Page 63 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“Exactly, for the victims to fulfill all these criteria it’s extremely uncommon, which is probably why they have been kidnapping them for years by now, and worldwide.”

“Why the blood, though?” she asks the one crucial question I have no answer to.

“I have no idea, but it’s the one question we need to find an answer to. First of all, we need to find out where they get their blood work from.”

“Human hospitals?” she suggests. “You know there are moments we can’t stay completely out of human business. May it be for school, work, or an emergency.”

“Possibly.” I nod. “We need to check the hospitals.”

“We can release a warning,” she says. “Shouldn’t we release that information to the packs?”

“Should we?” I ask in return. “Or are we scaring them off, then? I don’t know if being an omega is a major factor. So far,our guess was that they were the ones easily missed, which is why they were targeted, but I don’t think they would necessarily stick with omegas. Being orphaned or lonely is more important. If we start protecting one group, our culprits might disappear or target someone else. We might never find them that way.”

“Is that the right thing to do, though?” she asks. “It feels morally twisted, but I never was in a situation to make such a difficult decision.”

“It is morally twisted, incredibly so,” I say. “I think we need to consider a way that saves the most people,” I point out. “And you are right. It doesn’t sit right with me that the most vulnerable of our society are still targeted.”

“I get what you mean, though. We could scare the culprits off, and they go into hiding, just to resurface again in a couple of months or years,” she pauses. “How about I call my father and my brothers and have them handle this subtly. Two of my brothers are alphas, one a lune.”

“You think they can do it? Be subtle? That would solve so many of our problems!”

She laughs. “You haven’t met my family yet. Believe me, they can.” She glances at her watch. “They are a couple of hours behind us, but it’s too late to call them now. I will try to reach them tomorrow morning before Leila and I go to the orphanage.”

I wrap her in my arms. “How about we try to get at least a couple of hours of sleep.”

“Yes,” she yawns, stretching tiredly. “That or I will curl up here again.”

“No need for that, though it’s cute you were prepared to crash here.” I take her hand, pulling her up with me. We grab the blanket and our bags but leave everything else the way it is, before walking back to my room. It’s only now that I realize how bone-tired I truly am. I am exhausted, my head aching.

I also realize that I still need to talk with Vander. I only saw him briefly, and he didn’t look good. Fortunately, Léna visited him, and they hung out. But I need to talk to him eventually. Shit, I should have done that today already. I’m a terrible brother. Once my mind is set on a task, I tend to forget everything else.

What if Vander needed me today, and I wasn’t there? I wouldn’t forgive myself if he does something stupid or thinks everything is his fault. He is such a sensitive soul. I bet he thinks some of the blame lies on him.

“Say,” Aurelia breaks the silence. “What do you know about demon pets?”

Her words pull me completely out of my rather obsessive thoughts. “Excuse me? I’m not sure if I caught that correctly.”

“You did,” she says. “Demon pets. I have one. Recently, I adopted a cat, a Maine Coon, but I got a message today that it’s from the demon realm.”

“You truly just said demon realm?” I ask.

“Yes. In my brother’s pack, there lives a demon dog. Is this some sort of invasion?”

“I don’t think two counts as an invasion.”

“Call it whatever you want,” she says. “But, I think it’s too much of a coincidence that within a couple of months, two people who live in the same area stumble over demon creatures. How did they come here? We haven’t heard of any cases like that before.”

She is right. She is completely right. “I haven’t researched the demon realm so far,” I say. “But I will do so. They are amicable?”

“Yes, to the people they adopt as their master,” she says. “But I know for a fact that the demon dog ate two warriors from an enemy pack, and my cat just inhaled a whole snake.”

“That’s fascinating,” I mutter.

She tugs at my hand. “Arden, not the time for being amazed,” she says, sounding amused.

“I can’t help it. It’s interesting.” I entwine our fingers. “I promise, I will research it.”

Chapter twenty