[Shifters 03] - Pride by Rachel Vincent

Author:Rachel Vincent
Language: eng
Format: MOBI
Published: 2013-01-10T08:09:48.098000+00:00

We wound up beneath the high, broad branches of an old oak, and I gave myself mental kudos for picking the side of the building the tabby couldn’t see from her window. Michael stopped in front of me and the Alphas re-formed that same semicircle around him, Jace and Dr. Carver hovering around the edges.

“I found her,” Michael announced. “Kaci, with a K and an I, and Dil on with two L’s.”

“Yeah?” I’d been expecting that, of course. “What’d you find?” My gaze strayed to the thin stack of papers in his right hand. On the front page, a black-and-white school photo of a young girl stared up at me. It was upside down from my perspective, and her face was much ful er, eyes glittering with innocence and unspoiled youth. But it was Kaci, without a doubt.

Michael handed me the top sheet—an online-newspaper printout—and I turned it around to stare into Kaci’s eyes while he spoke. “The Dillons were big news in their little town a couple of months ago. They even made a few of the papers down here.”

The headline read: Father Mourns Missing Daughter.

Kaci’s dad was stil alive? If so, what the hell was she doing here alone?

Michael took a deep breath, then launched into an explanation he’d obviously already given the others. “On August 28, Roger Dil on came home from work to find his wife and sixteen-year-old daughter dead in their backyard. Mauled by an animal. Kaci was missing.”

Cold waves of shock washed over me, combining with the frigid air to numb me from head to toe. My fingers throbbed with each painful beat of my heart. “How could we not know about this?” My voice sounded hollow, fuzzy.

My father sighed, clearly frustrated, and rubbed one hand across his creased forehead. “I’m sure the Canadian council knew. Has anyone ever heard of a Canadian Alpha named Dillon?” Heads shook silently, and my father’s frown deepened. “If there is one, this could very wel be a strike from a rival Pride. A play for more territory.”

“That would explain why they left Kaci alive,” Blackwel said, already nodding as he tightened his grip on his cane. “Take the land and the daughter.”

“What about the sister?” I asked, bothered by such an obvious hole in the theory.

Malone shrugged, arms crossed over his chest. “Accidents happen.”

Yeah, right. But that wasn’t what I meant. “What kind of dam has two daughters and no sons?”

“That is unusual, but not really impossible, ” my father insisted.

“It’s unheard of.” I propped one boot on an exposed root at the foot of the tree and stretched to reach the branch over my head, just to have something to do with my free hand. “A werecat family structure like that would be big news all over the world, from the moment that first daughter was born. We’d all have heard of them.”

“Unless the council tried to keep it quiet, to avoid just such an attack from an enemy Pride.” Uncle Rick pointed at the printout I still held, and I handed it back to Michael.

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