He seems to be wrestling for control as his fingers shift into talons.
“You’re feeling the loss of your mate,” Gregor says stiffly. “It’s understandable.”
I wonder if he’s thinking of his own mate—his Heart—who was killed by Hunters years ago, along with the rest of his pack.
Travan, Silas, and Kyle have gone unnaturally silent.
“Emery’s right,” Ashton says stiffly. “Izzy doesn’t have any magic. Will the witches release her once they come to that conclusion?”
Hale steps forward and moves to stand beside his husband. “I may not be too certain about that.”
Kyle’s head snaps in his direction. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that Izzy called me a little bit ago, just before the meeting began,” Hale confesses, ignoring the shocked glares from half the crowd and the murderous ones from the others. “She said that there was an incident. The connection ended before she could say more, but from what I gathered, Izzy definitely has magic, and the entire coven paid witness to it.”
Ashton’s apathetic expression falters momentarily, and he droops back in his seat, resting his face in his hands. “Fuck.”
“Fuck indeed,” Hale agrees.
“Izzy called you?” Kyle asks softly, focusing on his hands, which rest on the table.
I wonder what he’s thinking, knowing that his birth daughter chose to call her foster father over him. But fuck him. He has no right to be upset when he refused to reveal his identity to Izzy time after time.
Hale purses his lips together but doesn’t respond, mainly because Kyle’s question doesn’t need a response. We already know the answer.
Ashton clears his throat, folds his hands together crisply, and focuses on his father. “We also have another issue—Christian.”
Gregor’s brows draw together. “What about Christian?”
“I believe he went feral,” Ashton says, utterly emotionless, as if he’s discussing the color of the sky and not the fate of his older brother.
Ripples of surprise echo around the room, and my father sucks in a sharp gasp from beside me. When I turn towards him, I find him staring straight ahead, his cheeks pale, his eyes wild with horror.
I know he’s thinking of me and my own future—one that’s fated to end the exact same way.
I want to comfort him, but I know now isn’t the time. All I can do is place my hand over his and give it a reassuring squeeze.
I’m still pissed at him for insisting I mate with Ashton and the others, knowing that they don’t belong to me and never will. But my father truly believes this is the only way to save me from ferality.
Silly, silly man.
“Ethan is also gone,” Emery confesses, turning towards Matthew. The older man frowns. “Though he could’ve just run off when the shots were fired.”
“And leave you and his mate?” I snort.
Out of all of Izzy’s boy toys, I think I like Ethan the most. Yes, he fucked up in the past, but he has worked hard to make amends and better himself. He’s also not a complete dipshit like the other three.
Matthew leans back in his chair. “We can send a team to look for him. He may just be hiding out in the woods somewhere. But I think getting Izzy back should be a priority.”
I blink, momentarily surprised by that since Ethan’s his son. However, I get his point. Izzy is currently in more danger than Ethan is.
Gregor leans forward slightly and taps his fingers against the table, lines of irritation painted across his face. “Are we going to talk about what happened out there? With the Hunters? With the witches?”
A tension-filled silence saturates the room, and I know we’re all thinking about the shifters we lost. Sam. Lacey. And then the ones we still haven’t identified, who were slaughtered by the witches.
Ted and Nolan, who have been uncharacteristically silent throughout this entire conversation, exchange a look. The latter speaks for the pair of them.
“We need to find the Hunters and eliminate them before they can do more harm to us.”
