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

to protect our people here in the human realm, and yet we’ve had reports of at least sixteen of my people disappearing so far. I have to get on top of this mess before it gets any worse, but with my enforcers not being able to find a single clue of the whereabouts of our missing Fae, I haven’t got a lot to go on. On top of the stress of trying to figure out what the hell is happening to my people, my father also demands that I attend stupid fucking functions alongside the “elite” of the human realm, it’s seriously grating on my nerves. While I could be out there searching for our people, instead I’m stuck schmoozing all these rich assholes.

As I let my head fall back against my chair, the phone sitting on my desk rings and I let out a groan of frustration, leaning forwards to answer the blasted thing. As soon as I lift the receiver to my ear, Elias’s usual chirpy tone greets me.

“Hey man, I’m just about to head up to your office to talk about the latest findings from the enforcers and to talk about this shit tonight.”

“Fuck! With everything that’s happened today, I completely forgot about the stupid fucking party tonight. I really can’t be fucked with kissing ass after the day I’ve had.”

“I know man, but we don’t really have a choice, you know what your dad’s like. Anyway, we could always slip away after you’ve shown your face so we can do something worthwhile. I’ll be at your office in a minute and we can talk about it.”

“Alright, thanks, Elias. This shit’s just got me stressed the fuck out. I’ll see you in a minute.”

I put the phone down before picking my glass back up, draining the contents just as a knock comes at the door. Without waiting for my answer, Elias strolls through the door with his usual swagger, throwing himself into the seat on the opposite side of my desk. Getting to my feet, I walk towards my bar, refilling my glass and grabbing one for Elias before heading back to my desk, placing his glass in front of him.

Elias watches me as I settle down in my seat, taking another large sip of whiskey, enjoying the burn as it makes its way down my throat. Most people would frown upon drinking at the office, but since human alcohol doesn’t affect me the same way, I know that a few glasses will not get me drunk. Most of the time I drink because I enjoy the smoky flavor instead of chasing the buzz that accompanies alcohol for the average human.

Flicking my eyes towards Elias, trying to judge what he has to tell me from his expression, but like usual it’s like staring at a wall. I’m telling you if this fucker ever spent time at a poker table he would be world class with that poker face. I’ve always thought that the mask he uses when talking about important things is to keep me calm, but even though he’s my best friend, I don’t pretend to assume any of the reasoning behind his actions. Elias has always been a closed book for as far back as I can remember, but I know that I can trust him after everything we’ve been through together.

“I’m afraid there isn’t much I can tell you about the missing Fae. I met with the enforcers earlier and they’re still working on their suspect list. There's zero connecting each of the Fae apart from them not being human. Have you tried reaching out to the other courts to see if any of their Fae are missing as well? We need to narrow down if this is an attack on our court or all of Fae kind.”

I let out a weary sigh as I scrub my free hand down my face, finishing my second glass before banging it down on the table harder than I intended. He knows that it’s not as simple as just calling up the leaders of the other courts and asking them about this, if they aren’t being targeted as well, then it makes our court look weak.

There’s no love lost between the courts, and we can’t afford for any of them to think that we can’t protect our people. The last thing we need right now is a war starting up between the courts. The last time the Fae went to war, it spilled on to the human realm and the casualties were immeasurable. To cause history to repeat itself, not when I should be able to do something about it.

This is the type of shit I’ve been training my entire life to deal with, and yet I’m left feeling like that same little boy being scolded by his father for not being good enough. No, I definitely can’t go to the other courts with this. If one of them comes to me, I don’t mind revealing anything I find, but until then we’re on our own with this.

“You know I can’t ask them about this. Already the other courts are looking at me as the weak link and coming to them with this would just prove them right. There’s got to be another way to deal with this without involving the other courts.”

Elias doesn’t disagree with me, and I appreciate that more than I could tell him. I need at least one person on my side, supporting my decisions otherwise I’d be completely on my own. The only other thing to do now is to look into the disappearances ourselves. Obviously, the enforcers aren’t getting anywhere, and maybe a fresh set of eyes from a different perspective will be enough to at least give us a lead.

I can’t do any of that though until I deal with this fucking party tonight. I hate dealing with the humans who know of our kind,