It was a warm sunny afternoon, and the men from Cloverleah had gathered around Nereus’s pool, enjoying a grilled lunch. But, as often happened when they all got together, the talk soon turned to the missing Wesley. Shawn, as shifter guardian, took Wesley’s abduction personally, especially seeing as no one in the pack had realized it had happened, and everyone had condemned Wesley after he’d used zombie dust to seduce Cathair. Now a feeling of guilt tinged the efforts of the whole pack to find a man who’d apparently disappeared.
“You just want an excuse to see Myka again,” Adair grumbled, even as he stroked Vassago’s hair. “I hate it when you go down to the Underworld on your own.”
“I’m not letting you near Myka’s mother.” Vassago smiled. “She’ll spin you around and eat you up for breakfast, then go looking for seconds.” He looked around at the others; even baby Ollie seemed to know there were serious discussions going on and was playing quietly beside Luke’s chair. Raff’s dogs were snoring in the sunlight, although Killer seemed to sleep with one eye open, watching what Ollie was doing.
“As you know, I have spoken to our seers about this,” Cathair said, his blond hair catching the sun and making him look as though he had a halo. “They can’t ‘see’ Wesley as such, but they agree about the demon.”
“I swear they talk in riddles,” Marius said, frowning. “He bears gifts for all to cherish and must be found to ensure the continuation of the pack. What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Seer talk,” Vassago laughed as he leaned into Adair’s shoulder. “Our seer was just as non-forthcoming. They agree about the demon, too. They can’t tell where Wesley is, only that it’s important that he’s found.”
“Not to be a downer on this, but I thought most of the important paranormals were already in this pack.” Thomas was making a sandwich for his mate Ivan. “I knew Wesley the best out of all of us, since he’s been here. I didn’t realize he’d changed or been swapped out for a golem or whatever and yeah, I’m going to live with that guilt for the next hundred years, or more. But when you come down to it, Wesley was a half-breed wolf who had serious self-confidence issues because of his human heritage.”
“His half-human side caused him problems and made him feel he was less than the rest of us and that is what the dark ones capitalized on,” Shawn said quietly, his voice full of enough authority to get the others to listen. “That doesn’t mean his life is any less important than the rest of us. He came willingly when Diablo called for volunteers to work as enforcers to protect this pack. He found a home here, and if he was unhappy, then he kept it to himself. I can’t believe any of us, regardless of the positions we hold in the paranormal world, would consider ourselves that important, we can’t help someone we used to call friend, who we trusted to protect our backs.”
Shame blanketed the pack members, only Ollie seemingly oblivious.
“I think some of those feelings might be my fault,” Marius said quietly, squeezing his mate’s hand. “There is a part of me… shit.” He stared up at the clear blue sky. “This is so hard to say…”
“No mate, it’s not you who has to say it,” Cathair said soothingly. He faced the pack like the Battle Lord he used to be, before coming to Cloverleah and finding his fated mate. “Marius and I have talked about this. How we might feel when we see Wesley again. I’m not going to lie. It’s not going to be easy. Being violated in that way…” Cathair shuddered and it was Marius’ time to soothe.
“The fact of it all, was that while he might have looked and sounded like Wesley, the thing that tried to come between me and my mate was not Wesley. We need to remember that.” Marius looked at each of his pack mates in turn.
“It’s not like we haven’t tried to find him,” Josh said. He’d been sitting on Vadim’s lap. “Gods, Seers, and Death himself have tried. We have been looking.”
“I want him found,” Raff said quickly, and his face went bright red when everyone looked at him. “I didn’t know him very well, but he sounds like someone who needs a pack more than most. But it’s not only that. Don’t you see? This is the same situation as what happened with my home pack, although, okay, not quite the same because we didn’t find my parents turned into golems or something silly like that. But they aren’t dead, and they can’t be found, just like Wesley.”
“Raff is right,” Dean said, smiling at his friend. “We never found out what happened to his parents or the rest of the red wolves. Personally, I think one of the gods have got them stashed away somewhere to keep them safe, but that’s beside the point. Wesley was, or should I say is one of us. He’s missing, just like Raff’s ex-pack, and maybe when we do find him, we’ll have more of a clue as to what happened to Raff’s parents.”
“The being hidden aspect is definitely intriguing,” Anton said. The big man barely said anything at pack meetings, even informal ones, but he always listened, which made him worth listening to. “We’ve always known the dark ones have powers most of us can barely comprehend. But to create a ward, and that is what I’m assuming has happened here, but think about it. If a ward has been created that thwarts Death himself, then that’s some powerful mojo.”
“It’s likely a series of wards,” Fafnir said excitedly, shoving Aelfric’s hand away when Aelfric tried to cover his mouth. “Stop it, I’m talking here.”
“I swear, if you give another lecture on ward structure, I’m going to smother you in your sleep,” Aelfric mock-glared and then both fae laughed and even Jax’s mouth twitched a bit at the edges.
“Now listen,” Fafnir said. “What if we’ve got a situation like one of those Russian dolls? You know, the ones where they have smaller dolls inside of bigger dolls and so on. Just imagine what it would be like being able to study wards that have been created into something so complex.”
“As we’ve already determined it’s most likely Wesley’s being held in the Underworld, as that’s where the dark ones felt more comfortable, there’ll be no studying anything like that in person, not by you two,” Jax warned.
“It wouldn’t be safe for any of the pack to be down there for any length of time, and the Underworld is a vast place,” Vassago said. “Which is why we need a demon on our side. Someone who knows the place – who knows how to spot differences in the way things are normally down there, and who can translocate between realms, which he’ll need to do to bring Wesley back.”
“Is there any chance Madison and Sebastian could look for us?” Troy asked. “I mean, Madison is the alpha of the hellhounds, and they are amazing trackers. I’m sure Damien wouldn’t mind if we borrowed them for a bit.”
“A lot of Hades’ realm is uninhabited,” Nereus said, stretching his legs so his feet rested against Teilo’s thigh. “If you cut the earth down the middle and laid it out flat, the Underworld is bigger than that. Even with the hellhounds, it could take Madison and Sebastian years to check out every corner of that realm. And I don’t think our young Wesley has years for us to find him.”