Page 31 of Secrets and Ruin

I thought about that night on that ranch—witches staring us down, my body under the control of a simple spell that paralyzed me into inaction. When she had tried to do the same to Fenris, his entire demeanor had changed, and he had said something so simple—Fenris wasn’t his real name. Looking back, that shouldn’t have surprised me. No one walked through the world with a name that was certainly a call to a being of the apocalypse. It was clearly as much of an inside joke as my own last name when I changed it to Leon. Beyond that, most supernaturals no longer used their original names. I was certain Hasan and Subira hadn’t always been called by those names. I knew Zuri once went by another name, not that anyone ever spoke it if they knew it.

No, what I had been surprised by was his accent, and that continued to bother me as I walked around my house as Heath and the others focused on the sleeping werewolves. Now, knowing he spoke German, I understood the accent. Recently, having heard Niko rant at me, his German on display, I could hear the similarities. They had similar accents.

And they’re a similar age. They fought each other in the war…

I went to find my keys quickly and silently, to keep anyone from questioning what I was doing. Getting into my car, I drove away from home without giving in to the urge to stop what I was doing.

My will to be wrong was strong, but I had an obligation to the safety of my family. That got me to Fenris’s driveway, then through the front door. I searched his rooms, trying to find anything to tell me if Fenris had anything to do with this. Heath tried to be a respectful Alpha, something I knew his packs loved about him. He helped them, but he didn’t invade their privacy without cause. He hadn’t taken over Fenris’s life when he joined us here, and I had agreed with that. Fenris had deserved to make his own life without Callahan shuffling him around like a problem child, and we just needed to mitigate any potential issues.

Searching every room until I got to his attic, I had to find bolt cutters in his shed to break the lock before I could pull down the ladder and climb up. I expected to find old personal treasures he was keeping safe thanks to the lock. What I didn’t find was an attic full of dust and cobwebs, teeming with boxes of old things. There were no exposed beams. It was a small hall of sorts. Carpet was laid, the walls were finished and painted, and there was even a hook on the wall, where I assumed someone could hang their jacket.

There was also a door, which I found locked when I tried to open it.

“Damn it, Fenris,” I hissed. I didn’t want to break anything, but now I knew he was keeping some sort of secret. If it was a closet, there would be no reason for the rest of this strange, finished attic. There had to be secrets behind the door. I rammed into the door, my shoulder shooting pain through every nearby body part, but the door gave.

I knew immediately it wasoff. Fenris didn’t let many into his home. He often came to my home to speak to Heath, and when he was with others, they probably avoided this small private space. I certainly never tried to invade his privacy. There were hundreds of reasons why no one would ever try to find this place, and all of them were probably why no one had noticed how different the space was from the rest of the house. The choice to put it in his attic only told me how much he didn’t want anyone to ever see this place.

“What the hell.” I breathed out, slowly stepping in, almost mystified by the strange room.

It was an office, which wouldn’t have surprised anyone if it was in Heath’s home or mine, or even Teagan’s. Shamus, Ranger… anyone could have had this space—anyone but the werewolf who lived in this ramshackle old home. The walls weren’t the same faded paint as the rest of the home. The furniture was new and clearly expensive. He had probably bought it right after he moved in. His desk was redwood. The hardwood floor had not a single scuff or scratch. The books were well-read but cared for on the bookshelf, organized alphabetically.

Maybe Teagan made him this? They’re close…

I couldn’t ask Teagan, though. He was unconscious in my living room, suffering a sleep curse that couldn’t end for several days.

Taking pictures of the room, I sent them to Heath and Landon, only saying I was looking in Fenris’ office. I silently wondered if they would be as surprised as I was by the space. I quickly added where I’d found it, hidden in the attic behind a locked door, but didn’t ask if they had known about it. Their replies would answer that question quickly enough.

I put my phone away and focused on the room. I was here to look for any clue that might point to the truth about our current situation. First, I went to the desk, opening drawers, pulling out papers, trying to find anything with a name or a plan. He didn’t have much technology in the room, only a laptop that was locked and a small printer. I went carefully, flipping through every page and note I could find. Most of it was nonsense—notes passed to him from Teagan, letters here and there from over the years from Callahan. I read those, finding only Callahan asking him if he was okay, if he needed more money, if he liked the current pack he was in. Sometimes, those letters were chastising, asking Fenris to get along with whatever pack he was stuck in at that moment. There was one that asked Fenris to rejoin Callahan’s pack.

I had a strong feeling I knew how Fenris answered that particular request.

Callahan had certainly taken an interest in Fenris. None of the letters were recent, though, many dated before the seventies and eighties.

They must have moved to email. Callahan seems like the persistent type. I’m a bit surprised he cares this much about Fenris. I knew he was always in charge of him, but there’s something personal about all of this.

I kept going back, looking deeper into the bottom drawer of the desk but found the bottom. Growling, I slammed it shut and heard the wood crack and break under the strength of my frustration. With a wince, I quickly pulled it back open, and my stomach did several flips.

My accidental anger had broken the bottom, revealing a very small extra space. I slowly pulled out the documents, heart pounding as I realized I had just discovered more of Fenris’s secrets.

Unfolding the first one, an old piece of paper I could smell magic on, I wasn’t certain how old it was, but it wasn’t like any paper I had ever come across. I put down the rest of the small stack before properly examining it. It was in a language I couldn’t read, but I knew I had several ancient siblings who could probably identify and read it if I asked them. I put it down to pick up another, finding it to be in the same language. All the old documents were. I was certain Heath and Landon wouldn’t be able to read them, either. I put them aside, sighing heavily.

“Jacky?” Landon called out from downstairs.

“Shit. How long have I been here?” I asked myself as I checked my phone. I had gotten several texts since I walked in, but I had been totally absorbed in what I was doing. “Up here!” I called out, letting him know I was okay. “Found some interesting things.”

“Yeah, like the existence of this entire office,” Landon said as I heard him moving up the ladder. “Pa asked me to come check on you. He wanted to come, but you never answered us, and he.”

“He needs to be focused on the others,” I said, not bothered by Landon arriving and not my fiancé. I knew Heath would pick me over the pack, but I would never ask him to put me over those who genuinely needed him, not when I could take care of myself. “I’m not upset. I should have paid attention to my phone. I was the one who decided to come here and shouldn’t have given him a reason to worry by losing track of time.”

“You can ease my father’s worries about it when we get back. What have you found up here?”

I started pushing things across the desk towards him, letting him take it all in for himself.

“I knew Callahan used to talk to him a lot. Once Fenris was with us, he would ask Pa to pass along messages because he was beginning to worry Fenris was just burning the letters without reading them. Clearly wasn’t the case, but…” Landon shrugged. “It was always the same as these… If he was settling in, if he was making any sort of friends.”

“Fenris hates him,” I murmured.

“Yeah, they can’t be in the same room together.”

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