Chapter One #2
Breathing hard, Re slid down to lay his head on my breasts.
I stroked his back, still shivering from my orgasm.
I enjoyed having more than one husband in my bed at a time, but I preferred connecting with them one-on-one.
It felt more intimate. We could be ourselves without worrying about another person.
And Re was the only one who would lie upon me afterward, giving me his full weight.
I loved that, but my other husbands were too afraid of crushing me.
Re wasn't as big as them, but it was more that he knew exactly what I could handle and what I enjoyed.
His perceptive insight was part of what made him a phenomenal lover.
Re lifted his face to kiss me. Just then, the suite door burst open, and Trevor came into the room.
“Do you mind?” Re growled. “We may have come, but we're not done yet.”
“Sorry.” Trevor rushed over. “Ty hasn't shown up at work. I'm going to Moonshine to look for a trail.”
“What?” I tried to slide out from under Re.
“No!” Re held me where I was. “This is my time with you. You're not going anywhere.”
“It's Ty, Re, and it's the morning. Technically, your night is over.” I pushed at him until he rolled off of me with a mutter about the irrelevance of time. “What if the trickster came back for him?”
“Or what if he's done something to himself?” Trevor whispered.
“Ty would never kill himself,” Re scoffed. Then his expression fell, and he looked at Trevor. “Would he?”
“I don't know.” Trevor headed for the door. “He hasn't been himself since Modja turned out to be the trickster. I've never seen him so hurt by a broken love affair.”
I didn't need to hear anymore. I ran for the dressing room next to the kitchenette, opposite the tower stairs.
Re headed for the tower stairs across the room. “I'll meet you down there. Are the others coming?”
“No, I told them to stay with the children until I know more.” Trevor followed me into the dressing room.
The men stored their outerwear in it. He took his leather jacket off a hanger as I got dressed.
“I think I'll check his house first. Will you go to Moonshine and see if you can find signs of a struggle or . . . anything else?”
“Sure.” I turned to add more, but he was already gone. “Not Ty,” I whispered. “Take UnnúlfR, not Ty.” I grimaced, not really meaning it. Well, maybe a little.
Out of Trevor's two brothers, Ty was our favorite. He was the youngest of the three and the most carefree. Until he had met the trickster.
I dressed in my adventure gear—jeans, a T-shirt reading “Mother of Lions,” and my boots.
I didn't need a jacket. Not for Hawaii, and especially not for Hawaii in spring.
Other places may be cold, but even at night in the dead of winter, Hawaii was warm.
Relatively. I glanced at my jackets. It was nine in the morning at Pride Palace, which meant it would be nine in the evening in Hawaii.
“Nah, I'll be fine.” I could walk around naked in a blizzard, and I'd be toasty warm, what with my internal dragon regulating my temperature. Jackets had become accessories for me. But then I saw my purse. “Damn it, I'd rather take a jacket.”
I grabbed my wallet out of my purse, shoved it into my jacket pocket, and pulled the jacket on. It was a dupe of a Helmut Lang, made with my territory magic. I rarely buy clothes anymore. Why would I, when I could make couture garments out of blades of grass?
On my way out, I stopped by the bedside table to snatch up my cellphone.
By the time I reached the golden cage elevator, Re had joined me, looking gorgeous in a pair of dark jeans and a black-collared shirt with the first two top buttons open.
He had a pair of sunglasses on to cover his golden eyes, but nothing would hide his shimmering skin.
It was fine. Most humans thought he was a stripper.
Or gay. Or a gay stripper. The possibility of a god walking among them never even crossed their minds.
Although these days, he might be mistaken for a faerie. I was still getting used to the Fey being out of the paranormal closet.
“Where's Trevor?” Re followed me into the elevator and pushed the button for the bottom floor.
“He went to check Ty's house.” I slid my cellphone into my jacket.
Downstairs, the sound of werelions socializing during breakfast filtered out of the dining hall, but the laughter of children rose above it.
I went to the palace's front doors and peeked outside.
Odin, Kirill, Azrael, and Viper were sitting on the drawbridge/terrace with some werelions, including Fallon and Samantha, whose daughter, Zariel, was out front, playing with my children.
“I'm going down to Moonshine,” I called over to them.
“We heard about Ty,” Odin said. “Text us if you need help.”
“Will do.”
Re was waiting for me at the door to the tracing room. He had already unlocked the door, and we headed inside. I locked it again from the inside to prevent accidental underage tracing. You never know with my kids—especially the Angels.
The wall was the tracing point, and I went across the small space to set my hand on it. With a thought, I entered the Aether and sent my body shooting through it as pure energy, to enter Moonshine through the tracing point.
Re was right behind me, and we hurried down the cement corridor, past the rental rooms for vampires who needed a place to stay for the night.
They were all empty, it being way past their rising time.
At the end of the corridor, we took the metal stairs up, coming out on the VIP floor of Moonshine.
I crossed the lounge, passing by trees and a stream that became a waterfall, filling a basin on the ground floor.
Pausing at the stairs, I looked across Moonshine.
The overhead lights, including grow lights for the plants, were still on since the club was closed.
Under the sharp illumination, the warehouse's bones could be seen beyond the clever camouflage of faux and real foliage.
Despite that, Moonshine was beautiful, its metal walls adding a pleasant contrast to the fantasy world within.
When Azrael had been in stasis, his alter ego, the Faerie God, had tried to take over.
Wild Magic had risen in him and attacked the places he loved.
Moonshine experienced a growth wave. The few real plants scattered among the fake went wild, and a tree grew from the center of the dance floor.
It had grown so tall that it knocked our security system—a massive moon that hung from the ceiling—off its chain.
The moon was back where it belonged now, and the tree had shrunk a bit, but it was still there, the last one standing.
Everything else had returned to its original condition when I chained Az with magic-suppressing manacles.
But that damn tree remained as a reminder of what I nearly lost. At least it wasn't an apple tree, or I'd have to pull a George Washington on it.
We couldn't have fey apples in a public place.
Beyond the dance floor was the bar—a solid slice of wood taken from an enormous tree and polished to a shine.
Matching wood formed the barstools and the shelves covering the wall behind the bar.
Through a door to the right of the bar was the office.
That's where Ty should have been. To the left was a stage for live bands, its metal frame hidden within a mass of plants.
A door in the right wall led to the Wild Room, where Froekn could shift into wolves and take a few laps around the warehouse, within a hidden track inside the walls, running along the perimeter with only one hill that took the track over the club entrance to descend just behind the stream on the VIP floor.
You'd think a werewolf could find somewhere better to run, but it was strategic.
When wolves get too riled up, like when they're having a good time drinking and dancing, they get the urge to shift.
The room allows them to do so without leaving the premises, and then they can return to their dancing . . . and spending money.
I could already see Ty's most recent prowl around the club.
He'd come up to the VIP floor at some point.
I say “see,” but I'm really using my nose.
Or rather, my dragon senses. The fey magic transforms scent into sight in my mind.
I already knew Ty's scent, so it wasn't hard to separate his from the hundreds of other scent trails.
Every scent has a base color, with tinges of others, but it was the shades, or intricacies of scent, that made them unique.
So, I could tell you that Ty's scent manifested as bright orange with traces of yellow, but it was far more than that. It was Ty.
I followed the scent trail downstairs, with the waterfall on my right.
A huge, knee-high basin caught the water, its sides hidden by natural rocks and plants.
The rocks formed a sitting ledge that was popular.
From the basin, the water was pumped back upstairs to return through the stream.
A glance showed me clear water. The filter was doing its work.
When you have a waterfall in a nightclub, you need a powerful filter.
I didn't bother walking the path Ty took around the room. Instead, I tracked the trail from where I stood, following it to the office, through the trees, into the Wild Room, out to the entry, back in, and back to the stairs.
With a curse, I looked up at the VIP balcony. “He headed upstairs for a second time, but his trail vanishes halfway up.”
“Vanishes?” Re took my arm. “Even gods need a tracing point to vanish.”
“Uh, hey, guys.” Max, a Froekn bartender, came up to us. “You here about Ty?”
“Yes, Vervain is trying to track him,” Re answered for us.
I was too busy freaking out.
“Do you know where he went?” Max asked.
“No.” I glared at Re. “But I know who he went with.”
“No,” Re whispered. “They took him?”
“Who?” Max asked.
“The furikake trickster!”
“The trickster took Ty?” With perfect timing, Trevor came stomping down the stairs from the VIP floor. He sniffed the air and growled. “Son of a motherfunning, non-binary budgie!”
Max's eyes went wide at our fury and our choice of expletives. “Uh, what's furikake?”
“You work in Hawaii, and you don't know what furikake is?” Re lifted an eyebrow.
“I don't hang out here much.” Max shrugged.
“It's a delicious blend of dried seaweed, sesame seeds, and spices that's a condiment for rice.” I focused on Trevor. “They won't hurt him, honey-eyes.”
“They've already hurt him!” Trevor growled. “Now they're going to hurt him worse.” His expression shifted from anger to worry. “Are you sure it was them?”
“His trail just vanishes. The only one who could cover Ty's trail is the trickster.” I grimaced. “Well, maybe not the only one, but the most likely culprit.”
“Which means we can't track them. Fudge cake!” Trevor's body rippled, and then a snarl that was more wolf than man vibrated through the air. His eyes gleamed.
“Oh, fun.” Re sighed. “It's Wolf.”
All the employees who'd been getting Moonshine ready for the night—mostly Froekn, but some Intare—had been eyeing us since Re and I arrived.
But with Wolf's sudden takeover of Trevor, the Froekn went still, only their nostrils widening to help them better assess the danger.
Despite their caution, they watched with more reverence than fear, ready to follow any order the Wolf delivered.
Fenrir was their patriarch and god, but Wolf was a living representation of their primal selves.
On some level, they respected him more than Fenrir.
That was nice and all, but Wolf would only make matters worse.
“Hey, baby,” I purred as I slid in against him.
Wolf's arms came around me and pulled me in tighter. “Mate, we must hunt the monster who took our brother.”
“Yes, we must, but we don't have a way to do that yet.”
He growled, his head swiveling down to bring our faces together.
“Stop that!” I pushed his head back with my index finger on his forehead. “I can't just pull a solution out of my butt.”
“Out of your butt?” Wolf frowned, but his eyes also went wide—kind of impressive.
Re snickered. “Yeah, puppy, you can do more with butts than sniff them.”
“Not literally.” I shot Re a glare. “It's a human phrase meaning that there's nothing I can do.”
“Then I will do something.”
Annoyed, I stepped back. “Oh, yeah? What are you gonna do, Big Bad Wolf? Huff and puff?”
Wolf scowled at me. “I don't huff or puff. I'm not even sure how to.”
As everyone else gaped, Re burst into hysterical laughter.
“Re!” I snapped.
“Maybe you should puff a little something local,” Re waggled his eyebrows at Wolf. “It will put a big wolfy grin on your face.”
Wolf snapped his teeth at Re, but the Sun God only laughed harder. Growling, Wolf headed for Re.
“Hey!” I grabbed Wolf's arm. “Cut it out! He's your friend.”
“He's an ass!”
“That too, but he's still your friend.”
“All this talk about asses is making me horny,” Re drawled.
“You're always horny.” I rolled my eyes.
“That I am.” Re reached for me.
Wolf pushed Re back. “Stay away from my mate!”
I shoved Wolf away from us both. “Enough!” Then I turned to glare at Re.
Re shrugged. “At least it got him off the other thing.”
“What other thing?” Wolf demanded. Then his expression shifted. “Ty! We need to go. Now!”
Re rolled his golden eyes. “Go where, doggy? If you can tell us where Ty is, we'll all go get him. But you can't, can you?”
“He's my brother! I know his scent as well as I know my mate's.”
“Yeah, but his scent vanishes on the stairs!” Re waved at the metal stairs. That's what your mate just said! So, now what? Huh? How are you going to find your brother?”
“I don't know!” Wolf roared.