Brannon nodded but couldn’t say anything else. He was fighting too hard to maintain control of his wolf. His mate was in the car with another man, a man who’d kissed her, touched her and was trying to claim her. His wolf wanted him torn into a million pieces.

He pulled to a stop in front of his house and sighed. He’d never expected to bring his mate back to his house under these conditions. She was mis-mated to some unknown jaguar and he was going to figure out how to fix it or die trying.

“Elias, I want you to meet our friends,” Layla said after they’d all found seats in the living room of Brannon’s house. “These are the leaders of the different packs, clans, and prides on the mountain. Luke is a lion, next to him is Bastien, he’s a bear. Garrett there is a snow leopard and Brannon is a wolf. There’s one more, but I haven’t met him yet, his name is Caelan and he’s a Bengal tiger. The other two gentlemen are Agents Grant and Wilcox of the FBI. They also happen to be personal friends. Guys, this is Elias. He’s a friend we met earlier this week when we went to Kasey’s parent’s house for a dinner party.”

“Wait, Caelan and Isaac just pulled in. I assume the third man is your father, Layla?” Brannon asked as he heard the car pull up and glanced out the window.

“Yes, that’s my…” She trailed off as her mouth dropped open in shocked surprise. “Who’s that?” she whispered.

Brannon glanced out the window in confusion to see who she was looking at. A sharp intake of breath from behind him had him spinning around to see Caelan staring at Layla in shocked surprise, much the same way she was.

“Caelan?” Luke said with a laugh. “That’s Layla.”

“Mate.” He purred, “Mine.”

Brannon wanted to laugh at his friend’s reaction, but now wasn't the time. Later he was going to torment him with this, but for now, he needed them to focus on his mate and her fake mate.

“Hey, snap out of it. I need your help. Everything else can wait.” Brannon snapped his fingers in Caelan’s face until the other man scowled and looked at him.

“Where’s my daughter? Is she okay?” Isaac asked as soon as he entered the house. Brannon liked him for that, at least. Bastien had been right, the man did love his daughter. “Somebody fill me in, please,” Isaac demanded, rushing around Caelan with a frown and making a beeline for Kasey.

Layla nodded, even though Isaac wasn’t paying attention, and spent the next ten minutes explaining everything that had happened the last few days. Brannon was torn between watching his mate to make sure she was okay and watching Caelan and Layla cast furtive glances at each other.

“This makes no sense,” Isaac began as soon as Layla finished her story. “He’s not a shifter, or at least, he wasn’t. How is it possible he’s one now?”

Brannon snapped to attention with his words. “Wait, what do you mean he wasn’t a shifter?”

“Simple, when my wife told me she’d invited them to dinner with Kasey and Layla, I had them investigated. I don’t let just anyone around my family. His great-grandparents were shifters, but his grandmother wasn’t able to shift, same for his mom. Both of them married humans. Elias, therefore, had no chance of being able to shift according to what I know of genetics. I might be wrong, but still in his file there is no history of him being able to.”

The room went silent at his words as they all took in the ramifications of what he just said. A person with dormant shifter genes is all of a sudden able to shift. That could have catastrophic consequences if it was able to be reproduced and fell into the wrong hands.

“Who could have the ability or capability or whatever to change that?” Garrett questioned. “I mean, if that was possible, don’t you think we’d have heard about it before now? That they were even trying to do something like that. The shifter community isn’t that big, that word would’ve have gotten out at some point.”

“Let’s break this down a bit,” Jeff said as he stood and started pacing. “When did you have him investigated, Mr. Mercado?”

“My wife told me Monday night. By noon the next day, I had my report and dinner was that night,” Isaac said slowly as he recounted the events. “I recall thinking it was sad he’d lost the ability to shift and wondered if it was like when one twin died in the womb or at birth. The surviving twin claims they always feel like part of themselves is missing. I’d imagine being a shifter and not having the ability would cause that same void.”

“Well, thank you for that horrifying thought,” Garrett grumbled. “Pretty sure I’m going to have nightmares now.”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Dinner was Tuesday night, right?”

“Yes, and he seemed fine. I mean it was my first time meeting him, but I would say he was acting like any normal person at one of Artemis’s parties,” Layla answered before Isaac could.

“Layla,” Brannon called suddenly, “didn’t you say you were texting Elias and he stopped responding suddenly?”

“Yes. Wednesday he went over for lunch. He said he’d gotten shanghaied into taking his mother back to dinner with Artemis at Isaac’s house. I agreed to text him to save him from being bored and he just stopped answering in the middle of a conversation. I thought he got dragged into talking to them, but I texted and even called a couple times yesterday and this morning, and nothing. No response at all.”

“Just to be clear, he suddenly stopped, and you had not heard from him until you saw him at the diner a short time ago?” Jeff clarified.

“Yes, I thought it was odd. I can see if he got busy, but to not respond at all, that didn’t make sense.”

“When’s the last time anyone saw or spoke to Kasey?” Jeff asked next.

“Toni and I saw her at work about two-thirty on Wednesday. She said she was going home to get ready for her date with Brannon,” Caelan said.

Layla nodded. “She gave me the keys to the car. She said she’d take a cab and not to worry about her. That was just before three, I think.”

Jeff frowned and glanced around the room, waiting for anyone else to pipe in. “No one else talked to her or saw her on Wednesday?”

“I did, but it was earlier. I called and invited her to dinner. She called me again later and left me a message saying to pick her up at home at six-thirty.” Brannon shrugged. “I waited for a while, but she never showed up. I tried calling her multiple times without a response. I figured she’d changed her mind again.”

“All right, anyone else have anything to add?” Jeff asked again.

Brannon glared at Isaac pointedly. Isaac asked, “What?”

“You talked to her yesterday, too. What did she say?” Brannon replied. “She hung up with me to talk with you on her cell phone.”

Isaac frowned. “About what time was that? I don’t believe I called her at all yesterday. As a matter of fact, I’ve been using Roberto’s phone, because I’d forgotten mine…at home.”

Jeff nodded. “And who would have had access to your phone?”

Isaac frowned. “My wife, maybe the housekeeper if she was in. I left it on my bureau, so not many people have access to that room.”

“So the only common denominator here is Artemis, it would seem,” Jeff said slowly.

“Would Kasey have gone over there, though, if she called and asked?” Caelan asked skeptically. “I don’t know much about Kasey, but I know she doesn’t get along with that woman. Why would she have gone?”