Page 22 of Enchanted

My chest ached. Their ability to read one another’s needs, even before they were bonded, was amazing to witness.

Would I ever have that with Ethan?

“I’m glad he gave you his surname,” Nate said, fingers flying over his laptop. “It’s made this so much easier.”

Indeed. The hardest part about this meeting was how long it’d taken me to open up to everyone. To explain what had happened. What I’d like to do next.

Namely: Find a way to naturally stumble into Ethan’s life that wasn’t too intrusive.

Benji thought this was ridiculous. He’d made a passionate argument about just knocking on his front door and inviting him out platonically. Thankfully, Noah was better than me at explaining how odd that would be. The last thing I wanted to do was scare Ethan off.

Which had us searching for another avenue.

It’d taken Nate less than thirty seconds to locate Ethan on social media. Now that I’d confirmed we had the right person, more and more photos of him were popping up on the screen. Of the life he’d led. Places he’d visited.

But it was the smaller details I paid attention to. How he grinned as he tried to wrap his arms around a giant redwood. The sour face he pulled as he ate a spoonful of panna cotta. His soft smile as he held a fancy camera up to his eye.

I didn’t know if there just weren’t any photos of him with his boyfriend, or if Nate was wisely not showing them. I suspected it was the latter. I’d have to remember that the next time he pissed me off and pull my punches.

“I think he’s a photographer,” Nate said suddenly. “Look.”

My breath caught as a stunning shot of the Northern Lights appeared. “Holy fuck.”

Nox gave a low whistle as more gorgeous landscapes appeared. “I don’t know shit about photography, but this is good.”

“It’s better than good,” Noah said, appraising it with the same look he stared at the art on the walls with. “It’s exceptional.”

My chest swelled with pride. That was my mate they were impressed with. He was exceptional.

“He’s definitely lived in California for a few years,” Nate murmured, still clicking away on his laptop. “I don’t know when he came back to the UK, but he hasn’t posted anything in the last several months.”

I frowned, but Jeremiah was the one who voiced what I was thinking. “I wonder why.”

“I’m going back further to see if I can work out when he moved to the states.” Suddenly, Nate’s fingers stopped moving. “What the fuck?”

My head whipped around. “What? What is it?”

“I don’t understand,” Nate murmured, his eyes wide on the screen. “How is this possible?”

My heart was in my throat. “Nate, I fucking swear…”

He waved a hand. “It’s nothing bad. It’s just…here. Look for yourselves.”

Another photo appeared on the screen. Ethan was in the centre of a sagging sofa, looking much younger than he was now. If I had to guess, he was about twenty. He wasn’t alone either. Sat all around him were familiar faces. Faces that were part of our supernatural community, one of them mated to someone who used to sit in this very room.

A dumbfounded silence filled the room before Benji broke it. “How the fuck does Ethan know Lucky, Matty, and Riley?”

Days later, we were no closer to understanding how Ethan was connected to our world. Ezekiel and Noah had argued that we should reach out to Dimitri, the former second of our unit, to ask, but my instincts warned me that wasn’t the right thing to do.

After checking with Nate that there were no recent photos of Ethan with any of them, my decision had been final. “There might be a very good reason why he’s not in contact with them. If reaching out will lead to pain for my mate, then it’s not happening.”

That had shut them both up. With mates themselves, I knew they’d see the logic.

They’d both done crazier shit when it came to protecting Sam and Jeremiah.

We didn’t have answers, but we did have a plan; one I was still unsure about. I couldn’t stop myself from seeking reassurance. Again. “Do you really think this is a good idea?”

“Yes,” Sam said patiently. Again. The human was far too kind for Ezekiel, who would’ve killed me by now if I’d asked him as many times as I had his mate. “I told you, it’s foolproof. Now stop talking so I can powder your face.”