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“She hasn’t?”
I paused. I’d turned my notifications down on my phone while at the hospital. “Let me check. Excuse me.” I brought out my phone and glanced at the lock screen. There were several messages there and so I opened the phone and checked both my voice mail and my texts. There weren’t any new texts, but there was one voice-mail message, and sure enough, it was from Daisy. I turned on the speaker and pushed play.
“Elphyra, this is Daisy. We found several prints in your shop. We have three names to go over with you, to see if they’re regular customers. We also have several unidentified prints, but there’s nothing we can do about those. We’ve run them through the national database but no results yet. We sent the urine samples—such as we could gather—off to the labs, but I’m not going to make any bets on them.
“We checked out your two dissatisfied customers and both have alibis for last night and early this morning, and both expressed regret. I believe them—I’ve got a good eye for people. So, I suggest you contact your security alarm company today. Don’t wait. We’ll have a prowl car come out a couple times through the night for the next few days, but unfortunately, the department doesn’t have the funds to keep that going. Call me when you can.” Then, there was a little static, and the message ended.
“So…” I stared at my plate. “I’d welcome suggestions.”
“My readings just aren’t pinpointing the issue,” May said. “I wish they were, but the cards are being stubborn.”
“Well, we know there’s some woman out there who seems to be jealous of me for something. And that the Tower card is at play—a delight for any season.” I rolled my eyes, then snorted. “With the two pissed off clients checking out as okay, I can’t think of who else might be behind this. I haven’t made that many enemies. It did occur to me, however, that maybe there’s someone in Faron’s pack who isn’t happy that he’s dating me. I could ask Kyle, I suppose.”
“I’d leave it up to Daisy,” Bran said. “The moment you go snooping around in Pack politics, you’re going to get your fingers burned and piss off a lot of people who see you as intruding on a space where you don’t belong.”
“Or where they think you don’t belong,” May added. “Shifters, especially wolf shifters, can be thick as thieves and they don’t appreciate anybody they see as an outsider interfering.”
Bran stared at his plate. “Mother’s right. If you try to insert yourself while Faron’s in a coma and it could be really bad, especially since you’re a witch. You know how shifters view witches. Kyle could try to protect you, but I don’t think you can count on him the same way you can count on Faron. At the most, mention it to Daisy. She can investigate in a neutral way without triggering them.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I nodded. “All right. I’ll trust you on that. I have little experience with shifters.”
“That’s another thing—they have an innate distrust of us, and you might just spark off a town war between the witches and the shifters.” May looked over at Grams. “What’s your opinion on this, Morgance?”
My great-grandmother set down her fork and pushed her dessert plate back. “I think May and Bran make salient points. You do not want to get Faron’s community in a tizzy. You go snooping around, flaunting the fact that he’s chosen a non-shifter for a partner, and you’re asking for trouble. At least you aren’t pregnant.”
I blinked. “What?” That was the last thing I expected to hear coming out of her mouth. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“If you were, you’d be carrying the potential heir to their Pack’s throne, although I’m not sure how the succession line runs for half-breeds. But one way or another, if you were carrying Faron’s child, it would put you in a most precarious situation. Suppose that one of the women in the Pack does want to take your place? Suppose you were pregnant? The easiest way to sever the tie is to kill the woman carrying the heir, or to initiate a miscarriage. Since you’re not pregnant, I’m hoping that if it is someone from the Pack, that they’ll think a warning will work.”
Grams finished the last bite of her dessert and then stood. “May, would you help me clear the table?”
“I can do it—” I started, but she shook her head.
“We’re on it. You and Bran go relax in the living room.”
I knew what she was doing. Grams was pulling for me and Bran. While she liked Faron, she wasn’t keen on me getting involved with a shifter—regardless of the type. But I kept quiet as Bran escorted me into the living room.
We sat on the sofa while May and Grams talked in quiet tones as they cleaned.
“She really wants us together,” Bran finally said.
“I know. I’m sorry she’s pushing me on you.” But as the words came out of my mouth, I shook my head. “Never mind. I’m not apologizing.”
“Good, because you know how I feel,” he said, his eyes warm and inviting.
I nodded, blushing lightly. I wasn’t shy about my body, or my sexuality, but I was just blooming out into relationship territory again and all summer I’d felt adrift, ever since the two men had come into my life. Plus, I was starting to have some unwelcome thoughts about Rian that made me nervous. It threw me into a light of which I felt muchly unsure of.
Faron and I had an instant at-odds attraction. We butted heads, and while we weren’t polar opposites, there was a sizzle that came with sparring with a partner. With Bran, it was slow-burn, he was just as handsome as Faron, though where Faron had dark hair, Bran was light. Faron was arrogant, Bran was quietly confident. Both were intelligent, and both respected the women in their lives. And I was attracted to both. They complemented different parts of my life.
“Can I ask you a question, and it’s not to hurt you…” Bran hesitated. “If you don’t want to answer, I won’t push it.”
“What is it?” I didn’t want to hear, because I knew what he was going to ask, and I didn’t want to think about it.
“What if he doesn’t come out of the coma? What if…”
I stared at my hands. “Neither Faron nor I made any promises. If they can’t bring him out of it, I’ll have to move on, won’t I? I think…When I lost Rian, I developed a fear of losing the people important to me. I’m so tired of the bad guys hurting the people I love.” I looked up at Bran, and for a moment, a look of pain washed through his eyes.
“Love? You’re in love with Faron, then?”
