Page 54 of Crossed Fates

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.