Thom pipes up, though his voice shakes a little.
“If you look at the street view data, it’s from almost four years ago.”
“There’s an updated map on the city website,”
Andrew agrees.
Silence falls over the line.
“Well, shit,”
my beta mutters.
“Bruce Street,”
I say through gritted teeth.
“It used to be Spruce Avenue. Now it’s Bruce Street.”
“I guess so, High Alpha. My apologies.”
I swallow my rage and put the car back in drive.
“So which way on Bruce Street?”
Lyre’s laughter echoes faintly from the speaker.
“I can’t believe I’m surrounded by alleged apex predators who can’t follow basic directions.”
“Just give us the fucking address, then.”
“No.”
“Thom,”
I snap,
“Just tell her to give us the address.”
The wizard squeaks from the backseat.
“M-me? I c-can’t…”
“Hold on, I’m trying to look up the updated map,”
Jack-Eye says, sounding almost frantic.
Andrew sighs.
“I’ll send a text to you, Lycan Beta. Just click on the link, and we’ll get it figured it out on our end.”
“A link?”
“It’ll enable location sharing. It takes two seconds, and it’ll be easier to find you that way.”
“Wait, really? You can share your-oh, it’s here. Okay. I’m clicking. There we go, and… is it working?”
“Yes,”
the Blue Mountain pup says, sounding both patient and bored.
“High Alpha, go right at the next intersection.”
I pull back onto the road.
“Tell that infernal woman if she doesn’t share the destination in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to-“
“-do absolutely nothing because you need me,”
Lyre’s voice cuts in.
“We’re heading to a contact who specializes in finding people who don’t want to be found. She’s on the move. There’s no address. Just shut up and follow.”
My hands tighten on the wheel again.
“Fine.”
“Hey, beta dog. Hang up the phone. They’re annoying me, and I’m trying to focus.”
My jaw clenches as Jack-Eye hastily says,
“See you soon, High Alpha,”
and the line clicks.
The car plunges into silence, only broken by the occasional instruction from Andrew. No arguments over street names, just general directions. Right here. Keep going straight. Left, then the next right.
Simple. Easy.
The kid’s got some promise, after all.
You know, Fenris says, clearing his mental throat, Jack-Eye had outdated information. It wasn’t entirely his fault.
I grunt.
And maybe I was wrong to assume he was correct, he continues, undeterred by my bad attitude. But to be fair, I’m not usually the wrong one in our relationship.
My fingers flex.
“That’s a terrible apology.”
I never said I was apologizing.
LYRE
I drum my fingers against the steering wheel, counting each breath the oversized wolf takes from the passenger seat.
Inhale. Exhale. Each one sounds like someone slowly deflating a balloon made of sandpaper. If I weren’t tracking the faint magical signature pulsing at the edge of my awareness, I might conjure a plastic bag just to get some peace.
“So where exactly are we headed?”
Jack-Eye asks, his voice carrying the forced politeness people use when they think you’re being unreasonable.
The pulsing grows stronger, moving toward the eastern edge of the city. They’re still on the move.
“I told you,”
I snap, taking a hard left as my tires squeal,
“I don’t know yet.”
“Not to be difficult, but that’s hard to believe.”
He braces one hand against the dashboard.
“You’re obviously driving somewhere.”
I narrow my eyes at the road ahead, the thread of magic pulling me forward. Tracking magic is a constant annoyance, like a fish hook caught under my ribs.
“If you don’t shut your face in the next five seconds, I’m pulling over and kicking you to the curb.”
The threat buys me approximately twenty seconds of blessed silence before he opens his mouth again.
“You’re a strange woman, you know that?”
My lips curl into something too sharp to be called a smile.
“Is the big, handsome wolf upset because he found a woman who doesn’t fall for his charms at first sight?”
I take another turn without signaling, just to watch him grab for the handle above the window.
His mouth quirks into an insufferable grin, I can see it out of the corner of my eye.
“At least I know you think I’m handsome.”
Blech.
Not only is he way too young for me, his conceit is nauseating. Playboys have never been my thing.
“Your ego is showing. Might want to tuck it back in before someone steps on it.”
Jack-Eye chuckles.
“That’s the best comeback you’ve got?”
“I save my good material for people who matter,”
I mutter, ignoring how his eyebrows shoot up.
“Right now I’m busy trying to find your king’s missing girlfriend before someone drains her for parts. Or something.”
Though, if my suspicions are right…
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.