“Then it has to belong to one of the Irish Wolves,” Tara chimed in. “None of the Wölfennites would have tech like that.”
“That’s what I’m assuming,” Alban conceded. But something about the phone only being available in the Americas didn’t sit right with him. “Those wolves who took the queen’s sister and her strange friend were dressed in old-fashioned clothes. They didn’t look like the kind of people who made international trips to get the latest GoNoTo phone.”
Speaking of that strange friend…
“I also wanted to ask you about your younger sister’s friend, Banrigh,” Alban said, turning his attention to the queen. “The wolves were obviously very interested in Naomi, but they seemed just as, if not more, determined to take Sadie. I’m wondering what a kingdom of wolves could possibly want with a bear.”
There was a pause, and then the Canadian queen spoke, her voice laced with confusion. “What bear are you speaking of, exactly?”
Alban squinted at the phone.
Then Magnus asked his new wife, “Hold on. I didn’t bring it up because I thought maybe it was part of some protection deal or something like that. Are you telling me you didn’t realize the Wölfennite brides brought a bear with them?”
A beat of silence. Then Tara answered, “Wait, are you trying to say you think Sadie is abear?”
“She’s your sister’s best friend!” Alban couldn’t keep the frustration out of his voice as he bit out, “Are you truly saying you didn’t know what she is?”
“I mean, I know she smells a little odd, but bears…” Tara’s normal, all-knowing voice faltered. “Bear shifters aren’t a thing. Are they?”
“Yes, they are,” Alban replied between clenched teeth. “When I was in the Scottish Guard, I ran a few missions with the Canadian Bear Reserves. From what they told me, there are more bears than wolves in Canada. And you’ve nae desire to ken how the Russians are using their bear shifters. It’ll keep you up at night.”
“What in the…” Tara said, clearly flabbergasted. “How could this have gotten past me?”
“If it makes you feel any better,moi banrigh, I also didn’t know they were a thing until I played against a few of them on the U.S. team in the lead up to the World Cup.”
As usual, Magnus went out of his way to protect his mate from any bad feelings brought about by her own overzealous commitment to change and her willful ignorance of the shifter world at large after growing up in a cloistered Wölfennite community, followed by years of hiding out in Edinburgh among the humans.
Alban, however, gave exactly zero fecks about the new queen’s feelings. “Here’s the thing about your oversight, though,” he told her, returning them to the subject at large. “Now we’ve nae idea why the Irish Wolves seemed just as determined to take Sadie as they were your sister.”
“What are you thinking?” Magnus asked with a frown in his voice. “That the North American Bears asked the Irish Wolves to kidnap Sadie?”
“I don’t know what to think, actually.” Alban rubbed a hand over his face. “Wish you’d been able to give more answers about this bear business. But I’ll let you know what we find in Wicklow.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Tara’s voice chimed in, as if she were catching up to the information she’d just been given. “Sadie referred to herself as a she-wolf. So did Naomi and the rest of the Wölfennites. And from what Naomi told me, Sadie was just as determined to find a groom as the other brides. If I didn’t know, and Naomi and the other brides didn’t know, there’s a huge possibility that Sadie doesn’t know what she is either.”
Her words landed on the conversation like a wheelbarrow full of bricks.
And though Alban wasn’t a religious man, he found himself tempted to cross himself on Sadie’s behalf. She might not know she was a bear, but the Irish Wolves certainly did, judging by theway they’d known to use one instead of two doses of knockout serum.
An image of the way Sadie had fallen stone asleep in the Irish leader’s arms flitted through his mind like a harsh mountain wind.
One thing was for certain: If what the queen said about Sadie not knowing her own nature was true, when she woke up… wherever she woke up… she was going to be incredibly confused.
“…I’m a what???”
Sadie
I was so,so incredibly confused.
“You think I’m awhat?”
I’d just gotten used to the guttural Scottish accent, and though Tadhg’s deep and resonant Irish one was much easier to understand, I could only assume I’d heard wrong. “I’m sorry, but it almost sounded like you called me a bear.”
Tadhg’s eyes drifted upward and to the side, and I realized he and the Shadow King were exchanging a look over my shoulder.
Even though the whiteboard was still lying on the table, it felt like the two males had an entire conversation before Tadhg said, “I did call you a bear, Sadie. Because that’s what you are—a bear, just like us. You were aware of this fact before now, no?”
“Fact?” Disappointment filled my chest, and I yanked my hand back, suddenly not caring about keeping to the strange customs of the people who’d kidnapped me.
