Chapter 40: Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Aiden moves quickly. He grabs onto the door handle, ripping it open. It’s unclear if the door was locked or if Aiden’s interisity was simply too strong, but either way, we have our targets. Aiden drags someone out of the drivers’ side door before they can begin driving away

The man is shorter and less broad than Aiden, but clearly a male. He’s wearing all black, even a black baseball cap. I feel my stomach drop. If I wasn’t already suspicious of these people, I certainly would be now. Someone sneaking around at night in all black is never a good sign, I think dryly.

I shut off the video as it becomes clear Aiden will be the winner of this confrontation. He pins the driver against the side of the car roughly. I can hear shouting from inside the vehicle — it seems like there’s someone else in there with him.

“Who are you?” He growls. The man begins spluttering uselessly quickly dial the police- I don’t want them to have the chance to get away, especially after how they’ve made my parents feel. I give them the details of our location quickly and ask them to hurry.

The other man stumbles out of the passenger side door and rushes closer. When Aiden shoots him a warning glare, he halts in his tracks. He raises his arms in defense, his eyes darting between Aiden and the man he has trapped against the car.

We’re

journalists,” the second man says quickly. I frown. He sounds like he’s lying. He seriously didn’t even come up with a better lie than that?

“Journalists?” Aiden says accusingly. His eyes rake over the strange man with a skeptical eye. “With what agency? Who do you work for?

The men exchange a fleeting glance before one of them speaks up. “We’re independent journalists. We don’t work with an agency,” the first one says quickly.

“Exactly,” the other chimes in. “We celebrity.”

we’re internet journalists. Nothing more than that. We just wanted to track down a

Aiden narrows his eyes, unconvinced. “You’re outside of a civilian’s house,” he points out. The two men look nervous again.

“Well, you’re here now, aren’t you?” One of them points out. I can tell Aiden also finds his point completely unconvincing Before he can press further, however, the distant wail of sirens pierces the night, signaling the arrival of law enforcement. The two men turn pale with fear.

The sirens approach quickly, and soon the familiar red and blue lights are reflecting off of the neighboring houses. Two police cars pull up only a few meters away from the strange men’s cars.

The police get out of the cars and waste no time in apprehending the strange men. One of the police officers puts them both in cuffs and drags them toward a police car. The two men don’t seem to make any real effort to avoid getting taken in Aiden watches them go with clear satisfaction, his arms crossed against his chest. Once the intruders are out of sight, Aiden turmis his attention toward the other police officer who has remained closeby.

“Evening, officer,” Aiden says with as much cordiality as he can muster. “Thanks for coming by so quickly,”

The officer nos gruffly. “Of course, Just doing my job, he says, die pulls out a small notepad and a pencil. “So, what exactly is the situation here? We heard that these two have been lurking around the property.”

I nod: “That’s right. I’m the one who called,” I say. The police officer glances up at me before jotting down a note.

“So, how long have these men been loitering around here?”

“A couple of weeks,” explain. “My parents live here. They told me they’ve been coming by almost every night.” The other noch, writing down a few more notes. “I see. Have they been violent at all?”

Chapter 41

I shake my head. “No, not exactly. They have been trespassing, though-and potentially recording and photographing my parents both outside and inside of their house. I know we don’t have the whole story, but I’m very concerned for them”

The officer hums. “Well, they’re not particularly high offenses, but we’ll certainly look into them. We’ll see if there happens to be anything more sinister going on.”

Aiden, who has been pensively silent, decides to speak up now. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen people in unmarked cars with unmarked cameras trying to pass themselves off as papar

The policeman shrugs. “We haven’t heard anything about a group with those descriptions”

The policeman’s walkie-talkie crackled to life. He plucked it off of his belt and turned away to discuss something with the other officers back at the station

“I might head back inside for a moment.” I say quietly, I want to check on my parents and give them a few updates, l’in they’re scared”

Aiden gives me a soft smile and squeezes my shoulder with a no. I tum and make my way back toward the house.

Aiden’s POV

Carol is already heading through the doorway when the police tolicer comes back. He clears his throat to get my “Something we did notice it looks like the both of them arent from around here. Other than that, we have nothing! I raise an eyebrow and cross my arms, “Oh? Where are they from

“The Capital

1 feel my blood run cold. The policeman says it like it’s the most inconsequential thing in the world. I couldn’t disagree

more.

Something about all of this is suspicious. I know the influence my father has in the Capital make happen? He hasn’t been shy about his disapproval of my comertion to a non-werewoll, I have no idea how far he’d go

who knows what he could

“Do you know their employer?”

The police offer shrugs. “It wasn’t something we checked. Either way, your connection to liberty to share all of the information.”

this case is at a close. We aren’t at

I wonder if their employer has connections to my father, I think darkly. Even worse, it could be my father.

“Look, there’s not a lot more we can do,” the officer says with another shrug. “We can set up some surveillance in the area, if you’d like

I nod with a small amount of satisfaction. “Thank you,” I say I’d ather Carol’s parents be safe than anything else. That’s the most important thing right now.

“It’s the least we could do for such pillars of the community,” the officer says. “I’ve known the Millers for years. The police department has a close relationship with them already, what with all of their community involvement. We’re always ready to stick up for them”

A small smile

hear that my lips. Maybe the Millers are more extra linary than Carol gave them credit for, I think “Tim glad to

be good people”

The officer nods proudly. “Absolutely. And Carol’s always been set, too. The family has always had such a wholesome

lash. That sort of dung is kind of rare

care around here, especially considering their circumstances

I came an eyebrow at him “Circumstances? What circumstances ue you talking about?”

=

Chapter 41

“They’ve always been so close. You don’t always see that with adopted children.”

My stomach drops. So many of my thoughts that have been brewing up until this moment fall into place. She’s adopted, I think numbly. I had my suspicions-1 had been surprised to find that my fated mate was a human. Now, we couldn’t be so

Still, this realization only raises more questions Who are Carol’ birth parents? Why was she taken in by these two, specifically? Does this mean there’s even more to Carol that meets the eye? Who is Carol, really?

I hear the officer try and speak to me again, but I don’t even process his words. I turn around and make a beeline for Carol’s childhood home. I need to see her. I need to work out these feelings. Most of all, I need her to be alright which for now means staying in the dark.

B

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