27. Sedrick
Sedrick
“I ’ve had the displeasure of meeting with Hamish McIntyre as well.” Ray sat in one of the twin chairs opposite my desk. Burt and Oliver were busy in the mine and hadn’t dirtied the chairs with dust yet.
I grunted and leaned forward, elbows on my desk. “He’s bold, even for a fairy.” If Ray was offended, he didn’t show it. “He knew I wasn’t home, that it was just Phil and the children. Hamish had no right to do that.”
Ray set his smartphone aside and popped his briefcase open. Pulling out a group of papers, Ray tossed them across the desk at me.
“What’s this about?” I asked while tugging them closer. Most likely I didn’t want to know the answer.
“That,” Ray pointed an elegantly long finger at the stapled group of papers on the top, “is why the law firm your brother hired pulled their countersuit against Arie Belview. It’s also the reason a judge agreed to hear the case. I’ll give you a minute to read the highlights.”
I took that minute, my anger growing and jaw tightening as each second passed. “This is bullshit.” I tossed the copies back at Ray, disgusted with their content. “Will wouldn’t do something like that. It’s not how an alpha treats his mate.”
Ray collected the papers, flipping through them and tucking them back into his briefcase. “That’s not how most alphas treat their mates, but you and I both know that doesn’t make it impossible.”
My wolf bristled, and the world sharpened.
“Will wouldn’t have forced Kelsie to do anything.
” I staunchly defended my brother. “That’s not how we were raised, and that’s not the kind of relationship they had.
Kelsie wanted away from her family just as badly as Will wanted to keep her away from them. ”
Those written, toxic words spoke otherwise. They accused my brother of using his alpha power over his mate, forcing her into a legal agreement to leave Dillon and Ruthie in my custody and deny visitation rights to anyone with the last name of Belview.
Ray wasn’t impressed with my posturing. “Whether I agree or not is irrelevant, Sedrick. The document appears legal and has Kelsie’s signature on the bottom. It’s dated three days before the accident and their deaths.”
“It has to be a forgery,” I ground out through elongated teeth.
Ray tsked. “Of course it’s a forgery. The problem is that it’s a damn good one. I can’t imagine what kind of funds Arie spent on something like this, but it had to be astronomical.”
Ray had just said his agreement was irrelevant, but that wasn’t strictly true, and my wolf subsided enough for reason to take over again. “Brownie?”
“Most likely,” Ray agreed. “A fairy would be capable, but that would break the law.”
Breaking fairy law was nearly anathema to fairies themselves. It was too much like a lie, and fairies didn’t lie. They twisted and tortured the truth, bending it to their will. But an outright lie was toxic.
“Shit.” I scrubbed my hands over my face. My beard still needed to be trimmed.
“There’s more.” Ray pointed to the second group of stapled papers I’d yet to read and throw back at him.
“I don’t think I want to read that,” I answered but still reached for them.
“No, you don’t. But you need to. It’s about Phil.”
My claws erupted, puncturing the papers. It had happened before. Ray rarely gave me the originals of anything.
With my wolf at the fore, my eyesight sharpened, and the words flew off the paper, landing in my brain with a sickening thud.
“They’re questioning if Phil is a true home-and-hearth pixie?
They’re petitioning the court to look into Phil’s heritage and see if any other species is mixed within?
” I crumpled the papers, nearly shredding them.
It’s what I’d feared, but I still asked, “Why?”
“Apparently, Hamish’s little trip to your home wasn’t just to inspect your house and see if the gnome situation had truly been resolved.” Ray’s voice was far too calm.
“He came to inspect Phil too,” I snarled.
Ray agreed. “Most likely your altercation with Arie in town initiated the interest. Hamish is questioning if Phil is truly what he claims to be.”
“How could you mistake Phil for anything else? His hair’s pink, along with his eyelashes, toenails, and fingernails. He’s got wings, for Moon Goddess’s sake. And pixie dust when he so much as twitches one of them. He’s—”
“Tall,” Ray cut in. “Don’t tell me when you first saw him that you didn’t wonder if Phil was the real deal, pixie wings or not.”
“I—” Shame slammed into me. I had wondered that. “Regardless, it shouldn’t matter. This,” I held up the wadded ball of pierced paper, “is nothing short of discrimination. No judge would allow this.”
Ray didn’t try to retrieve this trashed document.
With a single, raised crimson eyebrow, he stared at the mangled paper and said, “It’s another way to establish doubt.
Whether it has any legal basis or not, it will effectively plant suspicion about your judgment and who you allow into your home.
” Ray ignored my low growl of displeasure and surprised me by asking, “I don’t suppose you’ve allowed him to bond to your home? ”
“Bond?” My wolf stood, paying as much attention as me. “You mean like garden pixies can do with the land?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. As a home-and-hearth pixie, Phil could bond to your home and those who live within it.
It would mean he considers it his home as well.
It is very special, and although it isn’t rare, it often takes time and deep attachment.
It also usually takes the permission and encouragement of the homeowner. ”
I thought back to everything Phil had done for Dillon, Ruthie, and the house.
As far as I was concerned, he’d worked miracles, but according to Phil, Peaches had worked miracles at his orchard and wasn’t officially bonded yet.
When he was, nothing and no one would be able to harm what Peaches considered under his protection.
Phil and I hadn’t discussed it, but I wanted to know more. “How, exactly, would that manifest?”
“Typically, as a barrier around the home or the ones within it. Home-and-hearth pixies that bond to those living within the home have also been known to create a protective barrier around those individuals even outside the home.” Ray tapped his chin in thought.
“I’m not sure if you’d be able to feel or see it, especially if Phil considered you one of his souls to protect.
It might manifest in other ways too. I’ve heard of homes responding to their home-and-hearth pixies, almost like sentient beings. ”
Memories of Martin’s Boarding House came to mind. I’d realized it had a home-and-hearth pixie patron the minute I’d walked through the door. I also remembered doors opening without so much as a light tap on Posey’s part.
I considered Ray’s words and shook my head.
“I knew when I walked into the boarding house I found Phil in that a pixie was bonded to the building. I haven’t felt anything like that at home.
Maybe I wouldn’t feel it in my own home, but regardless, Phil hasn’t spoken about it, and I think he would.
” I couldn’t imagine Phil bonding to the house without speaking to me first. Strange as it sounded, I thought he’d see it as impolite.
Ray sighed and looked disappointed. “It was a long shot, but worth asking.” Ray looked at the destroyed papers still grasped in my hand.
“Nothing is below Arie Belview. This legal request will drag Phil into a nasty smear campaign. It’s the first shot across the bow.
They’ll keep digging, and if Arie Belview is willing to pay for a forged document that claims his granddaughter was manipulated through alpha power into signing over custody of her children, then it isn’t a stretch that he’ll manufacture dirt on Phil.
And with a forger this good in his pocket, nothing is beyond him. ”
I stared at the hated thing in my palm before I threw it into the nearby trash. I thought over Ray’s words and mumbled, “The first shot.” The question was, what would be the second or the third? And who’d get caught in the crossfire?
Ray clicked his briefcase closed, and the sound was far louder than it should have been. “What lengths are you willing to traverse to keep Phil safe?”
My head snapped up, eyes sharp and narrowed. “I’d do anything to keep Phil safe.”
Ray’s posture remained stiff. “Including letting him go?”
I reared back so hard my chair tilted and returned to the floor with a deafening thud. “Let him go?”
“As much as I hate to say this, Sedrick. It might be the only way to keep him safe. It wouldn’t be permanent. You could always rehire him once this lawsuit is over and Arie Belview has been put in his place. It shouldn’t hurt Phil, as long as he hasn’t bonded to you or your home.”
I thought about those words, twisting them over and over again in my head. My wolf howled in protest. It wanted Phil in our home—permanently. I didn’t disagree. What it wanted more was Phil safe. Again, I wished I could disagree.
My heart sank. I didn’t want to lose Phil.
Surprisingly, he’d become an integral part of my life, saying nothing about how his absence would affect the children.
Dillon and Ruthie liked Phil, but more than that, they trusted him.
Phil had more than proven his willingness to protect my niece and nephew.
“I’m sorry,” Ray said as he stood, getting ready to leave. “I’m the one that encouraged you to look for a home-and-hearth pixie. I stand by that idea; I just didn’t anticipate who you’d pick and how much he’d mean to you and the children.”
I lowered my gaze and stared at my nails, no longer sharp, bitter claws. My wolf receded, brooding on the idea of losing Phil. “You’re not the only one who miscalculated.”
Ray rounded my desk. Fairies weren’t nearly as tactile as wolves, but Ray made an effort by placing his hand on my shoulder and giving a hint of a squeeze. Fairies appeared thin and frail, but their strength was as equal to any werewolf.
“I’m not wrong, am I?” Ray’s voice was whisper-soft, low enough that prying ears wouldn’t be able to hear.
“Wrong?” I asked, even though I knew what Ray was asking.
“About Phil. About the way you feel about him,” Ray clarified.
I sat there, staring at my nails until my vision blurred. The denial was on the tip of my tongue, but it felt like the worst betrayal to speak it. “No,” I finally answered. “You’re not wrong.”
Ray’s fingers pressed down again with a little more pressure before releasing my shoulder.
“A werewolf and a pixie.” Ray walked back around the desk and picked up his briefcase.
His head tilted with a quizzical look. “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of such a pairing.
” With a shrug, Ray turned to walk away.
“Even so, it’s not wrong, Sedrick. Love is love, and it doesn’t see lines in the sand.
Trust your gut and do what you can to keep your pixie safe.
We’ll bury Arie Belview, and then you’ll be free to do whatever you want. ”
Ray twisted his head enough that I caught a hint of sharp teeth. It was a reminder, one I didn’t need, that fairies weren’t nice. They were vicious, bordering on cruel. I liked and trusted Ray, but what I liked and trusted more was his desire to win.
I tracked Ray as he walked out my office door.
Once he was out of sight and I was alone, I slumped back, steepling my fingers and resting my chin on them.
How had I gotten to this point? Phil hadn’t been in my home for more than a handful of weeks, and I couldn’t imagine him not being there.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to go home.
I looked forward to walking through my door every evening and seeing Phil.
It was a hollow thought, thinking of the house without him. Because that’s exactly what it would be, a house, not a home.