Page 51 of Branches of the Willow

“Do you think they found anything out about Mishka?”

“The harem girl that ran off?” Mikael asked.

“I don’t think she ran off. She seemed pretty content here.”

“We can ask your dad when we get there. Maybe someone’s heard something by now.”

“I don’t think they were too concerned about it. Especially since she’s not the only one. Apparently, others from that group have left the packs they were sent to as well. Do you think it was too much on them? Trying to adjust to pack life after being locked in a glorified dungeon must be hard.”

“Yeah, maybe that’s it. We’ll probably find them all lounging about on some beach having cocktails together one day.”

I laughed at the ridiculous image Mikael conjured in my mind of the harem girls sipping Margaritas on the beach. I let my imagination run wild for the rest of the trip to the pack lands. When we got there, Mikael parked right outside my parent’s house instead of going to the house we had built here. When he saw my puzzled look, he smiled. “I didn’t want you to have to walk all the way back here. We can drive to the new house when we are done talking to your dad.”

“This is why I chose you as my mate. You think ahead!” I winked at him and got out of the car to head in my parent’s house.

Natalia was there with Evan when we walked in, and she appeared to be wiping tears away from her eyes. “What’s going on?” I asked.

My mom came over to me. She was already emanating waves of calm. “The boys were out on patrol, close to where our lands border those of the town, and they found something.”

“They found what?”

“Mishka, baby. They found her body early this morning.”

“I knew it didn’t feel right that she’d just leave. What happened to her?”

“I’m not sure. Your dad’s in the office with Avery now, discussing things. I think it’s probably best if you go ahead and join them.” My mother leaned in to give me a hug, and patted my belly too, before I waddled off toward my dad’s office. Mikael followed behind, closing the office door once we were both inside.

“Ah, Jess, look at you!” Avery beamed over at me as if he were my own dad. “It won’t be long now, hmmm?”

“No, not too much longer.” I touched my own belly then, it was a habit, I realized I picked up about the same time my daughter decided she was able to kick the hell out of my insides every chance she got. “Mom told me about Mishka. What happened to her?”

“She was brutalized. We’re not entirely sure what was done to her.” He hesitated a moment, but then decided not to hold back. “The poor girl was in pieces.” My father’s head hung low as he spoke. “We failed her,” he whispered at the end.

I moved to stand closer to my father and put my arm around him to give him a side hug, which was really the only way I could hug these days with my big belly in the way. “You did not fail her,” I whispered back to him and I put my power behind the words too because I needed him to believe them.

“It’s the same as the other girls we’ve found from my pack,” Avery told me, drawing my attention to him. He glanced between my dad and me and nodded his head briefly. It was good to know he approved of what I had just done. I had come to respect Avery Daniels a great deal. “Two of them, so far, have gone missing, and then a couple days to a week later we found them torn to pieces. Each one has been left closer to where the humans reside. It’s like someone is trying to taunt us, and have us found out, all at the same time.” Avery’s speech ended with him deep in thought.

“Okay, so who wants to tell the world about our kind?”

“Who doesn’t is probably the easier question to answer.” Avery explained. “Each non-human group has factions within it that think it’s time we stop allowing humans to live with the delusion that they are the best thing that ever happened to this planet. We could be dealing with any one of them. We have rogue wolves running around from where Freedman’s pack dismantled, and no one wanted to pick up the strays. There are the hunters in our midst, and the problems we are having with them. The dark ones and their insatiable need for blood could have made a vicious enough attack that it would tear the body apart in that manner.”

“Why would dark ones want to be out in the limelight though? They prefer to lurk in the shadows.” I joked. No one got it. You win some, you lose some. “So, you’re saying there’s a really long list.”

“Basically.”

“Fantastic.”

The door to the office opened and closed again. I didn’t see who came in, because my attention was still on my father and Avery. “We’re hoping that I will be able to help get to the bottom of things, or at least make the list of possible candidates shorter.” I turned to see Serena standing there, in all her magnificence. She smiled at me, and the gesture reached her glacial eyes. On anyone else, that color-or the leeching of color-would have seemed cold. Serena made them seem like pure magic though. “Hello, dear.” She called to me, and then she went to stand near Avery. “As requested, your guest is in the hall.” As requested? A million thoughts and questions flitted through my mind. Serena was standing so near to Avery that the fine hairs on each of their arms were touching. I cocked my head to the side and observed them as they stood there having an entire conversation with their eyes.

Tension hung tight in Avery’s shoulders before, and now it seemed to melt away. I gave Serena a quizzical look, and she simply smiled at me again. “Jessica, Mikael, you two should come over here for now.” We moved, without hesitation. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew I trusted Serena and Avery both with my life, so I obeyed, and Mikael followed suit. “Bring him in.” Avery bellowed.

In the next moment, the office door opened, Andy Wallace came through, tugging at the largest bicep I had ever seen in my life. I lived with inhumanly strong werewolves, so that was saying something. The man had to be about six and a half feet tall, if he was an inch, and his thighs rivaled his arms in ways I didn’t even want to think about. This man was a powerhouse. Behind him, keeping a hold on the other gigantic arm was none other than the smart-ass Nicholai. He winked at me when he saw me take note of him.

“Who the hell is that?” I asked.

“Who the hell are you?” The man asked back, piercing me with a set of wild, hazel eyes. His brown hair was cropped close to his skull, adding to the illusion that his eyes were larger and wilder than they probably would have appeared otherwise. His lips were set in a cruel sneer, until he glanced down from my face and took in my belly. Just like that, his features softened, and instead of being the raging prisoner that he so clearly seemed to be, he inclined his head toward me.

“What the hell?” I heard Mikael say beside me. He’d noticed the gesture too.

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