Page 54 of Fae Devoted
“And did they find each other?” she asked after taking a taste of her homemade latte. It was delicious.
Although the Glaofin was touted as a natural progression for a Ferwyn male, the motivating factors behind the decision to leave Clan life forever were always bittersweet. The notion that the siblings wouldn’t have to spend their last days alone was a comforting thought.
“Yes, they did.” Dylan’s eyes went soft on her, then anger flared in the brown depths, and his voice turned hard. “But I haven’t seen either of the twins in over two weeks.”
“No one has.” Jacob pushed his empty plate aside.
“Aren’t there a lot of tourists in this area? Maybe they ventured deeper into the forest to avoid them for a while?” Johnnie slid her half-eaten breakfast to Jacob.
“There hadn’t been a confirmed sighting of Patrick in the park by anyone other than Alpha Fowler until Peter joined him last year.” A shifter in wolf form couldn’t be mistaken for the ordinary gray wolves found in the UP, even by humans. “Since then, I’ve caught glimpses of the siblings every few days. I think Peter still misses pack life and likes being around other shifters.”
“What do you think happened to them?” Johnnie poured more syrup onto the leftover pancakes she’d given to Jacob, smiling to herself when he took a large forkful and dredged it through the pool of sweetened maple.
“The song?” Jacob asked between bites, referring to the doleful howls of a grieving Ferwyn.
“I would have heard it if one of them died and left the other behind.” Dylan stood, taking his and Jacob’s original empty plates from the table and placing them in the sink. “Either they’ve moved on, which I still believe is unlikely, or they’ve been killed.”
“You think they’re both dead?” Johnnie asked in shock. The odds of Ferwyn siblings dying together were minuscule outside of a battle or murder. “No, the brothers would have smelled a human hunter traipsing through the woods from a mile away. Maybe they did leave the area.” She nodded. “Yes, that has to be it. They can’t possiblybothbe….gone. They probably wanted more solitude than they could get with all the campers and hikers in the park and moved farther north. It’s much less populated in the UP. Or maybe—”
“Johnnie,” Dylan started but was stopped short by Tucker gently tugging on the tail of her braid.
“Jo, breathe,” he ordered in that deep, calm voice she loved so much, then let go of her hair to cup her cheek. “We aren’t sure of anything yet.”
“Yeah, okay.” She exhaled, leaning into his touch. “Okay.”
Dylan pulled out his chair, flipped the plastic seat backward, and straddled it. “The twins aren’t the only Glaofin missing.”
“Kincaid is working with the Guard to investigate the disappearances in this area.” Jacob brushed the bridge of her nose with his thumb before letting her go.
“There’ve been others?”
“Four, including my sire.”
“I thought he left when you were still a young pup?” Johnnie kept her tone soft, knowing Dylan didn’t like to talk about his family. His mother and infant brother died in childbirth when he was eight years old. His father went wolf soon after their deaths and left Dylan to be raised by his uncle.
“He did.” Dylan stared out the wide glass doors that led to the unspoiled forest beyond his backyard. The gorgeous fall day a mockery of the somber conversation taking place inside. “My uncle was informed by Remington’s people when my sire claimed territory in the Upper Peninsula. After I reached my majority, I started receiving the periodic updates on my sire instead. But the reports stopped eighteen months ago, and I didn’t know what to think until Príoh Walker contacted me.”
“Sherman Kincaid disappeared without a trace,” Jacob continued. “Like the others.”
“I needed to know what happened to him.” The words were garbled, the tips of Dylan’s canines peeking from beneath his upper lip. “I wasn’t forced into exile, Johnnie. I asked for it.”
Outcasting was considered a unicorn event in Ferwyn society until the KoH started recruiting them to do their dirty work.Blatant betrayal of the magical community or its hierarchy was the most common way for a shifter to earn exile status. All other crimes committed by the Fae Touched—petty to heinous—were dealt with in-house.
Jacob was the one and only shifter she had ever heard of who left his home territory willingly. Well, he was until Dylan’s astonishing admission.
Johnnie realized her mouth had fallen open and snapped it shut.
“My Alpha in Mississippi aided in the deception at Príoh Walker’s request. I understood when I accepted the mission that no one could know the truth. Our people would panic, and whoever is behind this might disappear before we could discover what happened to our clanmates. To my father.” He raked his fingers through his short, dark hair. “I didn’t do the things I was accused of, and I didn’t betray my pack. I wasn’t a criminal or a coward. I wouldn’t—”
“I never believed it, Dylan. No one in my family did.”
His nostrils widened, and then his eyes briefly closed, smelling the truth in her words.
“Who do you think is behind the kidnappings?” She wouldn’t say killings. Not until it was confirmed. The Glaofin could still be alive; at least, the twins might be as they hadn’t been missing long. “One of the hate groups?”
Johnnie’s stomach plummeted at the possibility. The Ferwyn males now permanently in wolf form would be the perfect target for the KoH. Unlike shifters who belonged to a pack, they wouldn’t be missed right away—if at all.
“We don’t know for sure, but…” Dylan sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, his reluctance to say more evident.
