Page 165 of Primal Bonds

Did she really think he’d kill her? No fucking way. He’d lie, cheat and even murder if it meant hiding his sister was a feral.

He squeezed his quartz, willing her to contact him. Damn it, Luc was supposed to have found her by now.

But he’d missed her in Reykjavik—and since then Adric had received only two short communications. In the first, Luc had explained he was heading to the ice fae court’s location in northern Iceland. In the second, he’d said he’d found her and was temporarily cutting off communication for safety.

And for the past two days, nothing from either of them.

That made two of his lieutenants lost somewhere in Iceland. The place was a freaking Venus flytrap.

He rubbed his nape and told himself not to worry. Luc and Jani were both strong, capable soldiers.

But she’s not herself…

On the surface two stories above, a motorcycle rumbled up to the rowhouse he rented out to a couple of teenage drug dealers as camouflage. Very few people suspected the Baltimore Earth Fada alpha himself lived in the neighborhood.

A minute later, booted footsteps clattered down Adric’s stairs.

He stilled.

No one but his lieutenants and a few trusted clanspeople had permission to pass through the ward guarding his den. And they wouldn’t come in the middle of the night if it wasn’t important.

“It’s me,” called Jace at the same instant that Adric sensed his quartz on the other side of the door.

Adric ushered him inside and closed the door. “What’s up?”

Jace shook his head. Like Adric, his cat genes were evident in his lean, powerful build. He had close-cropped black hair, warm brown skin and his Native American dad’s broad face and long cheekbones. He’d dressed in a hurry—his T-shirt was shoved haphazardly into the waistband of his jeans, and he hadn’t buckled his short black moto boots.

“Bad news,” he said, his mouth a hard line.

Adric’s heart sank. He really didn’t need any more bad news right now. He gestured for the jaguar shifter to go into the living room. Neither of them sat down.

Jace got right to the point. “Langdon wants to meet with you.”

Adric stiffened. Jace had said the night fae prince’s name. Clearly, they’d draw his attention.

Hell. This had to be about Tyrus.

“The prince contacted you himself?”

Jace’s face sharpened, his cat’s fury simmering green in his eyes. “He sent a fucking night fae envoy to our house in Grace Harbor.” Jace’s mate Evie had kept her house in Grace Harbor, a small city on the Chesapeake Bay, even though she and her teenage brother Kyler lived in Jace’s Baltimore den much of the time.

“They're all right?”

Evie was a pretty blond human with a touch of fae, and her brother Kyler, although full human, was smart, scrappy, and—although he’d hate to hear it—loveable. Even though Evie wasn’t an earth fada, Adric would've tolerated her for Jace’s sake, but the two siblings had earned a special place in his heart when they’d saved Jace from Tyrus’s assassins.

“Yeah.” His friend growled. “But it scared the shit out of her. The prick wants me to know I’m vulnerable, that he knows where my mate and her brother live.”

A cold anger rolled through Adric. “The hell he does.” Evie was innocent in all this, and Kyler was a cub—not even out of high school yet.

“His envoy knocked on our front door—at midnight. I scented that he was a night fae, of course, so I told Evie not to open the door. Meanwhile, I changed to my jag and slipped around the house for a better look. Thank the gods her dad gave her that protection charm. At least the bastard didn’t pick up that she’s a mixed-blood.”

Adric nodded.

“But he upset everyone. Even Mrs. Linney. You know how she has her nose in everyone’s business.” Jace paced across the living room, agitated.

“Hell. I’m sorry.” Mrs. Linney was Evie’s elderly, chain-smoking, neon-clothes-wearing neighbor. The woman never seemed to sleep—she was better than a watchdog.

“Mrs. Linney came out on her stoop and cussed the envoy out. Called him an ass for waking up the whole neighborhood at midnight.”

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