Page 70 of An Unending Claim

The silence was awkward, so I attempted to put the conversation back on track. “He was as twisted as Xavier,” I recalled, trying not to see the incident in my head. There were definitely times when my eidetic memory was a curse.

Allison spoke up and I zeroed in on her face to stem the flow of memories. “How does Hamna figure into all of this?”

“I haven’t quite worked that one out yet,” my dad admitted with a frustrated scowl.

I’d been mulling that over since the conversation with Willa, and after everything my dad had shared, I had a pretty good guess. “I think I know, but… do you think Xavier is behind the deaths that are stirring up tensions between all supernatural species?”

“No,” Nathan answered. “I’ve considered that as well, but even if he excelled at strategy—which he doesn’t—he is ruled by his emotions. It’s one of the reasons he’s being forced to take people and territories by force. He doesn’t have the patience to sneak in under the radar and destroy from within, so he’s attacked their foundation from outside. I’d been wondering why the Councils were being ripped apart in such an obvious manner, rather than being quietly infiltrated.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” I agreed. “I think Hamna was a copycat.”

Several sets of eyebrows rose throughout the room, but Nathan’s eyes lightened and swirled with molten silver for a moment, then returned to almost black. In that quick glimpse, I saw a spark of admiration. But, instead of making me feel better, I was angry to see that despite proving myself to be capable, he’d decided I was no longer his partner. Just another damsel in distress who needed the crusader to swoop in and save her. Except, in his mind, this damsel belonged to him.

Well, fuck that. I don’t belong to anyone.

Tu es ton propre destin.

Fate might have chosen him as my soulmate, but I was the one who decided my future.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

PEYTON

“What do you mean?” Mason asked.

“Xavier is trying to cast suspicion of those murders onto Nathan, but he obviously only had access to evidence that would implicate me. Leaving Hamna at The Spot would not only put my friends in Azreal’s crosshairs, but me as well. Word is spreading about our mating and if Nathan’s mate is a homicidal lunatic, what would that say about his instincts and ability to read people?” I tapped a finger on my lips as I thought about the oddities in that whole staging. “What I want to know is how the fuck they managed to get my fingerprints and DNA.”

“Trophies,” Ephraim grunted.

“Pardon?”

“I’ve seen it before,” he explained. “Once the murder is committed, they can’t just walk away and leave it behind. They are obsessed with every victim and want to replay it over and over in their minds. So they take a trophy, something that reminds them of the incident, giving them satisfaction from not only reliving the killing, but from knowing they were successful. It feeds their ego as much as their sickness.”

Ephraim’s expression was hard and his tone flat. I was curious how he knew that, but it would have to wait for another day. “You think he took something of mine even though he didn’t kill me?”

Ephraim nodded. “Especially after you ended up on Silver Lake property. There was no time to grab something when he attempted to kidnap you, and besides that, your belongings were still at your apartment. He probably stored it somewhere away from the others, so he’ll feel rewarded when he finally succeeds.”

Allison cocked her head to the side and chewed on her lip for a second before inquiring, “Have you noticed anything missing from your belongings?”

I shrugged. “I haven’t gone through it all yet.”

A barely audible growl escaped Nathan’s lips and I raised an eyebrow at him. Seriously? He was mad that I hadn’t completely unpacked?

“Always one foot out the door,” he muttered.

“Actually,” I replied tartly, “I was simply content with what I had.”

For a brief instant, Nathan’s icy exterior cracked, but it sealed again so fast it made me wonder if I’d actually seen it.

I turned back to the others. “How do we prove it was planted?”

“I have someone handling it,” Nathan announced. “You don’t need to worry about it.”

I bit my tongue to keep from making a caustic retort. Instead, I moved on because an argument would simply be wasted breath. “Why is Xavier still working with Bane? Xavier can’t possibly be oblivious to the fact that it was his little puppet who killed his mate.”

“Obviously, this happened after Owen’s death, but when it did, I realized he’d given me the answer.”

“An heir,” Nathan declared. “He wanted an heir.”

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