Valeria frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Sera sat down and Ian immediately settled beside her. “Asher was asking about the mating because of how Brant reacted when you touched him. You didn’t see it, but Asher did. He was very uncomfortable. One sign of a mated male, or one already dedicated to one female with shifters, is that they have trouble standing the touch of a female not their own.” And Sera looked at Brant. “I thought all shifters knew that.”
Brant’s first instinct was to change the subject, but there was something deep inside him that was against the idea. He was surrounded by people who wanted to help him and keeping information from them wasn’t constructive, either for himself or Kat.
“I don’t have the basic knowledge of what being a shifter entails because I never had a pack. When I was a cub, I was considered the runt of the litter and was tossed out in the forest and left to die.”
Saying the words felt strange, as did hearing the gasp of surprise and outrage coming from both women. He’d always thought that what had happened to him was the law of nature. Only the strongest survive. He wasn’t supposed to survive. Only he had.
“How did you even make it as a baby?”
Brant shrugged. “Werebears found me. They knew what I was, but still they took care of me until I reached puberty. That’s when I started shifting into my lynx form and they had to let me go.”
“Let you go? You were what? Thirteen? What did you do?”
“I don’t know how old I was. I never knew my birth date. And it’s not that important. The true birth date is when you shift for the first time. My adoptive family was kind, but a lynx among bear cubs caused problems. When I left, I went from pack to pack, to whoever needed help. I’m good with my hands, I can build loads of stuff. I learned quickly how to fight, too. And ultimately, I found Sanctuary and Asher hired me as a Sentinel.”
It was the short version, and he intended to stick with that story. “Apart from Asher offering me a chance, finding Kat has been the best thing to happen to me. I know it’s against everything said by the High Council, but...” The rise of emotions was so unexpected, Brant didn’t know how to stop it or react. In all the hardships of his life, this one was almost impossible to bear.
Sera nodded her head, breaking the tension in the air. “Okay, let’s focus on what we can do, shall we? I’ve been researching her symptoms. I thought they might be the effect of a curse or some sort of spell. As we don’t know who those guys were, it’s a bit difficult.”
Ian chimed in. “I spoke to Hunter who’s drowning in paperwork and they’re still digging. Two are still in the hospital, one’s dead and one is at the station, not speaking. Brant confirmed that none of the men we saw at the house were the actual two who kidnapped Kat. No sign of magic either.”
Brant was lost. “Why would human men want to kidnap Kat?”
“That’s the trickiest of questions. But until Kat wakes up to tell us or we find those men, we’re stuck.”
Brant tried to remain calm, but despair was close to seizing his heart. “What’s happening to her? There must be a solution.
“There may be another possibility, a less magical one.” Valeria’s voice sounded tentative, far from comforting.
“We don’t know what happened to her. We don’t know what they did to her. As per human psychological studies, maybe she’s just shut down, and her mind is protecting herself from what happened. She is safe now, but deep down, she has found a place where she isn’t scared and she’s staying there as an act of survival. You say that Kat is a telepath. That may very well be a way for her brain to protect herself.”
Hope flared in his chest. “Do you think those humans have a way of bringing her back to me?”
Sera smiled. “I’m good at researching things, leave that to me. From what I’ve learned so far, she needs to feel safe, and be surrounded by familiar things.”
“No way. I’m not gonna leave her alone in that small apartment of hers!”
Asher put an appeasing hand on his shoulder. “Sera wants Kat safe, too. We all do. Your Kat is welcome at Sanctuary if you can’t find a place secure enough for both of you.”
And then it dawned on Brant. The cabin in the woods.
“Asher, I have a favor to ask you...”
