NOAH
I stared at the note, dumbfounded.
Theo wouldn’t do this. It just wasn’t possible.
“That’s his handwriting,” dad whispered.
It was… but the message wasn’t right.
“He physically held the pen, yes… but he didn’t write that message.”
Dad glanced at me, eyes concerned.
“Can I see it again, Noah?” Ava asked, voice low.
I nodded, passing her the paper. She read it again, before stopping and pointing about half way down.
“This isn’t right. Theo wouldn’t say this.”
“Theo wouldn’t say what?” Dad asked.
“Theo and I have… shared girls before, dad. That’s happily shared too. Me being in the group
wouldn’t be a problem. It would have been more believable if he’d said Callum or Oscar were the
problem, but not me.”
“I agree, Jacob,” Ava replied. “I’m sure you don’t like hearing about your sons’ sex lives, but I
completely agree with Noah.”
“Theo was also happy. He was working with the rest of us to plan something to apologise to you, Ava,
to make up for pushing you away.”
At that comment, I saw Ava’s face fall a little, before she replaced the sadness with a look of abject
determination.
“Something else is wrong here too,” Alex added, taking the note off Ava, sniffing the edge of the
paper. “Can you all smell that?”
He held the piece of paper out to each of us individually.
AVA
“Matthew Stanley,” I growled. “And what smells like a couple more members of his pack.”
I swore a lot under my breath, as I pushed myself to my feet. “I’m going to talk to the other woman
that came with Martha.” I turned to meet Callum’s eyes. “Come with me?”
“Of course,” he smiled.
“Jacob, Alex, if you two can organise the scouts around Eclipse Mountain, that would be great. The
ones around Blue Mountain will hopefully have information now too. We can assume that since one
of our suspects is from Blue Mountain and the entire legend is focused around Eclipse Mountain that
those are the most likely places that someone would have taken Theo.” They both nodded, letting me
run this show. “Oscar, Noah… can you both scout around here, see if you can find anything else that
might tell us anything useful? The direction they went in, the mode of transport they used, just
anything at all.” They nodded.
“No one goes anywhere alone from here on in,” I growled as I turned and shifted to run towards the
guest house, Callum hot on my heels.
Just because bad news always comes in threes, the woman was dead when we got there too. She was
dead, and the kids were missing.
“For fucks sake!” I growled, before swapping to linking Jacob.
“JACOB!” I shouted down the link, I was absolutely furious, I could feel my aura going a little mad.
“Who was guarding the guest houses? I’m currently staring at the other woman’s body and the
children are all missing.”
Callum took my hand, helping me to calm down a little.
“I’ll find out, Ava,” Jacob replied, his voice almost too calm, all things considered.
I closed the link, before turning to look at Callum. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this out loud, but
something about Jacob is making me uneasy.”
He nodded. “I agree.”
“Is there someone you think is trustworthy enough to tail him?”
He nodded. “Leave it with me.”
I trusted Callum to know what he should and shouldn’t say to whoever he chose, he knows what he’s
doing. We definitely couldn’t have Jacob knowing that I was suspicious about him.
“I don’t think he has anything to do with Theo’s disappearance…” I said, still deep in thought. “But
his reaction to finding out the other woman is dead and the kids are missing is unexpected.”
“I agree,” he replied. “I know you’re close to my dad, and obviously, he’s my dad, but I’m going to
have him tailed too. I don’t think he’d purposefully be involved, but I know he trusts Jacob explicitly,
so if Jacob is up to something… my dad could be involved in one way or another.”
He was right. He was stammering with nerves, but he was right.
It was very possible if Jacob was up to something, that he could have drip fed information to Alex.
We’d then see Alex doing something questionable that he believed was okay…
This could get messy.
“Make it happen,” I nodded to Callum.
“Of course, my Queen.” He smirked, giving me an over-the-top bow that I couldn’t help but laugh at.
“Oh, I do love you, Callum Joseph Lewis.”
“And I love you, Avelina Wroblewski.”
The smile on his face was heartwarming; I knew he meant every word he said. “Let’s head back to the
office. We’ll get everyone’s tails sorted out, find out what Oscar and Noah found, and then work out
how the hell we’re going to get Theo back.”
He nodded. “Without putting you at risk though, Ava. We know the rogues are coming for you and are
planning to make their move on the full moon. We need to make sure that either you have all four
marks by then or that you’re completely safe.”
I scowled at him. “I am not hiding during a fight where I am the target, Callum.”
“Yes, you are,” he growled.
“Would you honestly hide if our positions were reversed?”
“Fine!” he growled again. “But you have someone with you at all times.”
“I’ve already insisted that no one goes anywhere alone, Callum. There’s safety in numbers.”
He grumbled the entire way back to my office, and didn’t stop even whilst we talked about the square
root of jack shit that Noah and Oscar had found.
I growled under my breath, letting my head fall forwards into my palms, trying really hard not to snap
at Callum.
And then I snapped.
“CALLUM! I am not sitting this out!” I shouted, my aura exploding out from me. Artemis was
seriously pissed off too, I could feel she was staring through my eyes.
Oscar and Noah both fell silent, wisely deciding that this argument was between Callum and I… and
that they should probably just let us fight it out so they didn’t get dragged in.
“Ava, please…” he begged. “I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t! I am not sitting this out whilst the rest of you run around risking your lives for mine.”
“There’s three of us and one of you, Ava.”
“That doesn’t mean any of you are dispensable!” I growled. “There’s a reason I have four mates, and
that’s because I need all four of you. You are not throwing yourselves in harm’s way for me and
expecting me to sit this out. None of you would want to do it, I’m not doing it. That’s the end of that.”