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Outskirts of Austin, Texas
As soon as Remus’ car came to a stop, all three of us stepped out. I couldn’t control my anxiety, even though the older alpha’s description hadn’t sounded like Iris at all. Until I saw the person with my own two eyes, I wouldn’t be able to flush it out altogether. I assumed, anyway, that it was the news of a murder that had me on edge. I’d been feeling out of sorts since finding Iris gone, but…
I tried to shake the feeling off.
It wasn’t the sting of rejection. First of all, there was no real proofofrejection. Iris had left all her things in my condo. I’d seen her car. Those bags held most of what she owned. There was no way she’d abandon all her clothing and her computer, even if I…
Eli. Focus.That was not a road I was allowing myself to go down.
I had no reason to believe Damon hadn’t seen her leave, for one thing. He was obviously lying to me about what my father had and hadn’t said. Why would he tell the truth about a woman he clearly didn’t like if he thought he could separate us somehow? Hell, for all I knew, she’d lethimknow where she was going, or maybe Henry…
I paused and took a mental note. If she wasn’t back this evening, I’d make sure to check in with Henry. He watched the parking lot every night, and I trusted the condo employee far more than my former bodyguard.
I tried to convince myself that I was looking too deeply into this, but discomfort never strayed far from my gut as we walked up to the yellow police tape.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t seen death before. Hell, I’d been forced to kill someone a few days ago. Sometimes the feeling of the other alpha beneath me as he took his last breath still replayed in my mind when I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t enjoy killing, even if I had to kill, and that was going to take some time to get over.
All the same, a grim sense of finality set in as Remus asked us to stay while he ducked under the tape, striding over to speak to someone. I watched for a moment, my mouth pressed into a thin line. I turned and looked at my father. “Who’s that?” I murmured, nodding to the officer Remus was conferring with.
My father shrugged. “I believe that’s his contact in the force,” he murmured back, giving me a grim smile. “From the looks of it, the man appears to be a crime scene investigator, which would be good news if heisa Silverstreak wolf. Less red tape for Remus — for all of us, really — to have to wade through to get information on this person.”
“That’s something,” I sighed, watching as the two continued to speak.
“It would have been better if Remus had a wolf in the missing persons’ department as well, but…you know how most shifters feel about working anything even related to government. Too risky.”
I snorted. “If I had a contact in the missing persons’ department, they’d have been useless as shit. Otherwise, this project or whatever wouldn’t have been able to go on this long.”
My father sighed, nodding his head. “It’s something that needs to be addressed,” he agreed, rubbing his chin. “It’s still shocking to me that so many wolves have gone missing…” He shook his head after a moment, seemingly dismissing a thought. “It certainly can’t be allowed to happen again.”
I studied him for a moment, wondering what exactly was going on behind his eyes. “You know,” I said slowly, looking towards the crime scene and what little I could see, “you’re taking an awful lot of interest in a pack that isn’t yours.” A pack that, in theory, he wouldn’t see for most of the year.
In theory.
I still wasn’t convinced, no matter how many times he told me, that he wasn’t interested in the Silverstreak Pack — or that Remus wasn’t interested in the Longbow Pack, for that matter. It would be difficult to have a pack that spanned across two continents and over an ocean, sure, but…my dad was a man of bold ideas. And I meant what I said. He had alotof interest in this pack.
Nic scowled as if he were reading my thoughts, and shook his head. “I’m interested because one of my sons is the alpha of the pack,” he replied. “My grandsons are also part of that pack. Missing wolves are a concern foreveryone.” He leveled a frown at me. “I only intend to ever be alpha of Longbow, and I have no intention nor desire for Longbow to be folded into any other pack. Not now, not ever.”
He looked like he might say something else, but stopped himself. I scowled back at him. “Go on,” I rumbled. “Say it.” If there was something else, I wanted to hear it. I wanted to hear it all.
“I’m dating Fiona,” he said quickly, as if the admission might somehow come as a surprise. It took a lot of willpower not to roll my eyes. No one had announced it officially yet, but anyone who had seen Nic Archer and Fiona Silverstreak together would have been able to guess that they were a couple. “So what happens in her pack concerns me. Especially if this facility is taking wolves from other packs. Who’s to say it will stop with American wolves, especially if theydorelease these ‘weapons’ on the battlefield? Other countries might catch on and race to catch up with their own ‘super weapons.’” His face morphed into a snarl. “We cannot allow that to happen, Eli. It’s gone on too long already.”
I hated admitting he was right, but he was. That was just the nature of an arms race, wasn’t it? Always trying to come up with the best new thing — or racing to catch up before you were totally left behind?
Even if he was right about that, it didn’t mean I believed him about his intentions for Longbow — or Silverstreak. I rolled both thoughts around in my skull, trying to decide how to frame it when Remus came back over to us, looking grim. He slipped back under the tape and motioned for us to follow us to his car.
“The womanthey found is Demi Smith,” he informed us once we were back inside the vehicle, away from prying ears. “She is indeed a member of the Silverstreak Pack.”
I exhaled, relieved it wasn’t Iris that came to any harm, but…shit.
“That’s one of Iris’s clients,” I said, leaning forward. I had taken the back seat while Remus and my father sat up front. “Demi. She hired Iris to look for her sister, Cyn. Cyn is one of the missing wolves. I think that’s the reason Iris came to Austin at all,” I explained, watching Remus’ countenance grow darker.
As the car fell into silence, the what ifs exploded in my skull. If Iris had been meeting with someone, I would have assumed it was Demi. She never mentioned taking on more than one client while she was here, and given how busy we both were, working on this case…I seriously doubted she just picked up another one.
But if she’s not with Demi, who is she with? What if she went to interview someone alone? I know she’s used to working alone, but…the military wasn’t involved before!
I wanted to think I was overreacting, but why would Iris’s phone be off if she was meeting someone for an interview? She’d just put it on silent, right? That’s what I did during a client meeting.What if something happened to her phone? What if she was with Demi when…whatever happened, happened?
“How long has she been dead?” my father asked, breaking the silence.
