Chapter 25
Elodie
We told the female lynx that we agreed with the clowder’s assessment that it was a kidnapping, and we’d let the council know.
After we told her it was evidence for the council, she didn’t ask a single question about the mangled piece of metal we carried out with us.
She silently escorted us back to the SUV, and that was that.
I felt slightly guilty about the little white lie, but for all I knew, that was where it would end up if Valens gave it to Lucien.
We were halfway to the next kidnapping victim’s home when my phone rang. Galyna’s name flashed across the screen, and I nearly shuddered with relief that it wasn’t the head priestess, checking up on our progress.
She wasn’t a bad leader at all, but having her looking over my shoulder… It made me anxious. And I fucking hated feeling anxious. I’d left all that behind in my childhood.
“What’s up, buttercup?” I answered the phone flippantly, earning a curious look from Valens.
“Official business, I’m afraid. Just wanted to give you a heads-up. Reed’s sounding the alarm with the high alpha right now. A news story just broke on PackNet that the ODL has confirmed they’re actively hunting two omegas.”
My brain filled with nothing but static as I tried to process the implications of what she’d just said.
“Wait, two omegas?”
“Two omegas,” she repeated grimly.
“You think they can sense Poppy already? Leigh’s getting close to her due date, but I thought the ODL only came after the birth?” Panic made my heart speed, my fingers clutched the armrest. I needed to get back, get to Leigh.
How could she run if they were already able to track the baby? Oh, Goddess, what if she’d already left and was alone with nobody for protection except Gael?
“I don’t know. It would normally be highly unusual for them to be able to sense her months before birth, but we’ve also never had an omega with Brielle’s powers affecting an omega in utero, in living memory, at least. Maybe ever. Brielle’s powers could be amplifying Poppy’s.”
“What are we going to do?”
There was a beat of unnerving silence from my usually proactive partner. “I don’t know. The report was vague. It didn’t give locations or say they were planning an attack. For all we know, it could be a bluff.”
A bluff? “Wouldn’t that look really bad on the Defense League and the council when it turned out to be fake news?”
Galyna sighed wearily. “Sure, if it was fake news. But they’ve been chasing Bri for weeks, and they got close once. They know there’s at least one. My guess is that they’re trying to cause a panic to flush her out. If one omega is bad, two is worse.”
“Lyna, what about the information you shared with me? Is there any chance the stone is the source of the second signature?”
Valens turned a wide-eyed stare on me as I let the clue slip right in front of him. I wanted to feel bad about it, but damn it, I didn’t. The pack deserved to know everything we did.
My wolf stayed silent on the matter, which I took as approval. He was our mate, after all. If she trusted his claim, she had to trust him with the rest.
Maybe it was time that I started to trust him too. Even if it was terrifying.
“I don’t think so. If anything, I think it’s Poppy. We need to separate Leigh and Brielle, stat. I’m sure Marciana’s already on it, though. I got the report that they arrived last night.”
“That they did.” I’d kept Marciana’s late-night visit to myself, and that I felt a little guilty about. Galyna was my best friend, and every step I took toward Valens felt like a step that left her further and further behind.
It hurt like hell, and I wasn’t ready.
I cleared my throat, trying to drop the unpleasant emotions just as quickly. “You’re right, I’m sure Marciana and the others have Leigh and the baby safe too. Does Lucien still want us to go investigate the other disappearance, or do we have new orders?”
“Hold on, I’ll ask. He just got off the phone with Kane.”
The line went dead for a minute, and Valens dropped his hand over mine on the center console, weaving our fingers together and gently forcing me to release my death grip on the leather upholstery. “It’s going to be okay. Whatever happens, it’s all going to be okay.”
I wanted to believe that so damn badly. It just felt like everything in the whole supernatural world was working against us.
“El?”
“I’m still here,” I answered.
“Lucien wants to talk to you both. Can you put it on speaker?”
“Of course.”
She passed the phone to Lucien, and we quickly filled him in on our findings on clowder land. I glanced toward the random metal object, still burning brightly with the two different signatures, despite the destruction that had been done to it.
I wished my skill for observing the magical signatures could tell me what the heck those signatures did instead of just that they existed. Although, it was proving more useful than anything else so far in finding this trail.
“I wonder if that’s one of the magical devices that Petró ordered from Sandrine?” Lucien mused aloud. “There’s someone here who might know. How far away are you?”
Valens rattled off the GPS location.
“Excellent. Divert here, please. I’d like to have him look at it.”
Valens shot me a confused look. “Who’s there that you think can tell us what it is?”
“Alajos.”
“As you wish, Alpha.” Valens’s sudden switch to a formal tone had me beyond curious, but I waited for the call to disconnect before I turned the full force of it on him.
“Who’s Alajos, and why do you sound like Lucien just put ground glass in your meatloaf?”
Valens chuckled darkly. “In short? A pack troublemaker. He’s not powerful enough to have made it into Petró’s top five for the pack.
But if there was a list of Petró’s true right-hand men—cronies, if that’s a word you like to use—Alajos would have been right there at the top.
They were always partying and getting into trouble together, but more than that, Alajos was always in on Petró’s schemes.
It’s part of the reason he was kicked out of the pack after Lucien took over. ”
“Ahh, one of the lost boys.”
“That’s a good description.”
I remembered a small group of pack members being exiled immediately after the takeover. But I hadn’t been involved with it because Galyna and I were assigned to the females, and frankly, I didn’t give two shits about pack politics.
“If he was exiled, how is he there now?”
“Excellent question. Either Jerica—his also-troublemaking sister—called him, or something’s changed.”
For the rest of the ride, we exchanged idle chitchat, but I could feel Valens’s tension climbing the closer we got to pack lands, as the chatter slowly died off to thick silence.
When he parked the SUV in front of the pack mansion, the stress was thick enough to be palpable between us.
“You okay?” I asked as we sat for a beat longer than necessary. Seeing this guy again was clearly bothering him.
“I will be. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Okay. But if you need backup, or, you know, an alibi, I’m your girl.”
His eyes met mine, and his callused palm came up to cup my cheek. “Yes, you are. But I could get used to hearing you say it.”
A ghost of a smile, and then he was out, coming around to open my door for me. Meanwhile, blood rushed in my ears as I tried to recover from the devastatingly simple touch. Damn him, such a small touch, a small smile, three little words shouldn’t be able to work me up so quickly.
But was it a fated-mates thing or a heat thing? And how was I ever supposed to separate the two?
The questions had to wait, because right now, we had to go deal with a disenfranchised troublemaker.
We found Lucien, Olivia, Galyna, Jerica, and a man who was Jerica’s spitting image sitting in the mansion’s library.
Though, he wore his blonde hair spiked, while hers rested in perfectly styled waves over her shoulders.
The spite in his eyes, though? That was pure Jerica.
Heavy walnut bookshelves lined each of the long walls, packed to the brim with books of every shape, size, and color.
An oversized fireplace was on the far wall, unlit at the moment.
They all seemed tense on the antique couches in the center of the room, at odds with the calm surroundings.
Personally, I loved whiling away an afternoon in a great library. Granted, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a free afternoon for personal reading. It didn’t seem like I’d be getting one any time soon either, with the way things were going.
Once we’d arrived, Lucien cleared his throat and addressed Alajos.
“I understand that you’d like to petition to rejoin the pack, Alajos, but your exile was final.
Your sister’s place in the pack was spared because we don’t believe in condemning people solely on family association.
But you took direct actions against the high alpha, committed property destruction, and were one of the main instigators in the slander against Pack Blackwater. ”
“So you just keep family apart, then? That’s your solution?”
I immediately hated his entitled tone. The guy had twerp written all over him, though I tried hard not to judge by first impressions. Maybe he just missed his sister. If I had a true sister, I wouldn’t want to be separated from her either.
“No, not at all. If you’ve joined a new pack, your sister is welcome to leave the Hungarian pack and join you wherever you both are comfortable. But we won’t force her to be a loner with you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Alajos glared at Jerica. “A good sister wouldn’t have to be forced.”
“Stuff it, Alajos. It’s not my fault you can’t get accepted into a half-decent pack! Maybe if you held down a job and didn’t constantly stir up shit, we’d already be in a new pack. But no! You care more about getting wasted than you do about your own family.”
Okay, so my first impression had been spot-on.