Page 84 of Feral

Liam’s lips pressed into a thin line and he exhaled long through his nose.

“Angus would kill me for tellin’ ya this.”

“Why? I’m family.”

“Yeah well, he didn’t even want me to know.”

I stepped closer and lowered my voice.

“Know what?”

“As you can see, we’ve had small discrepancies for months now,” Liam said. “Shipments that were light or shippin’ manifests that were altered. Samuel has been trying to figure out what’s going on, that’s why he’s in France because all the shipments came from there. And from what I can piece together…I think it might be Ruben who’s been doin’ it.”

My heart kicked up and I stepped forward, pitching my voice low.

“Why? What’s he done?”

“Every time somethin’ went missin’, Ruben would show up a week or so later with some expensive trinket or new suit, somethin’ for his sister. He would say it was from a good night at the tables, but…I don’t think we ever really believed him.”

“And Angus never confronted him on it?” I asked, heart hammering.

“He would have a talk with Ruben and he’d seem to straighten up but then it would happen all over again. I think, if anyone might’ve stolen the artifact, it’s Ruben. And if the most recent events are any indication, someone has noticed.”

My stomach dropped.

“Tell me what happened.”

“The customs’ police have been all over us, stoppin’ our shipments, harassin’ our employees. Our offices were rifled through twice and someone tried to hack into our book keepin’,” Liam said, taping his cane on the rug in frustration. “Whoever that artifact was going to, they’re looking for it and I have a feeling they’re not going to stop until they get it.”

“Naw,” I said with sharp exhale, “they aren’t.”

“What’s wrong? What do you know?”

I told him about this rogue group, about what the Orc at the fight club had said about us being an experiment. By the time I was done, Liam had gone completely still, like a beast who was about to leap upon their prey. When he looked at me, his blue eyes glowed and his canines dripped with saliva.

“I’m gonna to kill Ruben,” he threatened, his voice much lower.

“Hold on, I don’t think Ruben is their agent.”

Liam snarled at me.

“He’s got the artifact! He’s doin’ all of this! Our family is being threatened again, Fraser. I will not allow it!”

He took step toward me and gave a yelp of pain as his leg went out of from under him.

I caught him under his arms and helped him back into his chair, even though he snapped me the whole time.

“I’m no invalid!” he screamed.

“I know, Liam,” I said, keeping the way the sight of him tore at my insides to myself. “Yer just havin’ a bad day, that’s all.”

He huffed and snarled at me but didn’t deny it.

“I need yer brain right now,” I continued, “yer body will come in later.”

“No, it won’t,” his voice was broken, filled with anger and pain. “The witch, she said…I’m going to end up in the chair, Fraser. It’s inevitable. Not ‘if’ anymore but ‘when’. And I’m tryin’ to make my peace with it, I am. I can still study, do most of the things I love. I can still travel though it’ll be difficult. I just…I’m gonna miss runnin’ under the full moon with all of ya, teachin’ my nieces and nephews how to wrestle in the grass, climbin’ the hill of our ancestors on the remembrance days. I…I wanted all of that too.”

I caught him around the neck and pulled him to me, letting Liam cry into the fur on my shoulder. He’d been so brave through the years, never letting Gran see how all of this affected him, putting on a brave face so Angus wouldn’t feel like a failure as a clan leader, never letting his twin know that everything had changed for him in the blink of an eye. I had been the only one that Liam allowed to see how often it hurt, how much of his life he’d had to change or give up because of this.

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