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Remus’ Safe House
Travis County, Texas
Bella slept through the rest of the night, and when I woke up, I felt generally less tired than I had before. Iris looked a little bit better, too, a little less wooden in the way she moved when getting out of bed. Even Bella looked a bit perkier when Iris brought her downstairs for breakfast.
I’d initially been hesitant about my father staying the night with us, but seeing the way Bella’s face lit up when he served her a Mickey Mouse-shaped pancake made his staying well worth it.
“Where’s mine?” I asked, happily crunching on a piece of bacon. “I never got fancy pancakes as a kid.”
My father made a face. “I’ve learned a few new skills over the past year or so,” he said, shaking his head. “Luna would never say as much, but I know my first attempt to make them for the twins was…abysmal. Embarrassing, in fact.”
Iris snickered next to me as she cut the pancake into bite-sized pieces for Bella, ducking her head to try and hide her amusement. I sipped at my coffee, trying to hide my shit-eating grin, though I knew it was a failed effort. “I guess even old dogs can learn new tricks,” I replied, trying to keep my expression as neutral as possible.
My father shot me an annoyed look before turning back to the stove top, continuing to cook. Breakfast almost felt normal — there was no talk of any investigation, not with Bella right there — and it was nice to have coffee and something warm to eat.
Once we were done, Iris got up and started loading the dishwasher. My father leaned forward across the table, smiling at Bella. “Fiona packed a few outside toys for you. Would you like to go outside and play with them today?” he asked, smiling at her.
As I glanced over, I realized Bella was smiling back at my father. She didn’t say anything, but nodded, pushing her chair away from the table and slipping off. Nic laughed quietly, doing the same and grabbing his coffee cup. “I’ll take that as a yes!” he said. “This way. I put everything out back.”
Bella trotted after him eagerly, only pausing at the door to hold up her wolf plushie as if in a question. My father tipped his head in thought as he opened the back door. “You can take him if you want, but you want to make sure he doesn’t get dirty if you want him to cuddle in bed tonight.”
It was almost comical how grave Bella’s expression became as she held out the stuffed animal in front of her, clearly having some sort of silent discussion with him. A decision was reached and she hurried over to Iris, thrusting the toy wolf at her. She gave Iris the same serious look.
“Ah,” said Iris, carefully taking the toy into her lap. “I’ll make sure he stays out of trouble, okay?”
Apparently, that was the right thing to say. The smile returned to Bella’s face before she raced away again, dipping past my father and out the door into the back yard.
Iris blinked as he closed the door behind him. “Um, the back yard’s fenced, right?”
“Yes, it is. Privacy fences,” I confirmed, laughing softly.
While my fatherand Bella played outside and the table was cleared, Iris and I sat at the kitchen table to work.
“Where are you all in tracking down the five wolves taken between me and Cyn?” she asked, opening her laptop up. She frowned at the dead screen. “Dammit. I’ll be right back. This hasn’t been charged in days.”
I almost offered to go and get her charging cable for her, but held my tongue. It was obvious that Iris was more than used to taking care of herself, and sometimes it seemed like she could barely tolerate being looked after. I was grateful that she was accepting our help at all, really, so I sipped my coffee and kept from speaking until she returned. She flopped back into her chair with a sigh once she’d gotten her computer plugged into the wall outlet.
“Well, there’s two issues,” I sighed, pulling out a file. “One, we aren’t actually sure they’re numbering them in order. They could be skipping around just to fuck with their captives.” Iris grimaced and nodded. I opened the file and pushed it across the table to her. “These are a few wolves who have gone missing in the past month. We know that’s longer than Cyn was missing, but Remus said we can’t rule them out and that they might have actuallybeenavoiding their family and friends before being taken. I think he has a point there.”
Iris nodded, humming thoughtfully as she leafed through the information I printed out, along with the photos Remus had gathered. “Are these all Silverstreak wolves?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “Of course, we don’t know that all five wolves will be Silverstreak wolves, either, but it seemed overwhelming to reach out to all other packs. People go missing for other reasons, and we might never get to the bottom of it if we suddenly had a pile of twenty or thirty people to parse through.”
“That’s true,” Iris agreed, still studying each face while her computer charged enough to turn back on. As she fell silent, I turned back to my own tablet, drawing up the windows I’d been working on last night before finally falling asleep. We sat in a comfortable silence for several minutes before Iris spoke back up.
“Has Remus learned anything else about Demi’s case?” she asked, her voice a bit softer as she looked up at me.
I grimaced and shook my head, wishing I had better news to share. “No,” I sighed. “Remus has alerted his contact in the crime lab here in Austin, but I haven’t heard any updates on the matter.”
Iris made a face. “Isn’t there, I don’t know, a single wolf in the police force we could reach out to and make those go faster?”
“It’s not that simple,” I replied, shaking my head. Of course, Silverstreak wasn’tmypack, but I did understand the nature of these things. It could be very risky for a shifter to be in the police force, the army, or any other human-dominated government unit. “Even if Remus does have a few wolves within the police force, most shifters are trained to keep to themselves as much as they can without drawing suspicion. They act more like eyes and ears than anything else. Most don’t have any real power within the force — the more powerful you are, the more people know you, and you don’t need me to tell you how dangerous that can be for a shifter.”
My mind shifted to Ryan almost immediately, and I had to force myself not to drift back to the night we’d found his body — and his attacker.
“So we’re stuck again?” Iris sighed.
“Not exactly.” The corner of my mouth lifted up. “Remus has been in touch with his friend, Seff. He’s the alpha of the Red Paw Pack in Arkansas. When I spoke to my brother last night, he indicated that Seff has a wolf planted within the regional branch of the FBI — Alexa…something. Anyway, she’s going to be working on getting us access to the Austin Police Department’s files if Remus’ packmates can’t.”
