Fair Game (Alpha & Omega #3)(75)

"Humans are civilians here," said Charles. To himself he sounded calm. "And you might listen to Isaac, though I don't think I'm far enough gone to hurt our allies. Isaac, I should be able to find her - but I'm not going to be able to use our link tonight." His throat shut down as Brother Wolf fought to the surface in a panic at Charles's admission.

Anna was missing. Anna was in the hands of the people who'd hurt the little dancer. His Anna who'd already survived so much - he'd sworn nothing like that would ever happen to her again when she was theirs. And they had failed, Brother Wolf and Charles, two souls sharing one skin...They had failed their mate.

Charles convinced Brother Wolf that they had a better chance of finding Anna in man-shape rather than as wolf, but it took more willpower than he knew he had to do it.

"He can't find her?" Leslie asked.

"I told you it wasn't a sure thing," Isaac told her. "The mating bond is a very personal thing."

Isaac was doing a good job of keeping his Alpha nature tamped down; his voice was soft and nonthreatening. Brother Wolf liked Isaac, but just now would not be a good time to interest him in proving who was more dominant. People got killed in fights like that - and Brother Wolf was craving violence just now.

"You also said if it didn't work, we might be in serious trouble," said the tough little dancer's fae father. "Because there isn't a person in this city more dangerous than a wolf whose mate is in danger. Are we in serious trouble?"

Yes, thought Charles. He needed to do something urgent - but Brother Wolf's rage was clouding his thoughts. He needed to get to his computer and confirm -

"I don't want those bastards to get Anna," Leslie said. "If Charles can't find her, what about my wish? You said it was dangerous to use except in specific or small ways. But I lost a puppy - and now we're trying to find another one."

Charles narrowed his eyes at her. "What wish?"

Beauclaire ignored him, staring at Leslie with something approaching delight. "Clever," he said. "Oh, that is a clever way to look at it."

"A fae man left me a gift when I was a child," Leslie said to Charles, and she remembered not to look him in the eyes. "To make up for not being there to rescue my puppy, I think. I've never used it - and our expert in fae magic says that I need to be careful with it. But that sounds like a fair exchange to me." She looked at Beauclaire.

Gravely, he nodded. "I think that might be right."

She opened her purse and took out her wallet, and Charles could smell the magic from where he stood. Fae magic strong enough to make him sneeze, powerful enough to give him hope. She pulled out a little white card from her billfold. "I'm not exactly sure how to do this."

"Magic follows intention," said Charles, and Beauclaire gave him a sharp look. "Tell it what you want - and tear up the card to seal the deal."

"Since when did the Marrok's son become an expert in fae magic?" asked Beauclaire - and Charles saw Goldstein look very bland. It was "the Marrok's son" that had done it. Goldstein had heard that term before and now wanted to know what it meant.

"Since when did the fae give up information on the werewolves?" countered Charles silkily. Anna was missing: he didn't care what Goldstein found out. But the fae would do very nicely to sate Brother Wolf's desire to tear into flesh until it bled. Beauclaire, Brother Wolf decided, would be a worthy opponent, and once he killed something, maybe he could think clearly again.

Beauclaire took a cautious step back and Isaac eased between them. "You don't want to do anything rash, Charles," he cautioned. "We're all on the same team here."

"I wish - " said Leslie, drawing Charles's attention away from the fae. "I wish..." She looked at Charles. "One lost puppy for another - but Anna is yours as Toby was mine. So I wish that as I lost my puppy, my dog that I loved, that Charles should find his lost wolf." She tore the card in half and the magic...did something.

Charles's phone rang before he could figure out what the magic had done. Its sudden blaring ringtone that wasn't the song it sang when Anna called him irritated Brother Wolf, who pulled it out of their pocket and crushed it to make it stop.

Everyone in the condo quit breathing - and Charles realized that his ability to speak coherently had apparently given them a false sense of safety.

"How long until it works?" he asked Beauclaire in a soft, soft voice.

The fae sighed. "We don't even know it will work, werewolf. Something happened, but it wasn't my magic in that card. Treasach tended toward subtle magic that snuck up behind you."

Another cell phone rang and Charles growled. Isaac pulled out his phone and started to hit the off button, but paused. "Four-zero-six is the Montana area code, right?"

He answered the phone before Charles replied, and clear as day Charles's father's voice came out of the speaker of Isaac's phone.

"I have a feeling that my son is in a bad place," Bran said. "And I have made a habit of not ignoring my feelings - especially when neither he nor Anna are answering their phones."

Isaac gave Charles a nervous glance. "That's right. Charles is here and Anna's been taken by the murdering bastards we've been chasing. We have the FBI here, the two who've been working with us. And Beauclaire is present as well, the fae whose daughter we rescued yesterday."