"Silas killed my father, I think."
The weight of her words sits in the air. I don't know much about her relationship with the man, but even if Silas had a good reason… It made little sense when she first told us. But now… "You never speak of him. Your father, I mean."
She swallows hard. "We weren't close. Our only connection was the medicine. He was diligent in making sure I took it. That I never ran out. That I made my doctor's appointments."
A single tear spills from her eye. Then more follow until they're streaming down her cheeks.
I wish, on everything, that I could take away my mate's pain.
Doc asks, "Is it possible that Silas—"
"That'senough," Grayson finally snaps, cutting off Doc's gentle prodding. "Finish your interrogation later." Grayson shoves between us, lifts Mona up into his arms and storms off through the cabin.
When I hear her bedroom door shut, I finally look over at Doc. But I've got nothing to say.
Chapter 29: Grayson
Idon't leave her alone. I don't even ask if it's okay that I stay. Instead, I hold her close while she cries herself to sleep.
I don't leave when she drifts off, even though there are a million things I should be doing. But there's nothing I'd rather do, nowhere I'd rather be, than right here. Lying in an uncomfortable position, with my mate tucked in my arms, her soothing omega energy wrapped up in her floral, angelic scent as her breathing evens out.
My smoky, cinnamon scent crackles in the air—dark, volcanic, smoldering with ash and anger. So strong, it coats my tongue, but I swallow down the urge to rage and smash something with my fists. Instead, I let Mona's omega, her effortless, supportive scent, calm the fire inside me.
I wish her father was still alive so I could kill him again. I don't know what Silas was thinking, how he found her—how, after finding his omega, he could bite her andleaveher—but the more I learn, the more I suspect he's behind the scenes, working us all like puppets. He's involved in all of this. I just wish I knew more. I wish we could find him.
Kendrick suspects the witches are involved in the missing shifters. And we can now confirm the witches were involved in suppressing Mona's wolf. Silas found her, somehow, and freed her.
But why? To what end?
The witches don't want to take over our clans. Even if, somehow, they found a way to control the alphas, the lunes of every clan, they could never hold on to that power. They could never control a clan of shifters. We vastly outnumber them.
So, what is it they want?
I dig my phone out of my pocket. After making sure Mona is fast asleep, I dial the number. He answers, surprisingly, on the third ring. Usually it's days, sometimes weeks, before I hear back.
"We have a problem," I say quietly.
He says nothing, just waits for me to fill in the blanks. So, I do. I tell Kendrick about the training course, and Mona's wolf. About the witches. And then about the blood.
"I spoke with Trin, she informed me of the magic in your mate's blood. Who was the doctor?" Kendrick asks. Trin Halperin wouldn't have withheld any information from Kendrick. So I fill him in on what Mona told us about her doctor in New York, and about her father and all the pills.
Kendrick hums. "The witches have a compound outside Ontario. Deidre's coven. It's not very large, there's only about a dozen or so that live there. Not big enough to house the number of shifters that have gone missing, so initially, I dismissed its value. But Deidre's playing the long game." He quiets for a moment. And then, "I'm sending in The Ghost."
Shock runs through me. I recover quickly. "How will he get past the witches?"
The Ghost is Kendrick's secret weapon. A man so elusive he belongs to no pack, no clan—not even Kendrick's—and few people know his real identity. But he's young.
If there were a silent, deadly assassin that could infiltrate a witch's coven without raising alarms, it would be The Ghost. He's stealthy and deceptive, or so I've heard. Shifters—wolves, especially—are loud, big, and dramatic by nature. I'm certainly guilty of it, my dominance requires brute force. But the Ghost isn't like the rest of us, and no one knows why.
Kendrick doesn't answer me. Instead, he says, "I'll let you know what he finds. Keep me posted on your end." Before he hangs up, he adds, "The time is coming, Grayson. Have your wolves ready."
The line goes dead.
We've had a tentative alliance with the witches for some time now. And while we have no evidence they are responsible for the missing shifters, we have irrefutable proof they've tampered with an omega. With that, and the witches on our land today—he's right. Something's coming. We need to be ready.
I set my phone down on the side table. Carefully, I kick off my shoes, gingerly setting them on the ground. Then I turn out the light and, though it's still early, I settle in for the night, because I'm not letting Mona out of my sight—out of my arms—until morning.
After all these years, I can't believe I have a mate. It feels so precarious. So fragile.
