Rebecca Ariel Reid spends a lot of time in the UNSETIC Files universe missing. She is the close friend and business partner of Cassidy Beckett, who runs their New Age bookstore and supernatural supply shop in Hell’s Kitchen after Becca vanishes in Alberta, Canada, without a trace (this is an incident referenced in Truth Will Set You Free). She reappears much later, alone, without the Central Park pack that she’d traveled with years before and a mystery to solve that will tie her to UNSETIC tighter than she and Beckett ever could have imagined.
The scene that follows is the good-bye shared between Becca Reid and her mate, Ioan Griffin, the pack’s alpha.
The tribe was singing a mourning song, beautiful and haunting. It sent shivers down Rebecca Reid’s spine, though not because of its beauty.
“Who died?” She whispered. No one had been out hunting today, she’d thought.
Ioan Griffin’s arms tightened around her waist, breath warm against her ear. She could feel his heartbeat as she leaned against his chest, heard him take a deep, almost ragged breath before he spoke softly. “No one yet,” he said. “But they’re playing it for us. For the pack.”
She stiffened, staring up at him. Ioan was staring back at the fire, at the circle of singers clustered in its flickering light. His jaw was set, but it quivered a little, betraying him. It was weakness he’d never show to anyone else.
But they belonged to each other, and she’d have seen it where no one else would have.
“Ioan, why would they do that?”
“I have to ask you something,” he whispered, ignoring the question. “To do something, but you’re not going to say no. Not this time.”
Her brows knit as she stared at him. “What is it?”
He hesitated, closing his eyes for a moment before he looked at her square. “You need to stay behind this time.”
“What?” Why would he– “I’m the best shot the pack has, Ioan, and you’ve said yourself that without my cover fire, half of what you’ve accomplished wouldn’t have been possible. I’m not letting you guys go into that place without me.”
“I’m not risking you,” he growled, letting go of her waist. He took her face in his hands instead, scarred, calloused thumbs stroking her jaw. “You’re staying behind. So I have a reason to make that music into a lie.” He nodded toward the fire, to the singers and their mourning song. “They don’t expect us to live through this. It’s a suicide mission.”
“And you volunteered for it anyway,” she said softly, eyes widening. “Ioan, why?”
His expression softened and he rested his forehead against hers. “Because someone taught me that there are things that need doing, no matter how dangerous, for the good of the whole.”
She slumped. “My father.”
He shook his head slightly. “No. You.”
Her chest convulsed as she swallowed a sob, wouldn’t let it tear its way free of her throat. She gripped his face, brought his lips to hers. The salt of their shared tears mixed against their lips in that hungry kiss.
He stroked her cheeks as they both came up for air, their foreheads pressed together. “We’ve been betrayed, Becca,” he whispered. “We’ve been betrayed and we don’t know who did it. The clan leaves as soon as the song is done. They’re going to evacuate the town. There are defenses set up to protect this place, defenses that Moonshadow’s grandfather set up fifty years ago.” Ioan swallowed, looking away for a moment, then continued in a thick whisper. “I’m not going to ask you to leave with them, but I will ask you to leave.
“Three days, Becca. If we’re not back in three days, go home. Go back to New York. I will find you. I promise.”
“Ioan—”
“No,” he whispered fiercely, traces of silver starting to overshadow the blue of his eyes. “No, listen to me. You are the light of my heart and I can’t stand to see you hurt, but you’re not staying just because I want you to be safe. You’re smarter than the rest of us by half and more. If we don’t make it back in three days, you have to figure out who betrayed us, who betrayed the pack, the clan, maybe everyone—maybe every single one of the nahuali left in the world, maybe every living thing left on this planet. I don’t think anyone else can. Do that for me.” He swallowed. “Promise you’ll do that for me.”
She kissed him again, a long, gentle kiss, then squeezed her eyes shut, nodding as she stepped back from the pack’s alpha, from her mate.
“I promise.”
