36
1325 Words
Leanna Avery
Erik Wild is not as tall as my mate. But he’s bigger than me, and he has an imposing presence that commands respect. He eyes the hot chocolate I’m holding. “I see you were expecting me.”
Plucking the mug from my hand, he enters the house with the ease of a person who has been here several times before.
“That was mine,” I mutter.
He takes a drink of the hot chocolate and looks displeased. “It’s cold.”
“Let me make you a new one,” I say reluctantly.
“Coffee, please.” He follows me into the kitchen. “Where’s Finn?”
“Sleeping. Surely you didn’t expect him to be awake at this hour?”
“This hour?” He checks his watch and looks surprised. “I thought it was before nine. I guess I got caught up with work.”
As I start the coffeemaker, I ask, “What brings you here?”
“There’s been another kidnapping.” His voice is low, and a shiver runs down my spine. I was afraid of that.
Lately, there’s been a string of wolf shifters going missing. At first, it was assumed that they had simply taken off, but no one could come up with any explanation as to why they would have done so.
“This would be the fourth case since—”
“Since Harold,” Erik finishes. “Yes.”
“Who is it this time?”
“A couple of juveniles. They were on their way to meet some friends. Never showed up. This was three days ago. I just got the information this afternoon and ordered a search of the general area of the path they should have taken. We found their belongings. Phones and wallets.”
“Teenagers,” I murmur, feeling sick to my stomach. “And you’re sure they didn’t just run off on their own?”
Erik shakes his head. While I process this new information, he opens the fridge and peeks inside. “Finn told me you had lasagna yesterday.”
“Stop talking to my son when I’m not around,” I say irritably. “And focus on the topic at hand, please.”
Erik takes out a hunk of cheddar cheese and bites into it. The man has the weirdest tastes. When he looks at me, however, his eyes are tense. “We wouldn’t even know about these kidnappings if it weren’t for Harold’s case. If word spreads, chaos will follow.”
I silently agree.
A year ago, one of Erik’s advisors went missing. Nobody noticed his absence till a few days had passed. He was an important part of Erik’s internal circle, and his disappearance sparked a massive manhunt. Unfortunately, not even Erik’s best trackers were able to locate him. It was almost as if Harold walked out of his house one evening to go get something to eat at a local diner and simply disappeared. He never reached the diner, according to the staff there. And since Harold was single, with no romantic partner, it took a while for anybody to figure out that he was missing.
I watch Erik munch on the cheese, my brain working in overdrive. I was the one who ultimately found Harold, and then, I stumbled upon the case of another missing shifter. And then another. All after Harold’s disappearance.
I cross my arms over my chest. “Surely, you didn’t come here to tell me about the missing teenagers.”
Erik studies me intently. “I know you’ve been looking into the other cases, even though I told you not to.”
I turn my gaze away guiltily.
He sighs. “I’m forming an investigative task force, Leanna. I want you to head it.”
My head whips back to face him. “No. I have a child to think of, Erik. You can’t drag me into this. You know what happened to the two shifters you had looking into these matters, and they were from your own intelligence unit.”
“You’re already looking into these matters,” Erik points out. “And we don’t know that my men were killed because of their involvement with these cases. They were working on other investigations, too.”
I shake my head. “I can’t risk it. Helping you unofficially is one thing. I don’t draw attention. But if you drag me into this in an official capacity…Finn has no one in this world but me, Erik.”
“He has me.” Erik arches his eyebrows. “If anything happens to you, he won’t be abandoned.”
I stare at him. “So, you do think something’s going to happen to me if I investigate this matter?”
A flicker of a smile crosses his lips. “No, I don’t. But I do want you to lead the team. You’re the only wolf shifter who works as a private investigator. My intelligence team is gathering information, but they’re used to dealing with intra-kingdom relationship investigations. I can give you as many people as you need to do your ground work for you. You don’t have to be at the forefront of anything.”
I shake my head. “I can’t. I can’t take the risk.”
His eyes tighten. “You owe me.”
My blood turns cold. “Do you plan to use that every time you need something from me?”
He shrugs. “If I have to. This is serious, Leanna. I wouldn’t come to you if it weren’t.”
I hesitate, knowing what I’m about to say next is definitely going to piss off the man looking at me so expectantly.
“Erik—Your Majesty—”
His brows knit together at my formal tone. “I don’t think I’m going to like where this is going.”
“You’re not.” I try to keep my voice firm. Erik has a wolf’s nose for weaknesses, and if I give him any leeway, he’s going to make sure he corners me until I give him what he wants. “I’ve paid my dues to wolf society, to the Human Wolf Kingdom. I have already made my feelings clear to you about being involved in your world. I don’t want to belong to this realm of shifters. I just want to live with my son in the human world, where I can protect him.”
I press my lips together as Erik’s eyes narrow. When faced with the king, I feel slightly intimated. Eight years of clawing my way to where I am has been good for my confidence and self-esteem, but I can’t shake off who I was for so long.
“If you drag me into this, Sire, you’re dragging me back into a world where I can be hurt, where my son can be harmed. There are people who would do anything to get their hands on him and kill him simply because of the mixed blood running through his veins. I already have more visibility among my own kind than I would like. You can’t ask me to jeopardize Finn’s safety.”
Erik studies me, his fingers drumming a beat on the table. The stretch of silence that follows my words makes me tense.
“What if I guarantee his safety?” he finally says. “What if I guarantee that Cedric Raine, or his mate, or even the noble families working for the Northern Wolf Kingdom will never be able to touch you or your child? What if I give him imperial protection?”
My heart thunders in my chest. Imperial protection? Why would he go that far? “How can you even do that? Even if you say he’s under your protection, it doesn’t mean those who want us gone will stop. There are assassins and—”
“I can adopt him.”
- Writer
