Clueless, p.7
Clueless, page 7
Kendel saluted him with his muffin, patted Felix on the shoulder, and then headed out, leaving the door open after him.
“Are you really okay with Penny and me walking with you to and from work? We do only live a few doors away, so it would make sense to walk with us, anyway.”
“Yeah, Daniel, it’s fine, really. It will be nice to have company.” Merlyn said with a smile.
“So, what happened with you and Florian after we left?” Daniel asked, hoping to change the subject to something fun.
Merlyn laughed, grateful to Daniel. “We talked, ate, talked, and then talked some more.”
Penny’s smile fell off his face. “You talked?” he enquired flatly. “That was all?”
“Don’t forget they ate, as well,” Lionel supplied helpfully.
“But what about the great claiming? Or at least a goodnight kiss? Anything?” Penny asked him.
“We might have kissed. We also talked, had some food, and talked some more,” Merlyn said.
“How was the kiss?” Felix asked him.
Merlyn smiled, getting a dreamy look on his face. “Perfect.”
“Didn’t you or your wolf want to claim him?” Jay asked.
“I think we were both a little too freaked out about my family emails to enjoy a claiming last night,” Merlyn told them. “But it won’t be long coming.”
“If you claim Florian, do you think your family will leave you alone?” Lionel asked.
Merlyn sighed. “I have no idea. I hope so, but with my family, who knows? I still don’t know why they want me back. They hate me.”
“What colour is your wolf?” Felix asked suddenly.
“White. Why?” Merlyn enquired.
“Are all your family white wolves?” Felix asked.
“Nope, just me; the rest are grey. Do you think that’s why they want me back? It can’t be, though. That’s the reason they hate me so much,” Merlyn explained.
“It’s just a theory, but I was reading a history book last night and it was talking about white shifters. Apparently, they’re called omegas. They bring peace, harmony, and strength to a pack,” Felix explained.
“Wait, wait,” Daniel put in. “I think I remember reading about that when I was little. There used to be hundreds of them from all different paranormal groupings.”
“What happened to them?” Lionel asked.
“No-one knows. They just stopped being born,” Felix said.
“So you think that because I’m a white wolf I’m an omega?” Merlyn asked.
“As far as I know, omegas are always white.” Felix said.
“But that still doesn’t explain why my family wants me back so badly,” Merlyn said.
“And therein lies the problem. We need to find out if they want you back because you are the only omega wolf out there,” Daniel said.
“But I might not be the only one out there. I mean there must be more than just me,” Merlyn put in.
“Yeah, if only we had a way to find out if there were more white shifters out there,” Jay said dryly.
“I know. It’s not as if we work for a magazine or anything, is it?” Lionel said with a laugh.
The others laughed along with him.
“Okay, then, Brainiac, how would we go about finding out about white shifters in our magazine? And if we do, will we be giving Merlyn’s location away?” Felix said.
“Leave me to ponder and I’ll get back to you on that one,” Lionel said.
“If there’s a way to do it, Lionel will find it,” Jay said, looking at Merlyn.
Merlyn nodded. “Thanks, guys,” he said, standing up and heading round to his desk to start some work.
CHAPTER 16
Florian had just left King Erin’s office when a soldier came running in. “Sire, come quickly.”
“What on earth is wrong?” the king asked, jumping up in alarm.
“The humans have just woken up and there is a lot of screaming, crying, and yelling going on,” the soldier quickly explained.
The king was stunned. “Why?”
“Why what?” the soldier asked, confused.
“Why are they screaming, yelling, and crying? Has no one explained anything to them? Have they not been fed?” Erin asked, running out of his office and heading towards the dormitories.
“No idea, sire. I was just told to come and get you,” the soldier replied, keeping pace with the king.
The king didn’t reply and continued to run towards the dormitory. As he got closer, he heard the yelling and crying.
He saw the guards standing around, blocking the humans from leaving the building.
“Silence,” King Erin boomed out, the authority in his voice making everyone quiet down. “What seems to be the problem?”
“Are you serious?” a young man demanded.
“Very. What is your name, young one?” the king asked.
“Perry, and I’m not a young one. I’m fifteen,” he snapped at Erin.
“Fifteen?” the king enquired.
“Yes, you sick freak. These men here said we’ve been taken from our homes and brought to some mythical realm and that you plan to keep us here. That’s kidnapping, you sick weirdo.”
“And,” a lady added, “we were told we’re here to be mated to your people, but I already have a husband and family, whom I love very much and want to get back to.”
“And what about these little ones?” someone else asked, holding one of the small children who was crying. “What are you planning to do with the little ones?”
“Well, I know there are fairies here who want children, so they can go to them,” King Erin replied.
The young man yelled and tried to get at the king. What he was planning to do, Erin didn’t know and certainly didn’t want to find out. Thankfully, one of the guards caught him before he could reach Erin.
Erin clicked his fingers and the humans vanished.
“Where did you send them?” Kai asked him, having joined his brother while Perry had been ranting.
“I sent them back to their beds in the dormitory. They will sleep until tomorrow,” Erin said.
“I’m beginning to think this isn’t going to be as easy as we thought it would be,” Grey said, standing off to one side.
“So it would seem,” Erin murmured, momentarily lost in thought before looking at his brothers. “Let’s go back to my office and discuss what just happened.”
“Am I the only one who was not expecting that reaction?” Kai said once they made their way to the office as he sat down in front of Erin’s desk with Grey sitting next to him and Erin slumping down in his chair behind the desk.
There was a knock on the door. Erin called out for the person to enter, and Lee walked in, smiling at everyone.
“Morning,” he said happily until he noticed the look on the brothers’ faces. He stopped halfway to them and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Erin got up and walked to Lee. He bent down and kissed him hello, smiled gently at him, and said, “We have some problems.”
Lee’s brow wrinkled. “What’s wrong?”
“The humans, that’s what’s wrong,” Grey grumped out.
“I don’t understand. Did the retrieval teams run into some problems?”
“No,” Erin said, leading Lee to a chair next to his at the desk. “The retrieval team got all the humans.”
“All of them?” questioned Lee. “I thought they were only taking a few last night.”
“I told my team not to take all the humans at once. They took that to mean leave a gap of time between taking them, so we got all the humans from day one here,” Kai said.
“Okay,” Lee said, still not seeing a problem. “So, what’s the problem?”
“It would seem the humans resent the fact we’ve brought them here,” Erin told Lee.
“Why?” Lee asked. Maybe he needed more coffee this morning, but he couldn’t figure out why the humans would be complaining. They had been taken from their mundane lives and brought to the fairy realm. What was there not to like?
“Two of the humans were young children,” Erin said.
“That’s good,” Lee said, “I know there are some fairies desperate for children. We can give them the young ones,” he finished, still not seeing a problem. He could think of several fairies who would be over the moon to raise the young ones.
“One of the humans is married,” Kai said.
“A human marriage? You know that a true mate trumps a mere human marriage,” Lee replied. He turned to look at Erin. “Where are the humans now?”
“I put them back to sleep. We can wake them up tomorrow when the next batch of humans arrives,” Erin said.
“That may be a good idea. They can help the new batch of humans when they come,” Lee said.
“Maybe we should have gone about this a different way,” Grey said.
“A different way? How?” Kai asked.
“I have no idea, but I didn’t expect the humans to be so upset over being taken,” Grey replied.
“Maybe they just need to be shown around and then they will see how wonderful the fairy realm is,” Lee said, looking concerned.
“There is nothing we can do for the moment as the humans are sleeping, so let’s just wait and see what tomorrow brings,” Erin said.
The others nodded. After all, as Erin said, there was nothing they could do for now.
“I do have one thing to tell you. Florian has found his mate,” Erin said.
“Oh, is it that young man he met the first day?” Lee asked.
Erin smiled. “Yes, Florian is so happy, but he wants to be able to come and go from the fairy realm at will, as his mate Merlyn has a job he loves in the human realm.” He turned to look at Kai. “Merlyn has his family searching for him. Florian asked me if he could bring Merlyn here for safety if needed.”
“If needed, we’ll protect him,” Kai said. “This would be the safest place, as his family won’t be able to enter this realm.”
“Thank you,” Erin said to his youngest brother. “I knew I could count on you.”
“Always,” Kai said.
“Family sticks together,” Grey said. “And we all know how much you like Florian, so we now consider him our little brother.”
Erin was shocked but also pleased about that. He looked at Lee and smiled. Family was everything, and hopefully soon Lee would be joining that rank.
CHAPTER 17
Andrew looked at his sons. “Have you found him yet?” he asked them.
“No, Father,” Gareth replied. “And he hasn’t replied to any of my emails.”
“No, he hasn’t replied to any of mine, either,” Andrew replied. He narrowed his eyes at his oldest son. “What exactly did you write in your email? Did you tell him we were worried about him and how we really wanted him to come home?”
“I did,” Gareth said quickly, looking away from his father’s piercing eyes.
“What did you do?” Andrew asked.
His middle son chuckled. “Oh, he sent the message to Merlyn saying all that, but when Merlyn didn’t reply, he did his normal thing of sending threats,” Dave said.
“You stupid idiot,” Andrew shouted at Gareth. “He’ll never return now.”
Gareth hung his head.
“I’ve told you why we need him back. His white wolf is an omega. We need him back to make our pack stronger than any of the others.”
“But you said that other wolves like the red wolves, arctic wolves, etc. all have omega wolves. Won’t their packs be just as strong as ours?” Dave asked.
“I doubt it, and hopefully, we never have to find out, which is why we need the runt back,” Andrew replied.
“Who’d ever have thought that runt would actually be useful,” Gareth said.
“Who ever thought he would have the balls to run away from home and hide himself somewhere,” Dave retorted. “It’s a shame we chased off all his friends; otherwise, we could have asked them where he was.”
“We’ll find him. We have to, even if we have to search every village, town, and city in England, and once we do, we’ll drag him back here and teach him a lesson he won’t ever forget to remind him of his place in the family.” Andrew said. “He may be an omega, but he’s now and always will be the family runt.”
Molly and Dolly had sat in the coffee shop all day, talking and knitting. They ate and drank, but more importantly, they watched. They watched the customers, saw those that refused the samples and those that took them. They watched the baristas and saw that every time a free sample was taken, their teeth flashed to sharp-points and then changed back to normal. Every time it happened, they looked at each other and nodded. It seemed their theory might be right. They would have to wait and see what happened that evening.
Thane was stumped. Sergeant Scott had collected all the preliminary reports for the missing people. They were still awaiting the forensic reports, as, unlike TV shows, forensics actually took time.
Thane was reading through all the reports when he noticed something interesting. It seemed that some of the missing people had been in The Fairy Brew, the new coffee shop he’d been in the day before. Could The Fairy Brew be a front for an organised crime gang? Were they trafficking people?
He looked at the time and saw it was nearly five, and the coffee shop would be closing soon, but they could head there tomorrow and have a look around and ask questions.
“Scott, first thing tomorrow we need to go to The Fairy Brew and see if they recognise any of the missing people. It would seem that some of them had visited there before they vanished,” Thane called across the room.
“The Fairy Brew? What’s that?” Sergeant Scott asked, walking over to his desk that was opposite Thanes, and sat down.
“It’s a new coffee shop that has just opened on the High Street. They do good cakes there.”
Sergeant Scott snorted. “Maybe they’re real fairies and have kidnapped our missing people to take to the fairy kingdom. Time moves differently there, so one day to them is one hundred years to us.”
Thane looked at Scott. “Really, Scott? Fairies?” he deadpanned.
Scott laughed. “Well, sir, they are magic, and there were no signs of forced entry and no foreign fingerprints.”
“Let’s stick to reality, can we?” Thane said. “Next you’ll be saying ghosts took them and we need to call the Ghostbusters.”
“Not likely,” Scott said. “Everyone knows ghosts aren’t real.”
“And fairies are?” Thane enquired, trying not to smile.
“According to my aunt and the stories she used to tell me, yep.”
“Well, we’ll be sure to ask the baristas tomorrow if they are fairies and if they kidnapped our missing people,” Thane said.
“That should be an interesting conversation then,” Scott replied.
“Indeed,” Thane said ironically. “Write up a list of names and ages and get their pictures and stick them up on the wall, plus timelines and anything else of interest and see if they have anything else in common apart from a coffee shop. I’m still thinking this might be a human trafficking thing.” He glanced at Scott. “And no, we’re not putting ‘kidnapped by fairies’ on the board.”
Scott laughed but didn’t say anything, just started collating all the information for the board.
CHAPTER 18
Merlyn had finished work for the day and was hanging around waiting for Penny and Daniel to finish when his phone pinged. He knew that Florian and his work colleagues were the only others who had his number, and since his work friends were still in the office with him, he picked up the phone, smiling while thinking the message would be from Florian. He knew from everything Florian had told him that mobile phones wouldn’t work between realms. It must mean that Florian’s back, he thought happily. The message came from a private number. Wondering who it was, he opened the message.
You can’t escape us. We found your number and are close to finding you.
“What the hell!” he exclaimed.
The others looked up.
“What’s up?” Jay asked, noting that Merlyn’s scent had changed from happy to afraid.
“I just got a message on my phone from a private number,” Merlyn explained. “It’s from someone in my family.” He read the message out. “But I don’t understand how they found my new number.”
“Are you on a contract or pay as you go?” Lionel asked.
“Contract,” Merlyn told him.
“Do you have the GPS location set on your phone?” Daniel asked.
“I have no idea,” Merlyn responded, looking at his phone. “I don’t know how to check, either.”
Felix stood up and walked to Merlyn, holding his hand out. “Can I check for you?”
Merlyn handed his phone over and watched as Felix tapped the screen.
“You did, but I’ve turned it off. I also turned off the Bluetooth and the internet,” Felix told him. “If you need to use the internet, use your laptop or one of our phones if we aren’t out.”
“How did they find your number?” Jay asked.
“No idea. I know they are into dodgy dealings, so they may know someone who can find these things out for them,” Merlyn replied.
“So now we just have to figure out if they found out where you live or are still looking,” Daniel said.
“I’ll talk to Florian when I see him later and see what he suggests,” Merlyn told them.
“Yep, do that, and tell Kendel about the message and let him know what’s going on. Once you’ve done that, we can walk you home,” Daniel said.
“Will do,” Merlyn said, logging back into his email and shooting an email off to Kendel. He received a reply straight back saying to be careful, not to go anywhere alone, and to keep him updated.
Merlyn sent back a reply, “Will do,” then, he logged off. Now Penny and Daniel were waiting for him. They said goodbye to the others and headed off.
“Be safe,” Lionel called out after Merlyn.
Merlyn nodded and smiled. Yes, he was scared, but he wasn’t alone. He had friends and a mate now, neither of which he’d had before he left home, but now that he did, he couldn’t be happier. But then that also brought new concerns, as well. He just knew his family would go after his mate and friends to get to him, so he should probably warn them. But if he did that, would he lose their friendship? He hoped not. He took a breath and said, “You know if my family finds out I have a mate and friends, they will come after you, don’t you?”
