Chapter 9 - Zane
I’m still pissed, and it’s the kind of anger that lingers under my skin and refuses to settle.
Naia almost blew it.
One wrong move, one step too far out of cover, and we would’ve been dealing with multiple hostile wolves in unfamiliar territory, outnumbered and unprepared. Reckless doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I unlock the door to the apartment and step inside without a word, already running through everything we heard and everything we saw. The moment the door shuts behind us, the quiet hits again, muting the outside world and leaving me to my thoughts.
Naia moves past me, and the tension still radiates off her in waves.
Good. After that, she should be tense. At the very least, I hope she’s thinking about how that could’ve jeopardized everything, but I don’t bother wasting my breath over it.
“You want to explain what that was back there?” I ask, shutting the door harder than I mean to.
She doesn’t hesitate to turn on me, still just as angry as before. “They were right there.”
“That’s not good enough,” I mutter, exhaling sharply as I drag a hand through my hair. “You can’t just charge into a situation like that without thinking. Not when we don’t know exactly what we’re up against.”
“I was thinking,” she snaps. “I was thinking about taking down the wolves who sold me and making sure they couldn’t do the same to anyone else.”
“That’s well and good, but getting yourself killed in the process won’t fix anything.”
“You don’t know that’s what would’ve happened.”
“I do,” I counter with a step closer, gaze on her intensely. “I was there, and you were about two seconds away from making a mistake you couldn’t recover from.”
As more tense, suffocating silence falls between us, I assume she’s going to argue again. To push and fight like she always does because she can never let anything go. Instead, she turns away sharply and crosses her arms.
“It doesn’t matter now,” she mutters, bristling.
It doesn’t…what matters is what we got out of it, even if the thought still irritates me.
Taking a deep breath, I force myself to let it go for now, and I shift gears. I gesture vaguely to the sofa nearby. “Sit.”
Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t move.
“Naia.”
“I’m fine standing.”
“Fine, then stand,” I say, moving toward the kitchen again to lean back against the island. “But listen.”
She doesn’t respond, but after what we saw in the woods, I already know she’s paying attention.
“You heard them…this isn’t an isolated thing. They’re running some kind of system, and they’re organized.”
“They mentioned a shipment,” she says quietly, allowing her thoughts to wander.
I nod, and her jaw tightens.
“They’re still taking others. They could be shifters, but they might not be. Maybe it has more to do with magic, but we need more proof,” I continue, arms crossing over my chest. “None of this seems random.”
That gets her attention. She looks at me with more focus now, rather than with sarcasm or irritation. “You think this is targeted?”
“It has to be,” I say. “You said it yourself—they used magic on you. That’s not exactly easy to come by on the island, but it isn’t impossible to find.”
Her expression shifts slightly, more considerate now. “They knew I’d fight back…they knew brute force wouldn’t be enough.”
“Exactly.” Silence stretches as we both piece it together, and I hold her gaze. “Start from the beginning. Everything you remember from when they took you.”
Her shoulders tense again, more like she doesn’t want to revisit that time, regardless of how crucial it could be. “I already told you—”
“I know,” I cut in, calmer now and more focused on the task at hand. “But I need details. Anything you didn’t think mattered.”
Naia exhales slowly, obviously not wanting to go back there, and I can’t blame her.
Then she murmurs, “They ambushed me near the outer edge of the territory while I was doing a perimeter check. There were more than I expected, and I recognized some of them. Some that had been in our pack once,” she sighs and adds, “Then the magic hit. It wasn’t like anything I’ve felt before.
It was colder and heavier, and it just shut everything down. ”
I nod slightly as I digest her words. “It was suppressive magic then.”
“Yeah.”
“What happened after?”
“Not much. I tried to fight, but I couldn’t shift; then I must’ve passed out or something. When I woke up, I wasn’t on the island anymore,” she says slowly. “I couldn’t smell the ocean, and the air was different. I was restrained, but…” she hesitates, averting her gaze as she collects her thoughts.
“But what?”
Her brows draw together slightly, and she responds, “I could feel it. Other magic signatures that had nothing to do with mine. They felt different from the one used on me.”
That immediately sticks out to me, and I follow that train of thought. “How many?”
“I don’t know,” she admits. “It wasn’t clear, and my head was still a bit foggy. It was just there.”
My mind starts turning again, faster now, considering how many shifters and non-shifters there were, and what abilities they might’ve possessed. At the very least, they could’ve had potential.
“They’re obviously grouping these targeted individuals and selling them; that much we know for certain.”
Naia’s expression darkens. “For what?”
“That’s the question.”
Silence settles again while we both mull over what this could mean. Whatever the answer is, I doubt it’s good.
“If they’re running these auctions, then they’re in it for the money, which means there’s a market for these magic users,” I murmur, allowing the words to come out as the thoughts form in my head. “These buyers could be collecting them like antiques, but why?”
“Maybe they’re trying to use the powers for themselves,” Naia suggests, seeming far too knowledgeable about that aspect, and we both know why.
It’s no secret that the Wraith Peak pack had its eyes on magic users for quite some time. Her father was especially interested in using others to his advantage before he died.
Her eyes meet mine again, full of renewed determination. “Which is why I need to go back. Then I can find out if Hayes has anything to do with it.”
There it is again, and I exhale deeply. “We’re not doing this again.”
“They’re building something,” she pushes. “You saw and heard it. I can’t just sit here while they—”
A sharp ring cuts through the apartment, startling me out of my focus before I register that it’s my phone. Pulling it out of my pocket, I glance at the screen.
Hunter.
I close my eyes briefly, already knowing this isn’t going to be a quick, harmless call about nothing.
Naia notices immediately, glancing between me and the phone. “Who is it?”
I don’t answer. Instead, I just hold her gaze for a second longer before turning away and answering the call. Phone to my ear, I murmur, “Yeah?”
“Finally,” Hunter’s voice comes through, sounding familiar and almost relieved, if I’m not mistaken. “Were you planning on picking up the phone at some point or what?”
“I’ve been busy,” I return, trying to keep any strain or obvious emotion out of my voice.
“Doing what?”
I glance at Naia, catching the way she’s watching me now with narrowed eyes, trying to read every shift in my expression. She’s curious.
“I’m following a lead,” I say evenly.
“Sounds interesting,” he comments, using a tone that sounds more suspecting that anything else. “What’s this lead?”
“It’s just something off-island.”
He pauses, and that silence is loaded enough to tell me he’s already connecting dots. “You went to Ashford?”
Sometimes, I wish the others weren’t so perceptive. Maybe then I’d actually get away with keeping things under wraps long enough for me to figure it out on my own.
I sigh. “Yeah.”
“What the hell, Zane?” Hunter mutters. “You just disappear without a word and expect us not to question it?”
“I didn’t disappear.”
“You didn’t exactly check in either.”
Fair…but still.
“I’ve got something,” I say, keeping my tone controlled. “It’s not enough yet, but it’s connected.”
“To Hayes?”
“Indirectly, maybe. I’m working out the details.”
Hunter pauses, then he takes a deep breath. “He’s stirring things up here. The other packs are getting restless, and there are concerns about the humans seeing more than they should.”
That’s not at all surprising, given how unclear his motives have been recently. He hasn’t done anything drastic to make his objectives clear, which means we’ve all just been waiting for that moment to inevitably arrive.
“And this thing you’re chasing,” he continues, “do you think it’s tied to that?”
“I think it’s bigger,” I admit, well aware of how inconvenient a notion that is.
He’s silent on the other end for a long while, then he mumbles, “Great.”
Part of me wants to smirk, but the moment doesn’t call for it, so I keep my expression neutral as I adjust my grip on the cell. “Yeah. I’m here trying to gather the details so that we have something substantial to work with.”
“That’s good, but we need you back here,” Hunter says after a moment. “And soon. Luke and Caleb are already pushing for a meeting. If something is moving under the surface, we need to get ahead of it, and that involves having you here.”
I glance at Naia again, and as expected, she’s still watching and listening. I imagine she’s trying to piece together what I’m not saying.
“I’ll be back,” I say finally, not wanting the conversation to drag on longer than it needs to. “Just give me a little more time.”
“How much time?”
“I’m hoping a few days,” I tell him, well aware that it could take much longer than that, given how I’ve been on guard duty more than anything.
“Just don’t go off the grid again, or else I’m sending Dom your way, and we both know you don’t want that. We’ve got enough problems without you freelancing.”
I huff at the thought. “For the love of god, keep him there. I’ve got it handled.”
Hunter chuckles to himself. “You better.”
A moment later, the line goes quiet, then the call ends. When it does, I lower the phone slowly, exhaling under my breath.
The pressure settles in immediately, both familiar and expected. It’s definitely nothing new, but with the guys keeping tabs on me, I can’t fumble this. That also means I need to figure out what the hell I’m doing with Naia.
Turning around, she’s exactly where I left her, arms crossed and expression sharp with expectation. She lifts an expectant brow.
“Well?”
I set the phone down on the counter and force my body language not to give away the fact that I have more than enough to work out here, and knowing Naia, she’s not going to make it any easier.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Immediately, her eyes narrow, and it’s clear she isn’t willing to accept such a flimsy response. “It sounded like something I should absolutely be worried about. I heard my brother’s name.”
I resist the urge to close my eyes in an attempt to gather myself all over again. “It’s standard pack talk. It’s handled.”
“By you?”
“Yes.”
She huffs a quiet laugh. “Right. You always know how to handle things.”
I don’t take the bait, regardless of how sarcastic that statement sounded. Rather than finding myself in that same cycle of bickering that gets us nowhere in the end, I don’t explain, and I don’t elaborate. If I do, then this gets more complicated than it already is.
Besides, given her associations, I’m not at liberty to tell her every little detail. Caleb and the others would lose their minds.
“Does this mean you’re going back to the island?” she asks while a tangle of different emotions moves through her eyes at once, too quickly for me to catch.
“Eventually.”
“And when were you planning on running this by me?”
I meet her gaze evenly. “Eventually. When I needed to.”
Naia stares at me, likely wondering if I’m being an idiot on purpose or if there’s more to it than that. Always…there’s always more to it.
“You’re unbelievable,” she mutters after a beat, shaking her head.
“I’ve been called worse,” I return, exhaling deeply as I reach for my laptop.
With a final, unimpressed look in my direction, she paces away again. Even at a distance, I can feel her curiosity, suspicion, and the frustration that seems to constantly build again and again.
For now, I ignore it, since I have bigger problems that need addressing, like how I’m going to deal with a rogue group trafficking islanders with access to magic, what I’m going to do if I have to face the others without answers, and how the hell I’m supposed to bring Naia back to the island without everything blowing up in my face.
It’s a tall order, but one way or another, I’ll handle it. I always do.