Chapter Twenty-Five
Maurice
Ashercallsmejustas I’m heading away from Kieran’s pack house.
“Where are you?” he says when I answer. There’s a tight edge to his voice that I immediately hate.
“London.”
“Where, Maurice?”
I sigh. I really don’t want a whole conversation about what I’ve been doing, but… “Not far from Kieran’s pack house,” I say. “Still in vampire territory.”
“Get over to Deacon’s pack house,” he snaps. “Now.”
I stare at my phone when he hangs up. The fucking cheek on him, ordering me around like that.
As I look at the screen, I see again the notification I ignored earlier, so I open it up. Fuck Asher. He doesn’t get to order me around.
Missed calls.I have several missed calls from Njáll, all dated last night, when my phone was off.
Why was he calling me?
I try to call him back, but it doesn’t connect.
I shake my head and wander in the direction of Deacon’s pack house. I debate calling Vlad on the way, but if Asher called me, then he’s probably called Vlad already and that’s why I’m being dragged into whatever this is.
Maybe they’ve found Augustine? But that would be Njáll’s problem, surely, and nothing to do with me anymore.
I knock when I arrive, and the young wolf inside immediately ushers me in and through to Deacon’s office. He, Vasile, and Asher are all inside, and I know straight away that something is very wrong. Vasile is pacing, his face dark and angry, and Asher looks so tense that I’m worried he might break something.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Vasile’s head jerks up. It is as though he did not notice me until I spoke. Deacon lets out a heavy sigh.
“Maybe you should sit down, Maurice.”
I ignore both of them and look at Asher. His sigh rivals Deacon’s. “It’s Njáll,” he says. “No one has seen him since last night.”
“What?”
“He met with me and Kieran early in the night,” Deacon says. “Before midnight. We left, and he sent a message to Afsaneh saying he’d be out of the clan house for the rest of the night, and no one has seen him since.”
I feel numb. I can pretend I don’t know why they’re telling me this, but I do. Neither of us was discreet about our feelings, not really, which is probably why the Huntsman removed me from my post in the first place.
“When did he send the message to Afsaneh?” I ask.
Deacon frowns and looks at his phone. “After Kieran and I left. Just after midnight.”
He called me between half past eleven and quarter to midnight, so he’d wanted to talk to me first. And then he went out?
“You told him about the attack. Quinn’s attack.”
Deacon nods.
“Fuck.” I run my hands through my hair. “Fuck!”
Asher gets to his feet. “Maurice, what…”
