Page 90 of Mortal Blood
“You almost had me worried for a moment there,” Jax said, stepping from behind one of the shelves.
I gaped at him. “How long have you been there?”
“Your sense of smell hasn’t improved, then.”
I turned to Ling and she gave me a sheepish smile and a shrug. “I was going to kick him out before we spoke about anything personal,” she promised.
“Spoilsport,” Jax muttered, but there was no missing the sappy smile on his face when he looked at my best friend—which was the sole reason I wasn’t kicking his ass for lurking around in what was supposed to be mine and Ling’s place. Well, that and the fact that he was way stronger than me. Of course, if I fed first…
I shook my head. I needed to focus.
“Well, it’s probably for the best, anyway,” I said, holding up my hand when he opened his mouth to say something I was surehewould think was witty. “And not for whatever reason you’re thinking. We need to get to the pack.”
His face changed immediately, becoming all business in a heartbeat—which was the exact reason I wanted him with us.
“I heard what happened,” he said, his hands curling into fists. “The Black Winds are going to pay for what they did.”
Under the fury, I saw the pain lurking in his eyes, and my stomach lurched. Jax was a goof, and he was so good at playing the role that I tended to forget there was more to him than that. The shifters who’d died had been people he’d grown up with, people he cared for. I wasn’t the only one scared and hurting.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured.
“Don’t be,” he said. “It’s not your fault. Not Cole’s fault, either.”
“Yeah, I tried telling him that, too.”
“I’m guessing he took it about as well as when I told him.”
I nodded. “Yeah. He’s beating himself up pretty badly. He’s at the pack now, right?”
I didn’t need Jax’s nod, because this was my mate, and where else would he be but with his pack when his pack needed him? As it should be. And it was where we should be, too.
But there was something I had to take care of first. Someone.
And I didn’t even though who—but I was pretty damned sure I knew how to find out.
I pulled the envelope from my pocket, thanking every deity that might be looking my way that Blackwell had put a stop to the council holding onto it as ‘evidence’, and shook the Cailleach stone out onto the table.
“Is that what I think it is?” Ling asked softly.
“It’s the key to finding my mom.”
“Your mom left you a Cailleach stone?” Jax said, his brow furrowing.
“No, butsomeonedid, and I can’t think of any other reason anyone would think I’d go running to meet them blind aside from taking my mom.”
“The Black Winds,” Jax said darkly. “They’re planning to lure you into a trap and kill you so they can weaken the pack.”
“It sounds so cheerful when you put it like that. I always dreamed of being a pawn in a pack war.”
“You can’t possibly be thinking of going?” Ling said, her eyes wide with horror.
“I don’t have a choice.”
“You don’t even know that they have your mom.”
“It’s a pretty big coincidence if they don’t, don’t you think?” I shook my head. “I want to believe that my mom is hiding somewhere nice and safe more than anyone, but if she was, Cole would have found her by now. She’s been taken, and the only reason anyone would take her is to get to me.”
“But it’s a trap.”
