27. Finley
Finley
My hand started to shake as my brain registered the information I had just been given.
My father was alive!
Not only was he alive, but he knew about me.
Could he have been the man who came to collect me at the orphanage all those years ago and brought me to the Organization?
Was he the person watching us right now, or was it totally unrelated?
I knew that Margaret had sent it to me. She was the only one who would have risked everything to tell me.
Now I just had to figure out what it meant. She said to look this person up.
“We need to get home now,” I said, keeping my voice calm but urgent.
“What about whoever is watching?” Elias asked in a low voice. “We can’t just leave now. It would be too suspicious.”
At his comment, I looked up and found Mason and the others returning with the food they’d ordered. Elias was right. We needed to play this smart, even though I wanted to dive into this. I needed to be somewhere safe.
Lane set down a tray of food and watched me with a questioning gaze. “Everything alright?”
Tucking the photo into my coat pocket, I closed the laptop and slid it back into the bag, ignoring everything else inside, not up for any more surprises. “Fine, just found out a bit of news that I wasn’t expecting, is all.”
“I see…” Lane commented, not at all convinced.
“One of you text Zander and get an ETA. Seems we need to come back another day to see the rest of the zoo,” Rath mentioned offhandedly.
Colt pulled out his phone and started to text Zander. “Little one, what did the photo say.”
“It was a picture of a man leading me into a building. The date would put me at five years old. The note on the back suggests that this man is my father and he is still alive,” I explained to them all.
“Margaret made sure that I could learn what I needed to with this laptop which is why we need to get home.”
They tensed at my words but tried to play it off as Noah handed out cheese fries, pretzels, and hot dogs.
The table also had a bunch of water bottles.
I grabbed one and chugged the whole thing down, trying to keep my mind from racing.
I needed the universe to stop throwing me curve balls every chance it got.
I was running out of the ability to roll with the punches.
“Zander said he can cut his meeting short whenever we need to leave,” Colt said, drawing my attention.
Dipping my head in acknowledgment, I grabbed a pretzel and tore a chunk off.
The saltiness of it tasted good and my hunger won out over the chaos running through my brain.
Before I knew it, the whole pretzel was gone, and I felt slightly better.
Mason gave me a knowing look and placed a hotdog in my hand, signaling with a jerk of his chin that I better eat it.
“A hungry shifter is more likely to make mistakes, snuggles. Feed your wolf and she will be able to help you with everything else.”
It didn’t take us long to demolish the rest of the food and clean up our spot.
Mason was right as usual when it came to me meeting the needs of my wolf when I continually forgot.
As we headed back to the car, I could still feel someone watching us, but I couldn’t quite get a location on them.
It was almost as if there was something hiding them from me.
“Rath, can our magic cloak us from others?” I inquired.
He stopped so fast that I ran into the back of him, letting out a yelp. Spinning on his heel, he grabbed my shoulders to steady me as I pitched forward. “Nin mel, why are you asking?”
“There is someone following us, but every time I reach out with my wolf senses or even my magic, it’s like it catches wind of something, then it’s simply gone. Like there is something out there telling me that it really isn’t there at all,” I said.
Opening my mind to him, I tried to show him what I was experiencing, and instead of being worried about it, a huge smile bloomed on his face. “You are exactly right on your assumption and who’s magic could be behind it. Seems that it hasn’t taken long for them to seek you out.”
“Why won’t they come out of hiding?” I asked, looking around the parking lot.
“What would you do if you were seeking out the source of some incredibly strong super and found it guarded by five strong werewolves and an unknown elf?” Rath countered. “They will make their presence known if we meet them on neutral ground.”
I couldn’t argue when he put it like that. It would be stupid to expose yourself when you don’t know if you can trust anyone. “Where is neutral ground?”
“Is there a forest or nature preserve owned by the state nearby?” Rath asked, turning to the others.
The guys paused to think for a moment, but Noah came up with the solution after looking at something on his phone.
“Looks like there is a botanical garden near here that we can meet at. Otherwise, the next closest would be heading into our territory. North of here is a colony of felines that we are on good terms with, but it wouldn’t be neutral. ”
“The botanical garden will work perfectly,” Rath murmured as he wandered away from us toward the park.
Lane cocked his head to the side as he watched the elf wander off. “What is he going to do?”
“I assume talk to the elf in their native tongue, so they know where to meet us,” I guessed.
As we watched, Rath paused by a group of trees and I could hear him talking in that musical language I hoped to one day learn myself. Whatever he said must have worked because soon, I felt the single presence that had been watching us leave.
“Seems that it worked,” Noah commented as he pulled open the car’s door. “Now, someone text Zander to meet us there. I don’t want to do this without him”
“Adding more people might not be the right move,” I mused. “How would you take it if you agreed to meet someplace and they showed up with reinforcements.”
Mason slung an arm around my shoulders and hugged me tight, kissing me on the lips. “Sorry, snuggles, but you’re not gonna win on this one. We are going to meet an unknown elf that can cloak themselves. I want all the backup we can have.”
“Alright, everyone into the car. Seems we have a meeting with an elf to make,” Colt ordered as Rath jogged up to us.
The garden wasn’t far from the zoo, so we made good time, but we waited for Zander to join us before heading into the garden. Thankfully it didn’t take him long as a town car pulled up and dropped him off.
“I leave you guys for a few hours and now we are meeting up with a stalker?” he demanded, arms crossed. “Just so we are clear, I’m not getting left behind ever again, no matter how much attention I draw. What if something happened to any of you or Finely and I wasn’t there to help?”
Knowing he needed some reassurance, I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his chest so I could listen to his heartbeat. “You’re right. We do this together as a team from here on out.”
“Did someone record that?” Mason asked. “Snuggles, can you repeat that so we can remind you when you try to argue with us later?”
I glared at him over my shoulder, then pulled away from Zander. “Now that we’re all here, I think we should get going.”
“Yeah, let’s hurry up and meet the stalker elf. Sounds like a lot of fun,” Colt grumbled. “How is it that no one argued against this?”
“Because Rath warned us that they would be seeking her out,” Lane pointed out. “Besides, they haven’t done anything but observe.”
Colt just huffed at that statement and led the way into the garden grounds.
It wasn’t a large area, but you could tell that the people who ran it took amazing care of it.
There were beautiful stone buildings you could wander around with crawling ivy and well-marked gravel paths.
One path took you into a garden that made me think it was out of a book.
A sign noted it was called the ‘Secret Garden,’ which I felt was appropriate for the space.
“This will be the perfect place to meet,” Rath shared as we took in the space. “I explained to him that we are your nos, and yes, you are a hybrid elf who was bit by a wolf.”
I mulled that over in my brain. “It’s funny that I see it the other way around, but I guess I’ve always been an elf even when I thought I was human. It is sometimes hard to remember that I was never once human.”
Rath reached out and brushed his fingers along my cheek, sympathy in his eyes at my words. “No matter what you are or how you see yourself, I’m glad you found me. Together we will all find our way through this journey and discover many things about ourselves along the way.”
“Sídh n- with cin, cousin,” a soft voice called out.
My mates snapped to attention, hiding me behind them as they circled me, making it so I couldn’t even see what was going on.
“Sídh n- with cin,” Rath responded. “I would ask if you can speak English, that you do for this meeting. My gwanur and mate don’t know our language.”
“She called you cousin, but you act like you don’t know her,” Colt muttered.
A tinkling laugh filled the air. “It seems they know nothing of our customs either. My dear wolf, all elves are born from the same goddess, therefore making us all family. We call each other cousin in honor of the ties we share whether we are blood-related or not.”
“Can one of you please move,” I asked with a sigh. “We did ask her here to talk and that’s what I would like to do.”