Graham didn’t answer, and a recorded voice came on to tell Misty that the number couldn’t be reached. That worried Misty enough to call Cassidy, who told her Graham and Eric had left together on Shifter business.

“Tell him to call me,” Misty said. “It’s important.”

Cassidy promised to, then hesitated. “You all right?”

“Not really. Cass, can you or Diego find out all you can about a man called Ben . . .” Misty picked up the sticky note, “. . . Williams. I have his phone number if that helps.” She read it off.

“Sure. Who is he?”

“I have no idea. He might be fine. But I just want to know.”

“We’ll check him out.” Another pause. “If you need to talk, Misty, you know you can always call me.”

“Thanks. I think if I talk right now though, I’ll end up blithering or crying. I need to keep it together.” As she’d done her whole life.

“I get it,” Cassidy said. “Let me know.”

Misty hung up and sat a long time staring at the name and number on the sticky note. What she knew and didn’t know wrapped around each other, tangling with her emotions and making her slightly sick to her stomach. Or maybe she’d had too much green sauce at lunch.

Pressing the note back to her desk, Misty left the office. “Xav,” she said, approaching him where he was helping his guys lift shelves back onto brackets. “What did you think of the guy who just left here? Ben, Paul’s friend.”

Xav’s dark stare fixed on her, and his end of the shelf sagged. “What guy?”

“Shorter than you, hefty, dark eyes, tatts. With my brother?”

“I saw your brother, but no one else. When was this?”

“A few minutes ago. Right before Paul came out of my office.”

Xav’s focus sharpened. “I didn’t see anyone. Before or after. And I’ve been watching.”

“Oh.”

“Damn it.” Xav handed his end of the shelf to one of the other security men and moved away, taking out his phone as he stalked through the back to the alley.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Would you all calm down?” Graham roared. “I can’t hear myself think.”

Dougal had been wolf by the time he got home, sitting on the floor of Graham’s still-trashed kitchen, his muzzle lifted in howls. Nell, the she-bear who lived next door to Eric, was trying to get him to calm down, her voice as loud as Dougal’s howling. Nell, a grizzly, was a big woman, and she could yell.

Graham had learned to outshout anyone else long ago. Nell shut up, but she scowled at him. Nell was the alpha bear in Shiftertown—not that there were many bears at all—but she was in dominance about the same as Graham and Eric.

“I haven’t seen them,” Nell said. “I have Cormac and my boys out looking for them.” Nell’s “boys” were full-grown grizzlies, Shane and Brody. “Most of Shiftertown is, in fact. And Misty’s looking for you. Cassidy said she called.”

Graham had ditched Eric at the gas station and ridden hard and fast to reach Shiftertown. He’d found Dougal in the middle of the kitchen floor, wailing to the ceiling.

“Damn it.” Graham wanted Misty with every breath. His throat was so dry it ached, but even the thought of her brought a bit of ease. “Dougal, when did you last see them? Stop howling and tell me.”

“He was bringing them to me to babysit,” Nell said. “They ran off when Dougal wasn’t looking.”

“Wasn’t looking?” Graham swung on her. “What the hell was he looking at?”

“Lindsay in a bathing suit.” Nell said. “Well, half a bathing suit.”

“Shit.” Graham threw up his hands. “That female needs to be hosed down. Dougal, you idiot.”

“Don’t be so hard on him,” Nell said. “He’s just come through his Transition, and his mating instinct is high. You’re the one who left two little helpless cubs with him.”

“Helpless? You’re talking about Matt and Kyle, right? They’re hiding. Playing. Must be.” Graham hoped to the Goddess they were only playing.

“We’re looking,” Nell said grimly. “We’ll find them.”

But with all the Fae activity, and Matt and Kyle featuring in the dreams—or entering the dreams, or whatever the hell was going on—Graham went sick with worry. The Fae Oison had enthralled Graham, a big, badass alpha Shifter. Kyle and Matt were tiny and vulnerable. If Oison had touched them, Graham was going to kill the Fae outside a dream and make it stick.

“Dougal will you shut up!” Graham bellowed. At the same time, his phone rang. “What?”

“Jeez, Graham,” Misty’s voice came to him. “Do you ever just say hello?”

“Misty. Sweetheart.” Graham tried to pull back into a normal speaking tone. “I’m really busy right now.”

“You’re always busy. So am I. We need to talk.”

“I can’t talk. Matt and Kyle are missing. I find them first, talk later.”

“What?” He heard her concern escalate. “Graham . . .”

“I gotta go, Misty. I’ll call you back.”

Graham closed his flip phone so he wouldn’t keep talking to her. He’d stand here and pour out all his troubles and beg her to come to him. To mate with him. To be his forever. He’d do it in front of Nell and Dougal too and not care.

He would call her back, once he sorted out what happened to Matt and Kyle, and everything else. And they’d talk as much as she wanted to.

“Dougal, do you at least have an idea which direction they went?” he asked.

Dougal finally stopped howling—thank the Goddess. Graham’s ears were going numb. Dougal didn’t shift to human, but Graham could understand what he wanted to say.

The answer was no. Dougal had been fixed on Lindsay, walking around in a bikini with no top. When Lindsay had disappeared inside her house, Dougal had looked around, and the cubs had been gone.

Yes, he’d gone to Brenda’s to see if they’d run back there, and he’d checked all over Graham’s house, and he’d called Nell. Dougal knew he was a shithead. That he screwed up. That he should be punished. But why had Graham run off and left Dougal alone? He hadn’t known what to do.