Shea: The Last Hope (18 page)

Chapter 14

Shea and the girls waited on top of the hill for what seemed like hours, though she knew it was not. Cami stifled a growl when she felt and smelled a strange wolf coming behind them. Jo and Casey both turned with her and made a wall around her. She would have laughed if the women were not protecting her from an unknown wolf.

Cami sniffed the air and frowned. The wolf smelled familiar, but she knew she had never actually met him before. When he came into view, Cami frowned and looked closer. He looked like her mate, only thinner and younger. Even though they had been mated for a year, Cami had not met the two younger brothers of Quin; both had been training in Europe. This had to be Aiden.

Cami whispered out of the side of her mouth. "I think this is Quin's brother, but stay alert."

Jo stepped forward and stood next to her best friend. They would fight together if someone tried to hurt any of them. Casey stood next to Shea, turned her head a little, and called loudly to the men. "Company."

The man paused and held up a hand and said loudly, "Cami? It's Aiden."

Cami nodded and yelled, "Yeah, your brother will be here in a few seconds."

Cami did not really care who it was, until her mates confirmed who the stranger was she would not let him by. The man nodded, relaxed, and waited. Jo whispered, “Is it him?"

"I think so, but with all the weird shit going on who knows, could be a spell." Cami said and then heard her mates and the rest of the men running behind them. Without taking her eyes off the man, she called, "Quin, he says he’s your brother."

Quin stopped next to Cami, she felt Jaden and the rest of the men stepping next to their mates, and then Quin said. "Aiden?"

"Oui mon frer," The man called and then held up his hand. "I was sent by the Elders of the Old Council because there were reports of shifters and others going missing. They just heard about this village."

Quin growled and then waved his hand for his brother to come closer. Until he could scent him, he would not know if it was truly his brother, the smoke, and the soot were messing with his nose. He did not see him in more than ten years and at that time; he was entering his Alpha training. Aiden was going to be the new Alpha when their father retired.

As he got closer, the winds shifted enough that he could smell the scent of the man. It was his brother. Quin grinned and walked toward his brother and grabbed him in an embrace kissing him on both cheeks. Aiden returned the hug, kisses, and laughed.

"This is the last place I would have thought I would see the Alpha Chosen. Jaden, it is good to see you again, and this must be Cami. I’m so sorry I missed visiting you with my parents. I was just finishing my studies when they came over. But they did tell me what a wonderful mate you were."

Cami blushed and then hugged the younger wolf. She could tell he would be a heartbreaker soon. Maybe they should find his mate before he got a big head like his brother.

Quin made the introductions and when they got to Shea, she said, "What have you heard?"

Lev took his mates hand to try to help console her. When they had gone to the village, they had not found any bodies. All the houses had been burned in a very hot flame; he thought it had to be magical for the damage it did. Lev had also commented on the lack of bodies, and Devon had called the Milliken compound to give the heads up to the rest of the Council. They needed to be on alert, something was going on.

Aiden shook his head and said to her, "We don't really know yet. The Elders have appointed me the investigator of the disappearances. I’m the next Alpha in line to take over a Pack, although I wanted to take fathers spot and train with him, right now they need me to help find the missing people. We have contacted the Sidhe and asked for help as well as the cats. So far, they’re sending five men to help. We have had reports of twenty different communities who have missing people. This is the first one where the whole community is gone." Aiden said and looked beyond the group to the charred mess.

"They would have all gone together," Shea whispered. "Its part of being in a Fae clan they would have banded together with their powers so it was impossible to take just one or two. They would have had to take them, all or none."

Aiden looked at her curiously. "We’re not sure exactly how the Fae work. They’ve been solitary over the last fifty years. Father only had the leaders name and that was it. He hoped a few years ago to bring them back into the fold, but for some reason, the rift had been too great. No one knows what happened, but it had something to do with the Old Council and the leader of the Fae. Since Oliver can't tell us we’re shooting in the dark."

Shea looked uncomfortable. She was taught never to speak about the clan without permission. And so far, she had broken all those rules by telling the New Council what she was, and who she was. If they wanted to the clan could shun her for life because of the breach. She remembered when he was small; a member of the clan asked to marry outside their group. She was given a choice to either deny the claiming or leave the clan completely.

When the girl had rebelled and snuck off to marry her true mate, her clan had picked up and moved their village so the girl could never find them again. Her mother had thought it was cruel, but she had followed the rules because she wanted to stay with the clan.

Shea and her sister were allowed to leave and work overseas only because of their vow to never reveal themselves. If they had told anyone, the head of the clan would have known and would have moved her family. She thought for a moment that is what happened. Maybe they had discovered she had told the New Council, and this was her punishment.

But her sister had no idea where they were either. And as far as she knew, her sister had never told anyone about the clan. She was going to have to call her and find out. But the burned houses were unusual. Her mother said if the girl had tried to come back to the place they had lived in before, she would have seen old and run down abandoned houses.

Shea turned her attention back to the conversation. Quin was talking about Jordan finding information in the old files. "Maybe there’s a note in there about all of this.

She’s been looking for something else. Casey can you call her and see if she can dig anything up?"

Casey nodded and pulled out her phone and turned her back to talk to her friend. Shea looked and said, "Do you have any idea who’s doing this?"

Aiden once again shook his head, “Not really, the last place I was I could scent a shifter had been at the man's house. We followed the trail until it led to a small airport. I got a call about this place and left my second looking through the flight manifests. So far, every single one of the people who were taken, were also flown somewhere. We think out of the country. We have disappearances, in France, Italy, and England, as well as Ireland now. Someone is gathering a variety of shifters and other magical people."

Quin looked at Jaden and the Devon. "Roarke."

Devon nodded and then said, “We need to find where he has moved to."

They all agreed that it was going to be their number-one priority when they got back to the compound. Dalton stepped up and said, “What family is helping in the search on the Sidhe side?"

"Yours, I think your father has come out of retirement to help take care of this. He said that he would be contacting you, I figured that he would have done so already." Aiden said and then Dalton frowned.

"No, not yet, let me see if he knows anything." Dalton said and pulled his phone out.

Shea felt useless. Everyone had contacts of people to help her family but her. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. Lev must have felt her anxiety and put an arm around her, and Griff pulled them both a few steps away from the group.

"Hey," Griff whispered. "What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

Shea sniffed and looked at the men she’d just met. On the day, she had awoken and been so hung over, they had been wonderful. Sure, they had teased her and joked with her, but they had really cared about how she was feeling.

They had sat for hours talking about what she knew about the Chosen. They were so patient. Lev had not known a lot about the prophecy, but Griff had. Lev and Shea both learned a lot that day.

She had been so shocked to learn she had not one but two mates. She knew they had not been lying. She could see they were her mates, and explained to them about the Fae.

Griff had talked about his creature and past, and Lev had shared about his childhood. It was like a crash course in this is your life, that day.

Shea told them that she needed proof, and both of them understood. They talked about what this could mean for their future, and together they agreed that they would go to the Council together. Each of them called their parents. Shea had been the only one who had not been able to get a hold of her family.

Griff and Lev's families were coming over to eat dinner tomorrow. Now what were they going to do. Neither of them would want to get involved in this mess. Lev was a human after all. But he had been a little excited to hear that when Griff claimed both of them, Lev's lifespan would be the same as theirs, and he would also receive some of the Gryphon's power. Griff had not known what exactly that entailed, but from all his parents had told him growing up was that Gryphon's had their own magic too.

"What if this is my fault?” She whispered and leaned against Lev.

Griff took her face in his hands and made her look at him in the eyes. “You are not responsible for this. There is much more going on here. Not just your parents, but also others have disappeared. This is not about you."

Lev kissed her head and said, "Griff is right, and we’ll deal with this as it comes, but we need to get your sister to the Pack compound. If your parents are taken, they could be searching for the rest of your clan. Do you know where everyone who did not live here is?"

Shea nodded, “Yes, there were only five others who did not live here. My sister and four others they are all in my day planner."

"We need to get them all to safety, and then we can go from there. But I will not allow you to feel guilt about something that is not in your control," Griff said.

Shea nodded absently and looked at the people who were still talking together and on the phones. "What if me being a part of the New Council caused the problem?"

"What do you mean?" Lev said.

"You don't know the secrets of the Fae, even I don't know all the secrets of the Fae, only the leaders do. We are taught work with our powers, and that is it. What if my being a part of the New Council is what destroys it." She whispered.

Cami turned her head when she heard what Shea had said. Cami knew listening in was not polite, but when had she ever let that stop her. Cami was the female Alpha of the New Council; her job was to take care of the members of her Pack, and whether Shea, wanted to admit it or not, she was a member of her Pack.

"Shea, listen here," Cami called and walked over to where they were standing. “I get that you don't know me or any of the others very well. There will be time for that, but you need to know something. Blaine would have told you if there was a problem, Kira would never have been able to see you were a Chosen if you were not. I don't know what is going on here, but I do know one thing. You are the last Chosen to be found. You will take your seat on the Council. Together we will figure this whole thing out."

Jo and Casey stepped to their friend's side and soon the rest of the men were right there with them. Quin said quietly. "We will work through this."

Shea felt the tears that had been threatening to fall gather in her eyes. She let out a small sob, turned her face into Lev's shoulder, and cried. Griff wrapped his arms around both of them, and they stood together for a few moments. The group allowed them time to get her emotions under control. She was grateful to hear what they said and was happy that if she was going to be a part of this, she was with these people. They really were the good guys.

"So, where do we stand?” Quin said briskly and looked at the others who had gotten off the phone.

Dalton was the first to speak. "I spoke to my brother; father was supposed to check in a few hours ago, and they haven’t heard from him. Apparently, he was going to be calling me when he found out if the people were missing because of the New Council."

Aiden nodded, "We thought that because we were in Europe that it had nothing to do with the New Council. Now I guess we are going to have to re think that."

Casey said, "Jordan and Romy are digging through the papers left by Oliver now. They said if they found anything they would call us."

Devon put his arm around Casey and said, “I’ve called the compound and put them on high alert no one in or out of the Pack compound until we get back."

"Shea has a list of Fae that need to be brought in now; they could be in danger." Lev said.

"We need to check around here some more and go into Kilkee.” Aiden said. "The man who reported the missing is there at the Pub."

"Who was it?" Shea asked.

"A man called Derek Cormack." Aiden said, and Shea let out a small gasp.

"What?” Lev asked.

"He’s one of the ones I told you about, he and his brother were living in the United States also, and last I heard he was ready to graduate from college." Shea said.

"To the Pub we go!" Cami said and she looked determined to her mates, as if daring them to argue with her.

Chapter 15

Cloe looked around her living room and saw all the things that her friends and family had brought for the babies and smiled. She never thought in a million years that she would be mated to not one but two men, and that they would have twins now. She looked at the small bassinets that she had the baby's sleeping in, for the time being, and smiled.

Bree and Alec were both sleeping. They were still waiting for everyone to return from Ireland; the compound was in lock down in case someone found out the Alphas had left.

She looked at the doorway where her mates stood before her parents looking in at them with loving eyes.