Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1) by Paige Orr (the red fox clan TXT) 📗

Fae, and I intend to find out exactly what that is. I pull my laptop closer to me, waking up the screen, and decide to check through social media to see what I can find out about our victims.

I’m nowhere near as computer savvy as Nika, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a try. You never know the answers might be staring us right in the face and the Fae didn’t even realize it. I start at the top of the list, making my way done and getting a feel for each individual, but what I find leaves me feeling frustrated.

The victims don’t run in the same circles; they aren’t connected on social media, and from what I can see they are each loved member of their communities. I suppose I was pushing my luck, thinking that it would be so simple to solve. I could always visit Adelaide to see if she can help, but I hate making her feel used like that. Lately, it seems like I only turn up to ask her to do something and leave again. I wish I could just go visit her like I used to and spend all day talking about the latest gossip.

I know I’m probably just thinking too much about it, especially since the last time that I spoke to her she told me that this journey would be filled with hardships. Which can only mean that she has seen more of my future than she wanted to admit?

Sure I don’t want to know if the Grim Reaper will be coming for me soon, but if she can even give me somewhere to start my investigation, it would be a huge help. Having a plan in mind, I decided that once I speak to Nika, I’ll head to Adelaide's shop to see what she can tell me before going to search the properties on my half of the list.

Just then a knock comes at my office door and Nika struts through without waiting for my reply. She’s lucky I fucking love her because I’ve had about enough of people just barging in. I shoot her a tired smile as I motion her to the chair across from me and wait until she’s settled. Sliding the list across the table, we both get started to see what we can find out about this mystery.

Chapter Ten

Cailean

Another one fucking gone! I can’t believe this shit. Whoever the fuck is behind this is upping his game, and whatever that means can’t be good. On top of that, I still haven’t heard a word from Zaphyr about if his little helper is willing to help us or not. Every second that ticks by with me sitting on my ass doing nothing is another second that this sick fuck could be hurting our people.

Zaph was always rather self-absorbed, but surely even he understands how important it is to act quickly in this situation. The longer we take to pull our heads out of our asses and get a move on, the less likely we will bring anyone back alive. Already it’s highly unlikely that the first ones taken are still alive. Depending on different factors, they will either be dead from starvation, or on death's door because of malnutrition.

I know the gossip that goes around the rumor mill about me. I’m an uptight bastard who never takes a moment off, but those are the types of sacrifices that have to be made to protect my people. So sitting around twiddling my thumbs and waiting on someone else is fucking driving me stark raving mad.

All we’re doing is wasting time and giving this bastard every opportunity he needs to take more of our people. With each new report, it’s like a giant fuck you, and I just know that the fucker is laughing at us chasing our tails for answers. None of it even makes sense. Why would anybody want to take over forty Fae, and what the fuck could they be planning to do to them.

Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. Since one person was being taken at a time up to three times a day, I’ve been working on the assumption that only one person is committing the crime. Over the years cults have popped up around the world, but their main goal has usually been to wipe the Fae out completely.

They’ve never gotten very far with their absurd plans, but it’s another avenue to look into. If it’s a larger group of people, then that could explain the excessive number of kidnappings. I hate to say it, but if the numbers had stayed on the smaller side, then we probably wouldn’t have even noticed that something was wrong. I hate to be thankful about any of this shit, but at least we know what's happening because of how many have been taken.

Now that I’ve got another avenue to explore though, I can look into previous books we have recovered from cults that we had to disband in the past. Just maybe I’ll be able to find the reason behind why this is happening. From there, I might be able to figure out why these specific Fae are being taken and stop it from happening to anyone else.

It doesn’t do much for those who have already been taken, but I’ll deal with that hurdle once I have more answers. This could be the very breakthrough that we’ve been needing, and at least I’ll have something to do that could help. Mind made up, I reach forward picking up my phone and calling Eli. thankfully it doesn’t take him long to answer and he’s close enough that he can be in my office in the next ten minutes.

Finished with the call, I pull the files that have taken over my top drawer out and place them in front of me. I go through