The Four Beta Brothers
Chapter 89

AXEL

As Asher and I arrived at the house we grew up in, immediately something felt wrong. I ran to the house as soon as we were out of the taxi, even though it had been hours since Ethan had called us. It was unlikely that Nathan was still there, so running wouldn't make much of a difference, but if there were any clues to what happened to my younger brother, I needed to know immediately. As I reached for the door handle, I noticed the door was splintered at the side. I turned to Asher, who was only a few steps behind me. I pointed at the door and linked him. Someone broke into the house.

Asher swallowed hard as he looked at the door jam. We need to be careful. They could still be here. Asher didn't have any of the weapons he normally carried when on a warrior mission, since we had to leave everything behind to come after Nathan. However, he extended his claws, and I followed suit.

The chances of the intruder still being at the house were slim, but we needed to be extra cautious. We opened the door as quietly as possible, and once we were inside, we split up to cover more ground faster. The house was fairly large, since it was originally meant for a family of seven, but it was smaller than the alpha's pack house.

I took the upstairs, checking each room one by one for any signs of a struggle. The upstairs only had bedrooms and bathrooms in it. None of the rooms looked unusual, but when I got to the bedroom at the end of the hallway, I paused. I had avoided this room for years, unable to look at the name carved into the door.

"James" was embedded into the door in large cursive letters. I pressed my hand against the door, remembering my older brother. The day he died marked the day our family shattered. My mother insisted we keep his room in memory of him, and after she was gone, no one dared to change the room.

I had caught Ethan sitting in the room a few times, but I could never bring myself to go inside. I was too furious, and I wanted to hold onto that anger, because without it, I was afraid the grief would consume me. So I ditched whatever training sessions my father ordered me to go to, I avoided family dinners when I wasn't dragged out of my room and forced to sit there, and I became the brother to hate.

It was easier than dealing with the overwhelming loss of James, Juniper, and then my mother.

I reached for the door handle, but when I felt the cool metal under my hand, I froze. Even after all of these years, the thought of facing James' death head on terrified me. I knew Nathan thought I avoided all of them because I didn't care. He never understood that I was too afraid of the grief, too afraid that being around my brothers would only remind me of the one who wasn't with us.

It made me feel pathetic, so I did whatever I could to hide that from the world. I didn't want anyone to know I was still the scared little boy who couldn't face death.

I didn't want to be that scared little boy anymore. I didn't want to be the black sheep of the family. I couldn't be. Not when Juniper was in my life. I wanted to be everything she needed and deserved.

I pushed the door open and stared into the room. It was covered in dust, showing the years no one even dared to enter the room. It was as if James had been forgotten as we all grew up and started living our own lives. The pain of his death faded into the background, hiding in the corners of our memories until Juniper came along and shone light onto them once again.

I forced myself to step into the room and take in the memories I had tried so hard to suppress just to survive. I looked around at the soccer ball in the corner of the room and remembered all of the times James outran me to score goals and the one time Nathan outran all of us, despite the significant age gap. The old game controller to an outdated system reminded me of all of the late nights we all piled in James' room to play video games way past our bedtime.

I took another step, and this one was easier to take than the last one. I saw the old rabbit plush James slept with every night, despite our father telling him he was too old to sleep with stuffed toys. I reached for the rabbit, wanting to take it with me, but then I noticed something strange about the side table by his bed.

The dust had been disturbed on the surface. I wasn't the only one who had been in here recently.

Come to Father's office now, Asher linked with an urgency that made my body go rigid.

I grabbed the rabbit off of James' bed and hurried out of his room. I took the stairs three at a time, and I was out of breath by the time I reached the office. Asher was crouched in the middle of the room, sorting through scattered papers. There was broken glass all around him, and the wooden chair meant for visitors was shattered.

"I think Nathan was attacked here," Asher said, not bothering to look up at me.

I looked around and had no doubt that was true. I looked at the shattered chair, and the smell of blood hit my nose. Blood covered one of the legs, but it had dried hours ago. "I think this chair was smashed over Nathan's head." "That would explain the noises Ethan heard," Asher said. "Whatever contract Nathan mentioned doesn't appear to be here. Did you find anything?"

"Someone was in James' room," I said. "It didn't look like anything was out of place, though." I squeezed the rabbit in my hand. I knew the possibility of Nathan being in danger was high, but I had held onto the hope that it was just a series of unfortunate accidents. I knew that there was no hope that was true now, and knowing I could lose another brother made the anger in my chest burn brighter than it had in a long, long time.

Asher stood up. "Do you think Nathan was the one to go into his room?"

"Maybe." I felt like I knew nothing anymore. I had been angry with my father for years. I hated the way he treated us children like cattle, grooming us for his own purposes in life. However, knowing who he truly was still felt like some sort of alternate reality, one where he had been the monster under my bed the entire time.

"Ethan's calling," Asher announced. He put his phone on speaker when he answered.

"Why isn't Axel answering his phone?" Ethan demanded. He sounded unusually stressed.

Asher looked at me for the answer. I pulled out my phone and frowned. "I forgot to turn it on after the flight."

"Do either of you have any messages from Juniper?" Ethan asked.

"I don't," Asher said.

"Give me a moment," I said, waiting for my phone to boot up.

"What's going on?" Asher asked. "Isn't Juniper with you? Her flight should've landed now, right?"

"It landed, but she wasn't on it," Ethan said. "I even called the airline, and they confirmed she never boarded her flight. I tried calling her, but she's not answering." The panic in Ethan's voice made my own panic start to rise.

Juniper was supposed to get on her flight shortly after us, and we were in a public place. She was supposed to be safe. If I thought there was any possibility she wouldn't have been safe, I wouldn't have left her side.

Asher's eyes were wide, and I knew he was thinking the same thing, even though neither of us would say it out loud.

"Maybe she just missed her flight, and she's on the next one, which is why she's not answering," Asher suggested, but he didn't sound very hopeful.

"If that was the case, she would've messaged me," Ethan said. "She would've messaged one of us."

"I don't understand what could've happened to her in the few minutes apart from us," Asher said, his voice even tighter than before.

I tapped my fingers, waiting for my phone to load. When it finally did, a voicemail from Juniper popped up. "Hold on," I said, interrupting Asher and Ethan. "I have a voicemail from her."

Asher and Ethan went silent, waiting for me to listen to it.

I took a few steps away and played the message. "Axel, I realized I might know where to find the proof we need to go to Alpha Williams. I'm not getting on the flight to go back to CUW. I have to go back to my room in my pack house. I have some stuff from my childhood that has just been sitting in a box, and I'm hoping I kept something that will help. My flight is about to take off, and I don't have time to call you and Ethan, but you should land before my original flight was supposed to. I'm hoping you'll get this message and pass it onto Ethan, so he's not waiting for me or worrying.

"I know this wasn't the plan, but I'm not sorry. I couldn't just sit around and do nothing while you all try to fix this. I'll be careful, so don't worry. I-”

"Miss, you need to put your phone away now. We're about to take off."

"I know, I just need another second."

"You don't have another second. Put your phone away now, or we'll have you removed."

The phone clicked off and I gritted my teeth. Hearing Juniper's voice was soothing, and I just wanted to hear her again.

"What did she say?" Asher asked immediately.

I shoved my phone in my pocket and my fingers through my hair. I quickly summed up her message to them, and Asher looked relieved and then distressed. "Why would she go alone like that?" Asher asked.

"She didn't want to just sit around and wait for us to do all of the work," I said. I understood the need to do something, but I wished she hadn't gone alone. "With the hunter after her, does she not realize how dangerous that is?" Asher asked.

I didn't respond. I didn't want to reveal just how much that same thought nearly paralyzed me.

"You two continue looking for Nathan. I'm going after her," Ethan declared.

I knew that was the only logical option, but I hated knowing that Ethan was the one going after Juniper and not me.