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Both my parents had been active in my childhood, but when you’re that young, it’s your mother who does the most care. My father had a pack and a financial firm, after all, so it was usually Viola who put me to bed at night. Who read me a story. She made lunch for me, and while my father was usually home for dinner, it wasn’t a guarantee. Viola was always there.
Until she wasn’t.
At first, I’d wanted to go see her, even though there was a new man. I didn’t care. I didn’t care at all about Brock; he didn’t mean anything to me. I wanted to see my mother.
But that didn’t last long. Brock did not take being ignored lightly, and soon he was the only person I could think of when I pictured that damn house. The drive over was always somber, and stepping inside…the memory still made me feel cold all over, even though I hadn’t gone to my mother’s house since I was sixteen years old.
I’d never felt at home at my father’s house, either. Maybe it was because I had been forced to split my time between parents as a child. I didn’t have a choice — they were werewolves and mated, but they had also been legally married at one point, which meant they had to go through the legal process of getting divorced. There were finances to split. Assets. And there was the process of custody.
In retrospect, it was a damn near miracle my father had been awarded 50% custody instead of the majority being granted to my mother. I still didn’t know how that had happened, and it was one of those things I didn’t want to know. I was simply grateful for it.
It didn’t change the fact that I’d also felt like a visitor in my father’s house. Staying there hadn’t filled me with dread, but it had never been comfortable, either. It wasn’t quite like walking on eggshells, but I still felt like a guest, not a resident. Nic had invited family over twice a month for dinner, inviting my aunts, uncles and cousins — sometimes up to twenty-five other shifters sitting at that long wooden table — and I felt like I belonged in that house no more than they did.
In theory, it would be passed down to me someday. I was supposed to be Longbow’s next alpha — I wassupposedto be my father’s only son. My eyes darted to the back of Remus’ head. Maybe a part of me had always known there was something else.
Maybe it was just my parents’ separation. And now?
Now my condo, halfway across the world, was the only place that felt like an actualhometo me. I had never planned on staying in Texas long term. I’d intended to visit my father for Remus and Luna’s wedding, and that was it. But Remus had handed me the keys to the condo the next time we came stateside, looking for locations for a possible American firm, and stepping into this place…
It felt like some kind of home. More of a home than any place in the United Kingdom, anyway. So much so, in fact, that I had started to wonder over the past year if it would be worthwhile to find my own condo in London. I knew my father would never be okay with it, but things felt so much more peaceful here in Texas.
Until now. Until this very moment.
I walked in the front door and closed it behind me, feeling like I was closing the door on my own cage. I no longer felt safe or secure; I felt trapped and restless. I didn’t want to be here. I felt just as strange walking from the foyer down the hall, staring at the couch like I’d never seen it before instead of having kissed Iris on it just last night. Our intimacy felt like it had happened ages ago. Time felt fake.
Ifelt fake.
I should bedoing somethingrather than sitting here, and yet…
“Is there a way we can track Iris’s phone?”
The sound of my father’s voice in the kitchen broke my wandering thoughts and I gave myself a hard shake as I rejoined the other two alphas. I got a glass of water before I sat at the table with them.
Remus had already pulled out his cell phone. “I imagine we can. I know a guy.” He got to his feet as he pressed it to his ear, taking a few steps towards the hallway. “Hey, Seff? It’s good to talk to you. How’s Tala?” He drifted further down and I frowned, looking back at my father.
“Every time I call Iris, it goes straight to voicemail,” I told him. I was pretty sure I’d mentioned that earlier, but maybe I hadn’t. It had gotten hard to tell what was a thought and what I actually said out loud. “Is he going to be able to trace her phone if it’s off?”
My father paused, finally giving me a shrug. “I don’t know,” he admitted, “but I don’t think it can be tracked if it is.” He rubbed his mouth before looking back at me. “Was there anything the two of you were talking about last night? I don’t know…a new idea or different breakthrough, or something that she might have gone to investigate?”
I sighed, racking my brain. Wehadbeen working hard, but there hadn’t been any “lightbulb” moments — at least none that had occurred to me. “No, nothing new,” I reported, feeling a bit dejected. He didn’t need to know what we did when we took a break. That wasn’t his business.
My father sighed, nodding. “Well, we don’t know that she was with Demi,” he said after a moment, looking back to where Remus had wandered off. “They could have targeted her because she was actively looking for her sister. Ryan was actively looking for Ashley. At least, that’s how it appeared. We shouldn’t assume the worst yet.”
I wrinkled my nose, making a face at my father. “Catherinewas actively looking for Ashley,” I pointed out. “Watch the newscasts. And Catherine is still alive. I don’t know that we can assume they felt at all intimidated by one woman looking for her missing sister. That’s hardly out of the ordinary.”
My father was silent, clearly choosing not to argue with me. “Well,” he finally said, “what were you two looking into then?”
I motioned behind me, back towards the living room. Most of the folders and papers were still on the coffee table. “We were wading through the documents Iris got at the abandoned building. She was focusing on patient records, and I was going through the financial statements. Iris was trying to figure out if any of these people had ever reappeared, alive or otherwise.”
“And did she find any of them?”
“No.” I shook my head. “There were a lot of dead ends last night.”
Remus reappeared from the hallway, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “My buddy will get to work on it right away,” he murmured, joining us at the table. He rubbed his chin, turning to look at me. “Has Iris mentioned to you if anyone was following her, or paying too much attention to her?”
I shook my head again. “No. She hadn’t mentioned it. We’ve been poring over these documents a lot the last few days, and I hadn’t noticed anyone either when we’d break to go get food or something.” I paused, frowning. I didn’t like what I was about to admit, but… “She had no issue spotting the first surveillance team I put on her before I realized what a deep issue this was. I think she slipped past them at least three different times before I gave up on them.”
Remus ducked his head, clearly trying not to snicker. “Well, she is a professional, I suppose,” he said, shoulders shaking a little.
