Page 56 of Forsaken Fate

I shifted. The two mages disappeared in a swirl of light. Beside me, Doyle’s wolf still stood guard. Though I hadn’t asked him, instinct drove him. He would be my second tonight.

“You should hunt,” Brynna said. “I know you need to.”

“What I need is to make sure none of those other Alphas decide to come after you. They’re filled with bloodlust, Brynna. Grayson was a fool for sending you out here like this. He isn’t strong enough to fight them off if one of them decides to issue a proper challenge.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” she said. “These are Dorran lands. They know that. I just declared my intentions in front of all of them. Nobody wants another shifter war, Theo.”

“Go back inside,” I barked. “I’m telling you, it’s not safe for you out here. Trust me. I’m not moving a muscle. If anyone tries to cross this courtyard and get near you, I’ll rip them apart.”

She gave me that secret smile. She touched my cheek and for once, did what I asked her. She walked into the house and left Doyle and me alone as the strongest shifters in the state hunted my father’s lands.

Doyle waited until the door closed and Brynna was safely inside. Then he shifted and turned to me.

“What the hell is that idiot thinking?” Doyle asked.

“I have no idea.”

“Sorry I didn’t get a chance to call you before we got here. I had a little ... uh ... field trip to take pertaining to your favor.” His voice sounded urgent and ominous.

I waited, training my ear toward the woods. The hunters had moved off to the northwest. It would likely be hours before any of them came back. We were secluded enough out here for now.

“Tell me what you know,” I said.

“I gotta say I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get something for you. And for the eleventh-hour stuff. I just had to make sure I was as right as I could be.”

“How right are you?” I asked, a chill starting to form in my gut.

“One hundred percent,” Doyle said, his mouth a grim line.

“Okay.” I crossed my arms. “So what is it? What did you find out?” I listened for Brynna. She was still moving away from us toward the front of the house. Even if she were a shifter, she wouldn’t be able to hear us.

Doyle had brought a bag with him. He picked it up and walked further into the courtyard where Diana had put stone benches overlooking the garden. That’s where we went.

“I’m gonna tell you what I know and how I found it. I think both are just as important.” He pulled his smart phone out of the bag and sat down on one of the benches. “I’ve got a paper file back at the office, but I scanned some of the highlights.”

I sat beside him.

“Pretty much the chick is lying about everything, Theo. And I mean everything. She’s good. For sure. So, she’s probably got somebody bigger helping her, but she’s a con artist. One hundred percent.”

I felt nothing. Not shock, not anger. Not at first.

Doyle went on. “For starters, her name isn’t Brynna Carrington. It’s Brynna Wade. I almost didn’t find it. She’s very, very good, Theo. But she got sloppy. If you hadn’t asked me to tail her, too, we probably still wouldn’t know that. She paid with a credit card at a restaurant the other night. You and Grayson were with her. I had eyes on her that night.”

“Right,” I said. “I told Grayson I wasn’t going to help him with his campaign unless he signed my dad’s lands back to me. It didn’t look like he was going to, so I left. Nice. So, he apparently stuck her with the check.”

Doyle nodded. “I figured it was something like that. Anyway, my assistant got the slip from the waiter. After that, everything pretty much broke wide open. If you hadn’t pissed Grayson off that night, well ...”

“Okay,” I said. “So what?

“Look,” Doyle said. “This is awkward, okay? We’re friends. You’re into her, I get that. We’ve been tailing her, remember?”

The tail that I set up led Doyle to my hotel room at least once.

“So, who’s Brynna Wade then?” I asked. I wouldn’t apologize or explain my own behavior to Doyle. He was friend enough not to ask me to.

“That was hard to puzzle out too,” Doyle continued. “It’s not a particularly unique name. Nothing about the Brynna Carrington story checked out except for when she entered the picture in Grayson’s life. She got hired as a filing clerk in Diana’s office. When she started getting close to Grayson, Diana got wind of it and called in some favors. Got Brynna canned. But she’d already gotten her hooks into Grayson pretty hard. He hired her to work for him. And you already know how that turned out on account of we’re standing here today.”

I nodded.

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