He wanted the sprite to heal, not hide.
“Oh,” Braeden said, his tone falling as he slumped back in his seat. “I mean, yeah, no problem. Do you think he’ll take it, though?”
Probably not without a little nudge. “I’ll make sure he does, but maybe start with part-time.”
“That’s probably a good idea.” He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “What the hell happened in New York?”
Nothing good, and nothing that would be going away anytime soon.
“You’ve seen the news. There’s really not much else to tell.” Nothing he wanted to share anyway.
A plus-one at the auction had turned out to be a reporter with a prominent news agency in Philadelphia. From there, the dominoes had started to fall, turning an already terrible situation into nothing short of a shitshow.
News about the kidnappings, the auction, and the trafficking had made headlines for weeks. Even now, coverage of the story remained consistent, though it had largely devolved into rumors and speculation.
Still, the backlash had been loud enough for the Ministry to get involved, especially once it had spilled over into the human community. According to the press release, they had even formed a task team to investigate the “accusations.”
“Yeah, I know,” Braeden said, blowing out a sharp breath. “Why those specific Otherlings, though? It sounds like they were chosen, but no one really knows why.”
“Because they all had something extra, something that made them special.”
A siren who could control minds rather than just influence them.
A banshee with the ability to predict death with surgical accuracy, right down to the second.
The teenage werewolf who had been born with a rare mutation that trapped her shift in a perpetual cycle of innate magic, making her an unstoppable force.
Aerin didn’t know why he’d been taken, or so he said. Sammy suspected the male was still protecting a secret, something he didn’t want anyone to know.
And that worried him.
“I—that’s just—damn,” Braeden stammered when Sammy finished his explanation.
He had seen the same reaction play out thousands of times online. Shock. Disbelief. Anger. A lack of words that felt adequate to describe the level of disgust the situation evoked.
Good.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Braeden added, some of the color returning to his cheeks. “Zarrik said they’re sending an Investigator here to interview Aerin.”
As a Ministry Investigator himself, Braeden’s mate typically knew privileged information long before the public—if they were ever informed. And because Braeden couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, that meant the rest of their friend circle did too.
“When?” He didn’t want the sprite to have to face that alone.
“Not sure, but he’ll probably want to talk to you as well.”
Sammy nodded. That much, he expected.
“Thanks for the heads-up.”
“No problem. I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.”
Quiet settled between them again, each lost in their own thoughts. Well, Sammy had thoughts. After a while, however, he realized Braeden wasn’t so much thinking as assessing.
“What?” he asked, an edge of defensiveness in his tone.
Braeden shrugged. “You look different.”
Sammy arched an eyebrow as he reached for his coffee mug. “How so?”