16. Miles

SIXTEEN

MILES

Sleep should have come easily for me. The night before had been one of the best of my life. Giving Celina that kind of pleasure and watching how my actions made her feel had been rewarding. Making her feel that kind of ecstasy, something she'd never experienced before, had been almost as pleasurable as having sex. There was something satisfying about doing that for her. I struggled to put words to it. Still, even after that, sleep had been difficult to come by.

Instead of slipping off into a land of dreams, all I could think about was what we'd discovered about Felicity. The information we'd uncovered made it impossible to sleep, rest, or think of much else.

When I'd gotten to the office, I told Blayne about the weird feeling I got around the new girl Celina was hanging around with.

"What? This chick is the one you think is the hunter?" he'd asked.

"I do. Either that or she's working with them. There's no magic in her scent, so I don't think she's another witch like Emily. We can be pretty certain of that. You'd have to be there, Blayne. She's one big act. Fake as fake can be. Celina hasn't had enough experience with people to really see it the way I do. My entire life is looking at stuff and calling ‘bullshit' then diggin' up the real truth."

Blayne had held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, I get it. Dangerous lady. Do we have a full name to work with?"

"Felicity Cruz. Celina told me her name after our drive to the mountains earlier this morning."

Blayne raised an eyebrow. "The mountains?" He grinned, "Did you take her to your waterfall spot?"

"For fuck's sake, man, can we get some work done or not?" I'd hissed in anger.

That was when Steff and Tate had walked in. Tate glanced back and forth between us. "Do you ladies need some time to work this out?"

"No," I grumbled. "Blayne's just being an ass."

Blayne smiled. "Happily guilty."

Without any more preamble, Blayne had begun his search. The rest of us had sat there watching the big screen on the wall that he used as his monitor. Most of what he was doing was like watching someone type gibberish. The computer wizardry he was capable of was mind-boggling. At one point, he'd pulled out an ancient notebook full of thousands of lines of code, saved passwords, and IP addresses.

After half an hour, he'd managed to find a hundred-and-sixteen different Felicity Cruzes in the United States. He'd then narrowed it down to anywhere within a five-hour drive of Lilly Valley. That dropped the number to twenty. Blayne hacked the DMV and pulled all twenty driver's license photos. A quick glance at all of them was pointless.

Irritated, he'd gone ahead and pulled the rest. I went through them quickly and realized none of the women was the Felicity I was looking for. We'd then sat there for several minutes trying to think of another way to find her, since it looked like Felicity Cruz was a fake name.

Steff finally sat up straight and snapped his fingers. "Your apartment complex. Does it have security cameras?"

I had nodded. "Yeah. They're in the stairwells, the parking lot, and on each landing aimed toward the apartment doors."

Steff slapped Blayne on the shoulder. "Hack into that feed. See if you can pull up footage from the last time Felicity left. When was that?" he had asked, glancing back at me.

"Uh, yesterday," I said. I was annoyed that I hadn't thought of the cameras before.

It took Blayne all of five minutes to find a good angle of Felicity walking toward the parking lot. Steff pointed. "Freeze that. Zoom in and crop her face. Only the face."

"Oh shit," Tate mumbled. "Facial recognition?"

Steff pointed at him. "Bingo!"

Blayne smirked and did as Steff asked. Once he had a clear picture, he pulled up an online program and ran the image through it. I clasped my hands together as I watched the image on the screen get analyzed. Then a blur of images flashed by. The program scanned billions of pictures, paintings, video clips, and news clips. Every time a possible match came up, it flashed across the screen in a blur. Finally, twelve images popped up as the most likely matches. One was a fairly photo-realistic painting that looked like it had been an advertisement from the fifties or sixties for dishwashing liquid, and another was a screenshot from what seemed to be some type of fetish porn. Both looked somewhat familiar, but were definitely not her. The rest? That was all pay dirt.

The pictures revealed what we'd already discovered. Her name wasn't Felicity Cruz. It was actually Mariana Lowery, daughter of billionaire business mogul Antonio Lowry. She was beside him at ribbon cuttings, museum openings, ground- breakings at factories, and political fundraisers. We'd not only found her real name, but possibly the leader of the hunter's organization.

"Holy fucking shit," Tate had murmured as he looked at the screen.

"Right?" Blayne said, his fingers already speeding across the keys, digging deeper.

The further we dug, the clearer the picture became. Antonio's wife had died several years prior in what was called a tragic ‘accident' in the news clippings. They had been estranged for some time, and Mrs. Lowry had been in a new relationship. This obviously had to be the dragon alpha that Ryland had told us about.

We couldn't find any direct information on what the wife's cause of death was—all we could find were allusions from the press that she'd gotten involved with the wrong people and had ended up dead after getting into some less-than-legal things.

"Bullshit," I spat. "The only thing that happened here is he murdered her for running off with a shifter."

"Yeah," Blayne said. "Looks like she took Felicity, er, Mariana with her when she left. Then, after she turned eighteen, Mariana reappeared alongside her father. I bet she found out the guy her mom was shacking up with was a shifter and ran off to tell daddy dearest she'd left him for some magical creature."

Steff had aimed his finger at the screen like a gun. "Billionaire Billy here freaks. Not only did his wife leave him, but she left him for someone who wasn't even human. Mental collapse, fully unhinged. In his rage, he hires someone to wipe out the whole pack. Men, women, and children. Sick fuck."

Blayne had typed away at something on a separate laptop before looking up at us. "Looks like the slaughter of the dragon pack coincides with this Antonio's fade from public life. He sort of disappeared." He frowned at us. "Do you think, maybe, he didn't intend for the wife to get killed?"

Tate had nodded. "This feels like a revenge thing. He definitely wanted the quote-unquote monsters dead, but I bet he wanted to bring the wife back alive. Reconcile with her, maybe? That, or he wanted to kill her himself. Either way, she's dead. He turns his eyes on all shifters. Now he's financing the hunters himself. Probably used this whole religious angle to get the people with the right mindset."

I'd looked at my friends and nodded. "We found him. It's got to be this guy."

I rubbed a hand across my face in bed as all that flitted through my mind. I got out of bed and paced the room. Tate and the others had stayed behind to figure out how best to go after this Antonio guy. From everything we'd found, Ryland hadn't been lying. He was almost untouchable––more money than god, hunters at his disposal, his own private security team. Going after him would put neon targets on our backs.

But this guy's daughter, Felicity aka Mariana, was sniffing around my mate. I couldn't let that stand. There was no telling what Felicity had planned for Celina. The hunters had already tried to kill Harley, and had kidnapped April. They likely had something sinister planned for Celina. We'd talked about how to proceed the night before, and we had to tread carefully.

We now knew who she was, but she didn't know that we knew. If we fucked up the element of surprise, she would vanish and tell Antonio we were on to them. I was sure that Felicity had discovered Celina was probably my fated mate. The comment Celina had made last night told me all I needed. She'd told Celina I would hurt her and that she should stay away. That meant she was trying to delay the mating bond. It was all too confusing and difficult to think through.

I needed to run. To shift and let off some steam. I glanced outside. The sun hadn't even crested the trees yet. It was still quiet, the streets still deserted. If I were going to go, now was the time. I pulled on my pants and coat and headed out to the parking lot.

The town was always so silent in the winter, especially this early in the day. The forest backed up to a little bookstore behind the complex. I tugged my hood over my head and shoved my hands deep into the pockets before strolling into the woods. As soon as I was out of sight, I shifted, taking off in a gallop the second my paws touched the underbrush and pine needles.

I ran for hours, then hunted a rabbit and ate it for breakfast. As my wolf ran free, I tried to figure out the best way to get Felicity away from Celina. It would be difficult. Celina had made it very clear that she didn't have many friends. Shit, that was putting it mildly. She didn't have any friends. The idea of telling her she needed to drop the first person who'd acted like a friend to her was cruel. Even though I knew what kind of person Felicity really was, it would be a pretty crappy thing for me to do. She was always so lonely, it hurt my heart to see it. How could?—

I slid to a stop, skidding on the fallen leaves. An idea had sprung to mind. It might work. Not only that, it would be better for Celina in the long run. I turned and sprinted to the edge of the forest. Once I was back and certain the coast was clear, I shifted and pulled my cell out of my pocket, dialing as I walked back home.

"Bro, you're late for work," Tate said after answering.

"Yeah, I know. It'll be fine. I want to run something by you."

"Shoot."

"We agree we need to get Celina away from Felicity, right?"

"Yes. We went over this last night before you left. What are you planning?"

"Would you and Harley want to host Thanksgiving dinner? We can invite Steff and April. She needs friends, so why not have her be friends with our mates?"

"Good idea, actually. If she's going to be your mate, then she'll be part of this big family anyway. I like it. She needs to feel like she belongs."

"Great," I said, relieved that he understood where I was coming from.

Once I got off the phone with Tate, I dialed Celina as I walked across the street toward home.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Miles."

"Hi! Uh…how did you get my number? Did I give it to you? I mean, I probably did…I just don't remember. I had…oh God…I had a good time last night."

I grinned, listening to her ramble on. "I'm a private investigator, remember? I can get anyone's phone number. I had a great time yesterday, too."

"Oh, right, dumb. Sorry."

"You aren't dumb. Don't say that. And stop apologizing."

"Sorry…shit…I mean, okay. What can I do for you, Miles?"

"Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving? My friends and I always get together. Tate will be there with his wife and kids, and Steff is bringing April, his wife. Blayne will also be there, but don't let that deter you. I promise I'll make him shower."

"Wow. That's so nice and thoughtful, Miles. I'd love to, but I already told Felicity I'd spend the holiday in the city with her."

My wolf let out a sad whine, and I gritted my teeth. I should have known Felicity had already wormed her way into getting Celina away from me for the holiday. I cursed myself for not thinking of asking this earlier. Even if I hadn't found out Felicity was a hunter, it should have been something I thought about beforehand.

"Would it be too impolite to ask you to come with me instead? I know you don't have many people around you, and I'd love for you to have a real Thanksgiving. The guys and I always try to outdo each other, so there will be tons of food, and I…" I paused, trying to verbalize what I really meant. "I only want you to be somewhere welcoming and be surrounded by good people for Thanksgiving."

There was a long pause, and I crossed my fingers. I was outside the complex, staring up at her window as I waited for her answer. It came a few seconds later. "Okay. That all sounds really nice. I mean…it does. I'll break the news to Felicity."

I pumped a fist. "Awesome. I promise you'll have a great time. I'm being honest here, you just made my day, Celina."

"It does sound like fun. First though, you guys, uh, aren't like those types of friends that do charades or Pictionary at parties or something, right? That's a hard pass from me."

I laughed. "No, nothing cheesy like that. You'll be safe."

We said our goodbyes, and I hung up. I felt more thrilled than I had in a long time. My wolf was basically wagging its tail in pleasure. Between last night and this, things really felt like they were on their way. The plan seemed to be working in my favor.