Page 149 of Primal Bonds

“At least then she’d be alive!” Luc snarled back.

They glared at each other. Adric’s claws pricked out.

“Are you questioning how I handle my own sister?”

Luc’s jaw worked. Then he dropped his gaze. “No,” he muttered.

Jace spoke into the taut silence. “The question is, what do we do now?”

Adric retracted his claws and retook his seat. “Ideas?”

“We send a man to watch over her,” Jace said. “But only one. More than that, and we’ll just piss off the ice fae.”

Zuri shook his head. “I say we risk sending four or five men. She’s not just Adric’s sister, she’s the clan second, and a damn good one. We can’t afford to lose her. And if and when she finds Corban, she’ll need help.”

Luc growled. “Corban can go fuck himself. I vote we send five men to bring her home, ASAP.”

Adric blew out a breath. “Dragging her home isn’t an option.” She was on edge as it was. When she did spend time in her human form, she’d become a one-woman arsenal, with two or three knives on her at all times. “She needs to do this. Otherwise, we’re going to lose her.”

Luc set his teeth but nodded curtly.

Adric touched the quartz around his neck, pinging her one last time. But she didn’t answer. His claws pricked out again. The cougar was about to explode out of his skin, insistent on going after Marjani. But the cougar also knew that the clan came first.

He made up his mind. “We’ll send one man to serve as backup.”

Luc rose to his feet. “I’ll go.”

Adric considered him. The wolf fada looked back, big hands fisted. If Adric refused, he’d have another AWOL lieutenant, because Luc was determined to go, alpha or no alpha. At least if he had Adric’s permission, he’d report in regularly.

“All right.” Adric jerked his chin in assent. “But you’re only there as backup. Unless things go south, you’re not to interfere—and that’s an order. I don’t even want her to know you’re there. Pretend you’re a fucking ghost.”

“Understood.” The lieutenant’s shoulders released. “I’ll catch the next flight.”

“The next flight isn’t until seven o’clock tonight,” Zuri told him. “You won’t get there until five a.m. tomorrow, their time.”

Adric grimaced. That meant Marjani would be in Iceland for almost a day without back up. But it couldn’t be helped.

“Contact me when you’re on the ground,” he told Luc. “I can use my link to her quartz to give you her general direction.”

“Will do.” The wolf disappeared up the ladder to the Factory’s main floor.

Adric turned to Zuri, his chief of security. “While I have you here, any word about the night fae prince?”

In the past six weeks Prince Langdon of the night fae had been seen twice in Baltimore, when he normally only visited the city once every few years. They all knew why—he was searching for his son, Lord Tyrus.

Baltimore was located between two powerful fae clans—the Rising Sun Fae in northern Maryland, and Langdon’s clan, the New Moon Night Fae in Virginia. Adric had kept his dealings with the local fae to a minimum until Corban had teamed up with Tyrus to try and pick off Adric’s lieutenants.

Which was why Lord Tyrus was buried deep underground in Druid Hill Park.

“Nothing,” Zuri replied. “I have my people on high alert, but the prince hasn’t been seen in the city in over a week. Word is he’s searching cities up and down the East Coast, not just Baltimore.”

Relief washed over Adric. “Then he’s not sure where his son died.”

“No.”

“Good. For now, keep your people on high alert. If the prince shows his face anywhere in the city, I want to know, stat. That goes for any night fae.”

“Of course,” Zuri replied.

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