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“B lack obsidian.”

Kai stared at Aodh’s two broadswords mounted cross-blade over the fireplace in the front room.

She’d never paid much attention to his weapons and considered them less than any other furniture set in the room.

She wondered about Aodh's hearthstone as she looked at the stones and rippled crystal chunks embedded in the hilts and decorating each handle. How and why did he choose a gemstone that seemed so ordinary and dark? It didn’t have the sparkle or dazzling attraction of other stones like diamonds, rubies, and jade.

It didn’t have the color-shifting appeal of a tanzanite. Why the black obsidian?

She stepped closer and felt a strange pull towards it. Her palms itched to reach up and touch the stones but resisted. Instead, she decided having a handful of the gem to examine instead of touching a few was better.

Turning away from the wall, Kai faced the larger suite space and considered the location of Aodh’s cache.

Since the Drahks liked an open-concept style for their living and working buildings, it was easy to investigate the room without moving things out of the way.

In the front room and dining area, there were not a lot of cabinets or closets where anyone could hide or stash things.

However, for that same reason, it perplexed her, and she doubted Aodh kept his dragon’s hoard in their dwelling space.

But she was beginning to discover things about the Drahks Aodh had not shared with her.

He told her that they were always honest with each other.

However, she understood that the rule didn’t apply to outsiders.

Aodh saw her as an outsider, no matter how often they had sex, and he said she was his mate and belonged with him.

She had the time to search now since her sister was out with her new friends, and Aodh would not return until later. So, why not look around?

Moving across the room, she headed to the bathroom first and peered under the sink, looking more toward the back to see if she’d missed a box or bag of stones.

When that was empty, she checked the place in the closet where they kept the towels.

She lifted each stack and searched high on the shelf, sighing in disappointment.

When she entered the room, she went to the big bed, shoved her hands under the mattress, and felt around. When that produced nothing, she lifted it as high as possible to peer under it, then checked behind the headboard. Nothing.

“Where are your precious gems, Aodh?” Her question to him was more about putting herself in the man's headspace than anything else.

Ninki had gone into her room and came back with the rings, so if Kai couldn’t find it anywhere else, then the last place the cache could be was the closet.

However, just like every bit of space in the place, she had been in the clothing closet more than a few times, and nothing stood out.

She crossed the stone floor and entered the archway.

One thing that always impressed her was seeing the enormity of the space.

She, Morlie, and their parents would not have had enough clothing to fill such an extended, wide area.

The anteroom went deeper in length than the bathroom next to it.

The clothing on her side of the closet had grown exponentially since the first day she arrived when there hadn’t been a single feminine apparel on the rack.

Now, Tana had added an array of long and short dresses and a few pairs of pants because Kai requested them.

Unlike on Aodh’s side of the closet, her things ran the gamut of warm tones sprinkled with pastels.

Quickly, she pushed her items aside to see if she noticed any boxes or trunks, but there was nothing.

She glanced down at the stone floor and dismissed the thought of a trap door or false bottom, as she’d read in books or seen on old video movies.

People always seemed to have a floorboard in their closet where they kept weapons, money, or old letters.

Running out of ideas of where to look, she sighed.

Turning, she faced the opposite side. Aodh’s clothing took up one side of the wall.

Most of it consisted of standard male Drahk apparel: various dark-colored vests, similarly colored pants, a small section of slacks, and a handful of button-down shirts.

Pushing them one way and then the other, as she peered at one roughened section of the wall after another, she became more and more frustrated.

“Maybe he hides his gems in the smaller suite,” she said as she started toward the dark end of the long closet.

“Kai! Kai!”

She frowned and stopped her searching at the sound of her name. Perplexed at the screeching pitch the person used to call her, Kai rushed out of the closet.

Stunned to see Eilidh at the door one second and before her the next, the young woman moved so fast that there had barely been a shimmer in her wake as Eilidh traveled to her.

The unexpected advance made Kai stumble back a step.

She’d seen Aodh walk fast or wondered how he could move from one part of the room to another, but she had never watched it happen.

Perhaps out of consideration of her being human and not wanting to freak her out with his full abilities.

It was similar to him not showing his dragon, but that was for a later discussion.

“Sorry.” Eilidh stuttered out an apology when she saw her reaction.

Kai waved it away as she frowned. Eilidh appeared agitated about something.

Knowing that Morlie was supposed to be with her, she glanced around the young woman to see if perhaps she had missed her sister entering.

Not seeing her, Kai wasn’t concerned. She figured her sister was probably with the other youth and set her gaze back on Eilidh. “What has you frazzled?”

“Kai, your sister has been taken.”

Your sister has been taken . Those words continued to roll, and roll, and roll through her mind, but something must be wrong with her hearing.

“What? I don’t think I heard you correctly—”

“I’m sorry. Sorry. Soooo sorry.”

Then, Kai noticed the redness of Eilidh’s eyes, and that the skin around them sat puffy as if she’d been crying, and her markings decolorized—snow white. Kai grabbed hold of the other woman and demanded, “Slow down.”

Eilidh closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. When she gazed at her again, she repeated, “Morlie has been taken.”

“Taken where? By what Drahk?” Did Aodh decide to put Morlie through training and ask someone to get her and take her to another part of the territory?

It didn’t make sense, Aodh knowing how she felt about her sister getting a hundred percent of her strength back.

Even though she’d broached the subject once during a nightly talk, she knew that Morlie would feel more connected to his Thunder if she could train like the other young adults.

However, she was her sister’s sole guardian, and there is no way that he would have set something like that up without discussing it with her first. Even if the idea was farfetched, Kai held on to it because the alternative was unthinkable.

Eilidh shook her head. “No. Not by one of us.” The young woman bit into her lip, and she looked as if she was going to be sick. “Someone not from our territory took Morlie.”

“No.” Kai’s body felt frozen. She wasn’t even sure if her lips moved to get the single word out. The world seemed to stop rotating, and for a brief second, all her senses failed her at once, then were back just as fast.

“I’m sorry.”

Kai swallowed. Then, she swallowed again, trying to get moisture in her throat to speak. “That can’t be. She...she was with you all. Why...how...who? Who ?”

A thought flashed in her mind that perhaps the medical attendants from the Consumer Medical Center had found them.

The attendant said Morlie was marked. Were the bastards pissed that Morlie didn’t die, so they came after them?

Or had they tracked them down to arrest them for leaving?

Kai’s heart slammed into her chest. If she had to return to the Dispatch District to get her sister back, she would.

“Yes. Morlie was snatched.” Eilidh started to pace and wave her hands around as she spoke.

“We were having a good time. We climbed trees and went to the truck. Then started back, but Irad said Morlie went back for something—” Eilidh stopped and shook her head.

“I was supposed to protect her. When I learned from Irad that Morlie had returned, I raced to the truck to meet her. But...but she was already gone.” A fat tear rolled down Eilidh’s cheek. “I promised you. I promised Mckenna.”

Aodh . Kai knew it’d piss off Aodh that another had brazenly come into his area and took someone. Then she realized something Eilidh had said. “What truck?”

“The one you abandoned at the end of our southwest forest,” Eilidh confirmed.

Dad’s truck . Kai agonized and attempted to determine what Morlie returned for, but they owned nothing when they left the Dispatch. “What was so important that she put her life in danger?”

“This...I believe.” Eilidh took her sack from her back, opened it, and removed something bundled up.

When Kai saw the colors of the tattered material, she knew. Her heart ached. “Mom’s quilt.”

Eilidh stood silent.

Kai took the old, worn blanket and pulled it to her chest. She had not even thought about it as she let Aodh get Morlie from the truck.

Only one thing filled her mind: getting Morlie help to keep her sister alive.

Her eyes started to burn, but not hotter than the fire that grew in her blood.

The blaze was rolling through her veins, and like acid, it devoured all the other emotions she felt.

With the quilt in hand, she started toward the door. “Where is she? Who took her?”

“We smelled b irmyrl . Ursine...a bear.”

Her feet skid to a halt in the front room. “What do you mean a bear?”