Page 38 of Keeper of All

He returned to the seat and glanced down. Eyes widening, he cussed up a storm at the missing journal. “Fuck me!”

“I would, but Mom is right behind me.” Mao said striding from the house looking far fresher than Ekon who had been no farther than the garden. How does he do that when I look and feel like a damp rag?

“Did you see Featherman? Damn light-fingered ass has wandered off with my journal!”

Mao blinked slowly as if trying to compute what Ekon was saying. “Featherman was here? Are you sure it was him?”

“Isn’t that just what I said?” Ekon shook his head. “Big man dressed in a feather coat with these weird swirling green eyes. Is that him?”

“Sounds like it,” Mao said, eyes narrowing, glancing around the garden.

“The man appeared out of nowhere, and I turn around for a second, and he’s gone again with my things!”

“Well, fuck me.”

“My sentiments exactly, especially when I know I’m gonna have to go trekking in the jungle to find him. Because this is just too damn much.”

Chapter Twenty

Mao

“No, no, you won't.” Mao shook his head. He was furious with a capital F, pissed off with a capital P and O, and angry with a capital A-F-A as in absolutely fucking angry.

Ekon should have been safe in the garden. It was fully warded, the entire estate was. Admittedly, it was Featherman who redid the wards when that complete business with Sabrina went down, but there was still no excuse for the theft. Featherman has never done any harm before, was always considered a friend to the Putney’s, and yet now…

That was without the huge fricking wall. While Mao didn't have any doubt that Ekon could sneak in and out, even excusing the mating bond they had that allowed the wards to recognize him, that was not the point. Ekon should’ve been allowed his privacy, a place to read without interruption.

There was something going on with Ekon. Mao could see it, could feel it through their bond. They’d barely done anything for the past week except talk, and it was Mao who'd suggested going out to find Featherman earlier that morning. Because he was considered a friend.

And yet, while he's out having a perfectly fun run with his mother, tracking a fricking being that seemed to have no scent at all, what happens? The bastard turns round and appears in the garden. Fine. Again. The wards clearly wouldn’t keep him out, but since when did that give him the right to take what didn’t belong to him? Those were not the actions of a family friend, and yes, that made Mao really angry because it felt like a betrayal.

It seemed Ekon’s thoughts were running along the same lines. “You said he was supposed to help me. I was reading that journal. There were things that were said…” Ekon trailed off and looked across at Mao's mom, who was still standing a little way aside as if not quite sure whether to intervene or not.

“Your secrets are safe here, son,” Mom said quietly. “They always will be.”

“Well, forgive me if I’m not seeing any evidence of that right now seeing as I've just been stolen from while sitting in the freaking garden.”

Ekon's anger was understandable. Mao expected that. But the way Ekon then collapsed on the bench seat, looking like somebody had just pulled out a plug, leaving him half-drained and semi-lifeless, was damn scary.

Mao needed to do something. Urgently. He didn’t know why, but Mao trusted his instincts. Heat was draining, particularly the muggy damp of the jungle air—but not to the degree Ekon was suffering.

There was also the matter of Ekon being phobic about snakes. They’d discussed it before, and Mao felt it was a perfectly justified phobia to have. Which meant, if the feather-brained idiot thought he was going to force Ekon into the jungle, pushing him past his comfort zone, when Ekon had been pushed to the point of death a thousand freaking times since he was a child… Mao wasn’t going to stand for it.

“Mom, I need you to keep an eye on Ekon for me, if you please. Take him back into the house and make sure he eats and has plenty of fluids.”

“Where are you going?” Ekon's eyes snapped up to his, and Mao realized he'd probably broken some major mating rule or something, but it was time for him to put his foot down.

“I need to focus,” he said. “I’m a damn good tracker, and I am going to find this bastard and your journal.”

“Mao, son, we’ve already tried. We were out for three hours this morning looking for some sign he was around. He has no scent, making him impossible to track by regular means.”

“Featherman doesn’t smell of anything,” Mao agreed, “but the journal does. That’s what I'll be tracking. Is Felix home?”

Mom nodded. “I think he's still sleeping. He was out late last night.”

“Ask him to stay home, please. And Ekon, babe…” Mao stopped for a moment, shaking off his anger as best he could because that feeling had nothing to do with Ekon and everything to do with his own frustration.

Wandering over, he carefully helped Ekon to his feet, stroking a hand through his mate’s hair. “You're exhausted. In this heat, you need to stay hydrated. Why don't you have a drink? Stay in the air conditioning…”