by Liv Rider
A few minutes later, Adam came back down the stairs, holding two pale, green mugs. Seeing them brought back memories of Mom making him tea when he got home from school and asking him about his day, and he smiled.
Of course, she had stopped doing that once she knew he wasn’t a shifter.
Adam put the mugs down on the ground before sitting down. He took one look at Joel still eating his oatmeal, then put the mug on the tray on the mattress so Joel could reach it.
“Enjoying breakfast?” Adam sipped his coffee.
Joel shrugged. “It’s all right.”
“If you behave, you can start having breakfast upstairs. And you can have something better. Baked eggs. Toast. Waffles.”
Did he really think Joel would be tempted by that? “Oh well, if there’s waffles in it for me…” he replied dryly.
Adam’s smile grew. “See? Being back here is great. Mom’ll make you breakfast and dinner, and do your laundry; you won’t have to do that yourself anymore.”
He couldn’t exactly say he liked doing his own cooking and laundry, but the idea of Mom doing everything for him wasn’t as enticing as Adam seemed to think. He was an adult. “Right.”
As Joel ate, Adam kept talking about his work at the local hardware store and his girlfriend Stacy, and how they were saving up to get married and buy a house. Joel was wondering why Adam was telling him all this when Adam asked him something. “Tell me, are you seeing anyone?” His tone was casual, overly so, and he didn’t meet Joel’s eyes.
He’d played too many board games with Adam not to notice any of his ‘I’m hiding something’ signs. “I’ve had a few dates, but nothing serious,” Joel lied. He finished his oatmeal and picked up the cup of coffee. Last night, Adam and Dylan had sounded so certain telling him no one would come looking for him, but here Adam was, trying to find out if anyone might be missing Joel anyway.
If his family thought no one had noticed Joel being gone, they might feel safe and relax their guard around him. Joel didn’t kid himself into thinking he’d be able to escape by himself. Where would he go? He didn’t have any money for a bus ticket and hiding out in the woods wasn’t an option. His brothers would track him down within minutes.
“That’s too bad. Guess the big city can get pretty lonely, huh?” Adam gave him a significant look.
Joel tried not to roll his eyes or point out how lonely he’d been as a teenager, but it gave him something to work with. Let Adam think he was completely friendless and even less of a threat than he already thought Joel was. “Well, I definitely don’t know my neighbors as well as I knew the neighbors here.” That wasn’t even a lie, but he liked it that way. Sure, it would’ve been nice to have had a neighbor call the police when he’d been taken, but there was a downside to having neighbors who kept an eye on your every move around the house.
Adam nodded, simply taking it as a fact. “I don’t know how you managed to stay there for as long as you did. I know I was only there for a day, but the whole place made me miserable. All the smells and noise…” He shuddered.
“You get used to it.” Joel smiled to himself at Adam’s distaste. To a wolf shifter, the noise and smell would be so much stronger. He hoped Adam had smelled some truly foul things while in Lewiston.
“So…” Adam trailed off, leaning back on his hands. “Dating hasn’t been working out, you don’t know your neighbors… but you did have work. Did you have a lot of friends there, Joel?”
He finished his coffee. “You mean at Hampton’s?”
“Duh.” Adam snorted. “I mean, is it a nice job? Friendly boss?”
“It pays the rent.” He looked down at his empty mug. Adam was definitely fishing for people who might report Joel as missing or at least question his disappearance.
“You don’t sound too enthusiastic.” Adam shook his head. “I bet it’s the kind of place where they have to get new employees all the time because it sucks so much with long hours and rude customers. You know, if you’re lucky and you play your cards right, you might be able to get a job at the diner.”
Joel stared at him, not sure if he should ask about the strange assumptions Adam was making or about working at the local diner. “Seriously?” He was unable to keep incredulity out of his voice.
“You gotta work somewhere,” Adam said, a little defensively. “And they can always use cleaners and dish-washers.”
“Sounds like you got my future planned for me already.” It was half a joke, half a terrifying thought. How long had they been planning this? He supposed he should take comfort from the fact that Adam had fallen for his flat tone and vague replies, and didn’t think any of Joel’s colleagues cared about him.
Adam shrugged, but he smiled. “Nothing guaranteed, obviously, but what’s the point of bringing you back home if you can’t do anything? Although you’ll be helping Mom around the house first before doing any job hunting.”
“I thought you said Mom would do my laundry.”
“Eventually. If you’re good. You’ll have to earn that after what you did to us, Joel.”
Had his family always been this controlling? Probably, but he hadn’t noticed it as a teenager. Joel put the coffee cup down on the tray. “And what about what you did to me? Ignoring me? Treating me like I was inferior? Like I couldn’t do anything right?”
“Joel, c’mon.” Adam sighed. Joel was ready for another round of ‘geez, it wasn’t that bad’. Instead, Adam continued with, “You are inferior. You’re weaker in every way. Look at how easily we brought you back here.”
Hearing his brother actually say he thought Joel was inferior was somehow worse than being kidnapped. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes and he blinked them away. There was playing up how harmless he was and there was showing actual weakness. “I didn’t want to come.” His voice trembled. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “I—I was happy in Lewiston.” That sounded steadier at least. He glanced up at Adam and wasn’t surprised to see him shrug dismissively.
“The sooner you learn your place, the sooner you’ll be happy here.” Adam got up and picked up the tray. “I’ll be back for lunch.”
Joel watched as his brother went back up the stairs, trying to make sense of everything he had said. It confirmed a lot of things about his family Joel had always suspected, but it didn’t make him feel any better. They didn’t care about him; they didn’t care about what he wanted. They never had.
He tried to imagine a future if he had never gathered the courage to leave. A pit opened in his stomach at the bleak picture. A life of living with people constantly looking down at him, working a job for a boss that barely tolerated him, and Joel having to be grateful for it all.
For the first time in his life, he wondered how many other people like him were stuck in shifter-only towns. He couldn’t be the only one, right? There were so many towns just like Barnhill. His mom wasn’t the only shifter to marry a human and have a kid who couldn’t shift.
How many other kids are out there going through the same things I did? Anger simmered inside of him as he clenched his fists. It felt better than the despair.
Maybe Thomas had been right yesterday morning. Maybe there was something Joel could do for humans who were in relationships with shifters.
Just maybe not in the way Thomas was expecting.
14
Thomas
Seeing Parker and Mitchell sitting at the kitchen table, Thomas couldn’t help but think about how Joel had sat there only a few days ago. The problems he’d had talking to Joel were nothing compared to what he was facing now.
“You’re sure it’s his family?” Mitchell asked.
“Who else could it be? Louis said wolf shifters from Barnhill showed up yesterday and left today, around the same time Joel went missing.”
“When did you last hear from him?” Parker asked.
Thomas scrolled through his phone. “Thursday, just before three. I told him that morning we were true mates, but then I had a meeting and he wanted to t
hink about it. I know he had to work late on Thursday, so I messaged him in the afternoon asking him when he wanted to meet up again. He replied saying he could probably do dinner today.”
“Longer than twenty fours, then.” Mitchell scribbled something down in his notebook.
Thomas was still staring at the time stamp of the message, wondering if he should’ve realized something was wrong sooner. He should’ve listened to his dragon insisting something was wrong.
“And today you went to Hampton’s, and his colleagues said what exactly?” Mitchell asked.
He’d already told them. “Joel had missed his morning shift without contacting them.” He watched Mitchell write something down again, while Parker sipped his coffee as if this was just another social call. Their calm behavior annoyed him. Didn’t they see they had to act quickly? That Joel was in danger? “Mitchell, what does it matter?” He slammed his empty mug down on the table. “What does it matter what happened yesterday or today? I could’ve been in Barnhill by now!” He’d looked up the town online. If he flew as a dragon, he could be there in two hours. It was a small town, small enough he’d be able to find Joel by scent alone.
“Yes, and then the Keeper of the Peace responsible for the area would have cause to challenge you for entering his territory unannounced. You’d be in a whole new heap of trouble,” Mitchell told him.
Parker nodded. “Trust me, you don’t want to deal with that.”
“They kidnapped my mate! I have to get him back.”
Mitchell looked up at him. “You will. But you’re a Keeper of the Peace. If you want to get Joel back as quickly as possible, with as little trouble as possible, we have to do it by the rules.”
His dragon hissed in anger inside of him, wanting to lash out at Mitchell for delaying them. Rules? When our mate’s safety is at risk? “I should never have asked you two for help. This is useless.” They didn’t understand how much his mate meant to him.
“Thomas, come on.” Parker sounded impatient. “Be honest. What’s your plan besides ‘fly over to Barnhill and take Joel back’?”
“That’s all the plan I need!” He folded his arms across his chest, getting more and more frustrated. “That’s all I need to do.”
“Do you know where his family lives?” Mitchell asked. “They might not even keep him at home, you know. We have to contact the Keeper of the Peace there first to explain things. If he’s any good at his job, he has to help us.”
“He did nothing while Joel’s family mistreated him,” Thomas argued, but he had admit they had a point. They needed all the information they could get. Louis still hadn’t gotten back to him either.
“Another thing to talk to him about,” Mitchell agreed. “Once you have Joel back. But you can’t rush in and you can’t burn down his family’s house.”
His dragon disagreed with Mitchell, but Thomas knew it wouldn’t fix anything. “Fine.” He sat down. “What do we do?”
Mitchell smiled. “I’ve tried to put together a time-line, but we need more information from Louis. My best guess based on what you told me is that his family either kidnapped him last night after his shift, or this morning before he got to work.”
“Louis said he talked to one shifter earlier this afternoon, although several had come here.”
“Makes sense,” Parker told him. “Even with shifter strength, if you’re going to kidnap a human, you don’t want to do it alone.”
Thomas got up, grabbing his phone. “I’m calling Louis to find out what he knows. Before we call that Keeper, I want to know how many shifters from Barnhill are involved.” Was he fighting against Joel’s family, or against the whole town?
Louis picked up quickly. “I’m working on it.”
“Good.” He was still angry with the wolf shifter, but he told himself that could wait until after Joel was back in his arms. “What do you know?”
“There were three of them. A father and his two sons. They were contacted by friends of theirs who had moved here from Barnhill last year and were at the event.”
“That’s where those friends saw Joel.” Thomas felt like an idiot. He’d only searched for reports from Barnhill, but not checked shifters who had come from there. If only he had been more thorough he could’ve talked to those wolf shifters and warned Joel. This whole thing could’ve been prevented.
“Exactly. His family got here on Thursday and met up with their friends; I’m guessing either to catch up or to find Joel.”
“And they knew where he worked.” Thomas sat down on the table, his back to Parker and Mitchell. Joel had been right to be worried, but Thomas had kept reassuring him that nothing could happen to him and everything was fine. He should’ve listened.
“Yep. I only talked to his father today, so I don’t know if the sons are still in town or already back home.” Louis sounded apologetic. “Thomas, I had no idea any of this was going on. When I was told a couple of shifters were coming here because someone had caused trouble back home and had run away, I didn’t look into it. I just hoped they’d leave again soon.”
Thomas didn’t care about Louis trying to apologize. “What did his dad say?”
“Not much. He thanked me for my assistance in the matter. I told him I hadn’t done anything. I asked if they’d gotten the guy they’d come for. He said they had, and then I wished him a safe journey back home. Thomas, I’m sorry. I just wanted them and their problems out of my hair. I have enough on my plate with the wolf shifters of Lewiston as it is, and—”
“I don’t care. Louis, you have a responsibility.”
“Yes, but how far does it go? I’m not responsible for wolf shifters who don’t even live here. They have their own council, their own Keeper. Hey, have you contacted the Barnhill Keeper yet?”
“I’m about to. And we can discuss our responsibilities when it comes to visitors from out of town another time. This isn’t over.”
“I didn’t think it was.” Louis was silent for a moment. “Get your mate back, Thomas. We can sort everything else out later.”
Thomas was glad Louis was trying help where he could. “That’s definitely the plan. Talk to you later.” He hung up, then stood to face Parker and Mitchell. “Long story short, it was just Joel’s family who was here. Friends of theirs had seen Joel last week and told his family about it.”
Parker and Mitchell exchanged a look. “Next step, we call the Keeper of the Peace of Barnhill.” Mitchell looked at Thomas. “Do you want me to call him? You’re not exactly calm.”
“No, I want to know what he has to say about this. Give me the number.”
He paced in front of the window waiting for the Keeper to pick up. From what they’d been able to find out, Douglas Robinson had been Keeper of the Peace of Barnhill and six other small, shifter-only towns for almost forty years. There weren’t a lot of reports from those towns, and nothing that stood out as unusual. It looked like Douglas was good at keeping things running smoothly, but Thomas wondered how cooperative he would be when it came to this. Some dragons, especially the older ones, could be very protective and defensive of their territories. Maybe Douglas wouldn’t even want Thomas to fly over, preferring to handle the matter on his own.
“Good evening, who’s this?”
“Thomas Rollins, Keeper of the Peace for Lewiston South district,” he replied, slightly taken aback by Douglas’ lack of introduction. “Is this Douglas Robinson?”
“Yes. What’s this about?”
His rudeness was starting to fuel the anger of Thomas’ dragon, but Thomas reminded himself that all Keepers were busy. “Three wolf shifters from Barnhill came to visit this week. Does the name ‘Davies’ ring a bell?”
“You’re asking me if I know all the wolf shifters in my district by name?” Douglas sounded incredulous.
“I’m asking if you know anything about them visiting Lewiston.” Thomas curled his other hand into a fist.
“No. I don’t know how you do things over there in the big city, but over here, shifters ar
e allowed to visit other places without asking for permission.” Douglas chuckled and Thomas clenched his fist.
He started at the hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to see it was Mitchell.
“Stay calm, Thomas,” he whispered, nodding at the phone.
Thomas took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Why are you calling?” Douglas demanded, who must’ve heard enough to tell him something was wrong.
“Those shifters took someone.” Thomas didn’t want to mention Joel was his mate. Not until he knew how Douglas would respond. “Someone who moved here from Barnhill several years ago, but it seems his family disagreed.”
“Oh, wait, Davies…” Douglas groaned. “Not Travis Davies and his kids.”
“Really?” Thomas was glad Douglas recognized the name at last. It was promising Douglas sounded frustrated with them.
“One of their kids ran away five years ago. I mean, it’s embarrassing enough to have a human in a family of shifters, but I figured they’d be happy the kid left town. I don’t know why they went through all the trouble of tracking him down. And you said they took someone? They took their kid back with them?”
Thomas gritted his teeth at the way Douglas talked about humans. “As far as we know, yes.”
“Did the kid even want to come back to Barnhill?”
“Not to my knowledge, no.”
The swearing that resulted was impressive. Thomas waited impatiently for Douglas to finish.
“Those idiots! What the hell were they thinking?”
“Exactly what I was wondering,” Thomas replied. “I’d like to ask them myself.”
“Wait, if the kid is human, why do you care?”
“He was taken from my district. That makes him my responsibility.”