Crossed Fates by Lexi C. Foss

Makayla

By the time Alaric returned,I’d already read through all the files.

And the answer as to what they knew? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I glared at the documents, offended by how little they told me. “All these reports tell me is the alphas died by silver poisoning that they’d likely imbibed. A guess based on the fact that the enforcers who’d accompanied them to the city were all fine—and none of them had attended the main lunch meal. Which means they know jack all about anything. And the supposed surveillance? It’s just a few photos, Alaric. How the hell am I supposed to find anything useful in photos?”

Alaric grunted and set a bag down beside me. “That’s why I have Jude sending me over visual footage from the restaurant and the hotel. I want to see everyone that walked in and out of that place in a seventy-two-hour period. I also want to talk to Paul since he was the enforcer who’d accompanied my brother to the meeting.”

I nodded. “Good. You should have Jude pull street footage as well.”

“He’s on that, too.” Alaric sounded tired. “We’ll have everything in a few hours. He’s shipping me a tablet since I left all my toys at home.” He braced his forearms on the counter beside me, his head falling forward on a sigh I felt all the way to my soul.

I frowned at his defeated pose, then sniffed the air around him. A subtle perfume wafted off his bare skin, the scent decidedly female.

And not from his mother.

I wasn’t sure how I knew that, maybe because the fragrance smelled young or too fruity to be matronly.

“Did you take a side trip on the way back?” I asked conversationally as I looked at the bag near the bottom of my stool. “Decide I needed another woman’s clothes rather than your mother’s?”

He looked at me sideways, his dark hair falling into his blue eyes. “Careful, Makayla. You almost sound jealous.”

“I’m not.” I totally am and I hate it.

“You are,” he countered, his lips curling slightly. Then he sighed, his expression falling once more. “Savannah was with my mom and hugged me. She’s… struggling.”

“It’s only been a day,” I pointed out. “Wounds like death don’t heal overnight.”

“True. But not all of us have the ability to just grieve.” His sapphire irises flared. “I can’t… I don’t know how to embrace them, Makayla. All I know how to do is avenge him. But the pack needs more.” He lifted off his elbows to grip the marble counter, his forearms flexing as he tightened his hold. “Hardt was outside hugging them all. Giving them the affection they apparently need. And that’s just not me.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad alpha,” I pointed out softly. “There’s a time for emotional bonding, and there’s a time for protection. Your pack might be hurting right now, Alaric, but what they need more than anything at the moment is to feel safe. And you’re doing that by finding Tyler’s killer.”

Some of his tension ebbed as he looked at me. “I don’t feel like I’m doing enough. I mean, hell, I took a nap instead of hunting the bastard down.”

“You slept because you’ll be worthless if you don’t take time to rest,” I countered. “What was the first thing you did this morning?”

“Called Jude about the surveillance.”

“Exactly.”

He arched a brow. “Exactly what?”

“You didn’t think about doing that last night because you were hungry and exhausted and hurting. But you slept and woke up with a clear mind and immediately knew what to do.” I pointed at the files on the table. “I’m guessing you knew these would be useless before your father even handed them over.”

I had no idea what Hawk thought would hurt Alaric in here. Except for maybe the images of the vacant chair next to Tyler at lunch—he’d clearly saved it for someone, and I could only assume that someone was Alaric.

“I wouldn’t say ‘useless,’ ” Alaric muttered. “Just… not as thorough as E.V.I.E.” He opened the closest file, his gaze skimming the image of his brother at the table. His lips thinned, but he said nothing, moving through each item with a shake of his head. “Autopsies are against pack practice. So I’m not surprised that all these notes are superficial. I could tell by looking at Tyler yesterday that he’d ingested or inhaled the silver.”

He shut the folder and went back to squeezing the marble, his head falling once more.

“I was supposed to meet my brother the other day, but the hybrid jacked up my plans with the whole Blood Thirteen incident.” A growl rattled his chest, the agonized sound coming from the depths of his heart, but he swallowed it and stood up. “I don’t know if I could have stopped it, and there’s nothing I can do about that now except find out who did this.”

That was how I’d felt after the incident in high school with the whole trafficking issue. I could either beat myself up over it or find a way to make it right.

We couldn’t bring Tyler back.

But we could bring his killer to justice.

“I need to shower,” he said. “Then I want to eat.”

“Do you want me to make something?” I suggested, pushing away from the counter. He’d given me coffee. It only seemed fair to return the favor with food. “Maybe breakfast?”

“Breakfast for dinner,” he mused. “All right.” He started toward his room, then turned, his gaze locking with mine. “Thank you for being here, Makayla.”

I smiled and nodded, not sure what to say.

It felt right.

So I stayed and made scrambled eggs.

Alaric showered and came back in another pair of jeans, his hair towel-dried and dripping water down his defined torso. I pretended not to notice and focused on the food instead. But his knowing gaze told me he’d caught my interest.

Could he blame me? The man was gorgeous and alpha and just wolfish.

I didn’t try to talk while we ate, choosing companionable silence instead. Afterward, he cleaned up while I showered, and by the time I returned, Alaric’s E.V.I.E. tablet had arrived. There were actually two, so he handed me one and led me to the living area, where we reviewed surveillance footage and other documents all night.

By morning, we had all our victims printed and lined up on the wall in chronological order. It was a mix of women and alpha shifters, all with no correlation.

I squinted at them, unable to make heads or tails of their links. “I mean, Valaria was a wolf. Same with Gloria. But these other girls were all human.”

Alaric grunted in agreement. “And Gloria is still missing.”

“Because the hybrid is dead?” I suggested.

He considered that and shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t have a damn clue.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “I either need more coffee or some sleep.”

“Sleep,” I voted. Because my brain was a mess of details that I couldn’t sort.

Alaric nodded. “Nap.”

“At least four hours.”

“Done,” he agreed with a yawn.

It wasn’t until I lay down that a new strand of connections started to form in my mind. One linked to the trafficking case I’d worked on with Marc a few years ago. The one where I’d met Sapphire.

I frowned as I chased the thoughts through my mind, puzzling them all together.

Four alphas.

Hendrix. Warren. Calder. Davies.

Weiser Pack.

Elk Neck Pack.

Silver Lake Pack.

Beaver Creek Pack.

They were the alphas who’d helped bring justice to the two assholes in charge of Sapphire’s trafficking ring. “Fuck,” I muttered, sitting up. “Fuck.” How the hell had I missed that obvious link?

I rolled right back out of bed and walked into the living room to start looking at all the locations again.

Valaria Crimson had been from the Elk Neck Pack. As a famous heiress, she’d been considered a prized jewel from that clan of wolves. She’d been the fated mate of one of the wolves higher up in the pack. I didn’t know the whole story, just that they considered her and her connections valuable. As far as making a statement went, attacking her certainly achieved it.

And then there was Gloria Mansfield, Alpha Hendrix’s daughter. She was mated to a beta within the Weiser Pack, hence her different last name. Her whereabouts were unknown, and his pack would be consumed with the funeral preparations now, in addition to trying to find her.

So that left Silver Lake and Beaver Creek as two areas mourning the loss of their alphas, but with no missing packmate. Yet.

My instincts prickled, the hairs dancing along my arms.

I had to wake up Alaric and tell him the links. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Girls missing, alphas targeted—it all connected back to the trafficking ring Marc and I had helped take down three years ago.

Except…I frowned. Except everyone involved was caught and killed.

The alphas of those four packs had been in charge of punishing the wolves behind the kidnappings and the murders. So had someone picked the mantle back up to continue the auctioning circuit?

I glared at the images, something not quite clicking.

Why are the vampires involved? Why a hybrid?

I palmed the back of my neck and blew out a breath. “I’m missing something.”

“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” a deep voice drawled.

“So are you,” I returned, not bothering to look away from the board. At least I didn’t have to wake up Alaric now, as he was already here. “Roughly three years ago, I took a trafficking case in this realm. One of the witches from my world had been taken by some supernats from this universe.” I lifted my hand. “The same witch who gave me this.”

“How the hell did they take her from your world?”

I grunted. “Great fucking question.” One we’d never fully answered. “Sapphire—the witch—called it fate. She’s a bit of a seer, so she knew she was going to be taken.” I glanced at him, which was a mistake because he stood in the living area in just a pair of black boxers, and he looked damn good, too. I cleared my throat and focused on my story. “She sent Marc instructions on how to find her. And she told him to recruit me.”

It’d been fairly straightforward. Marc and Nathan already knew each other, making the connection easy to facilitate. As I’d finished my degrees by then, and had numerous cases under my belt, I wasn’t exactly new to the field. And trafficking had become my specialty at that point.

“So he showed up at KBO, hired me for the case, and used the ring she’d gifted him to take us both to this world.” I paused and twisted my lips to the side. “The rings aren’t easy to create. They require a lot of magic, and slayer blood. Somehow, Sapphire has managed to make them, though. Because I have one. Marc has one. Cassius, too. But it’s not common, despite how it seems. And we never found out how she was taken. I’ve actually wondered if she jumped realms to be captured on purpose.”

Because it would be just like Sapphire to sacrifice herself for the greater good. However, I had no idea why she’d involve herself in another world’s affairs, unless it had a bigger endgame.

Like the one I’m standing in now,I thought, looking at the images again and narrowing my gaze.

“What’s KBO?” Alaric asked, distracting me.

“Nathan’s company.” Which reminded me… “Something your father apparently knows.”

“What?”

“Yeah, he knew about KBO and my alpha.”

“What? How?”

“I’m guessing from Jude because he said he was going to have Jude pass a message on to my alpha that I’m alive and safe.”

Alaric blinked. “Jude, as in my boss?”

“Unless you know another Jude, I’m assuming he’s the one.”

“Do you know Jude?” Alaric asked.

“Not directly, but I think Marc went to him for information during the mission I just mentioned.” Which reminded me that Nathan was the one who had mentioned Jude and E.V.I.E. before we’d left, meaning he absolutely had a link there. I repeated that out loud to Alaric, then added, “Anyway, we needed a list of all the shifter packs because we knew Sapphire was taken by a wolf.”

He settled onto the couch, his muscles rippling with the movement. He patted the cushion beside him, and I sat, too, both of us facing the wall of photos and case details.

“Sapphire’s the reason I’m back in this realm,” I continued. “She sent me here on an unrelated case, but I’m starting to think it was all a setup, that I’m here because of this.” I pointed at the wall. “It’s related to her somehow. And it makes sense because all the alphas who were attacked? Those were the ones who delivered justice to the wolves involved in the case three years ago.”

“I remember this,” he replied. “You’re talking about the ring run by the vamps.”

“Yeah, but they had help from some wolves, too. That’s how they acquired the more durable assets.” I shuddered with the adjective, hating what it implied. But it’d been the term used during the case. “They’d trafficked wolves of all kinds, humans, and even a few other vamps.”

He nodded. “Right. E.V.I.E. handled some of the later cleanup. But it wasn’t my case.”

“Probably because Jude let Marc and me run the show.” Not that we’d given him much choice. We’d used him as a consultant more than anything. “We killed several of the vamps in charge, as well as a few shifters. But the alpha council in this region handled Alpha Bortex.”

“McKenzie Pack,” Alaric replied, looking at me. “I knew he was forced to retire, but I didn’t know this was why.”

“His involvement was something that came out when the shifters were questioned afterward.” I lifted a bare leg to tuck under me. “They were the bodyguards for the girls. And a few were in charge of recruitment, too.”

Recruitmentbeing a fancy way of saying kidnapping.

“We found out later that he issued the majority of the commands to the wolves involved. At that point, the case was pretty firmly out of our hands. We were only here to save Sapphire, and the girls, which was done. The alphas in this region were in charge of Alpha Bortex’s punishment, as well as those of the other wolves involved.”

This realm didn’t have a council like the one in my universe. The packs of this world had more of an unspoken alliance where they met when needed but otherwise maintained order within their own territories. In this case, the alphas throughout the region had met and delivered a verdict.

“All I know is he died in the end,” I concluded.

Alaric nodded. “I remember that, too. But I never asked why. I’ve… avoided pack affairs.”

Because he didn’t want to be an alpha. I understood that.

“Now I’m wishing I’d been more involved,” he muttered. “Instead, I just helped take down the vamp nests after that whole thing fell apart.”

“Still an important job.” Marc and I had handled those in charge, but maybe we’d missed one somewhere. I stared at the wall again and shook my head. “This has to be related, Alaric. They’re taking girls and restarting the trafficking ring—or I assume that’s what’s happening—and they’re targeting the alphas that punished Bortex.”

“And you think your witch friend ensured you’d be here to help,” he added.

My lips twitched. “If you met Sapphire, you’d agree with my guess. She’s a conniving little witch.” I looked at him. “I’m willing to bet she saw our fates crossing and decided to throw me in your path, too.”

His blue eyes sparkled. “I’ll have to thank her later for castrating me.”

Ah, yes, that little reveal about his inability to perform for other women. “Maybe that, uh, will fix itself, when I leave the realm?” I winced as I said it and quickly searched for something else to say to change the subject. Only, all the hairs along my arms began to dance, drawing my gaze to the window.

Something felt… off.

Alaric tensed beside me, clearly picking up on the electrical charge in the air.

His hand settled on mine, the action protective.

Then a scream rent the air, sending us both to our feet and through the front door.

To find a dead body lying in the grass.