Black as Coal | ✓

47

I checked all over Oakwood for Fen but couldn't find him anywhere and judging from his lack of scent, he wasn't here anymore. Eli patted my shoulder as if he could tell I was about to lose my mind because I was. Oakwood was one thing, but if he wasn't here then that greatly broadened the possibilities and places he potentially could go.

He really wanted to get away from me that badly?

"You can't think so anywhere he might go?" Eli asked.

"He wouldn't go back to his grandparents' pack because the place holds little significance to him now that they're gone, he obviously wouldn't return to your original pack, and he wouldn't go back to the Rogue's Den."

"How do you know?"

"He promised me," I told him sharply.

Even if he was angry at me, Fen wouldn't break his promise, right? He told me he wouldn't go back there. He told me he understood the Rogue's Den was dangerous—

Wait. Maybe he hadn't gone there, but maybe that was the key to finding him.

"I was helping Ambrose move the children. Remember how Lola said they got a new home earlier? That's what I was doing."

Could he have gone to their "new home"?

"I have an idea of where he may be, but I don't know how to get there," I explained. "Fen was helping move children from the Rogue's Den to a new area so they were safer. He seemed close to them, but I don't know where that was and I'd only talk to them once through a call."

"You have Fen's phone, right? Can't you call them again?"

"I can try," I agreed. It was whether or not they'd answer that I was worried about.

Eli and I hurried down the hall to Fen's room and grabbed the phone from the box before unlocking it. I tapped the list of contacts to see if I could find Ambrose, which wasn't difficult in the slightest since Fen only had a handful of numbers actually saved.

I held my breath as I tapped the call button and listened to the phone ring. Pick up, pick up, pick up—

"Hello?" A familiar voice that I recognized to be Ambrose's greeted me.

"Ambrose," I said his name, exhaling slightly. "It's—"

"Cronan. I know," his tone was a lot more tense than the last time I spoke to him.

"Fen's there with you, isn't he?" I questioned. That had to be the case otherwise, he would've been much more confused by the call. I took his silence as confirmation. "Ambrose, I need to talk to him."

There was a brief silence followed by a tired sigh. "Look, Cronan, I don't know all of what between you guys—"

"I'm trying to fix it. I need to speak with him."

I need him to know that this wasn't his fault.

"—but it isn't my place to get involved," he finished. "Fen told me when he arrived that he didn't want to about or to you for the time being and I'm not going to go against his wishes like that. I'm sorry."

"Ambrose—" The phone call ended before I could finish speaking and I dropped the phone and gripped my hair. "Fuck!"

"Hey, it's a start. Now you at least know where he is and that he's safe," Eli told me, ever the optimist.

"But I don't know how to get there and I don't know how to get him to talk to me even if I could get there."

Maybe you should give him space, the voice in my head said. But he'd had almost four weeks of space. Would giving him more change anything or would it just make things worse? He already thought I didn't care about him, so wouldn't staying away just make those incorrect beliefs in his mind stronger?

Was there anything else I could do at this point? I thought back to everything that happened after I returned home. We got the cat, we had a day out, and then Eli came along with—

"Nolan," I announced which made Eli glance over at me. "Nolan, that was the alpha's name who visited, right? He mentioned seeing Fen, remember? He knows the way there. Do you think he'd help?"

Eli hesitated. "I don't know. Maybe? It doesn't hurt to ask."

Eli pulled out his phone, scrolled through the contact list until he found Nolan's name, and called the number. It rang twice before the call connected.

"Eli?" Nolan said, his voice much more lively than the last time I heard him speak.

"Hi, Nolan. I'm sorry for calling you out of the blue, but I could really use your help. You see, Fen's left Oakwood and is missing. We are pretty sure he might be at the place where you saw him last—the new home for the kids from the Rogue's Den," Eli explained quickly, cutting straight to the point.

There was a silence on the other end until Nolan hesitantly asked, "How sure are you that he's there?"

"Basically positive. Cronan, Fen's mate who you met last time, just got off the phone with one of the men in charge over there who's close with Fen."

Nolan let out an audible groan. "Damn it."

"Is everything okay...?" Eli frowned.

"Not really if Fen is there like you say," Nolan answered and my frown grew.

"Why?" Eli asked worriedly, glancing over at me. I could see the confusion in his eyes and I was sure mine appeared the same.

Of course, I didn't want Fen to be there, but why was that such a big problem to someone like Nolan? Those kids loved Fen from what I saw and they clearly trusted him, so it wasn't like he was a danger to them.

"Fen won't hurt them," I added when Nolan didn't respond to Eli's question. "I know you still may not trust him after everything he did, but he won't hurt them. He's not in a good place right now and I want to bring him back home, so please help me."

"It's not Fen hurting the kids I'm worried about," Nolan said. "It's Fen, himself, getting hurt."

"Why would Fen get hurt?"

"Because Nixon just arrived there today."