whips open with a very rough looking Ryker literally dragging his feet. It’s been quite some time since I’ve witnessed such a state, at least not from him, especially not being bathed in blood. The three of us jump up at the sudden unexpected intrusion, blades at the ready. After recognizing the intruder, we sheathed our blades to assess his damage.

Lynx inquires before I get the chance, “What the hell happened to you? You look like you have one foot in the grave.”

His hair in clear disarray. Not just bed head but maybe sex hair. Plenty of fingers went through that hair, whether from stress or otherwise. His plain black jeans and torn black t-shirt have definitely seen better days.

“Keep your F-ing voice down. I have the worst Hanover of my life.” Is all he says when he goes into the kitchen and pores himself a shot of bourbon. We all follow to investigate, so curious since this is so unheard of for him to even get a hangover at all.

He stands there, leaning against the bar counter with another shot at the ready and his eyes closed. After no response for a few minutes, I ask him, “ What happened last night, Brother?”