Page 14 of Midnight Whispers
Riley closed his hand. “Warlocks.”
He wasn’t sure why he latched on to that word. Something clicked into place inside his brain. It felt…familiar. Right.
Dad chanted under his breath, and the dishes on the stove went into the sink.
Riley sucked in a breath.
Griffin snapped his fingers, and a small flame sat on the tip, as though it were a candle.
Riley took two full minutes to lose his mind. A million questions went through his head. The one he wanted to ask about was the glowing tattoo on his hand, but instinct told him to keep it to himself.
He wasn’t sure why, other than it had something to do with Cass. He thought it might be some indicator that he had a crush on Cass. He didn’t want to have to explain his feelings to his dad. Cass had said Dad was his best friend. And he was a lot older than Riley. It would not be very comfortable to admit.
What if Dad or Griffin told Cass about the crush? He would see Riley as just a kid. How embarrassing would that scenario be? And why was he thinking about Cass when his dad and Griffin just used magic.
“If you guys can do stuff like that, can I, too?” He should be weirded out, but he’d always known he was to the left of normal. He just didn’t know what made him that way.
Riley should his head. “I should be panicking. Why aren’t I?”
“On some level, you knew who you were all along. That could be why learning about wolf shifters didn’t come as much of a surprise either.”
That made sense, but it was still bizarre to think about other people who weren’t human. It was like learning aliens existed and lived in the house next door.
“Why are you only telling me now?” It was one more way his dad neglected Riley. Perhaps it was the biggest one of all. If Riley had been told who he really was, maybe it would have made a difference to their relationship. Plus, the simple fact of the matter was that Griffin hadn’t told him either.
Instead of waiting for an answer, Riley shook his head and stood. He brought his half-eaten meal to the counter and grabbed plastic wrap, covering his plate before sliding it into the refrigerator.
“Will you sit and let me explain, please?”
Riley had to collect his thoughts. He’d been running on nothing but emotions for the past few weeks. He needed to separate a few things in his mind before he started asking the hard questions.
“No. I won’t. What I am going to do is get dressed.” Riley met Griffin’s gaze. “I assume we’ll be outside. At least for part of the day.”
Griffin nodded.
As Riley was heading down the hall, he heard Griffin say, “We shouldn’t have said anything about him being a warlock. He wasn’t ready to hear it.”
“Did you notice his palm? He met his fated mate. He needs to know what that means.”
“How? He’s been here one day.”
“Maybe he met someone during the road trip.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
Riley sucked in a breath. Fated mate. That had to be like a boyfriend, right? And if that’s what it meant, it had to be Cass. There wasn’t anyone else.
Chapter Eight
Cass knew something was wrong the second Iven walked into the station. All he wanted to do was talk about the case to avoid whatever was bothering him.
Iven sat behind his desk with Cass across from him. He had the case file in front of him, reading the interview with the victim. “Give me your impressions.”
“He’s scared enough to hold something back, and I can’t blame him. It’s not too often that a wolf shifter gets kidnapped, with our reflexes and senses being better than most others. He’s a college student. He had our former alpha’s permission to be in the area. As long as he remained a student, he didn’t have to become a part of the clan. But he’s from Timeston.”
“Why would that matter?” Iven being a warlock and not part of the pack, made him naïve to pack politics some of the time.
“You know about the alpha wanting our numbers to increase to keep up with the Timeston pack.”
