They'd rushed back home only to find out just how many of their clan hadn't bonded to their mates.
The hardest blow for Ravyn had been his mother. Given how much his parents supposedly loved and respected each other, he'd just assumed they were bonded. But apparently his father hadn't loved her enough.
"Thanks, Terra," he said, taking the tray.
"Ravyn?"
He paused to look at her.
"Dorian thinks about you all the time and he holds himself responsible for not stepping up to defend you against Phoenix." She looked around as if embarrassed that she'd confided that to him. "I just thought you should know. "
Ravyn's throat grew tight. So he did have a brother who still loved him. Not that it changed anything. Dorian was still too much of a coward to stand up to the others or to let Ravyn know that he didn't agree with the pack about his banishment.
So be it. He'd lived these past three hundred years without them, he could certainly live longer.
He inclined his head to Terra before he left her to return to Susan who was gnawing her pencil to a nub.
"You're going to break your teeth on that." He set the tray down beside her.
She appeared baffled by his words. "What?"
He pointed to the pencil. "Are you hungry?"
She looked at it and laughed. "No, it's a bad habit I started in grade school. My old boss used to say he could tell whenever I was on to something good by the number of teeth prints in the pencil on my desk." She set the pencil aside and reached for the coffee.
"I assume by the state of the pencil that you've found something."
She poured the cream in and added sugar. "Yes and no. Apparently the chief of police's wife died a couple of months ago while visiting Europe with her son."
"Really?"
She nodded. "I've pulled up a few photos of her at various social events, but nothing that leaps out at me." Cradling the mug in one hand, she held up a piece of paper from the folder where Leo had written a small note: Makes the Mad Hatter Look Sane. "I think Leo was right."
"Well, so much for that."
His phone rang. Ravyn pulled it out of his pants and answered it. "Ravyn here."
It was Otto's voice. "Hey, Ravyn, we have a bit of a situation we need you for. Can you meet us at Post Alley?"
"When?"
"Fifteen minutes?"
"I'll be there." He hung up the phone to see Susan's quizzical stare. "Otto wants me at Post Alley."
"Why? I thought you were supposed to be lying low."
Ravyn shook his head. "Otto didn't say why, but it must be important though for him to call."
Susan nodded in agreement. "Can I hitch a ride over?"
"Why?"
"Curiosity. C'mon. You're a cat. Surely you, of all people, can appreciate that."
"I don't know..." Ravyn hesitated.
"Oh, don't take that tone with me. Either I go with you or I find my own way."