Page 102 of Moonlit Nights & Northern Lights
“Look, we have acquisition quotas to meet here.”The voice was male, authoritative, with a clipped London accent.“As per our agreement.”
“But this isn’t like the earlier batches! Those were lowlifes we could pick up from street corners.”This voice was deeper, rougher, defensive.“This is a completely different ballgame.”
“We’re only asking for five. And we’re paying Meridian handsomely. With due respect—”
“With due respect, have you seen your specification list? Finding shifters that meet your criteria is hard enough, let alone—”The audio deteriorated into crackling static as footsteps approached. A third voice joined the conversation, the words barely audible through the interference, something about “timelines” before the recording abruptly ended.
The cottage fell into stark silence. I could hear my own heartbeat, the weight of what we’d just heard settling over us like a dark shroud.
Priya was the first to break the silence. “It seems like Meridian might be acting as some sort of middleman.”
Felix nodded, fingers still poised over the keyboard. “And whoever is ‘ordering’ these wolves, has recently changed the rules of theirgame.”
He scrolled down, revealing more of the conversation between Dev and Carrie.
did your friend manage to get anything else to you?
just those maps I emailed you. I’ll ring you later to catch up properly.
“Maps? What maps? Let’s see them!” Rory pressed forward, pushing against Felix.
“Give him a chance to click, Rory,” I said, placing a restraining hand on his arm.
Rory made a frustrated noise in his throat, somewhere between a growl and a whine. “Sorry, Felix.”
Felix’s frantic fingers froze, and he turned to Rory with shock written all over his face, blinking owlishly. “That’s okay. I’m used to it now anyway.”
“That doesn’t mean you should put up with it,” I told him.
He stared at me as if I was speaking in alien.
“Okay, great talk, now let’s get on with it,” snapped Priya.
The tense silence hung in the cottage as Felix continued his work. After a few moments more, Dev’s emails appeared on the screen. It took Felix nanoseconds to bring up the right attachments. Aerial maps filled the screen, vast swathes of green space broken by scattered settlements.
“There,” Priya said, pointing at a red rectangle that encircled a cluster of buildings.
“That’s definitely the Highlands.” Rory leaned forward, his shoulder pressing against mine.
“Your family’s land?”
Rory shook his head, studying the map intently as Felix zoomed in. “No. And it’s not near where Dev’s phone was either. It’s northwest of here.”
The next map zoomed in on the red rectangle, a detailed view of a building complex made up of four separate structures.
“The email doesn’t have an elaboration of what exactly these maps are,” Felix said. “I guess they spoke about a lot of this over the phone? But I’ll be able to locate the buildings online. It’ll be listed as something.”
Priya tapped her nails against the wooden table. “The question is, did Dev come up here of his own accord to investigate all this in person, or was he taken and brought up here?”
“I’m going to ring Carrie,” Rory announced, already pulling out his phone as Felix pulled up the number for him.
We watched as he dialled, waited…frowned. “No answer—her phone is off.”
An uneasy feeling crept across my shoulders. “Hmm.”
“I wonder if I can get the number of her alpha,” said Rory before chewing on his lip. I barely resisted the urge to reach over and tug it free. “I think Kit might know the name. He might know someone who can help. I’ll message.”
While Rory typed furiously on his phone, Felix made a small noise of discovery. “I’ve found a text message Dev drafted to Rory but didn’t send.”
