75
Tony
“Those women?” Matt asked. “The lunas?”
“I should have just gotten her a luna etiquette teacher from the beginning. I should have never let those women into our den.”
Matt sighed. “Did you really have a choice? Politics and all? I mean… we can’t really afford to cut ties like that can we?”
I set my jaw. “She could have been more prepared to deal with them if I had gotten her into lessons first.”
Matt snorted. “And who was going to teach her? One of them? One of their friends?”
“It would have at least been better for her.” I thought back to the look on her face, the way she seemed to withdraw more and more after that meeting. “Whatever they said… scared her. It didn’t make her feel safe with us. I know that’s not all of it, but it’s a part of it.”
“We can’t fix what they said, Tony.”
“No, but we can make sure she’s safe otherwise. We can get her into etiquette classes so she understands.” I growled. “It feels like she should have been taking classes from the moment we found her, and I feel like an idiot for not making this happen sooner.
“I know,” Matt said. “But we can’t blame ourselves. We couldn’t know what they would say or how she would react. We were… just happy to have her. We didn’t think things through, but Tony, let’s be honest. We never really had a chance to learn what this was supposed to be like either.”
I sank back down and rubbed my forehead. “I really hate it when you’re the voice of reason.”
Matt chuckled. “I think… we should start from somewhere near the beginning.”
I bobbed my head and looked at him. “Can you feel her at all?”
He winced at the question. His shoulders slumped. “I… Tony, I couldn’t ever feel her.”
My mood sunk at the words, but I wasn’t surprised.
I nodded stiffly. “Me either...”
“You’d think the books would have noted something like this,” Matt said. “Didn’t they think it was important to say hey, being mated to a half-breed is nothing like being mated to a full werewolf?”
I frowned. The question struck me, and I looked up at him.
“What?”
“They should say something like that.” I blinked at him. “The journals… the books… Maybe we’re missing some of them?”
His eyes were haunted. “Or…”
“Don’t.”
“Tony,” he said softly. “We… We have to at least consider it, don’t we? I mean… think of everything she’s said? Everything that’s happened? Don’t we have to at least count it as a possibility?”
I swallowed as the doubts I had been trying so hard to ignore started to come back. My stomach turned. Could we have made a mistake? Is she not our mate? Am I just losing control because we were nearing that age? I looked at Matt and saw the same doubt on his face. I forced myself to relax and put a hand on his shoulder.
“We’ll find her,” I said, trying to fight the wolfish growl in my voice. “There’s something else at work here. We should just focus on what we can focus on right now, okay?”
His eyes widened. “Tony… I…”
“I know, but we can’t worry about that right now. We need to find her. We need to make our den safe.” I glanced down at his side. “And you probably need new stitches.”
He winced. “Later. I don’t want to get scolded again right now.”
“Walk with me.”
I stood and led him back toward the house. I watched people of the pack start to trickle into the ballroom before I started walking around the perimeter of the house, trying to get my anger under control and think.
There should have been a trace of her scent, I said. A trace of how she might have been taken out of the manor, but there hadn’t even been a pair of footprints that couldn’t be accounted for.
Matt hummed. You think that there would still be something, even now?
I think there’s no harm in looking. Normal wolves could miss things… Our senses are sharper, even without being able to shift. It hasn’t rained.
And if there’s nothing?
I clenched my jaw as a thought came to mind. I stopped mid-step.
Then… there was magic involved.
Matt went still, and I stared out into the forest. The doctor?
I shook my head. She’s… half-witch, but she’s not a witch in that way. I made sure of it when she was assigned.
The liaison?
I shook my head again. He was halfway across the country at the time.
I crossed my arms and looked up at the face of the house. Matt turned and looked up at it with me.
We think no one has magic, I said. No one in the werewolf community, at least, but that doesn’t stop people from making deals with witches.
I winced at the thought. We knew they were traitors, but to go that far? Who would partner with witches to go against us? It’s not like we’ve been terrible alphas.
Anyone who thought they had something to gain by doing so.
I just can’t imagine someone in our pack doing it just to do it.
Then, they were paid or bribed by someone else to do it.
Matt winced. That’s even worse.
What else would make sense? I looked at him, teeth bared. Other than everyone in our pack being traitors?
Matt shut his mouth and nodded. “Magic. Got it.”
I turned back toward the house and led him back inside. If they weren’t gathering, they seemed nervous. No one looked at us. No one got in our way. They seemed to be trying to escape being in the same area as us until the last minute. A few of them glanced at me with wide eyes as I led Matt upstairs.
I turned back to him. “Shower and change. Let her deal with your injury.”
Matt nodded. I went back to my room and stepped into the shower. The spell was powerful. Even my injuries hadn’t closed all the way, but I was in better shape than Matt.
I rested my head against the cool tile and took deep breaths before finishing my shower. I felt a bit calmer when I walked out. Matt was coming down the hallway, shirtless and pressing a piece of gauze to his side.
“Torn?”
He nodded. “I hate silver wounds.”
“Everyone does. Come on.”
I led him downstairs just as the doctor exited her chambers. She stopped in the hallway. I watched her put her hand on her dagger as she narrowed her eyes.
“Call your friend,” Tony said. “Your witch friend and see if she can tell how Lucy was taken.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Taken from here or taken from there?”
I flinched and bared my teeth. “Both.”
She crossed her arms. “Why?”
Matt growled at her. “Because we need to know.”
She tilted her head. “Why would I invite a witch to a wolf den? Why don’t you do it formally?”
My eye twitched as she smiled. “As I recall, there are ways for you to do so. Haven’t you done enough under the radar?”
He growled at her and stomped past. “Matt, get your injuries tended.”
I pulled out my phone and called Dagon. He answered with his usual stiff tone.
“I’m requesting aid,” I said gruffly. “I need a witch.”
“To do what?”
I growled. “To figure out how Lucy was taken from the den and the event.”
He hummed. “Okay. She’ll be there tomorrow.”
I frowned. “That soon?”
“She was headed toward the den with an envoy.”
I clenched my jaw. “An envoy for what?”
He chuckled. “I have no idea. It’s been sealed.”
I glowered at the phone. “You don’t seem upset about it.”
“Just because I’m your liaison doesn’t mean I have to like you.” He laughed again. “At least put on pants, hm?”
He hung up and I walked back into the room where everyone was gather. The fury was heaving through me. I could feel the restraints of the spell holding firm even as it felt like I could break through it.
“Alpha,” our beta said. “Everyone has been gathered… except for the doctor.”
“Leave her,” I said. “This is pack business.”
I walked into the room and let my gaze drift across the gathering. All of these people had been under my care for years, yet as I looked at them, my heat felt no warmth.
“You all know that our mate, your luna, was taken from the den and poisoned,” I said. “We’re going to talk about all the incidents leading up to her disappearance and how we’re moving forward as a pack.”
I glared across the hall. “We will be on the same page, or you will be exiled.”
A gasp rang through the hall, and I could smell how fearful they were.
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