Page 20 of Fae Devoted
“A twin brother,” she echoed like a trained parrot, spinning around to face him.
“You know I was once an outcast? That I chose to leave my birth Clan?”
Johnnie bit her cheek and nodded. Everyone knew. Samuel was still a young Alpha when he found Jacob wandering the Mississippi River as a wolf, so wild and broken only the strength of the pack bond enabled him to return to human form. But Jacob never talked about his origins or the reason he left his home, not even to Johnnie.
“Jeremiah wasn’t only my littermate.” His hand tightened on her waist. “He was my Alpha.”
Loyalty to family and pack was ingrained in a shifter’s bones, the connection vital to their wolf’s mental stability. Voluntarily losing an Alpha in tandem with a littermate would have ripped any Ferwyn male apart. It was a miracle he didn’t turn feral under the stress of the additional loss. A miracle he was standing there with Johnnie at all.
“I’m so sorry.” Slamming against his chest, she slid her arms around his middle, molding her body to his, trying to absorb his pain. What could have happened in Jacob’s past for him to decide to leave behind blood kin?
“Long time ago,” he rasped, setting his unopened bottle next to the forgotten cookies.
“You’re still allowed to miss him, regardless of the number of years you’ve spent apart.” Johnnie locked her wrists behind his back. A Ferwyn’s inherent need to provide solace to a grieving clanmate had nothing to do with how tightly she held on.
“Jeremiah is missing.” His arms closed around her, chin settling on the top of her head. “He disappeared two weeks ago.”
“But you know where he is now. That was the vital information you said you were waiting on at Chess. You’re going after him, aren’t you?”
Another grunt, his calloused fingers absently stroking the sliver of skin exposed by her cropped sweater.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“He was declared a rebel, then outcast by his príoh.”
“Your brother joined the Knights of Humanity as a pack Alpha?” Johnnie asked him softly. Gently. The guilt in his voice as recognizable as the slight mildew scent assailing her nose.
“Yes.” A heavy pause. “And no.”
“Yes,he was a part of the KoH, butno,he wasn’t an Alpha at the time?” She feared Jeremiah’s situation was worse than first imagined.
“He was compromised.” The scent of pine sharpened along with a smell that reminded her of scorched popcorn. Jacob was angry. “Magically.”
Incapable of hiding her shock, her mouth fell open and her head drew back with a jerk, dislodging Jacob’s chin. It was common knowledge the spell used to push the Dádhe into attacking humans at Chess was cast by a witch, but an Anwyll’s magic couldn’t supplant the bond a shifter held with their Alpha.
“Before his bond was broken? By whom?” Even an ingestion of powerful Dádhe blood wouldn’t take precedence over Clan ties. “I don’t understand.”
His broad shoulders tensed, firm jaw working as though he were grinding pebbles between his teeth.
Johnnie stepped out of his arms, flattening a hand over the soft cotton of his t-shirt. “You can’t tell me who magically tainted your brother or how, can you?”
He shook his head, regret in his eyes. “I have to find him before it’s too late, Jo.”
“You will. I know you will. If Jeremiah’s in the ESC, then Samuel won’t allow him to go feral.” Traitor or tainted, it wouldn’t matter. Her Alpha would bind Jeremiah to Clan Walker for his beta’s sake alone. “You probably can’t tell me how his former príoh failed to notice one of his Alphas had joined the knights either?”
“No.”
“Who is he, by the way?”
Tell me where you were born.
He lifted her fingers from his chest to his nose and inhaled as though seeking comfort and assurance in her scent—and avoiding the question.
Johnnie ducked her head, pushing one side of her hair behind her ear. “Surely the name of Jeremiah’s príoh isn’t a secret?”
Silence.
Johnnie bit her tongue, testing the theory that patience was a virtue. So far, it appeared highly overrated, but she wanted Jacob to tell her about his past because hewantedher to know—to understand why he was leaving—not because she badgered him into it.
