Page 149 of Claimed

I just don’t fucking get it.

Jase is doing everything he can to help as Jase always does, but he’s restless, fretting about his sister being stuck with this fuckhead brother-in-law of mine. And his, I guess. There’s no sign Sherry has been here and the scent trail dead-ended across the lake from our village. Clearly Meadows still had enough herbs to mask their scents.

I give Jase credit for spending the night here last night instead of going off to continue looking for him, but he said he didn’t want to be out there aimless when he could be here lending a hand.

Once he knew Dani was coming this morning, he was on fire to ask if she could do a spell to locate his sister. With no leads, no scent trail, but with what my wife said about how Meadows willbe fixated on money he thinks he’s owed from renting those girls out, it’s something at least.

And there’s my cousin Dani now, pulling in behind a courier truck who’s presumably bringing in some supplies the SCC rushed last night.

40

Stacy

“Anya Starling would like me to bring Halla to them as soon as possible,” Dani casually says after handing out the last dose of her healing elixir in the mess hall. “I haven’t met her yet. Is she here somewhere?”

“We don’t know where she is,” Grey replies. “Meadows took her somewhere after he took the girls and dropped them off at the massage parlor, which was two days before the attack on Erica’s birthday. Talked to Stacy’s cousin Luke and he said their convoy stopped thirty minutes from here for half an hour on the way to The Falls. He wasn’t in the same vehicle as Meadows, was in the back of a windowless van, but Meadows was heard on a phone call that was presumed to be with a witch going over his need for more potions. Half an hour is the same distance as the place Brody rescued the girls from last night.”

Dani’s eyes flare with alarm. “This could be a problem,” she says. “Obviously my first concern is that a little girl is missing, but also, it needs to be said that things are tense after what happened with Aviva Starling. The Starling coven leader Anya has her hackles up. Big time. And we expected Halla was going to help smooth some of that out.”

“Lay it out for me,” Grey requests.

“Well,” she replies, “to begin with, the Starlings are asking for a formal investigation against our coven. Particularly you, Aunt Mimi, Erica. Also the pack because of Riley’s involvement.”

“Mitch filed his report,” Grey reasons. “Didn’t Lucinda Alexander do so as well? Have they read them?”

“Reports have not only been filed, I’m told copies were supplied to Anya. But also, Vivi explained things to them in a courtesy call, but questions are still being raised. They want due diligence, want to know there was no negligence on our side because Aviva died. They’re also beyond unhappy about their ancestor’s wand and cauldron not being returned to their coven. Lucinda called Vivi and said they got on the phone to her when they were notified those would go to the global shifter archives, and to say they’re incensed about that is putting things mildly. Lucinda wanted assurances that those artifacts are safe so got on the phone with Erica last night to ask that the pack does their best to guard them but also to get them to Bucharest as soon as possible as she’s uneasy with Anya Starling’s reaction. I was planning to bring Halla home to Marblehead and then pack for Bucharest immediately, getting on a plane before the Starlings came to Marblehead to pick up Halla. That way the artifacts would already be out of their reach. When Vivi brought up Halla and Aphra, giving them that update she could tell returning Halla to them would be a good olive branch. Now telling them that I’m not returning her because we don’t know where she is? Based on Vivi’s conversations with them so far, which were contentious at best, it won’t go over well.”

“Shit,” Grey says.

Shit, indeed.

“I mean, if it were someone in my pack, I’d want due diligence, so I get it,” he adds. “What are you thinking we should do about this? Want me to talk to them?”

“I want to attempt a locator spell before we give them the news. Maybe we can find her before they hear she isn’t here.”

“Okay,” Grey readily agrees. “Lookin’ forward to seeing how that works.”

Dani turns her attention to me. “Are any of Halla’s belongings here?”

“Possibly in the trailer,” I reply. “But if you can do a locator spell successfully, can’t Halla’s family do one as well?”

“They’ve never met her, so while it’s possible, it might be more fruitful if we do it because of your connection with her as well as the fact we can use some of her belongings. But Aphra Starling has been missing for five years and none of their spells worked to find her. Their coven leader says they’ve been worried about her. They’ve never met Halla, didn’t know she existed, and are anxious to meet her.”

“Whoa,” I say.

“Vivi sensed some dissent there. If Aphra put a block to stop her coven from finding her, that block might extend to her daughter.”

“Oh no,” I say. “Aphra never told me about her family, her life before Wyatt took her. I don’t even know how Wyatt wound up with her. He never said and I never asked.”

Dani says, “I’d like to do two spells. Look for your brother as well as Halla. They might not be in the same location. Greyson, you can help. Stacy, if you could see if you can find me some of Halla’s belongings we can give it a whirl?”

“Sure.”

Grey pipes up, “Let me walk Stace to the trailer to fetch that stuff first, Dani, yeah? Riley’s brother Brody is there with his newly identified and unclaimed mate so it’s… delicate.”

***

“Why are things delicate here? Is Addy okay?” I ask as Grey and I walk down to the trailer.

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