Page 6 of Briggs (Paranormal Council Enforcers #16)

“We didn’t do anything,” Raiden said. He pulled his chair in and leaned forward. I did the opposite and leaned back a bit, placing my hands on my stomach.

“The pride will be looked into further, but at the moment, the bigger issue is what Damien discovered.”

We all glanced at each other, confused.

“Atticus told us he was messaged that demons were in the area.”

“Demons?” Felix asked, his voice coming out a bit squeaky.

“Why did they not rumble before when we were dealing with them in Louisiana?” Raiden asked.

“I don’t know specifics,” Master Edison said.

“Only that Atticus came to me, said there was a demon issue near your assignment, and he and his pack needed to go. It seemed urgent, and since I don’t know enough about demons or even hellhounds, I’m trusting Atticus on this.

The goddess said he and the others could be trusted completely, so that is what I’m choosing to do. ”

“Can you tell us what you saw?” Alpha Sergei asked.

“Nothing,” Dimitri said. “There was a rumbling sound that came from afar, got closer, went by us, then left. It was as if something loud passed by, but there was nothing there that we could see.”

“Damien said it sounded like five, but they were cloaked,” Raiden said. “Whatever that means.”

Master Edison sighed as he looked over at Alpha Sergei. “Do you wish to try to contact her, or should I?”

“Demons have been here on and off for as long as I can remember,” Alpha Sergei said.

“Yes, but why would they cloak themselves, and why would there be so many?”

“Do we need to be here for this?” Dimitri asked. “We were unable to access the pride’s lands and haven’t been able to do anything on the assignment.”

Master Edison and Alpha Sergei stopped discussing whatever they were talking about and looked at us. “Carrington was briefing me on that when Atticus interrupted,” Master Edison said. “We will be looking into the pride more, but it is going to need to wait until we hear back from Atticus.”

“So just go about our day as we normally would here at the council, then?” Raiden asked.

“You can all go home for the day. You were gone for close to a week. Take a few days off, and then return here next Monday.”

You didn’t have to tell Dimitri or Raiden twice about that. They were both out of their chairs and most of the way to the door before I could even look over at Felix. He smiled and shook his head. “I am glad I don’t have a mate yet.”

“Yeah? Why is that?”

“Because I don’t think I’d enjoy leaving them behind all of the time.” He pointed toward the door. “They’re in a hurry to get home to them, and I understand why, but I don’t know if I’d be able to up and leave my mate and kids behind.”

“It gets easier with time,” Alpha Sergei said. “The council tries to be flexible when it comes to mates and children, especially for newly mated couples. In time, you will understand more, I believe.” Alpha Sergei placed his hand on Felix’s shoulder.

“Perhaps. I’m happy for them, but yeah, in our village, we didn’t leave our mate or children once we had them.

I’m not saying it’s bad to have to go on assignments; it’s just not something I’ve ever seen.

” Felix had a blank look for a moment. “Actually, there’s a lot that I’ve not ever seen.

I’m really looking forward to exploring more things with my position here as an enforcer. ”

“There will be plenty of opportunities for you to do just that,” Master Edison said.

We all left the conference room, and while walking down the hallway, Felix was called for by others.

He smiled, then waved as he left to join the other fae enforcers.

That left me alone to figure out what to do for the next several days while I was off.

I would most likely come in because although I was on assignment, we’d not done anything.

We weren’t able to access the pride’s lands to even talk to them.

They had the place locked down, and although there were houses around, nobody bothered to answer any of the doors, despite Carrington confirming there were auras inside them.

I checked out with Slater, then decided to head home.

I got a whiff of something wonderful-smelling, and a quick glance toward the bakery showed a few coming out of the front door.

If I didn’t have my bag with me, I’d go see if they had any pies, but the last thing I wanted was to have to try and carry both it and a pie home.

Instead, I opted for going straight home.

I would need to head to the store at a minimum since I was supposed to be gone and didn’t have much by way of food in my place.

Not that I ever did. I could cook, but most of my meals came from the council.

I left early to eat breakfast there and stayed late to have supper.

Sure, I almost always had a snack later in the evening, but it wasn’t usually an entire meal.

Maybe a frozen pizza or something easy like that.

I sighed. Yeah, I was going to need to come out and hit the council store at a minimum.

Most likely, I’d need to go down to Timber Valley and visit their store since it was bigger.

As I was walking down the pathway that would take me home, I had to wonder when I’d become the person who never wanted to go anywhere? When had that become me? Thinking back, I guess I’d always been a bit of a homebody, and that hadn’t changed.

I was between the omega clinic and the childcare center when I caught that enticing scent again.

My wolf immediately perked up, and I wondered about it like I always did.

It wasn’t a rabbit, nor something else that he’d enjoy chasing as far as I could tell.

So what was it? I stared to the left, found nobody that way, before looking toward the right.

There were a few little kids playing outside at the childcare center, but I knew it wasn’t any of them.

I shrugged before I went on home. Maybe eventually, I’d come across it when who or whatever it was that scented like that had been by more recently and I could track them. Until then, I’d have to simply deal with not knowing.

A few minutes later, I was standing in front of my house and wondering why it was so large for single enforcers.

I dropped my bag just inside the door. I would need to pull out the dirty clothes later, but that could wait.

My house looked the same as it had when I left, only it scented a bit stale.

It was cool enough on the mountain today that I could open the windows and let some fresh air in, so that’s what I did before I left again.

I needed to go do a bit of shopping, and I knew me.

If I didn’t do it now, I would regret it later because I’d have to go down to Timber Valley because the council store would be closed.

Backtracking the way I’d just come from, I wondered if I’d pick up that scent again, or would it be gone by now?

I got my answer soon enough when it suddenly hit me like a wave crashing into a rock cliff.

And it wasn’t just any ordinary scent. My being so interested in it for these past several months finally made sense. Mate! Now to just track my mate down.