Page 53 of Jared

Alan smiled. “I guess I'll just have to come clean with you. You know about the Fae, thanks to Silas. Jonas here is also Fae, but the rest of us aren't.” His eyes shifted to amber and his canines appeared to elongate ever so slightly. “You see, we're shifters and I'm the current Alpha.”

What...the...ever...loving...fuck...This shit just gets more and more surreal. R.W. swallowed and squared his shoulders. It wasn't the easiest thing to do while holding a coffee cup in one hand and balancing a small plate of cookies on his lap. He flexed his socked toes in agitation. It's hard to act like a badd assed agent while playing coffee hour with my shoes off. Well, actually, not having their shoes on doesn't make these guys any less scary. Christ. They are all staring at me. What should I do?He licked his lips.

“Look, ummm. Okay. So,” he cleared his throat and put on his best business face. “So, let me get this straight. You're all werewolves...” he paused, suddenly very aware of the wince on several faces at those words. “Ah- sorry. Shifters, right? You're all wolf shifters and live here and have a fairy maintenance staff...”

Alan put a hand up to stop him. “We have a Fae owned company maintaining our building and the Fae court have Fae in charge of handling the official portals that we use to travel between here and the Veil.”

“Not all of our employees are Fae,” Jonas added. “Our company is non-discriminatory and has humans, shifters, vampires, and other races also working for us.”

Other races? There's more? Bigfeet? Ogres? Hobbits?No, stop it, get a hold of yourself. Focus on the important stuff.

“Got it, sorry. I didn't mean to offend anyone,” R.W. said. “So, my partner and I got handed this case and one of your guys,” he gave Jonas a nod, “happened to be at a club one night and came across two guys who might've been our suspects. He, ah, teleported them or whatever over there,” Don't think about the where specifically, just don't R.W. Focus! “and they're now over there somewhere, left behind when he came back here. We found out Desmond was a regular at the clubs, so wanted to question him in case he'd seen anything, only you guys were protecting him because he's a shifter and thought we were onto that, instead of knowing about our investigation. After we got that cleared up at the coffee shop, Silas stopped us at the coffee shop to share information, realized my partner was his mate, and whisked us away. That about sums it up, right?”

Steve grinned. “Pretty well much. And actually, we weren't protecting Desmond so much as my mate and the existence of our kind. You see, he ran into some guys he thinks might be the ones you're looking for. We catch those guys, I can tell you if they are the same ones, because I got a good whiff of their scent. At first, he thought you might be friends of theirs, then he thought you might be umm... government operatives. We realized you were some sort of government agents and worried that your digging might have exposed us or could do so.”

“Only for Silas to expose you,” R.W. said.

Steve nodded, the grin falling from his face as a much more serious expression took its place. “Yes.”

“Right. I'm going to hazard a guess that you guys have been around since ancient times or something, given folklore and all that. You're obviously not a bunch of dangerous super villains or anything like that, just, ah, folks who are different species. And are able to go back to some parallel world via these portals. The world you're all originally from, right?” He paused, waiting for affirmation. Seeing several nods, he continued. “Okay, then. So, I'm not going to say a single word about any of this, ah, supernatural stuff. They'd think I was nuts anyway, right? But, um, we need to get my partner back. I'd like to get the two guys too, but I appreciate that at this point it might not be wise or even possible, given what they've now seen and heard. I hate leaving a case open and listed as unsolved, but if they, ah, face justice of some kind, and never, ever come back to this side, that's okay by me.” Please, go for it. I'd hate to become wolf chow or some shit like that.

Alan met his gaze cooly, weighing his words. He gave a curt nod. “We'll keep the others in the loops, enlist their aid. When we catch the two men you're after, we'll bring you across and decide their fates together. As for your partner, when we find him and Silas, hopefully they will have worked out their mating and they'll both return home.”

And if they haven't, then what?

James looked at his companion. When R.W. had insisted something was hinky, he'd thought his partner was trying too hard to make a case that would raise their profile. Being assigned cases that were low priority or that were cold from the start wasn't much fun, but one had to pay their dues before rising in the ranks, right? Okay, so the job isn't as exciting as I'd thought it'd be, but I like to think that when we did solve a case, we were making a difference. Whichever way you look at it though, hinky and exciting are both one Scooby Doo away from this situation. This guy has some serious mojo. Magic gateways? Check. Fairies? Check. And now, vampires. James shivered. Check.

Silas was talking to the fanged stranger. “Yeah, okay, I screwed up. But he's my mate., so what did you expect?”

The other man raised an eyebrow. “And the two men you let loose over here? You could have simply ported away. No one would have believed them, if they chose to tell anyone about their 'escapades'. You could have ported them to the Court Guard or to the wolves for the pack to take care. You had many choices other than the one you took.”

“Fine! I'm an idiot! Is that what you want to hear? I panicked! Twice, actually. The first time when they made me mad and I just wanted to make them stop. The second time when I realized the Feds were looking for them and, you know what? Make it three times. Because when I discovered one of the Feds was my mate, I knew there was no way to keep us hidden from him. I made several mistakes, okay? I admit it.”

“Yes, well, you're not stupid. If you were, you wouldn't be admitting it and you wouldn't be here trying to set things right back there. Just, next time, don't rush without thinking things through. Your impulsiveness has gotten you into more trouble more times than I can count.”

Silas grimaced. “More than you know,” he mumbled. “You gonna help me or not?”

“I'll help you,” the other man said. “Now, are you at least going to introduce me?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, sorry. Uh...this is my mate, James Patterson. James, this is Toby Harris. He's the Prince's cousin and looks after the family estate here.”

Toby smiled at James.

Prince's cousin? That makes him some kind of royalty, doesn't it? At least he looks friendly enough, even with the teeth. James couldn't help himself. His gaze remained locked on Toby's fangs even as he cautiously extended a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Toby laughed. “Do these bother you?” His tongue flicked over his teeth.

Ummm...yes? “I, ah, don't think I've ever met a vampire before. It's a bit disconcerting.”

“After everything else that's happened?” Toby laughed again, but this time, his fangs had disappeared.

Interesting.

“I hope this is better,” Toby said. “Okay, look, I'll get in touch with Laurie and have him talk to your prince and Alan, okay? They are looking for you, and not to skin you.” Toby's tone sounded jovial enough, but James couldn't help buy notice that Silas gave a small shiver. “You two look like you could use a bath and something to eat, so if you come inside, LeAnne will find you a bite.” Toby laughed again. “No pun intended, man. And Silas? You need to take the time to explain our world to James here, and about what being mates means.”

Silas had the grace to look abashed.

“Yeah,” James said, leveling a stare at Silas. “Some explanations are definitely in order.”