“I didn’t reach out to anyone because I didn’t want to risk my communication being intercepted. I killed a group of mages when I rescued Skyla, so I’m on their radar now. It’s why we’ve mostly stayed off-grid.”
The front door opened. A blast of cold air blew in as the wolf stomped in, covered in snow. He pulled on some dry pants and padded over to the fire, casting a wary look at his mate. She pouted and chewed her lip before giving him a sweet smile.
“Am I forgiven?” he asked hopefully. The kitsune lifted his head from where he lay on a pile of blankets and growled, but the wolf didn’t respond this time.
“Of course you are, my puppy.” The wolf’s shoulders relaxed. He sat down on the arm of Thorrin’s chair like a needy little pet. Within seconds, he was stroking the sprite’s hair, making her giggle and making Thorrin roll his eyes.
“Rex, take Skyla to bed while I catch up with Maverick.”
The wolf didn’t need asking twice. With a gleeful yip, he scooped up the petite female and disappeared upstairs. A fewminutes later, we heard a faint moan, which suggested the wolf was back in his mate’s good graces.
“Sorry about that,” Thorrin apologized. “Rex is a needy bastard, and Skyla loves to wind him up.”
I chuckled. “Wolves, eh?”
“Yeah. Idiots, the lot of them, but what can I do? He found her first.” I was curious about how they’d met, but there were more important issues to discuss.
“Are you safe here?”
Thorrin nodded. “Yes, the mages came here once but found nothing, and they haven’t been back. This island lacks the natural resources of most others, and the mermaids tend not to hang around in these waters, which means it’s not worth the mages’ time or resources traveling here.”
“Why would they care about mermaids?” Alaric asked in confusion.
“Because there are teams of heavily armed mages rounding up rare females and shipping them off to fuck knows where.”
44
Alaric
Everyone had fallen silent in the wake of Thorrin’s accusation against the mages, and this was one of the many times I wished I could sever the familial link to my father.
If only I’d been born to different parents. Less dysfunctional ones. That said, Zane hadn’t had the happiest childhood either if his comments about his grandparents were to be believed. Normally I’d think he was bullshitting us, but something told me he meant what he said.
“I’ve heard whispers about trafficking,” Maverick admitted after a moment. “Boon, my contact from the Shifter Council, ran into a bunch of mages a few months back. Their van had broken down on a remote road in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He stopped to help and found two unconscious pixies in the back, both locked in magical handcuffs. None of the mages had an explanation for why they held the females, and when Boon triedto call it in, they attacked him. Unfortunately for them, he’s not that easy to take down.”
“Shifters aren’t immune to magic,” I pointed out with a frown.
“Most aren’t, no, but Boon is a basilisk shifter, so heisresistant. Especially to poison attacks. The mages in this case were low-level grunts.” Basilisks were rare. Most of them worked for the shadier branches of the Supernatural Council. It made me wonder what Maverick did before he showed up as an instructor at Starfall.
“Did your guy find out why the mages took the pixies?”
Maverick shook his head. “No, their short-term memories had been wiped, and the mages had been very careful not to talk about anything important in front of them. The females had no recollection of what had happened to them. When Boon escorted them back to their home village, their families were unaware they were missing, which tells us there’s an extremely powerful witch involved.”
“Is this your father’s doing?” Maverick asked me.
I shrugged. “Probably.”
Everyone looked the same way I felt: disgusted. But what could I do about it? Yes, my magic outstripped my father’s, but removing him from power was above my pay grade. I’d need to secure the support of at least five council members to oust him, and I knew for a fact they were all loyal to his cause.
Mages were a power-hungry lot. The witch covens too.
A sickness had set in several decades ago, and unless something big happened, the balance of power would not change.
“My hands are tied,” I admitted when the others looked at me accusingly. “I have to be careful about what I say and do.” Honestly, I was surprised they’d let me be a part of this discussion, but the polar bear shifter seemed to trust me.
“Pussy,” Zane muttered with an eye roll. “If he were my father, I’d kill the bastard without a second thought.”
“Yes, but I’m not a complete psycho,” I pointed out. And I refused to put my mother’s safety at risk. Not while she still stood a chance of escaping his clutches.
