But the kids…
They probably didn’t know me from the next guy, but they were still my nephews. They couldn’t protect themselves, and if someonedidget to Remus…
I shook my head, fighting the urge to bare my teeth at the mere idea of someone coming after the children. That I could not tolerate. They were my family now, and regardless of how I felt about their father, I would do my damnedest to ensure no ills befell them.
I couldn’t getIris out of my head last night. After I’d gotten father off my case, I’d asked around the party. None of the Silverstreak wolves recognized her, which answered one question. One woman was able to tell me that Iris had shown up with her college roommate but said roommate had hooked up with someone almost immediately.
The story seemed sort of fishy, but itwasa Moonmate ceremony. I wasn’t the only wolf this side of Texas not looking for a mate, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Iris had a roommate who’d hooked up with some stranger.
No one could tell me what her last name was, though, or what pack she’d come from. She presumably went to school somewhere in Texas, but since ‘the roommate’ had left so soon, no one I’d spoken with had gotten any details fromher, if she even existed. It was like Iris hadn’t existed even a day before the Moonmate ceremony, and that, if nothing else, worried me.
Being a snoop was one thing. Having no manners was just the result of bad parenting. But a shifter appearing out of nowhere?Thatwas troubling. Either she was a lone wolf, which meant she had no place at a Moonmate ceremony, or she was potentially some agent sent to… To…
I’d fallen asleep rolling potential motives over in my head, but I still couldn’t answer that question. I’d slept like shit because of it and woken up entirely too early. It was better than nightmares, so I’d simply peeled myself out of bed and worked on my computer. People had been uploading party photos all night across all social media platforms, but I couldn’t find a single picture taken with that woman. There was one photo where IthoughtI could outline her profile behind some other women posing together, but I wasn’t sure. The lighting wasn’t great.
If I hadn’t met her, I’d start wondering if she was a ghost… or an actual witch or something.
Witches were real in theory, but I’d never met one. I didn’t know anyone who’d met one, and I was convinced that if they were real, it was from a long time ago. Iris was a shifter, just like me — albeit a very slippery one.
That could only lead me to one conclusion: if she wasn’t a lone wolf, she was some sort of agent for another pack. Remus hadn’t had any trouble in the past year, but he’d come to England because he’d started some sort of hostile takeover of a neighboring pack and couldn’t complete it without my father’s help.
I was sure he’d say something else if asked, but it was pretty obvious to me.
I didn’t care either way, but I didn’t want my father involved if someone was trying to stir up drama with the Silverstreak pack; he’d had enough to deal with already.
Whatever Iris was up to, I had to figure it out and put an end to it before she mucked things up any further for my dad — or my nephews.
The ringingof my phone startled me from my thoughts, and I snatched it off the desk. “Hello?”
“Hey, Eli. Bad time?”
To my surprise, it was my cousin on the line, not Tyler. I flicked my wrist, eyeing my watch, but I still had time before I was due to meet with Harry Rios again. “Not at all,” I replied, turning my chair to stare out the window and into the city. “You caught me between meetings.”
Myles laughed, and just the sound of it lifted my mood by a degree or two. I missed being in London. I missed my cousin. I didn’t have many friends, but I did have a few, and I counted my future beta amongst that number. “All work and no play make Eli a dull boy,” he teased, and I rolled my eyes. “Seriously though — the Moonmate shindig was last night, right? How did that go?”
I snorted, leaning back to detail the event for my cousin. Remus had gone all out, and that rankled me, but not as much as seeing Nic and Fiona all over each other like lovestruck pups. “They were even dancing, Myles.Dancing.”
Myles made a gagging noise, perfectly encapsulating how I felt. “Sorry you had to see that, man. I can’t even imagine.”
“It’s not even that he’s trying to date again,” I replied after a moment, staring up at the ceiling. “He deserves to have a partner if he wants one.” Hell, if there was anyone who deserved that, it was my dad. He got left not once buttwicewhen his partner had found her fated mate. Fiona had been pregnant and hadn’ttold him, and my mother…
Well. They were married. They had me. She was the alpha’s mate, for fuck’s sake, but none of that was powerful enough for her. She’d chosen Brock—
I shook my head, casting the thought aside before it could further sour my mood. The point was that my father had been ditchedtwice, and if anyone deserved a happy, uncomplicated relationship, it was him. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was that it wasFiona Silverstreak. If she’d loved him so much, she would have stayed with him, not gone off with this Remington bloke.
Myles read into my silence and rumbled quietly. “It’s that she’s Remus’ mom?” he guessed. “I can’t even imagine. Is she weird towards you?”
“No,” I sighed, shaking my head. “If anything, she’s nicer to me than Remus. She obviously wants me to like her.”
Myles snickered. “Okay, but that must be fun. At least a little.”
“Maybe a little,” I replied. It was just Myles. He knew already. “Let’s stop talking about that, though.”
“Yeah, of course. Did you meet anyone cute while you were there? Someone fun to hang out with while you’re in Texas?”
At least my cousin wasn’t trying to hook me up for the rest of my life. I smiled against the phone, though the memory of who Ididmeet quickly soured my expression. “There was one girl. Kind of a troublemaker around here; she was cute. Might have made out with her.”
“Uh-huh,” Myles snickered, knowing exactly what I didn’t say. “But…?”